In addition to the colossal volcanoes that loom on the near horizon, there are steep green hills, patchy with terraced fields, all around the town. We climbed one of them -- Crater Hill -- yesterday at the break of dawn with two other doctors who live near us.
We left our compound in darkness. It was the clearest night the rainy season has given us and some stars and planets were still out. The walk to the hill and up its surprisingly sheer slope only took about 40 minutes. We were comfortably seated at the top, at the edge of the crater after which the hill is named in fact, when the sun broke over the horizon.
Our new home was spread out in front of us: the mist, pooled in the valleys slowing burnt off and the chickens and children started waking up.
As we walked down a few women passed us, heading up with bundles balanced on their heads and hoes over their shoulders. Reaching the top of the hill had felt like an achievement for me -- a day's work. Reaching the top only to
begin a day's work tending the fields was unfathomable. Clearly, what I can fathom does not account for even a modest fraction of what is accepted as normal and necessary and fine around the world. I'm glad for the chance to see that.
|
The volcanoes Muhavura, Magahinga, and Sabyinyo |