Sunday 7th December – Sunday 14th December: Days Ninety-Two to Ninety-Nine in Rwanda

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

SPECIAL NOTICE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MÁIRÍN!!!


SUNDAY TO THURSDAY IN SCHOOL

The entire British Council in Rwanda arrived in Butare on Sunday afternoon! Sarah and Graham McFadden (who are the entire BC in Rwanda!) were taking over two of the classes as two other teachers were leaving (Emmanuel and Dickens, sorely missed, both of them). It also made my job even a little more redundant than it already was. However, I occupied myself with putting together a resource pack for all the trainees which we were going to load onto one flash disk per training college. The trainees’ main concern is that they don’t have the specialist vocabulary they need to be able to teach their subjects through English, so I tracked down vocabulary lists, useful internet sites, free software (dictionaries and translation programmes) and whatever else might be useful. I also recommended using Wikipedia as much as possible – whether the information is always accurate or not, the vocabulary will be fine!! I also got to teach some classes from time as people were sick or just wanted a change.

So Monday to Thursday worked fine. The students taught their sample classes in the afternoons and by and large did far better than they themselves had expected. Other than that we just sampled Butare’s limited nightlife, including a farewell meal in the Chinese (not the Chineese) restaurant which so far is the longest I have ever had to wait for food in this country (even massed choruses of ‘Why Are We Waiting?’ had no effect). Food was good though, as usual.

FRIDAY IN SCHOOL

This was a bit different. Diane had intimated the previous day that the Graduation and Closing Ceremony was maybe a bigger deal than I had realised! So we put together a programme and a list of speakers which consisted of:

A representative of the local council (Huye District)
A representative of the school
A representative of the students
A representative of the British Council
A representative from MINEDUC

and I volunteered to do MC!! Emma from MINEDUC was due down on Friday morning with the payment for the trainers (the trainees all got their allowances on Thursday evening) and John Simpson and Rosemary from the British Council were also due down with certificates and flash disks. The aim was to start at 1000 which was always a little bit ambitious to be honest.

Anyway, by 0900 we knew John and Rosemary were on the road but Emma was still in MINEDUC trying to get cheques signed! This just sums up MINEDUC in a nutshell – who in their right minds runs a system where you are going in to queue and get cheques signed the very day payment needs to be made a hundred kilometres away! As ten drifted into eleven o’clock and then twelve the students began to think about just leaving – after all they had got their allowances and as long as there was one person left from each school to collect the certificates they had nothing to hang around for. And, to be honest, we were tempted to tell them to do just that!

Emma eventually arrived at 1230 and we started. To my surprise about 150 of the 200 students were still there. I probably offended everyone dreadfully because – as far as I can tell – these occasions are usually very elaborate and drawn out but I figured no-one really wanted that this day and zipped through the whole thing as quickly as possible. The only other problem was that Rosemary had forgotten to bring down the flash disks from Kigali!! This was the main thing most of the schools were waiting for and I had to promise that we would send on the material in the near future and if anyone had a flash disk with them I could download it for them then and there. (Alfred: Ruairí is skipping the bit about what happened when those who DID have flash disks came up to him to get the stuff loaded. It should take about 2 minutes per disk .. but he forgot about the viruses!! Mind you, the worst one only had 76 on it but two had something on them that sent a message saying the disk was full even when it wasn't so the stuff couldn't be transferred! No wonder he has included free antivirus software with the other things he is sending out! Remind me to tell you the Raila Odinga story sometime ......)

We got finished around one or a little after – insanely boring and utterly futile morning. It would really make me think again about accepting any work that involves working directly with MINEDUC. Having said that, Diane who was the main person I was dealing with was great – it’s just the whole monumentally inefficient and hidebound edifice that is the problem. Imagine hiring people on a contract for x days at y rate of pay and then – after they have committed themselves – telling them the work is actually for x-7 days and at a rate of only 80% (or whatever) of the rate originally promised. And then they didn’t even pay that when they were supposed to! Apparently John works directly with MINEDUC all the time – he is looking exceptionally well on it, I have to say, because I think it would have driven me around the bend by now!

BRITISH COUNCIL

What was really nice about this was it fulfilled a long-held ambition of mine to work (even temporarily) for the British Council. My late father was always a great fan. Though a strong Republican and one who had no time for the other trappings of British imperialism, he always maintained that the British Council was possibly the one thing that could justify the existence of the British Empire. Their office and library in Paris was one of his favourite haunts when he lived there. The Rwandan government’s sudden decision to make the country Anglophone has obviously thrust them into the middle of a rather demanding situation, as the UK generally had little presence here in Rwanda until recently so maybe they will expand their activities and, I hope (for Sarah and Graham’s sake) their personnel! It was a little sad to hear that they no longer run libraries but are now focussed on teaching English and other educational activities but the cultural activities are still up and running around the world – 114 countries at the moment (actually, Rwanda isn’t listed on the website as a country they work in, so it’s at least 115!). www.britishcouncil.org for more info if you are interested!!!

SANDY AND MICHAEL

As some of you will know, my SKWID buddy Tina Hewing had to go back to England because she was ill. The good news is that she will be back with us early in the new year. Unfortunately, two of her best friends had already booked tickets to come and see her. So Sandy and Michael arrived in Kigali Tuesday and then came down to Butare Thursday and stayed in my favourite hotel, the Motel Ineza, for Thursday and Friday nights. Michael is a paediatrician in Essen and Sandy is a student about to start a PhD in cancer research. They are really nice people (as you would probably have assumed if they were friends of Tina’s) and we had a really good time chatting and eating out (well, the eating out was Friday only as I had the Chinese slow-death-by-waiting-for-food experience on Thursday) and then they headed off for Nyungwe forest on Saturday to do a bit of camping. Hope to run into them again before they leave.

BACK IN THE MOTEL INEZA

Friday I packed up in the Procur guesthouse and came back to my ‘home’ in Butare, the Motel Ineza. The Procur is actually a nicer place – it has running hot water, the rooms are bigger and it is a lot quieter for much the same price as the Ineza but you know the way it is when you have got to know a place and the people!! So Eli and Pascal and Maxine and Immacula are all still here and glad to see me (and asking after Tina Payne, who they also miss and want to see again!). OK – so the water now seems to be off most of the time but I can cope with that for now.

Pascal is continuing with his plans for a New Year’s Eve party for women who were raped and got pregnant during the genocide and I have promised to attend, if only for the rather voyeuristic reason of wanting to see how in the name of goodness this is going to pan out! I strongly suspect the people attending will be those either already involved or interested in becoming involved in the organisation, rather than actual victims. Pascal is putting up posters around the town to tell everyone it is on as well as inviting specific people so I have absolutely no idea how this is going to end up, but you will be told!!! There is a crowd going up to Kibuye for New Years so I will zoom up on January 1st to see them there.

SATURDAY FOOTBALL sans FRANÇOIS

I forget which TV series started off by describing itself as the ‘ongoing saga of’ whatever (was it SOAP?) but I feel that way as regards my efforts to talk to my boss. Some background for those who may be coming late to all this: I work for the Gisagara District Education Office. There is a staff of two – the director François and the chargé Alexis. François is the one I deal with but he is .... well, elusive is putting it mildly. At the moment he is on three weeks’ leave but is here in Butare where he lives. He said he was anxious to talk to me while I was here but so far he has failed to respond to seven texts. Then Saturday he actually rang me! I said I would be around the Hotel Faucon watching football and we could meet there.

Of course, of course, of course he never showed up! It meant an afternoon of absolute hell watching football and drinking beer (Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd all dropping points!).

So, I decided to stay another night and am now bombarding him with texts saying I absolutely have to see him today. No luck and he isn’t answering calls. This means when I go back to Gisagara tomorrow I have absolutely nothing to do. I probably won’t even be able to get into his office as I don’t have a key and when François is away, Alexis usually disappears as well. Even if I can get into the office, the generator is broken so I cannot turn on François’ computer which is the only source of information I can work with. I was planning training courses for school principals (primary and secondary) but Alexis told me at our last ‘meeting’ (scroll back if you want to know the reason for the inverted commas) that the only training budgeted for 2009 is in adult literacy and we are not sure if any other training will be approved! So, apart from doing school inspections, we still have not agreed a single thing I can get on with next year. I am putting together training courses in basic IT, school management techniques and basic finances (budgeting etc – stuff Mans gave me) but it is all taking place in a complete vacuum. And I have a strong suspicion that the educational statistics Mans was working with in his district have not been properly collected (if at all) in Gisagara. Maybe that’s what I need to start on in January!

Anyway, the air of unreality is heightened by the fact that Christmas is approaching. I am heading to Kigali on Wednesday or early Thursday to attend the British Embassy carols and mince pie extravaganza (due to budgetary cutbacks, drinks have to be purchased at the bar), then the following week, probably around the 22nd/23rd I am off to Kigeme and Gasarenda to celebrate Christmas with my friends. I kind of feel I should tell my boss all this (mind you, the office will probably be closed anyway but I cannot find anyone who either knows or will tell me what the arrangements for Christmas are!) but I know (I’m afraid to say) that whatever I say I am doing will be OK with him. Either he doesn’t care or (I increasingly suspect) he really doesn’t know what to do with me. (Alfred: Suggestions on a postcard please; actually, email would be a LOT faster .................)

COMMUNICATION

Letters and parcels!!! Yeah! There is nothing as nice as checking your PO box and finding LOADS of stuff in it! Thanks to Munich and Brussels for all the goodies, just in time for Christmas too. Also got my first two real live handwritten letters plus some cards from existing and former students. Now In have to sit down and reply (though it will probably be electronically to spare them my awful handwriting!). I now know that parcels sent in envelopes and not too big can fit in the box, so send small and flexible please!!!

DEO GRATIAS

Today I needed to go out to Gisagara and drop off stuff as I had too much for one trip (and I need to shop for food etc) so I rang the local moto driver Deo (remember him?, Deo is short for Deo Gratias) and he said he was in Butare and was free in a few minutes. So he dropped me out and waited a few minutes and brought me back again. He is a good driver if a little prone to swerving around stones at the last minute, which can be a bit unnerving when you are on the back with a large heavy backpack!

He also has really good French and likes to chat while driving which I find difficult as a) I can’t hear properly and b) being in French makes it even more difficult. Anyway, he asked me what age I was and was I fifty yet. I said almost – 49 – to which he responded I could be his little brother as he was fifty. So I asked him had he been doing this moto-driving for long? No he said, he was imprisoned for 13 years after the genocide and only got out in 2007; he then had to resit for his driving licence so he had only started recently.

Well, the obvious next question from me was one I wasn’t really sure I could (or wanted to) ask – maybe I will ask someday whether he was locked up for a good reason or not, but it is the first time anyone has indicated to me any kind of actual involvement in the genocide. Maybe he was hoping I would ask him so he could tell me how unfair it all was – I don’t know, but I will be seeing a lot more of him so maybe the occasion will arise. After all, it was he who brought up the topic!

99 DAYS ... and counting!

Today is Day 99 in Rwanda so I will try and do a special post tomorrow looking back over 100 days in Rwanda and what it has meant to me so far. As you may have gathered, I don’t expect to be overburdened with work tomorrow anyway so I should have time. If anyone out there has any questions, comments or requests for further information, please send them in!!!