We learned early on about a very common ‘hedge’ of sorts in Rwanda. We are told that it is similar to aloe in that if you break the leaf it will spill a milky liquid on you. This liquid is told to cause blindness if rubbed in your eyes. Yikes! Therefore, we have taken to calling it the "blinding bush." You may think this would be very easy to avoid…you’d be wrong though. Unfortunately, our sweaty work days involve a great deal of rubbing our eyes on the inside and outside of our sleeves. As we bike to and from the worksite each day we ride dangerously close to the B.B. It is used to line all properties and the edge of the entire road from the hotel to the work sites. Thankfully, we haven’t had any casualties yet but have noticed that the goats and cows graze heartily on the blinding bush and that clean laundry is often dried upon it.
We have sent a lot of our laundry out though the hotel to be cleaned in town. It comes back smelling of clean air. Let’s hope the blinding bush isn’t their method of drying.
Cate
DWC Volunteer Participant Rwanda
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