Sister Dorothea is Rwandan and 90 years old - she supervises the meals for patients in the hospital which is next door to the convent. Here in hospital your family is supposed to provide food for you. There are however, large numbers of people who have no-one to do that, either they have no-one, or they live far away and have come to Kigali for specialist treatment. There is a social worker in the hospital who identifies these people (60 -120 per day depending on the Specialist doctors list etc) and the nuns try to provide a healthy warm meal for them.
Depending on what is in season there will be sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice or cassava with beans and a vegetable sauce.
the food preparation and cooking area is very basic but also very clean.These pots are then loaded into wheelbarrows and taken to the hospital.
One of the reasons we went along also is that the African International Club which I am a member of supports the sisters by paying 125,000 Rwf (about 150 Euro) per month, which due to rising costs of basics like rice and cooking oil is no longer enough, so our arms were twisted to try and increase this amount. We are not the only supporters of the initiative, but were certainly a regular income source.
To say that visiting the nuns made an impression on me is an understatement.
The sisters have incredibly warm hearts, and are compassionate, while still being surprisingly worldly and funny.
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