Thursday 18th to Monday 22nd December: Day One Hundred and Three to One Hundred and Seven 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.

THURSDAY
Off to Kigali for the British Embassy carol service and mince pies. Called to the Program Office first to collect mail and also leave back books and find some new reading material (Alfred: of course the eejit took some new ones but forgot to leave the old ones and proceeded to cart them all the way back home!!) I also collected my Kris Kindle name for the Christmas do in Gasarenda.

The carol singing (not service, sorry) was a pleasant enough affair and I met up with a bunch of the other volunteers, including Christina, Sonya, Ivana, Steve and the Phare/Amy/Hayley group and quite a lot of people from the Program Office. Also met Graham and Sarah McFadden from the British Council. Anyway, had quite a few beers there and then went for drinks with Sonya who I hadn't seen since ICT 1 in September, so a lot of catching up to do as she has been having quite a time down in Kirehe. She is minding Marion's house and cats in Kigali while Marion is on holiday so I stayed over with her for the two nights. Opened a bottle of red wine when we got home - seemed like a good idea at the time .....

FRIDAY
I DO remember being this hung over once - back in 1978 after a Students Union party in UCD. Dragged myself out of bed finally and went to meet Joe Walk and Christine for lunch. Joe is off to England tomorrow for Christmas so it was great to see him before he headed off. He is hopeful that his accommodation situation will improve in Nyamasheke - they have found a new house for him but it is a brand-new house and the District and VSO are haggling over the rent. We had a really nice lunch in a place called ..... hmmm, begins with an 'M' and it is behind the giant Coke bottle on the road all the buses stop on, under a hardware store. They do a buffet for RWF2900 which seems expensive but the food is really good - fresh vegetable salads of all kinds and fish and two meats and you can go up as often as you like. Will definitely be calling back again. And, of course, being a buffet, it's great if you are in a rush rather than ordering and wondering just how long it will be before the food arrives.

Then went to meet Amy and the gang to plan food shopping for the Christmas, and also for Andy's birthday which is on the 24th December (Alfred:bet HE got seriously short-changed over the years!!). Andy's main request was that I collect Twister from Jane's house and bring it up with me! Then I went back to Marion/Sonya's and collapsed!!

Ivana and Christine called around later and Sonya cooked a really lovely stir-fry (got loads of ideas from watching her do it). Joe and Marjoulaine also called in later - Joe had just heard that the new house in Nyamasheke was sorted - great news. Less great news is that Marjoulaine is leaving - her placement has been a bit of a disaster from the word go; she has been on a three-month contract working with Christina in the Genocide Memorial Centre but that has run out and VSO don't seem to have been able to find her anything else. She is heading off to Thailand where her son is working as a country director, either for VSO or something similar (Alfred: Ruairí's concentration span was pretty poor by this stage. He had actually met Ivana that morning but when she mentioned it, he had completely forgotten. Won't be getting that particular clump of brain cells back!). Lovely evening.

SATURDAY
Said goodbye to Sonya and headed off into town to do some food shopping. It was great to see her again and her placement seems to be almost the polar opposite of mine, even though she started off with even worse difficulties to overcome than Tina and I did!! Now she is doing all sorts of really exciting things and she and Joe are run off their feet. Also, I gather Joe O'Toole is staying on rather than going back to Mayo so I might actually get a chance to meet him at some stage!!!!

Food shopping. Ah yes, the question is not so much what you want to buy as to figure out what might be available and what you can do with it. We have decided on a stirfry for Christmas Day and were hoping to do fajitas for Andy's birthday on Christmas Eve. So I trawled around Nakumat, Simba and the Indian supermarket (once I eventually found it). End product was I found everything for the Banoffi Pie (condensed milk, McVities digestives - Alfred: you wouldn't believe how much a packet of McVities digestives costs here)), olive oil, lemons, garlic and canned chickpeas for hummus, ginger, chili garlic sauce, soy sauce and bean sprouts for stir-fry, and a few other bits and pieces. No wraps of any description (can't wrap stuff in poppadoms even if we could cook them!) so we'll have to replan that night. Also trying to find some squirty cream but no luck so far.

By the time I had finished, my rucksack was incredibly heavy (Alfred: your own fault for not leaving those books back!). Bus to Butare (slept all the way) and then went to Jane's house to leave all the stuff that is going up to Kigeme (Jane, Jean and Steve are off in Kampala for Christmas). Headed up to Faucon for a drink and who turned up full of smiles and greetings but Bezo, my Congolese smuggler/borrower of money/agent for Rwandan League of Ireland hopefuls!! Of course he didn't have my money (I would have fainted if he had) and his hints about how thirsty he was after his journey from Cyangugu fell on deaf ears I am afraid!!

SUNDAY
Stayed in Jane's that night and then headed off to Gisagara having done some food shopping of my own (bread, actually, and pineapple waragi, healthy diet I know). Met up with Enoch that evening and went for a beer. We walked down as far as his place because I had lent him some books and he wanted to drop them off. He showed me the memorial site for genocide victims in Gisagara - it is opposite the main church which is where most of them died and what I thought was just a memorial stone is actually a mass grave with hundreds, maybe a thousand bodies in it. He also pointed out a hilltop across from the village, where Byiza primary school is, and said this was one of the worst massacres of the entire genocide (he said 250,000 but either he meant 25,000 or he was just plucking a large figure out of the air). The refugees had been encouraged to gather on the hill, then the Interahamwe surrounded it on all sides and killed everyone.

The barman had disappeared from Enoch's local so we went back to our more usual haunt and were joined later by Kenneth (Ugandan plumber friend of Enoch) and Roger Octave, an ex-pupil of Enoch's who is anxiously waiting his exam results to see if he will get to do medicine in university next year. We had a really nice evening chatting away and at the end they insisted on paying for their own drinks - again.

We were also talking about the guy in Kigali who had been prophesying that all Rwandan sinners were going to drop dead at 1100 on Sunday (I had forgotten about him). Enoch told us about a case in Uganda in 1995 where a religious charlatan whose name I forget had decided to impress his followers by dying and then rising from the dead. He hid in the attic and they filled the coffin with banana stems. However, his children came home from England for the funeral (they were attending private schools there - this religion business pays well) and absolutely insisted on opening the coffin to see their 'dead' father before he was buried. Collapse of scheme.

Five years later he set himself up again in another part of Uganda and collected a congregation to prepare for the end of the world as the millenium approached. He got them to sell all their goods, give him some or all of the money and they gathered together in a church he got them to build to pray and await the coming of the Lord. After three months of waiting they began to get a bit restless and asked him when the Lord was coming. Sensing that the game might be up, he said the Lord was coming that very night. He distributed a special ointment to all the congregation which he said they had to rub all over their bodies to ensure their entry into heaven (a petroleum-based ointment, as it turned out). Then he slipped out while they were preparing themselves, doused the chucrch in petrol, locked the doors and set it on fire. Everyone in the church died (including an aunt of Enoch's and her three daughters) and the 'preacher' fled and has still not been found to this day.

Terrible story but the strange thing is Enoch and Kenneth and Roger Octave laughed throughout. This is one of the things I am getting used to here - laughter doesn't work exactly the same way as it does back at home. There are things that are just plain funny and Rwandans laugh at them the same way we would in Ireland but they also laugh as a reaction to dreadful accidents or stories like this. I don't think it's because they actually think they are funny; actually, I am still not really sure what the laughter signifies but it takes a bit of getting used to!! I told them the story of a mayor who was arrested and sacked recently for having an affair with a local schoolgirl in the secondary school. She was 24 (not unusual in a secondary school) and the mayor had got drunk one night and got his driver to drive to the school, then pounded on the gate demanding this girl be brought out to him. The guard (quite bravely) refused and reported the incident to the director and vice-director respectively, both of whom refused to do anything about it. However, the guard (who was obviously made of stern stuff) went to another senior teacher who informed the police and they promptly arrested the mayor and threw him into the District prison.

They found the story hilarious and laughed throughout, but NOT in quite the same way as they had laughed during Enoch's terrible account. Couldn't quite put my finger on it but I'll get there eventually. (Alfred: what exactly did they charge the mayor with, I wonder?). enoch told another story of a wedding that was held in the village recently. This guy had been living with his girlfriend but hadn't married her so was told either he married her or he would be prosecuted (as I understand it, it is actually illegal for an man and a woman to live together if they are not married - remember the story earlier about Steve and Nidhi sharing a house in Kigali). Anyway, there was a big crowd at the wedding and the priest had got to the part where you promise to share 'all your worldly goods'. This was too much for our husband-to-be. He said, 'OK - I will share everything else but my house on the border with Burundi, no way, that stays mine!'. Everyone roared with laughter and the priest seemed to think that was a reasonable demand and went ahead and married them anyway!

When we finished in the pub - oh yes, I forgot, some guy joined the group and then tried to start a fight/argument with Enoch, most unusual. It was all done in quite a formal manner, possibly because everyone was speaking English. First this unknown person asked 'if I might be allowed to join the company'. Then when he sat down he began to accuse Enoch and people 'like him' of 'ruining the country'. Enoch began to get quite angry but his ex-pupil murmered 'teacher!' to him and calmed him down. Eventually our strange friend was very politely asked to remove himself from our company, which he immediately did! It was almost like a ballet in some ways!

The three of them insisted on walking me home and then said goodbye about 20m from the house to show they didn't expect to be asked in. Somehow or other I am going to have to insist that I walk THEM home sometime (or at least Enoch). Had a can of tuna fish and three bread rolls and then to bed.

I forgot - Deo drove me out from Butare today and asked if I was free at any stage for a beer to celebrate Christmas. He was anxious to come to my place but I explained that I had no beer but could have some in by Monday evening if he liked. He said he had to stay in Butare Monday night so the upshot is I will come to Butare Monday and see him for a drink and then head to Kigeme Tuesday. Looking forward to this conversation - never chatted to a man who was locked up for thirteen years for crimes he had no part in.

MONDAY
Off to work this morning - there doesn't seem to be any. Everyone who was in (and there weren't many) was at a meeting in the big hall where I usually work. I hung around for an hour but there seemed no prospect of its ending so I went back home to work. I really just wanted to see Francois and tell him what my Christmas plans are but I can always ring him later. I did text him but he has never answered any of my previous texts so I don't see why he should start now!! I'm typing this up now (ran the generator for almost two hours this morning, to Alexandre's disgust - he really hates the noise) and will then head into Butare. Got to pack light as there is a load of stuff in Jane's waiting for me and I still have to pick up some wine (5lt box). Update on my evening with Deo will follow (might even see Chelsea-Everton as well; Jean Goggin, if you are reading this, commiserations in advance (Alfred: oh-oh, that should guarantee a shock Everton win...)