Tuesday 16th December: Day One Hundred and One 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.

Well, things seem to be getting better! When I arrived in this morning my chargé presented me with a file containing all the data for this year and asked me if I could extract the data needed for the report to MINEDUC! Parked myself in the meeting hall again as everyone seems to have moved over to this office (presumably the generator in our group of offices is not going to be repaired anytime soon).

I worked away for about three hours and then people started to gather for a meeting so I headed off to look for somewhere else to work. There wasn’t anywhere so I asked Alexis (the chargé) to ask the people running the meeting if I could just work in the corner and they said no problem.

The meeting turned out to be quite a heated discussion about some aspects of the genocide – possibly whether or not to continue the Gacaca (traditional courts that are still running in some districts and – I think – are supposed to be winding up soon, but some people want them to continue). Of course, as everything was in Kinyarwandan, I can’t be sure they weren’t discussing crop rotations, though I doubt the genocide would have been mentioned quite so often in that case.

Now they are voting on who to select for something or other. As they vote by show of hands, each candidate comes down to the front and stands facing the wall so he/she can’t see who is or isn’t voting for them (though obviously everyone else can see each other so it’s not exactly confidential!). All very animated but good-humoured and Jean-Claude has just been elected (whoever he is)!!

They seem to have elected a committee of five to do something or another and all five of them are now (of course!) making a speech. And now they are leaving (1500) so I can finally eat my cheese sandwich and bottle of water!!!

Going to head home now – may not log on later. Will try cooking for the first time! Only beans and rice but it’s a start (don’t have any vegetables so I’m a bit stuck!). Enoch said he would call round later - maybe I can persuade him to join me for a beer, celebrate my return to the world of work!