I’d not planned on running this morning, and even though I woke before 06:00, and found my phone hadn’t charged overnight, I thought my decision was definitely made. I plugged my phone into my emergency power bank, and somehow found myself getting ready to run anyway. Whilst pottering around, I’d somehow convinced myself that missing out on exploring the local area would be a missed opportunity.

I met Nick and Dana in reception at 06:30, and shortly after we were joined by Dan and Lilly. This was a short 2.5 mile run at a very easy pace, just to loosen the legs a little. We ran along the main road, seeing children on their way to school, and adults working away. Mist hung across the fields between us and the mountains, creating a picture of silhouetted trees in the distance. Whereas the first run had been entirely city based, and the second one felt a little more wild, this one really varied in terrain and scenery. It demonstrated the contrasting aspects of African towns really well. I really enjoyed these more rural runs.

Eventually there was a left turn down a dirt track that looped back round to the main road that far from the turning we’d first joined it at. We ran most of the hill back up to the hotel, but walked the last little bit. In the more rural part of this run, if it had been pretty much any other African city, we could have expected to see decades old litter covered in dirt, amongst more recently discarded items. Here though, everywhere, no matter its state of disrepair, was clean. Umuganda really was working!

Breakfast was a better selection than yesterday, but I kept it simple: fruit, a croissant, and a tiny doughnut. It’d be enough to fuel me for the day ahead. Today we needed to be in reception for 08:20 to head to another project, this one for Health Poverty Action. It was a seventy minute drive to the Nyabihu tea factory. At first we were told about what they do there, introduced to the Chief Tea Maker (CTM), and Health Poverty Action (HPA) talked about their role here. This factory lacked manpower, and the people the charity helps needed work to help bring them security and improve their lives. This made the partnership between the two a perfect fit, and has been going for just three years.

A thirty minute drive along the road took us to where we could see people picking tea leaves on the hillside, many of them wearing yellow PVC tunics to protect them and their clothes from damage, and to help protect against bites from insects. The tea plants can easily cut you if you're not careful, as Andy later found out.

After we’d all donned the Minion-like costumes, they then told us how they use a wooden pole and only pick leaves above where it’s resting. They then take two leaves and a stem and put it into the basket behind them. Those doing it can do so with such speed! I thought we’d then be working on helping them do this, but it was only a short stop. We quickly took photographs, and had a go at picking a few leaves for the photo opportunities. Andy unfortunately managed to cut his leg open on one of the tea plants.

We moved on again, this time it was a few minutes drive, followed by several minutes of walking up to where a school is provided for free to the children of the workers. Not only are they taught, but also fed during this time. There was actually a few different classrooms there, to account for the different age groups.

Just as the tea picking is a morning activity we watched this morning, the processing is an afternoon one which was our next item on the agenda for today. We travelled back to the factory to see the process of turning the leaves into tea. We were told that photographs are not allowed inside, and then had to sign a form before then putting on a white coat and hat.

To start with we saw the drying process, with one trough filled with today's leaves, with hot air blowing on them from underneath. The next trough along had been drying for a day, and you could see how much removing moisture shrinks them by. The next step is then bagging them by hand so a conveyor can then carry them around to where someone else is feeding them into a funnel where they’re then mashed before being cut up.

We could then see them being rolled and steamed to dry them out further. The tea becomes finer and finer and starts to look like clumps of moss as they then darken. Some are then output as Green tea, but those that are not are then fermented. As we walked past the windows for this my glasses steamed up quickly, showing just how hot it was inside the cylindrical vat. The output is brown, and is eventually sorted by quality through a machine that vibrates vigorously.

In the next room they then package the result into sacks of around 70 kg, ready to be shipped to Kigali and to companies that will then blend teas together. The output from this particular factory goes to well known British brands such Taylors of Harrogate which produce Yorkshire Tea.

I don’t think a tour of any factory would be complete without getting to try some of the products that they produce. We were led into an office, and from there we each were given a cup of tea to drink.

The drive back to Musanze was then about another seventy minutes to arrive back at 14:45. I dropped off my bag, and then went to the restaurant for a late lunch. I had a chicken burger and fries, with a generously sized glass of apple juice.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent getting my race kit ready for tomorrow, and relaxing until 18:00 when it was time for the briefing in the conference room down the hill. The course sounded exciting, but more importantly we went through some of the logistics of race day. The race bibs were then handed out to applause; it was so exciting! Nick K had specifically given me number 1, which I really appreciated. I stand by what I said previously: Nick and Impact Marathons are the best. Anyone who had not been to one of their events really should.

The pasta party followed this, and it really was a good one. In addition to penne pasta there was rice, chicken, beef, and some really great vegetables. We’ve had a lot of good meals on this trip, and fantastic opportunities to try local cuisine - something I always try to do. This local twist on the pasta party was a good one.

As with any adventure, things don’t always go the way you plan them to. Things can happen that are unpredictable that you can’t really plan for or prevent. It’s one of those things that just happens, and what matters is how you deal with it. Whilst we were eating, Harry walked into the restaurant and asked if we could all stop what we were doing and follow him for a quick chat.

Has the race been cancelled? Whatever was said next, we'd had a good week, and whilst it'd be unfortunate if it couldn't happen, it'd be okay.

“There’s some good news, and some bad news,” Harry opened with. He looked very serious, or perhaps tired.

They’d been told that the local police who had been informed of the event in advance, had now decided that it couldn’t take place on Friday due to an event relating to the Genocide’s 100 days of slaughter. They didn’t have enough officers to protect the event and us, and obviously (and rightly so) the memorial was more important. That was the bad news.

The good news was that they could move back to the original plan of having the race on Saturday. The only difference would be that due to Umuganda, the race would begin at 11:00, so it would be hotter, with less available hours of daylight. It would however mean that people from the local projects would be able to join in, which was great news. The only caveat to that was whether they could get permits for those people to miss the community clean-up. I know sport is important in Rwanda, so I hoped they could sort it out for them. Two people from HPA had joined us at the hotel for the race, with the expectation it would be tomorrow, but could no longer join in as they’d need to head back to Kigali for a flight back to Tanzania.

My hope was that the Impact team weren’t too stressed out about it, we all understood, and on the bright side it’d give us an extra day to get ready. I made sure I told Nick and Harry how much we appreciate what they’re doing for us. Whilst this was the sort of change they couldn’t have predicted, they’re very well experienced at handling anything that is thrown at them, and they handled this one really well. It also gave them more time to mark the course!

The rest of us then chatted into the night, but even with a later start tomorrow, I still went to bed earlier than yesterday.