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.
OK - this one isn't about me but I got this email today and I felt I had to share it with all my avid readers. Amanda Furst was a VSO volunteer here in Rwanda - unfortunately, I only got to know her just before she left which is a real pity as she is a really wonderful person, with the most beautifully braided hair I have ever seen (I know that's an ephemeral detail ... but it was really gorgoeus!). We were all a bit jealous actually as she was heading off to Zanzibar to start another placement and anyone here who has been to Zanzibar really loved it. However, things didn't turn out quite the way Amanda probably hoped they would (Alfred: look out for the bit with the Russian doctor - absolutely PRICLESS!)
Feb 27
This email I wrote in the hospital but just got around to sending it now.. hence slightly out dated..
Feb 20
Better than airmiles....
3 pairs of braces- 8000$ = 300 airmiles
3000L of gas- 3500$ = 170 airmiles
4 years worth of groceries- 8900$ = 700 airmiles
and all that won't even fly you to Regina.
HOWEVER
3 days of explosive headache
3 buckets of vomit (2 with blood)
fever and a cough
and that can score you a FREE ROUNDTRIP CHARTERED flight to Nairobi, Kenya!!
Now, that my friend is better than AIR MILES!!!
So, that's where I'm at. I said I'd try to up the excitement for the next email but even I couldn't have predicted this much excitement. It puts hitching a ride on a donkey to shame!!
So, you know that boyfriend you love to bits and he could care less about you... well thats certainly Me and Tanzania. I absolutely LOVE Tanzania. I'm not sure why but I do and yet for all my efforts, it just keeps crapping on my again and again and again!!
I'm everyone still remember the '05 Tanzanian adventures which of course included the bush buck, the ameobes, the dropping off the stretcher, as well as being fried (Alfred: I think she means 'fired') from volunteering with refugees, illegally being in the country, having no insurance and the lesser excitement of being robbed while brushing my teeth and standing on a bus for 20 hours.
Since this first extended adventure to Tanzania, I've returned for a few visits and somehow always managed to sneak away before anything too serious happened. However, this time, I guess I over stayed my welcome and before I knew, Tanzania was crapping all over me (well, I was crapping it... but it won in the end!)
This 2009 adventure is far less “Simpson” like and not nearly as entertaining but I'll see what I can do.
As I explained in the second last email, I sold my soul to the development devil and here is the price I paid for doing so.
So, after 1 week in Zanzibar, I got a cold. Not out of the ordinary for this time of the year in Winnipeg, but I'm in Zanzibar with +45C heat. So, it was a little strange. I fought with the cold (can it be called a cold when it's hot???) for 1.5 weeks. (in the week and a half I also managed a slight.. very slight allergic reaction.. just to add to the the fun!! shhh don't tell my parents!) So, the flu/cold/cough/sore throat eventually got a bit better. But just as that happened I start coming down with a fever and a headache. Being the responsible lady I am, I decided to get checked for malaria. So, I go into the Doc's office. He sends me for the test.. EXCEPT the tester is out praying.. too funny! The clinic is FULL of people and the one and only tester dude slipped out for a quick prayer. I always thought GOD wanted us to help others first.. maybe Allah is different? I dunno. He finally came back 20 minutes later and did my test. I showed the results to the doc and he just sat there and laughed. Literally, looked at the paper and chuckled to himself. I guess he found humour in his medical system which is completely incapable of actually showing a disease. He simply said my blood work showed a sign of an infection but n indication as the where the little bugger was actually hiding out. Not overly helpful! So, he handed me the standard prescription: dewormer, PAIN-O-TAB, malaria pills. What else can you do??? So I went to the pharmacy but in the end could only afford half of the medication. The total, 17$ was too rich for my blood. So, I took the dewormer, half the pain-o-tabs and left the malaria for the next day. SO\o, the poor white girl headed home with some friends, who had a great laugh over the fact that I couldn't pay for my meds. So much for the rich white stereotype!!!
So, I suffered through Sunday night and by midnight the pain won out! I made it til 530am when finally I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. My head felt like it might actually pop open and like those can-of-worms prank things.. my brains would just splatter everywhere! I got my mama to take me to the hospital and I was admitted instantly. No waiting for the prayer guy this time!!
They hooked me on a drip and shot me in the bum! It was great! However, the pain still was near unbearable. I managed to vomit a few times and even added some blood. Apparently there are standards when it comes to vomiting blood. I was always foolishly under the impression that blood in vomit = bad. Apparently it depends on how MUCH blood.
Few drops= good
few streaks = alright
gushing fire hose of blood= BAD
Apparently my few streaks was unimpressive. I however, thought it was quite impressive as it was the first time I managed to vomit blood. Guess I better try harder next time if I aim to impress.
Anyways, 3 drips and 2 shots later, I was feeling better and decided to go as oppose to tough it out on the memoirs of foam mattress and the room full of mosquito and sick people. I left around 7pm and by 4am I was back where I started. Can't blame a girl for trying. :)
So, at 4am I was once again admitted to the hospital with sever fever and headache. Docs came and went and one lovely Russian graced me with this conversation
Russian Doc: is that your hair?
Me: half, the other half I bought
RD: Why you do that? It not beautiful
Me: it's easy
RD: I no like it
If that's not a spirit booster I don't know what is!!
Then she came back
RD: What you do here?
Me: I volunteer
RD: Why you do that?
Me: Because I want to help people (I really wasn't in the mod to get into anything to deep..)
RD: So you rich?
Me: HA! Not at all
RD: What is email. WE be friends. I invite you to homeland Russian.
You think I joke but it totally happened! My boss was there as a witness!!
Anyways, things didn't get my better. They concluded it was acute malaria and after 100 phone calls, my AMAZING insurance company decided I needed better care and MED EVACED me to Nairobi, Kenya. Better than airmiles I tell you!! My OWN PLANE!! A bed, 2 attendings! No snacks, but I really wasn't in the the mood anyways! So they took me to Nairobi Wednesday morning, but fortunately by this time I was starting to feel a litter better. It was good because we had wicked TRUBULENCE on the flight. WE were all over the place!
In Nairobi, I was taken to the SWEETEST 5 STAR hospital I have ever seen!!! I instantly had 5 nurses attending to me and me alone! And then a doctor! It was incredible. They did tests! LOTS of tests!! and then they put me in my own room with a TV, 5 seater couch, desk , chairs, full bathroom, FRIDGE, and balcony!! TAKE THAT AIRMILES!!
And that's where I am now. It's Friday and I arrived Wednesday morning. They've ruled out malaria but think it might be viral meningitis (apparently that's the “GOOD” kind.. or the kind you want to get..) They hooked me up with heavy duty pain killers and I now know why I've never done drugs!! I TRIPPED OUT!! I was hallucinating like CRAZY!! People were coming and going in and out of my room, little girls in purple tops with flowers, polar bears, oranges... everything! It was the freakiest trip I have even been on. I wasn't asleep so it wasn't dreaming but I constantly had to remind myself that it was not real... What made it worse is that they gave me an MRI right after they shot me up. The doc put me on the bed and pushed me in and said don't move. This will only take 30 minutes. HA!! I started sweating and shaking and then loud gunshots go off all around you. I started MAJORLY tripping out! I can't even describe the experience but my arms and head were floating everywhere and I just had to keep telling myself not to move (even tho I wasn't it was just my imagination). And then I gt nauseas and thought I was going to vomit in the tunnel. I started yelling out at the doc to let me out... but he didn't hear me and the noises continued. It was the longest 30 mins of my life!! He finally took me out and then sent me back in for another 3 minutes.
NEVER will I do drugs!
After the MRI, they did a spinal tap. They go into your spinal cord and remove some fluid. Apparently that did the trick. It released some pressure on my head and helped the headaches. I've stopped the painkillers now and am just dealing with daily fevers. Not too shabby! I feel like a millions bucks even if I only look like a buck fifty.
They're keeping me here a while longer just for fun! Which I'm ok with as there is a menu for every meal... and lots of ICE CREAM and wonderful deserts, soup, meat, bread, cheese, and fresh juice!! It's a hard life but someone has to do it!! Eat your heart out Air Miles... I chose med evac!!
So, that was 1 week ago.
I'm out on my own now. Waiting patiently for the go ahead from my doctor to return to Zanzibar. It's been a week and a half and hopefully on Tuesday, I will be cleared to fly. Until then I'm spending my days sleeping and trying to find the energy to roll out of bed and pull myself away from the 24 hour movie channel. I won't even begin to list the movies I've watched since arriving last Wednesday!!! It's too many to count.
I hope everyone is well. Thanks for the emails!!
Take care!
AmazingAmandainKenya
(does anyone else find it hilarious that it spells AAIK... like ache!!! too funny)
peace out
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
MONDAY 23rd TO THURSDAY 26th February: Days One Hundred and Seventy to One Hundred and Seventy-Four 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.
FOOD
Quite a quiet week actually so edited highlights only. Been a good week for food – am getting the hang of how to prepare food during the day so as to have time to cook before dark falls. Some really nice stir-frys (tonight was half a cabbage, six small carrots, six small onions, coriander, cumin, chilli, garlic (4 cloves), soy sauce and some garlic & chilli sauce. With rice. I had cooked the rice at breakfast, chopped all the vegetables at lunchtime. Enock and I now go for a beer after work each day so I usually get home around 1810 and the sun sets around 1830 and stir-frying in the dark is NOT fun. Of course, this means stir-fried cabbage for breakfast but I usually end up having for breakfast what I had for dinner the previous night! And thanks again to all of you who sent me the Cup-A-Soups – a real lifesaver those!!
FOOD MANAGEMENT & SHOPPING
However, managing the purchasing of food is a tricky business. If I or Alexandré buy a load of stuff on Wednesday, I am usually off for the weekend and there is no time to eat it all (one reason why I crammed so much into today’s stir-fry – I’m off to Butare tomorrow for the weekend). Tomatoes go off really fast and I suspect we are getting to the end of the season as they are pretty much all a bit soft and malevolent-looking.
I do need to stock up on stuff in Butare, as well as get to the bank and cash that cheque the District gave me a week ago. Saturday is umuganda (communal labour) day so the banks will be closed which means an almighty scrum tomorrow. I was also supposed to go to the immigration bureau in Butare in the morning but we have a meeting with the mayor and the directors of all the new secondary schools that have just been set up so I can’t miss that. I need to buy:
Washing powder
Candles
Margarine
Matches
Waragi (Mango flavour if possible)
Toothpaste
Fruit juice (my consumption of liquids has nosedived since I ran out of tree tomato juice to mix with my water)
Bread
Mayonnaise (I’ll risk it, a small jar so with any luck it won’t go off before I finish it)
Cooking oil (peanut)
Cheese (Laughing Cow triangles)
and goodness knows what else I’ll think of while I am there.
BEER FAUX PAS
Oh-oh! Seemed to have committed a number of faux pas this week. One was to buy bread and then walk home with it in my hand – I think you are supposed to keep food in a bag and not display it publicly. I only realised when I got home and found the bread was mouldy. Enock was with me and I picked it up and said I would call into the shop on our way to the bar. He looked at me in ill-disguised horror and said: ‘You ARE going to put it in a bag, aren’t you?’ (This also accounts for the cries of umugati ! (bread!) that followed me home.
Worse was when we went to the depot to get beer. I bought a crate of beer last week and Alexandré brought back the empties on Wednesday. I had left him money to get replacements but he came back without and I presumed it was because there was none in stock. So Enock and I called in today and boy! Did I get a frosty reception! Apparently you are supposed to return the crate within two days and the woman who runs the depot got bawled out by the brewery people for being one crate short. Anyway she wouldn’t sell me any beer and returned my deposit for the crate. Enock says I can still buy beer 12 bottles at a time but I will have to have my own container. I will also have to have 12 empties, even to start with!! I pointed out that there has to be a first time for anyone buying beer but Enock says that’s the way it works. He has six empties to get me started – I wonder where you go to buy EMPTY bottles of beer?
KINYARWANDA CLASSES
Hey hey! Finally getting started on Monday – have acquired a good vocabulary but actually putting sentences together is another matter. It was kind of nice the other day in class – we were doing vocabulary for food and drink in English and I knew all the Kinyarwandan words whenever they got stuck (except ‘plantain’ – that one slipped away – and obvious ones like ‘pizza’ and ‘pasta’ which don’t exist here, or at least not in Kinyarwandan.
ENGLISH CLASSES
These are going OK but it is maddening how irregular the attendance is. Eugene, the Executive Secretary, turned up unexpectedly for class on Wednesday and everyone flew in the door in a panic and I ran out of notes because there is usually only half that number there. We have covered Present Simple and the misnamed Present Continuous and Future and are now venturing into the shark-infested waters of the Past Simple. When we had finished the food and drink vocabulary, I gave them a word search to do. It still amazes me how incredibly excited they get over anything like that – their eyes lit up when they saw what I had and I had to physically chase them out of the room after the class so they didn’t miss their bus. I spent a chunk of today making crosswords, more word searches and anagrams (though they don’t like them so much – too much hard work). They also have a test next Thursday so I need to get the Past Simple finished, revise possessive pronouns and do the vocabulary for family and relatives before then. (Alfred: want to hear a good one? He actually fell for the ‘Teacher, your watch is running slow’ line and let everyone out miles early!!)
WEEKEND PLANS
Off to Butare Friday – it was Tina Payne’s birthday Wednesday (Tina was originally here with me in Gisagara) so we hope to meet up for a drink Friday or Saturday. I am still supposed to be having dinner with François and his wife on Friday but no definite arrangements have been made yet so goodness knows what is going to happen. Also hope to see Tiga and Jane and Andy at some stage – God, it’s getting busy around here! Maybe I should just get a puppy as well and top it all off . God – they were gorgeous and adorable! (Alfred: even my curmudgeonly heart has to agree on that one).
HEALTH WARNING: ALFRED
A number of friends have emailed me to express concern about the role Alfred is playing in my life. I have reassured them that all is under control and suggestions re counselling etc are appreciated but not necessary. I am not undergoing some form of split personality disorder, it’s all just a bit of fun!! (Alfred: Ha ha, that’s what HE thinks! I’ve set up my own email account – you can write to me at alfredinrwanda@gmail.com and get the truth straight from the teddy-bear’s mouth!)
FOOD
Quite a quiet week actually so edited highlights only. Been a good week for food – am getting the hang of how to prepare food during the day so as to have time to cook before dark falls. Some really nice stir-frys (tonight was half a cabbage, six small carrots, six small onions, coriander, cumin, chilli, garlic (4 cloves), soy sauce and some garlic & chilli sauce. With rice. I had cooked the rice at breakfast, chopped all the vegetables at lunchtime. Enock and I now go for a beer after work each day so I usually get home around 1810 and the sun sets around 1830 and stir-frying in the dark is NOT fun. Of course, this means stir-fried cabbage for breakfast but I usually end up having for breakfast what I had for dinner the previous night! And thanks again to all of you who sent me the Cup-A-Soups – a real lifesaver those!!
FOOD MANAGEMENT & SHOPPING
However, managing the purchasing of food is a tricky business. If I or Alexandré buy a load of stuff on Wednesday, I am usually off for the weekend and there is no time to eat it all (one reason why I crammed so much into today’s stir-fry – I’m off to Butare tomorrow for the weekend). Tomatoes go off really fast and I suspect we are getting to the end of the season as they are pretty much all a bit soft and malevolent-looking.
I do need to stock up on stuff in Butare, as well as get to the bank and cash that cheque the District gave me a week ago. Saturday is umuganda (communal labour) day so the banks will be closed which means an almighty scrum tomorrow. I was also supposed to go to the immigration bureau in Butare in the morning but we have a meeting with the mayor and the directors of all the new secondary schools that have just been set up so I can’t miss that. I need to buy:
Washing powder
Candles
Margarine
Matches
Waragi (Mango flavour if possible)
Toothpaste
Fruit juice (my consumption of liquids has nosedived since I ran out of tree tomato juice to mix with my water)
Bread
Mayonnaise (I’ll risk it, a small jar so with any luck it won’t go off before I finish it)
Cooking oil (peanut)
Cheese (Laughing Cow triangles)
and goodness knows what else I’ll think of while I am there.
BEER FAUX PAS
Oh-oh! Seemed to have committed a number of faux pas this week. One was to buy bread and then walk home with it in my hand – I think you are supposed to keep food in a bag and not display it publicly. I only realised when I got home and found the bread was mouldy. Enock was with me and I picked it up and said I would call into the shop on our way to the bar. He looked at me in ill-disguised horror and said: ‘You ARE going to put it in a bag, aren’t you?’ (This also accounts for the cries of umugati ! (bread!) that followed me home.
Worse was when we went to the depot to get beer. I bought a crate of beer last week and Alexandré brought back the empties on Wednesday. I had left him money to get replacements but he came back without and I presumed it was because there was none in stock. So Enock and I called in today and boy! Did I get a frosty reception! Apparently you are supposed to return the crate within two days and the woman who runs the depot got bawled out by the brewery people for being one crate short. Anyway she wouldn’t sell me any beer and returned my deposit for the crate. Enock says I can still buy beer 12 bottles at a time but I will have to have my own container. I will also have to have 12 empties, even to start with!! I pointed out that there has to be a first time for anyone buying beer but Enock says that’s the way it works. He has six empties to get me started – I wonder where you go to buy EMPTY bottles of beer?
KINYARWANDA CLASSES
Hey hey! Finally getting started on Monday – have acquired a good vocabulary but actually putting sentences together is another matter. It was kind of nice the other day in class – we were doing vocabulary for food and drink in English and I knew all the Kinyarwandan words whenever they got stuck (except ‘plantain’ – that one slipped away – and obvious ones like ‘pizza’ and ‘pasta’ which don’t exist here, or at least not in Kinyarwandan.
ENGLISH CLASSES
These are going OK but it is maddening how irregular the attendance is. Eugene, the Executive Secretary, turned up unexpectedly for class on Wednesday and everyone flew in the door in a panic and I ran out of notes because there is usually only half that number there. We have covered Present Simple and the misnamed Present Continuous and Future and are now venturing into the shark-infested waters of the Past Simple. When we had finished the food and drink vocabulary, I gave them a word search to do. It still amazes me how incredibly excited they get over anything like that – their eyes lit up when they saw what I had and I had to physically chase them out of the room after the class so they didn’t miss their bus. I spent a chunk of today making crosswords, more word searches and anagrams (though they don’t like them so much – too much hard work). They also have a test next Thursday so I need to get the Past Simple finished, revise possessive pronouns and do the vocabulary for family and relatives before then. (Alfred: want to hear a good one? He actually fell for the ‘Teacher, your watch is running slow’ line and let everyone out miles early!!)
WEEKEND PLANS
Off to Butare Friday – it was Tina Payne’s birthday Wednesday (Tina was originally here with me in Gisagara) so we hope to meet up for a drink Friday or Saturday. I am still supposed to be having dinner with François and his wife on Friday but no definite arrangements have been made yet so goodness knows what is going to happen. Also hope to see Tiga and Jane and Andy at some stage – God, it’s getting busy around here! Maybe I should just get a puppy as well and top it all off . God – they were gorgeous and adorable! (Alfred: even my curmudgeonly heart has to agree on that one).
HEALTH WARNING: ALFRED
A number of friends have emailed me to express concern about the role Alfred is playing in my life. I have reassured them that all is under control and suggestions re counselling etc are appreciated but not necessary. I am not undergoing some form of split personality disorder, it’s all just a bit of fun!! (Alfred: Ha ha, that’s what HE thinks! I’ve set up my own email account – you can write to me at alfredinrwanda@gmail.com and get the truth straight from the teddy-bear’s mouth!)
Oh-oh!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Bigger Photo!
(Alfred: I told him he had compressed the photo too much! Mind you, hope this one uploads....... click on the picture to get the full-size version)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd February: Days One Hundred and Sixty-Six to One Hundred and Sixty Nine in Rwanda
Can only seem to get big print or small print today - not normal!!!
How is this for cashing in on a trend? Must have got the idea from the neighbour!!
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.
The audience
My friend Enock who started the club.
How is this for cashing in on a trend? Must have got the idea from the neighbour!!
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
Strange day. Emile from MINEDUC turned up in the office even though the school visits were supposed to be Wednesday and Friday (or so Alexis had told me). I had NOT dressed appropriately for visiting school and was buried deep in my work so I figured I’d head out with them the following day instead (Alfred: big mistake, as some of you may be sensing already). Day was pretty ordinary, English class had a big crowd for once – trying to get their heads around how English can use the present tense to express the future (‘I am going to see my friends tomorrow’ and so on). Cooked a big curry for dinner, partly to use up the carrots and other vegetables as I am off tomorrow for the weekend – those split peas and lentils were a good investment! Carrots, onions, peppers, potatoes, yellow split peas, mild madras curry powder, chilli powder, garlic salt, salt and pepper – very tasty though I should have cooked the split peas for a little longer!
(Alfred: he left out the best part of the day, partly because he is a bit embarrassed! Given that he was going away on Friday and had been a lazy sod all week and had done no laundry, he realised he better do a blitz that afternoon. As he left the house he called over to Alexandré ‘Ndashaka amazi’ – I need water and indicated his shirt. Alexandré nodded and off Ruairí went. When he got home (and he swears this was unintentional) Alexandré has misunderstood the instructions and had washed everything! An enormous pile of laundry, including sheets, and all spotless. Since he is obviously good at this (and somehow Ruairí has convinced himself without a shred of supporting evidence that he ENJOYS doing it, he intends letting him do the laundry from now on! Any chance he might pay him a bit more? He is considering it!)
FRIDAY
One of those days! Everyone has them in Rwanda from time to time (sometimes a lot more frequently!) but this one was pretty good. As I was going to visit schools I got up especially early, put on my good suit, packed my camera (VSO Ireland are setting up their own website and, as well as asking me to write a piece on ‘A Day in the Life of a Volunteer’ in both English and Irish, had asked for a few photos of me working) and arrived at work just before seven. The girl said that she didn’t have the key to the office and I would have to wait until the Director arrived. And so I waited. And waited. At 0745 I fired off texts to Alexis and Francois asking what was going on. No answer. By nine I figured out there was something up and managed to get Alexis on the phone. He told me a) the visits had been Wednesday and Thursday (another last-minute change) b) Francois had gone off for the day and accidentally taken the only key to the office with him c) He was in the District Office and if I wanted to get some work done, the best thing was to wander over and see if I could find a home anywhere.
So over I went and camped in the big hall as usual, did some statistics, ate the rest of the curry for lunch and then went back for my English class. Amy was coming down on her motorbike from Kigeme (about an hour to an hour and a half) and figured on picking me up around four to head back up. Anyway, no one but no one was in the mood for an English class. Irène did turn up, Bellancille came and told me she was up to her ears for an important meeting the next day, Françoise was – as ever – glad of any opportunity not to come and Augustin and Odette were ensconced in her office far more interested in each other than in anything I might have to offer. Amy had actually turned up at this stage so I decided to hell with it and called it off (with special words of thanks to Irène for turning up – maybe she thinks I am more likely to marry her if she is punctual and you should have seen the glare she gave Amy when she arrived!).
We stopped by my house so Amy could see it and have a quick Cup-A-Soup (thank you Jennifer and Mammy and Máirín) and off we headed, around 1630 or so. Got through Butare and headed west for Gikongoro. After about 10k or so the bike began to feel a bit wobbly – puncture!! So I rang my moto driver Déo who was in Butare. He grabbed a mechanic and put him on the pillion and drove up to us. When the mechanic removed the tube, it was clear there was no way of repairing it, so Déo and I drove down to Butare to buy a new one. First shop was closed, the second shop was being minded by the owner’s wife who refused to sell us anything until he returned as she didn’t know what anything cost. Eventually we found a shop, got the tune and headed back. By the time the mechanic replaced the tube and reassembled the rear wheel it was getting quite dark! But thank God Déo was around (Alfred: Geddit?! Déo Gratias is his name? Subtle one that, Ruairí) or I’m not sure what we would have done!
So off we went and it was soon pitch black. Then the fog descended. Then it became clear the headlights weren’t working properly and a) would only work at all on full beams which bounced right back off the fog at us and b) every time Amy used the rear brake the headlight dimmed or went out. Also, in Rwanda, at night people walk in the middle of the road to make sure they don’t fall into the ditches (Alfred: and of course, as for Kigali ... ah well, never mind, spilt milk and all that). It was pretty hair-raising and all I had to do was sit on the back while Amy did all the hard work. Luckily, even though she hasn’t been driving a bike for long, she is a born motorcyclist and it didn’t even faze her when two policemen suddenly appeared out of the gloom and stopped us in Gikongoro!
We got to her place eventually, bought beer and stowed the bike away in the Diocesan Office and then ate and kind of collapsed! Claudine had left some of her fabulous soup and that, the beers and a quick vegetable stir-fry Amy threw together mended our tattered nerves.
SATURDAY
Saturday was a really really great day, the most positive contrast imaginable to Friday morning! We got up reasonably early, had scrambled eggs on toast (!) for breakfast and then got a bus to Butare – only had to wait a few minutes. The bus wasn’t too full at first but then stopped to pick up an entire wedding party of eleven, meaning there were 24 on the bus which is the biggest number I have ever seen. The convoyer (Alfred: think old-fashioned conductor on a Dublin bus) made a few people get off so the bridesmaids had good seats and didn’t ruin their dresses and then crammed (and I mean crammed) everyone back on. We called down to the Motel Ineza (which has been done up even more!) and checked Amy in. Meanwhile I had gone to the Post Office and found a whole PILE of stuff! My mother had sent me loads more seeds (I don’t know how much land she thinks I have: I think I’ll have to rent part of Tiga’s garden in Butare) – coriander, carrots, six kinds of peppers, parsley and I forget what else (Alfred: just so you know, he is writing this in the District Office after his English class – he’s not quite so lazy as to be unable to get up and walk the metre or so to the dresser!). There were a load of Economists and Guardian Weeklys and a book from my friend Éamon in Ireland, Half a Yellow Sun which I have been dying to read for ages (her first book Purple Hibiscus was absolutely stunning!) as well as loads of French newspaper cuttings on various Rwanda-related themes. Bonanza!
Then off to the market where Amy bought vegetables and I bought some garlic and then to the Hotel Faucon to watch Chelsea beat Aston Villa. Andy joined us for the match as did Hayley who was coming to Butare for the weekend with Amy and Heloise. Then Tiga turned up also and Tiga and Andy and I ended up getting a lift back to Gikongoro with South African John, the guy who was throwing the party and had come down to Butare to buy stuff.
I met John a few weeks ago at Tiga’s birthday party. He is an engineer who is working on a dam project here since 2008 (see picture of John in my blog entry with all the pictures of Tiga’s party, about two weeks ago). John lost both his arms in an electrocution accident when he was younger but that hasn’t stopped him! He has a nice big house in Gikongoro and this was a kind of house-warming (his housemate had moved out/been sacked and now he could actually invite people around again!). And he has a dog!!! A gorgeous dog called Shadow and – even better and I could hardly contain myself – she recently had six puppies which are at the aimlessly-stumbling-around-and-falling-asleep-on-your-foot/lap/face/whatever stage. Joe Walk had come over from Nyamasheke and Soraya had come from Gitarama so it was a really really nice evening. Beer and South African stew cooked in a poiki (not sure how to spell that – traditional cast iron pot on three legs just as you would have seen in any Irish cottage in the west of Ireland until recently and then poker until the wee hours. We were hoping that Tariq and Hassan from Matar were going to join us but they didn’t show (Tariq told me Sunday that they had a crowd of Americans eating in the restaurant and they didn’t finish until 2330!).
SUNDAY
Back down to Butare with Tiga and had breakfast in her place (actually it was Andy’s lunch left over from the previous day!). We had a long chat (mostly about politics which I feel I haven’t talked about in ages) and then I called Déo to head back to Gisagara.
As some of you may remember, the students in the local secondary school had written a play for me and today is when they were performing it! I arrived at 1430 and chatted to Enock while the kids set up. The big hall wasn’t available so all 700 students (or most of them at least) were crammed into a long classroom with noise levels that ... well, to be fair, they were actually quite quiet in the circumstances, even though it was hard for them to see or hear anything a lot of the time! I was sitting at a table at the front to the side of what I thought would be the acting and dancing area but, in fact, they performed everything in front of and TO me! I had brought my video camera and filmed everything but there is no way my modem can handle video uploads so here are a few stills to illustrate the afternoon's events (captures from video so some are a little blurred).
The items were as follows:
1. A welcoming speech by the Deputy Headmaster (actually now the Acting Headmaster as the previous headmaster vanished off to Spain to do an MA without telling anyone) and another speech by Innocent, the chairman of the English club in the school.
2. A dance routine by five traditional dancers
3. The first scene of ‘The Wages of Sin are Death’
4. A comedy sketch set in a Geography class
5. The second scene of ‘The Wages of Sin are Death’
6. A comedy sketch involving an amazing bird that can answer questions and dance.
7. The third scene of ‘The Wages of Sin are Death’
8. A male group singing ‘I Believe in Angels’
(Alfred: I just love the guy at the back with the invisible microphone!)
9. The final scene of ‘The Wages of Sin are Death’
10. A short play entitled ‘Life’ – a series of short sketches involving a happily-married couple, a boy who thinks his girlfriend is going to dump him, three female schoolfriends and another couple who may or may not have problems (I couldn’t make it out!).
11. A speech by me (not filmed, mercifully)
12. A final dance routine as a finale in which I was forced to join!!
(Alfred: Emmm, has anyone pondered the psychology of someone who actually posts photos like this of THEMSELVES for everyone to see? I mean, has the man no shame, no capability for embarrassment? Be thankful he couldn't upload the actual video of this ......)
The pictures will give some idea. The ‘Life’ play was maybe the most interesting – it is intended to be a work in progress and, after each performance, the students will be asked to give ideas on how they think the plot should develop. All of this was done in English only and was the first major production by the new English club that Enock has set up. They are now writing a new play which they hope to tour around other secondary schools in the district.
It was a really great afternoon and then the Deputy Headmaster, Enock and a few other teachers took me for drinks before I finally staggered off home!
The audience
My friend Enock who started the club.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday 16th to Wednesday 18th February 2009: Days One Hundred and Sixty Three to One Hundred and Sixty Five 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.
Nothing too special about Monday and Tuesday so – taking Alfred’s advice – I’ll spare you the unnecessary details. On the way to work on Monday morning, I had rather a surreal experience. I was passed on the road by a primary school student who had tucked under his arm what seemed to be a coloured model of the human brain. Given the lack of even the most basic resources here, I was astonished to see something so sophisticated. A closer look, however, showed it to be an old and largely deflated football that had been drawn on with markers or some such. Ah well!
Monday night I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner! Vegetable pasta sauce with penne and parmesan – chopped onions, peppers and tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic salt and two small Maggi stock cubes in water. Turned out very nice indeed (though I had forgotten what a crushing disappointment parmesan in a tube is compared to the real thing – need to put out a request for some shrink-wrapped stuff to be sent out!). All it needed to be perfect was a glass of red wine but, hey, count your blessings!
Work was quiet enough – I thought we were going to visit some schools but François isn’t feeling very well, though he is still at work. There was a team of inspectors arriving Wednesday so we are to head out with them on the day (more of that anon). Spent Monday and Tuesday finalising some drafts of training days (which may never happen but if I get the opportunity at least the stuff is prepared). Joe Walk very kindly sent me a fantastic PowerPoint he has prepared for Strategic Planning training which has all the technical French vocabulary I need. My problem is that I am unlikely to have electricity, never mind a projector, when I do the training so I need to come up with a low-tech alternative (photocopier has been out for ages now so even that isn’t necessarily an option).
On Monday I also (finally) got my cheque for RWF100,000 which I have been waiting for for ages – it’s the refund for the textbooks I bought for the District so it’s actually my own money but it’s still nice to get it. But the bureaucracy involved!! Once they found my cheque, it was attached to nine pieces of paper – Francois’s application for payment, my application, the receipt, a photocopy of the receipt countersigned by Francois and me, a letter from the Executive Secretary to the Finance Department authorising the payment, a photocopy of a letter from the Finance Department to the Executive Secretary acknowledging this, the cheque, a photocopy of the cheque and some other form detailing the payment. All of these have to be signed and stamped by the Mayor’s office and each one can only be completed once the previous one has been finalised. No wonder everything takes so long here!!
Tuesday was English examination day for my class and virtually everyone turned up. They took it really seriously and two people who were working that day had sent messages apologising and asking if they could sit it tomorrow before anyone got their results back!
WEDNESDAY
Much more interesting day! Today we are off to visit schools with the MINEDUC inspectors. So, on with the good suit (thank God I now have a belt for it – imagine my trousers falling down while inspecting a primary school class - Alfred: don’t think it couldn’t happen as followers of this blog will remember from earlier!) and the black shoes. No computer to work today as I don’t fancy lugging it around the southern Rwandan landscape so I will mark the exam papers from yesterday and also bring along some Kinyarwanda and French material in case I have time to do a bit of study.
The morning was the usual chaos of no-one really knowing who was going where. Eventually I ended up in a car with Alexis and a guy from MINEDUC called Emile – a really nice and interesting guy from whom I learned a lot and who gave me some good contact numbers in MINEDUC for people working on the new EMIS (Educational Management Information System) that is being developed. We also had a driver, thank God, because nothing I had seen so far had prepared me for the roads we were about to travel on. We were heading south-east towards the Burundi border to visit four schools (ended up only seeing three as it took so long to get there) – GS Joma, GS Mugombwa and ESI Muganza (GS is Groupe Scolaire, combined primary and lower secondary, ESI is Ecole Secondaire Inferieure, lower secondary only). We headed for Mugombwa and within half a kilometre of leaving Gisagara had hit what looked like lunar terrain but was actually a road. It took us an hour and a half to travel about 15km and when we got there (GS Mugombwa) the director wasn’t there. Mugombwa is a big primary school (1400+ students) and now has the first year of lower secondary attached (equivalent to our 1st Year), two classes of about 35. However, there is only one teacher as they are still awaiting a second one. I’m not sure how this works as the curriculum is Maths, Science (Physics, Chemistry and Biology), English, Entrepreneurship, Political Science, History, Geography, Social Studies, French and Agricultural Science (though the last two are supposed to be optional against each other so I’m not sure what they are up to here) – is the one teacher teaching all of this?
We did call back here later and found the director back from a meeting in the local sector office. He took us around the entire school. The buildings are in reasonably good condition but only have shutters for windows and, for some reason, although it was a very cloudy and dull day, the shutters were half-closed on almost every classroom, making them very dark and gloomy. We visited the P1 class – 73 children crammed into a room which was a reasonable size but had nothing like enough desks and benches, so about 15 of the children take it in turn to stand, while the rest squash into the benches available. Ages range from 6 to 13; most did have copybooks and pens, a few still using slates. The teacher took us through some English word games and songs – quite impressive really even though (like so many Rwandans) her version of the English alphabet goes .... H I J K R M N O P Q L S T U ...
The director then showed us the latrine block – seven very basic latrines (some with no doors) for 1500+ students (boys and girls together). Nearby the ground had subsided and when Alexis looked at it, he could see a hole about two foot across leading into a huge empty space, right on the route to the latrines. Apparently it has been there for a while but no-one has done anything about it! It was rather pointedly stressed to the director that this needed to be addressed immediately!
GS Joma is right on the border with Burundi – there is a vast river plain which looks extremely fertile and the river itself (whose name I forget) marks the boundary between the two countries. Joma has had some new classrooms built recently – a wonderful contrast with the usual ones (of which they have some) – big wide windows that let in loads of light, high ceilings, spacious rooms. They have four of these (and a small staff room attached) but the rest are the old-style low, small-windowed cramped rooms that you see in most places. We visited the first class (like Mugombwa, Joma is a primary school that now has two 1st Year secondary classes attached to it). As we arrived it started raining and I for the first time realised something that Bruce had written about in his blogs: all these schools have tin roofs and to save money they usually don’t build ceilings under them, so when it rains heavily it is utterly impossible to hear anything no matter how hard you might shout. So we just stood there for about twenty minutes waiting for the rain to die down.
I took the opportunity to have a chat with the class teacher. He had been about to start a Geography class when I came in (‘La Géographie’ was written on the board in large letters, even though ALL teaching at secondary level is now supposed to be in English). I asked him how the transition to teaching in English was going and he replied – much more frankly than I expected – that they were basically still teaching in French because none of the materials in English had arrived yet and there was no point in trying to teach in English without them. Again, the director was absent – this time at the sector office in Musha which is far enough away that she wasn’t going to be back that day.
Our third stop was ESI Muganza but school here finished at 1400 so everyone was gone by the time we arrived. It is a fine-looking school – the buildings are brand new (well, three years old) and I am looking forward to coming back and seeing it in operation. And then we headed back to the District Office.
But the roads! Even in a 4x4 and an experienced driver we had a few hair-raising experiences and got completely stuck at one stage on a muddy hill. We all had to get out and then the driver basically allowed the vehicle to slide backwards down the hill until it hit solid ground. Then he backed up about 100m, floored the accelerator and zoomed through the muck to the hard ground on the other side (we had all been warned to shelter behind a large tree!). Even if I were to get my own motor-bike, it’ll be a long time before I would venture out on these roads. No wonder some of these schools never get inspected!
Arrived back at the District Office to find my class anxiously awaiting their examination results. I also had Alexis and Théoneste waiting to do the actual paper. I gave them fresh ones and returned the completed papers to the others, who proceeded to form a committee and go through each and every question together making sure I had given everyone exactly the same marks for everything!! Every tiniest discrepancy was queried and clarified until they were happy that they had got what they deserved!!
Then straight home (it was 1700 by now) and I had had no lunch – I was actually quite light-headed at this stage. So a giant omelette (which actually ended up as scrambled eggs as a) it cooks faster and b) I have no way of getting an omelette out of a wok without breaking it up) and a HUGE pot of tea – there are times when only tea will do and the tea here is so good. I noticed someone has set up an ‘I love tea’ group on Facebook – I must sign up!
Quick trawl through Facebook and Gmail (more howls of anguish from students recovering from their mock exams and a few 5th Years quite happy to wait another year!) and then off to bed. Busy day, but good. Have new ideas on providing English language resources for schools (following on some ideas Bruce posted in his blog) and for IT training for District staff to make sure they are ready for MINEDUC's new EMIS system. Murabeho!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday 16th February
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.
(Alfred: health warning – this blog entry is unnecessarily detailed, usually about things that no sane person would have any interest in. I suggest just reading every third word or every second sentence – you won’t really miss anything!)
Well, well, well – it’s been an interesting few days. Thursday passed pretty uneventfully (at least, I don’t remember anything too specific). After work Enock said we’d meet for a drink because as of next week he will be teaching 1800-2000 every day bar Wednesday (English to his colleagues) so we won’t be able to meet up as often. So I went home and chopped up loads of peppers, tomatoes and onions so I could cook them quickly for a pasta sauce when I got home and then went off to meet him. We had one beer, then a second. Then Enock said he had ordered – and paid for – brochettes and chips! So I could hardly say no and waited for the brochettes. And, oh dear – it was zingalo, goat intestines (Alfred: hence Ruairí’s now having learned the phrase Sindashaka zingalo – ní theastaíonn putóga uaim!) . I managed to get through one brochette by swallowing each one whole and washing it down with beer but the last portion was too big and I tried chewing it ... well, it was one of these remove-it-from-your-mouth-while-pretending-to-cough-and-drop it -on-the-ground moments. Then I had to pretend I was full so Enock would eat the last one!
Anyway, Enock is off to Kampala Saturday so we agreed to meet up in Kigali Sunday and come back on the bus together. Off home to be confronted by the pile of tomatoes, onions and peppers. I had already cancelled my class for Friday afternoon so I could head up early to Kigali so I was planning on leaving before lunch. It was now 2030 and there was no way I was going to start cooking – so instant salad it was. Not a great idea but I hate wasting food at the best of times and certainly not here.
Off to Kigali Friday at 1200. My boss looked less than gruntled when I told him I was heading off early – he said he had wanted to sit down with me that afternoon and plan our school visits for next week. I forbore to point out that I had been asking him all week to do this (!) and said we could sort it out Monday morning. Moto to Butare, Déo parked in front of the bus so it couldn’t leave until I ran in and bought a ticket (Alfred: it wasn’t Déo – he wasn’t free and he sent someone else. Remember how you kept telling the guy you didn’t need a moto and he was trying to explain that he had been specifically sent to collect you? Remember? Sure you didn’t crack your head when you fell into the ditch ... oops, sorry, getting ahead of the story!). Got to Kigali, went to the Program Office and saw various people and .......... (hold your breath ..........) COLLECTED MY VISA!!!!!!!!!!!! I am now legally entitled to live and work in Rwanda!! Yippeee!
By now I was faint with hunger so, even though we were all meeting at Sole Luna at 1900 for Andrea’s going-away dinner I had to go grab an omelette. Steve was in the office (I was staying with him and Nidhi for the two nights) but he was heading out with some Korean guys; however Nidhi was on her way back from Byumba and said she’s meet up with me. So off to Stella 2 (opposite Stella VIP) for an omelette. Then Nidhi turned up, then Sonya suddenly appeared, then Amanda, Polly and Mike – it being Mike and Sonya’s birthdays (and Charlotte’s0 that we were to celebrate tomorrow. Mike had only been back from England for a few days. His girlfriend is pregnant with twins and was admitted to Chelsea & Westminster hospital suffering from pre-eclampsia while he was actually on the plane coming back, so he has been having a tough time.
So, off to Sole Luna for pizza and say goodbye to Andrea. I mentioned her before – she is with VSO Canada and arranges all the education placements so she knows all of us quite well even though she has never met any of us!! She is an absolutely charming person and has an equally charming boyfriend, Don, who works in construction (specialises in making banister and other such curved objects!). A really nice night and then back to Nidhi and Steve’s for the night.
Saturday morning I headed to the bank to collect a Western Union money transfer (a long and boring procedure involving two separate banks that I won’t bore you with)(Alfred: Gee, thanks). I had decided to visit the Ivuka gallery with Steve and Tina but Tina was a bit late coming into town so I decided to wander into the superstore Nakumat. This was a seriously bad idea. I had just taken out a load of cash and there is nothing I like more when bored than shop! Now, some of the things I bought were actually useful and needed; the problem is I bought so much!! Pasta, jars of garlic & chilli sauce, batteries for my guard’s radio, rice, a vegetable peeler, two soup bowls, plastic storage jars for my opened spices and herbs ... and two big sacks of green lentils and yellow split peas. Then I met Tina and Steve in the Bourbon Cafe and had an omelette for breakfast. I dropped my bag back to the house before we headed off to the gallery. And that was a great visit. Some of you will have seen the Ivuka stuff on my Facebook page or website (some examples below). Their stuff is really great – if anyone is even vaguely interested in buying any of it, just drop me an email (roheithir@gmail.com).
So, Tina went off to Novotel and Steve and I eventually got back home. I went for a beer and a read in a bar nearby, Nidhi turned up later and then we went off with Tina for a bite to eat before the party. This is when we heard that Tamsin had gone into labour back in England and Mike was en route back to England. Fingers crossed all round.
So off to the party. Tina and I stopped off to buy booze in Ndoli’s and walked the rest of the way but took a wrong turn. I rang Sonya and she explained the way but as I was walking and talking to Sonya I wasn’t really paying attention and stepped off the edge of the road into a deep ditch! Ouch!! Luckily it was just cuts bruises and I didn’t hit my head or spill the booze!! Still, it looked pretty gruesome!! When I got to the house I just washed it off but Charlotte absolutely insisted on TCP and proper plasters and boy, am I glad she did when I looked at it the following day. (Alfred: this is getting tedious, get a move on. Thank God you left out the ‘hat on the chair in the Bourbon Café' story or we’d be here forever!). OK – it was a great party, met lots of the new intake of volunteers who are a really really nice bunch of people (Amalia is an even worse Nakumat shopper than me) and also quite a few of the World Teach volunteers we met in St Paul’s (see post from way back). It was especially nice to see Andy again (Canadian from South Dakota), have time for a proper chat with Amanda, see Martine (although briefly) and so on and so forth! Then most people went off dancing but neither Steve nor I were in the mood so we walked for a bit and then flagged down a taxi. Bed at 0230 – not too bad.
Woke up at 0630 to the sound of Nidhi arriving home!! Got up at 0700, brushed my teeth and then went back to bed and read Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe which was enjoyable enough without ever quite grabbing me (which is pretty true for all his books as far as they work for me). Coffee, shower and then Steve and I decided to cut our hair with my shaver – crew cuts all round (Alfred: Aww, it was so cute, trimming each other’s fringes and necks, ask Nidhi – she’ll tell you!).
My pack was now heavier than I ever remember it being, largely because I had forgotten all the books I had taken from the resource office as well as my shopping – I was really hoping my reinforced stitching would hold out!! So Bourbon again for a drink and then off to Nidhi’s fish restaurant. I had bought two tickets for the 1830 bus figuring that would work for Enock but he texted me afterwards to say he wouldn’t be there until 2100, so that was a wasted ticket. Had a really nice fish lunch (with Steve, Nidhi, David and Jacob) and then went off to change my ticket to an earlier bus – that at least meant I would be in early enough to get a moto instead of a taxi so I saved money overall. I slept on the bus with my enormous rucksack in my lap and then Déo collected me in Butare. We set off gingerly as it was darkish, I was VERY heavy and Déo had plonked a suitcase in the handlebars as well! We got to my house and – just as I got off the bike - the straps broke on the rucksack!! Talk about good timing.
And who was standing outside my house but Enock! He had mistyped the text and had actually been in Kigali before me! He had brought me a present from Uganda – a loaf of proper Ugandan bread, which I promised to sample for breakfast. We had a quick beer (I have some Mutzig in the house, probably not a great idea) and then he headed off. Glad to get to bed that night!!
(Alfred: and that’s it for tonight. Tune in tomorrow for the young-boy-carrying-the-model-brain-to-school story, and his description of the really nice dinner he cooked for himself Monday night!!)
See http://www.ivukaarts.com/ for more details though the pictures were posted last March. See my Facebook page for two albums of pictures. Email me if you want details of how to order pictures: roheithir@gmail.com
(Alfred: health warning – this blog entry is unnecessarily detailed, usually about things that no sane person would have any interest in. I suggest just reading every third word or every second sentence – you won’t really miss anything!)
Well, well, well – it’s been an interesting few days. Thursday passed pretty uneventfully (at least, I don’t remember anything too specific). After work Enock said we’d meet for a drink because as of next week he will be teaching 1800-2000 every day bar Wednesday (English to his colleagues) so we won’t be able to meet up as often. So I went home and chopped up loads of peppers, tomatoes and onions so I could cook them quickly for a pasta sauce when I got home and then went off to meet him. We had one beer, then a second. Then Enock said he had ordered – and paid for – brochettes and chips! So I could hardly say no and waited for the brochettes. And, oh dear – it was zingalo, goat intestines (Alfred: hence Ruairí’s now having learned the phrase Sindashaka zingalo – ní theastaíonn putóga uaim!) . I managed to get through one brochette by swallowing each one whole and washing it down with beer but the last portion was too big and I tried chewing it ... well, it was one of these remove-it-from-your-mouth-while-pretending-to-cough-and-drop it -on-the-ground moments. Then I had to pretend I was full so Enock would eat the last one!
Anyway, Enock is off to Kampala Saturday so we agreed to meet up in Kigali Sunday and come back on the bus together. Off home to be confronted by the pile of tomatoes, onions and peppers. I had already cancelled my class for Friday afternoon so I could head up early to Kigali so I was planning on leaving before lunch. It was now 2030 and there was no way I was going to start cooking – so instant salad it was. Not a great idea but I hate wasting food at the best of times and certainly not here.
Off to Kigali Friday at 1200. My boss looked less than gruntled when I told him I was heading off early – he said he had wanted to sit down with me that afternoon and plan our school visits for next week. I forbore to point out that I had been asking him all week to do this (!) and said we could sort it out Monday morning. Moto to Butare, Déo parked in front of the bus so it couldn’t leave until I ran in and bought a ticket (Alfred: it wasn’t Déo – he wasn’t free and he sent someone else. Remember how you kept telling the guy you didn’t need a moto and he was trying to explain that he had been specifically sent to collect you? Remember? Sure you didn’t crack your head when you fell into the ditch ... oops, sorry, getting ahead of the story!). Got to Kigali, went to the Program Office and saw various people and .......... (hold your breath ..........) COLLECTED MY VISA!!!!!!!!!!!! I am now legally entitled to live and work in Rwanda!! Yippeee!
By now I was faint with hunger so, even though we were all meeting at Sole Luna at 1900 for Andrea’s going-away dinner I had to go grab an omelette. Steve was in the office (I was staying with him and Nidhi for the two nights) but he was heading out with some Korean guys; however Nidhi was on her way back from Byumba and said she’s meet up with me. So off to Stella 2 (opposite Stella VIP) for an omelette. Then Nidhi turned up, then Sonya suddenly appeared, then Amanda, Polly and Mike – it being Mike and Sonya’s birthdays (and Charlotte’s0 that we were to celebrate tomorrow. Mike had only been back from England for a few days. His girlfriend is pregnant with twins and was admitted to Chelsea & Westminster hospital suffering from pre-eclampsia while he was actually on the plane coming back, so he has been having a tough time.
So, off to Sole Luna for pizza and say goodbye to Andrea. I mentioned her before – she is with VSO Canada and arranges all the education placements so she knows all of us quite well even though she has never met any of us!! She is an absolutely charming person and has an equally charming boyfriend, Don, who works in construction (specialises in making banister and other such curved objects!). A really nice night and then back to Nidhi and Steve’s for the night.
Saturday morning I headed to the bank to collect a Western Union money transfer (a long and boring procedure involving two separate banks that I won’t bore you with)(Alfred: Gee, thanks). I had decided to visit the Ivuka gallery with Steve and Tina but Tina was a bit late coming into town so I decided to wander into the superstore Nakumat. This was a seriously bad idea. I had just taken out a load of cash and there is nothing I like more when bored than shop! Now, some of the things I bought were actually useful and needed; the problem is I bought so much!! Pasta, jars of garlic & chilli sauce, batteries for my guard’s radio, rice, a vegetable peeler, two soup bowls, plastic storage jars for my opened spices and herbs ... and two big sacks of green lentils and yellow split peas. Then I met Tina and Steve in the Bourbon Cafe and had an omelette for breakfast. I dropped my bag back to the house before we headed off to the gallery. And that was a great visit. Some of you will have seen the Ivuka stuff on my Facebook page or website (some examples below). Their stuff is really great – if anyone is even vaguely interested in buying any of it, just drop me an email (roheithir@gmail.com).
So, Tina went off to Novotel and Steve and I eventually got back home. I went for a beer and a read in a bar nearby, Nidhi turned up later and then we went off with Tina for a bite to eat before the party. This is when we heard that Tamsin had gone into labour back in England and Mike was en route back to England. Fingers crossed all round.
So off to the party. Tina and I stopped off to buy booze in Ndoli’s and walked the rest of the way but took a wrong turn. I rang Sonya and she explained the way but as I was walking and talking to Sonya I wasn’t really paying attention and stepped off the edge of the road into a deep ditch! Ouch!! Luckily it was just cuts bruises and I didn’t hit my head or spill the booze!! Still, it looked pretty gruesome!! When I got to the house I just washed it off but Charlotte absolutely insisted on TCP and proper plasters and boy, am I glad she did when I looked at it the following day. (Alfred: this is getting tedious, get a move on. Thank God you left out the ‘hat on the chair in the Bourbon Café' story or we’d be here forever!). OK – it was a great party, met lots of the new intake of volunteers who are a really really nice bunch of people (Amalia is an even worse Nakumat shopper than me) and also quite a few of the World Teach volunteers we met in St Paul’s (see post from way back). It was especially nice to see Andy again (Canadian from South Dakota), have time for a proper chat with Amanda, see Martine (although briefly) and so on and so forth! Then most people went off dancing but neither Steve nor I were in the mood so we walked for a bit and then flagged down a taxi. Bed at 0230 – not too bad.
Woke up at 0630 to the sound of Nidhi arriving home!! Got up at 0700, brushed my teeth and then went back to bed and read Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe which was enjoyable enough without ever quite grabbing me (which is pretty true for all his books as far as they work for me). Coffee, shower and then Steve and I decided to cut our hair with my shaver – crew cuts all round (Alfred: Aww, it was so cute, trimming each other’s fringes and necks, ask Nidhi – she’ll tell you!).
My pack was now heavier than I ever remember it being, largely because I had forgotten all the books I had taken from the resource office as well as my shopping – I was really hoping my reinforced stitching would hold out!! So Bourbon again for a drink and then off to Nidhi’s fish restaurant. I had bought two tickets for the 1830 bus figuring that would work for Enock but he texted me afterwards to say he wouldn’t be there until 2100, so that was a wasted ticket. Had a really nice fish lunch (with Steve, Nidhi, David and Jacob) and then went off to change my ticket to an earlier bus – that at least meant I would be in early enough to get a moto instead of a taxi so I saved money overall. I slept on the bus with my enormous rucksack in my lap and then Déo collected me in Butare. We set off gingerly as it was darkish, I was VERY heavy and Déo had plonked a suitcase in the handlebars as well! We got to my house and – just as I got off the bike - the straps broke on the rucksack!! Talk about good timing.
And who was standing outside my house but Enock! He had mistyped the text and had actually been in Kigali before me! He had brought me a present from Uganda – a loaf of proper Ugandan bread, which I promised to sample for breakfast. We had a quick beer (I have some Mutzig in the house, probably not a great idea) and then he headed off. Glad to get to bed that night!!
(Alfred: and that’s it for tonight. Tune in tomorrow for the young-boy-carrying-the-model-brain-to-school story, and his description of the really nice dinner he cooked for himself Monday night!!)
See http://www.ivukaarts.com/ for more details though the pictures were posted last March. See my Facebook page for two albums of pictures. Email me if you want details of how to order pictures: roheithir@gmail.com
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Wednesday 11th February 2009
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.
FOOD
Well, it was market day today and I decided to see exactly how much food I could buy there. It was a bit of a shock just how little variety there is: I bought tomatoes, green peppers and onions, could have bought a cabbage but I am off to Kigali for the weekend. I passed on intoryi which are little green aubergines and easily the most revolting food I have tasted here (Alfred: MOST revolting? Remember the cassava bread – smells of sick and tastes like wallpaper paste? Or the goats’ intestines brochettes?) – OK point taken. But they are horrible. There was also garlic (have some), sweet potatoes (see comments on intoryi) and cassava roots (not even going to go there – insanely laborious to prepare and taste horrible). There was some maize – I’ll get that next time – and the smallest potatoes I have ever seen. And that was it – no fruit that I could see, no avocadoes (they’ll be back in season here soon), no bananas for some reason. But, basically, all you get here is whatever is grown within walking distance of the village. The north and east have a much bigger variety of foodstuffs, here it is much more limited. (Alfred: he forgot the dried beans, huge piles of multicoloured beans – definitely have to try cooking them, make a chilli or something and use up some of those herbs and spices so many of you kindly sent him). The prices were very reasonable (I think) – big bunch of large onions for RWF100, three peppers for RWF100, twenty tomatoes for RWF300 (someone out there tell me if I was being ripped off). I was also looking for eggs but couldn’t find them (luckily as it turned out).
Of course I can’t cook any of this yet because I am still eating my way through the huge stir-fry I cooked for Enock (apparently he spells it with a ‘k’, not a ‘h’). Had it for lunch and finished it for dinner – and it was really good!! No way of storing food so if I cook a load of something that’s what I eat until it is finished. Going to do a pasta sauce tomorrow though eating pasta without parmesan is going to be a slightly disappointing experience (Alfred: Awwww! And no red wine either – why bother, eh?).
I went to work (more on that later), taught my English class (photocopier broken and almost everyone forgot to bring their notes so it was uphill going) and then walked back home with Enock. As we got near home, he said he had been to the market earlier and, remembering my mentioning I wanted eggs, had bought me eleven eggs as a present! Very nice of him, given that I hadn’t even fed him the other night.
Spent the morning updating various statistics – mostly staff returns from primary schools. They are grim reading – huge numbers of vacancies everywhere, leaving students sitting in their classes with no-one to teach them. In some schools teachers have been timetabled for over 40 hours of class contact per week (these being classes averaging 49 students). Normally they have a 40 hour week of which a maximum of 26-30 hours is supposed to be class contact. No wonder they are dropping out in droves. Added to that they have been told to start work earlier (0715), finish later (1645) and have had their lunch break cut to just 30 minutes which means there isn’t enough time for them to go home to eat (Alfred: you said most of this in yesterday’s post! It’s boring enough without repeating yourself all the time!)
NIGHTTIME INTRUDERS
(Alfred: teddybears don’t sleep, did you realise that? While whathisface is snoring softly away and dreaming of whatever it is he dreams of I sit there in the corner of the room on the chair I have been occupying for the last few months and I listen. I can’t really see anything because a) it’s dark (duh!) and b) he usually dumps his clothes all over me at night (just what you need, a pair of boxer shorts that have been worn all day in the African sun draped across your muzzle). And what do I listen to? Well, we have the mice and/or bats in the attic that we spoke about the other day. Then last night there was something new – definitely bigger, tramping around up there, huge bloody (Get a grip, Alfred) – OK, maybe not big but DEFINITELY a lot noisier than anything we had before. And moving faster too. Large rat? Snake? Goodness knows. His nibs actually woke up (he wasn’t sleeping with his MP3 earplugs in last night) but he just kind of grunted and rolled over and went back to sleep. Meanwhile I am left sitting there listening to a re-enactment of what sounds like The Texas Chain Saw massacre crossed with Animal Farm going on above me. And what if ‘it’ comes down? I’m not the most athletic of bears and my fur is very nibbly. I’ve seen the mice running across his bed at night and he never even budges, so I know he’ll be damn all help if anything else comes visiting.
And, by the way, any chance of getting moved around occasionally? All I know of Rwanda is what I read in this blog!! So far I have seen a hotel room in Kigali (three weeks), the inside of a suitcase (don’t even ask how long) and the bedroom in Gisagara. And I face the door which is usually closed. Occasionally Alexandre comes in and washes the floor – high point of my bloody week!! (No offence, Alexandre)
DOG! I PETTED A DOG!
If there is one thing I really miss here it’s dogs. There are actually more dogs here in Gisagara than anywhere else I have seen in Rwanda but they are still pitifully few. And they are not pets and are not used to being petted. I suspect they wouldn’t object but I also worry they might not have a clue what I am at! Plus all the warnings about rabies etc (though if they have been here for months and living in someone’s house you figure they are probably OK).
Anyway, we were in the pub the other night (Enock and I) and this dog wandered over. His name is Box and he became very friendly with Enock’s friend Kenneth while he was here. Now Kenneth has gone back to Kigali and Box misses him. So I decided that maybe Box would like to be friends with me and guess what – it seems to be working!! He hangs around the pub because his owners moved to Uganda and left him behind. Somebody must feed him as he isn’t particularly thin.
Dogs have a bad press here – they were eating the bodies in the aftermath of the genocide and virtually all of them were shot or otherwise killed and people are still very wary of them. But there must be at least a dozen of them around the village here. Looks like I ended up in the right place.
PROJECTS
Thanks for all the feedback on my project ideas. Have had lots of offers from family and students to help with the moto for Deo so that looks like it is up and running. Am also quite keen to see if I can do something on both the other ideas so I’ll keep you all posted. (Alfred: actually there were three – TABARA (single parents), Kivu Writers Workshop and Liliane Fonds!).
GUUS HIDDINK
If he gets appointed (or anyone) I think that makes our thirteenth manager in the time Alex Ferguson has been manager of Manchester United ...... (Alfred: it’s really funny, actually: apart from the last-minute equaliser against Stoke, every time he gets dressed up in his Joe Cole shirt and goes to a match, they either lose or draw to an embarrassingly weak team. Maybe he should start wearing a Man Utd shirt ...... )
PLAYTIME
The students in Enock’s school were teasing him that I don’t really exist because I he was telling them about me. So I gave Enock a big pile of Economists and Guardian Weeklys for his class. Now they have written a play for me which they are rehearsing at the moment and want to perform it for me on Sunday 22nd February! It is called ‘The Wages of Sin is Death’ (sounds exciting). I’ve never had a play written for me before so I am really looking forward to it! Enock had been thinking of getting them to write a play on HIV/AIDs but now he is talking to the District about organising a playwriting competition for all the secondary schools on the HIV/AIDS theme and having the winners tour around the different schools to perform it! He’s quite an inspirational teacher – no wonder his school has the best English results in the District. And all this on the equivalent of an ordinary level Leaving Certificate (which is all he has, which means he gets paid peanuts because your salary is mainly determined by your qualifications).
MOCKS
Meanwhile back at home my 6th Years are enduring the mocks! I’m sure they aren’t as awful as some of them have been saying (Alfred: wouldn’t bet on that ...) and at least they will be over soon. Hang in there guys!! All that hard work in 5th Year will pay off!!
FOOD
Well, it was market day today and I decided to see exactly how much food I could buy there. It was a bit of a shock just how little variety there is: I bought tomatoes, green peppers and onions, could have bought a cabbage but I am off to Kigali for the weekend. I passed on intoryi which are little green aubergines and easily the most revolting food I have tasted here (Alfred: MOST revolting? Remember the cassava bread – smells of sick and tastes like wallpaper paste? Or the goats’ intestines brochettes?) – OK point taken. But they are horrible. There was also garlic (have some), sweet potatoes (see comments on intoryi) and cassava roots (not even going to go there – insanely laborious to prepare and taste horrible). There was some maize – I’ll get that next time – and the smallest potatoes I have ever seen. And that was it – no fruit that I could see, no avocadoes (they’ll be back in season here soon), no bananas for some reason. But, basically, all you get here is whatever is grown within walking distance of the village. The north and east have a much bigger variety of foodstuffs, here it is much more limited. (Alfred: he forgot the dried beans, huge piles of multicoloured beans – definitely have to try cooking them, make a chilli or something and use up some of those herbs and spices so many of you kindly sent him). The prices were very reasonable (I think) – big bunch of large onions for RWF100, three peppers for RWF100, twenty tomatoes for RWF300 (someone out there tell me if I was being ripped off). I was also looking for eggs but couldn’t find them (luckily as it turned out).
Of course I can’t cook any of this yet because I am still eating my way through the huge stir-fry I cooked for Enock (apparently he spells it with a ‘k’, not a ‘h’). Had it for lunch and finished it for dinner – and it was really good!! No way of storing food so if I cook a load of something that’s what I eat until it is finished. Going to do a pasta sauce tomorrow though eating pasta without parmesan is going to be a slightly disappointing experience (Alfred: Awwww! And no red wine either – why bother, eh?).
I went to work (more on that later), taught my English class (photocopier broken and almost everyone forgot to bring their notes so it was uphill going) and then walked back home with Enock. As we got near home, he said he had been to the market earlier and, remembering my mentioning I wanted eggs, had bought me eleven eggs as a present! Very nice of him, given that I hadn’t even fed him the other night.
Spent the morning updating various statistics – mostly staff returns from primary schools. They are grim reading – huge numbers of vacancies everywhere, leaving students sitting in their classes with no-one to teach them. In some schools teachers have been timetabled for over 40 hours of class contact per week (these being classes averaging 49 students). Normally they have a 40 hour week of which a maximum of 26-30 hours is supposed to be class contact. No wonder they are dropping out in droves. Added to that they have been told to start work earlier (0715), finish later (1645) and have had their lunch break cut to just 30 minutes which means there isn’t enough time for them to go home to eat (Alfred: you said most of this in yesterday’s post! It’s boring enough without repeating yourself all the time!)
NIGHTTIME INTRUDERS
(Alfred: teddybears don’t sleep, did you realise that? While whathisface is snoring softly away and dreaming of whatever it is he dreams of I sit there in the corner of the room on the chair I have been occupying for the last few months and I listen. I can’t really see anything because a) it’s dark (duh!) and b) he usually dumps his clothes all over me at night (just what you need, a pair of boxer shorts that have been worn all day in the African sun draped across your muzzle). And what do I listen to? Well, we have the mice and/or bats in the attic that we spoke about the other day. Then last night there was something new – definitely bigger, tramping around up there, huge bloody (Get a grip, Alfred) – OK, maybe not big but DEFINITELY a lot noisier than anything we had before. And moving faster too. Large rat? Snake? Goodness knows. His nibs actually woke up (he wasn’t sleeping with his MP3 earplugs in last night) but he just kind of grunted and rolled over and went back to sleep. Meanwhile I am left sitting there listening to a re-enactment of what sounds like The Texas Chain Saw massacre crossed with Animal Farm going on above me. And what if ‘it’ comes down? I’m not the most athletic of bears and my fur is very nibbly. I’ve seen the mice running across his bed at night and he never even budges, so I know he’ll be damn all help if anything else comes visiting.
And, by the way, any chance of getting moved around occasionally? All I know of Rwanda is what I read in this blog!! So far I have seen a hotel room in Kigali (three weeks), the inside of a suitcase (don’t even ask how long) and the bedroom in Gisagara. And I face the door which is usually closed. Occasionally Alexandre comes in and washes the floor – high point of my bloody week!! (No offence, Alexandre)
DOG! I PETTED A DOG!
If there is one thing I really miss here it’s dogs. There are actually more dogs here in Gisagara than anywhere else I have seen in Rwanda but they are still pitifully few. And they are not pets and are not used to being petted. I suspect they wouldn’t object but I also worry they might not have a clue what I am at! Plus all the warnings about rabies etc (though if they have been here for months and living in someone’s house you figure they are probably OK).
Anyway, we were in the pub the other night (Enock and I) and this dog wandered over. His name is Box and he became very friendly with Enock’s friend Kenneth while he was here. Now Kenneth has gone back to Kigali and Box misses him. So I decided that maybe Box would like to be friends with me and guess what – it seems to be working!! He hangs around the pub because his owners moved to Uganda and left him behind. Somebody must feed him as he isn’t particularly thin.
Dogs have a bad press here – they were eating the bodies in the aftermath of the genocide and virtually all of them were shot or otherwise killed and people are still very wary of them. But there must be at least a dozen of them around the village here. Looks like I ended up in the right place.
PROJECTS
Thanks for all the feedback on my project ideas. Have had lots of offers from family and students to help with the moto for Deo so that looks like it is up and running. Am also quite keen to see if I can do something on both the other ideas so I’ll keep you all posted. (Alfred: actually there were three – TABARA (single parents), Kivu Writers Workshop and Liliane Fonds!).
GUUS HIDDINK
If he gets appointed (or anyone) I think that makes our thirteenth manager in the time Alex Ferguson has been manager of Manchester United ...... (Alfred: it’s really funny, actually: apart from the last-minute equaliser against Stoke, every time he gets dressed up in his Joe Cole shirt and goes to a match, they either lose or draw to an embarrassingly weak team. Maybe he should start wearing a Man Utd shirt ...... )
PLAYTIME
The students in Enock’s school were teasing him that I don’t really exist because I he was telling them about me. So I gave Enock a big pile of Economists and Guardian Weeklys for his class. Now they have written a play for me which they are rehearsing at the moment and want to perform it for me on Sunday 22nd February! It is called ‘The Wages of Sin is Death’ (sounds exciting). I’ve never had a play written for me before so I am really looking forward to it! Enock had been thinking of getting them to write a play on HIV/AIDs but now he is talking to the District about organising a playwriting competition for all the secondary schools on the HIV/AIDS theme and having the winners tour around the different schools to perform it! He’s quite an inspirational teacher – no wonder his school has the best English results in the District. And all this on the equivalent of an ordinary level Leaving Certificate (which is all he has, which means he gets paid peanuts because your salary is mainly determined by your qualifications).
MOCKS
Meanwhile back at home my 6th Years are enduring the mocks! I’m sure they aren’t as awful as some of them have been saying (Alfred: wouldn’t bet on that ...) and at least they will be over soon. Hang in there guys!! All that hard work in 5th Year will pay off!!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tuesday 10th February 2009
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.
(Alfred here: I know the guy drives me crazy at times but I kinda had to feel a bit sorry for him tonight. You see, he had invited his friend Enoch round for dinner – the first time he has had anyone around for dinner since he moved in. So stir-fry it was and he stopped off on the way home and got a crate of beer as well. All seemed to be going fine – Enoch reading through past copies of the Guardian Weekly and a copy of ‘In Dublin’ (goodness knows what he made of that, especially when Ruairí saw him reading the ‘interview’ with Ross O’Carrroll Kelly!) and drinking his beer, while Ruairí chopped the vegetables, put on the rice, made up the garlic chilli sauce and soy sauce mixture and so on. Large quantities of food to make sure there was enough, of course. Eventually all was ready and laid out on the table. Then Ruairí says: ‘ready to eat’? Enoch looks at him and says: ‘You want me to join you at your table? Oh no. I am not hungry. I will eat later.’
What do you do? Was it that he had smelled the food and decided that it wasn’t something he wanted? Did he feel awkward eating in someone else’s home? Or was it an Irish-type thing where you are supposed to politely refuse at first and only give in under pressure? Or was it just a matter-of-fact statement? Discretion being the better part of valour, our friend decides to take the statement at face value and bolted down the food as fast as he could (well, some of it – he is going to be eating leftover stir-fry for ages!!) because there is nothing as embarrassing as eating away while your guest sits on the other side of the room reading ... and NOT eating! )
Yes, it was rather awkward but it’s another of these cultural things you get used to, I suppose. And the bloody sauce was too salty so maybe it’s just as well he didn’t eat the food!! Don’t know what it is with that soy sauce.
Today was a bit of a waste of a day – hung around the office and then went for an English class for which virtually no-one turned up. However, I do now have a plan of action worked out: I figure that – however desirable it may be to have Francois accompany me on the inspections, his present workload means waiting for him means never getting started, so I am going to head off on my own. Bruce has been writing some really interesting things in his blog about how schools are coping (or not) with all the changes in the education system and I want to head out and see if the same is true here in my district. Tiga has also asked if I am interested in working with her on some training courses so that’s a good chance to get a bit of experience in an area I have not really done anything in before (Alfred: I’m not sure Tiga was thinking of you as someone to be trained as much as someone who would train!!)
Anyway, I have finished all the statistical work with the Primary and O-Level results (Leaving Certificate equivalent should be out any day now) so it’s time to move on to something else!! And some of the stories I have been hearing are pretty alarming! School starts earlier now but the kids don’t come because they are still doing chores at home. Teachers have found their workload massively increased and with only half an hour for lunch cannot go home to eat any more. Most schools are short teachers (and will probably shed even more with the less favourable working conditions) and there are a huge number with no principals. And that’s before we get into the whole ‘teaching through English even though the textbooks (if we are lucky enough to have any) are in French’ issue.
Otherwise life is fairly quiet and ordinary – nothing very special happening. Big party in Kigali this weekend – Mike, Charlotte and Sonya are all celebrating their birthdays together (grand total of 100 years between them!) Looking forward to that.
(Alfred: Quiet and ordinary???? What about the mice/bats? All bloody night long, this infernal squeaking from the attic just over the bedroom. It’s like some acid-laden version of Narnia – you keep on expecting Reepicheep to launch himself as your face brandishing a sword and riding a speaking bat. I mean, WHAT are they up to up there every night? The mind boggles.)
A big special thank you to all my pupils and ex-pupils who have been keeping in touch with me. A special 'hello' to Fiona Pilsworth (now Spargo) who has been fighting forest fires north of her home in Melbourne as a member of the local volunteer firefighting unit and managed to stop the flames 10km from her house!! Check out her photos on her Facebook page if you want to scare the bejaysus out of yourself!
(Alfred here: I know the guy drives me crazy at times but I kinda had to feel a bit sorry for him tonight. You see, he had invited his friend Enoch round for dinner – the first time he has had anyone around for dinner since he moved in. So stir-fry it was and he stopped off on the way home and got a crate of beer as well. All seemed to be going fine – Enoch reading through past copies of the Guardian Weekly and a copy of ‘In Dublin’ (goodness knows what he made of that, especially when Ruairí saw him reading the ‘interview’ with Ross O’Carrroll Kelly!) and drinking his beer, while Ruairí chopped the vegetables, put on the rice, made up the garlic chilli sauce and soy sauce mixture and so on. Large quantities of food to make sure there was enough, of course. Eventually all was ready and laid out on the table. Then Ruairí says: ‘ready to eat’? Enoch looks at him and says: ‘You want me to join you at your table? Oh no. I am not hungry. I will eat later.’
What do you do? Was it that he had smelled the food and decided that it wasn’t something he wanted? Did he feel awkward eating in someone else’s home? Or was it an Irish-type thing where you are supposed to politely refuse at first and only give in under pressure? Or was it just a matter-of-fact statement? Discretion being the better part of valour, our friend decides to take the statement at face value and bolted down the food as fast as he could (well, some of it – he is going to be eating leftover stir-fry for ages!!) because there is nothing as embarrassing as eating away while your guest sits on the other side of the room reading ... and NOT eating! )
Yes, it was rather awkward but it’s another of these cultural things you get used to, I suppose. And the bloody sauce was too salty so maybe it’s just as well he didn’t eat the food!! Don’t know what it is with that soy sauce.
Today was a bit of a waste of a day – hung around the office and then went for an English class for which virtually no-one turned up. However, I do now have a plan of action worked out: I figure that – however desirable it may be to have Francois accompany me on the inspections, his present workload means waiting for him means never getting started, so I am going to head off on my own. Bruce has been writing some really interesting things in his blog about how schools are coping (or not) with all the changes in the education system and I want to head out and see if the same is true here in my district. Tiga has also asked if I am interested in working with her on some training courses so that’s a good chance to get a bit of experience in an area I have not really done anything in before (Alfred: I’m not sure Tiga was thinking of you as someone to be trained as much as someone who would train!!)
Anyway, I have finished all the statistical work with the Primary and O-Level results (Leaving Certificate equivalent should be out any day now) so it’s time to move on to something else!! And some of the stories I have been hearing are pretty alarming! School starts earlier now but the kids don’t come because they are still doing chores at home. Teachers have found their workload massively increased and with only half an hour for lunch cannot go home to eat any more. Most schools are short teachers (and will probably shed even more with the less favourable working conditions) and there are a huge number with no principals. And that’s before we get into the whole ‘teaching through English even though the textbooks (if we are lucky enough to have any) are in French’ issue.
Otherwise life is fairly quiet and ordinary – nothing very special happening. Big party in Kigali this weekend – Mike, Charlotte and Sonya are all celebrating their birthdays together (grand total of 100 years between them!) Looking forward to that.
(Alfred: Quiet and ordinary???? What about the mice/bats? All bloody night long, this infernal squeaking from the attic just over the bedroom. It’s like some acid-laden version of Narnia – you keep on expecting Reepicheep to launch himself as your face brandishing a sword and riding a speaking bat. I mean, WHAT are they up to up there every night? The mind boggles.)
A big special thank you to all my pupils and ex-pupils who have been keeping in touch with me. A special 'hello' to Fiona Pilsworth (now Spargo) who has been fighting forest fires north of her home in Melbourne as a member of the local volunteer firefighting unit and managed to stop the flames 10km from her house!! Check out her photos on her Facebook page if you want to scare the bejaysus out of yourself!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Monday 9th February: Day One Hundred and Fifty Six 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.
So here I am sitting in my office on my own. Francois and I were supposed to be having a meeting to plan our inspections and other stuff but he just got a phone call to come to Butare for a MINEDUC meeting about something or other; Alexis has gone off to assist with exams in a school in the District (Alfred: exams? In February? Are you sure you heard that correctly?) so I am sitting here making up work for myself.
The last few days have been great, actually: on Friday I headed up to Kigali, met with Martine, Marion and Cathryn and headed off east to meet Marion’s American friends, Jeff and Addison. I actually wasn’t very sure where we were going - it turned out to be Kibungo, where Tina and Thom live (and now Epiphanie as well)!! Eric met us there, Tina and Thom joined us in the pub and a few other Rwandan friends of various people also turned up. Then we went back to Jeff and Addison’s place and had a really tremendous night. There were two Japanese volunteers there also – Taxi and a girl whose first name I forget (her surname is Toyota which is hard to forget).
Jeff and Addison are from Kentucky and are really interesting people to know – Jeff has worked in China, India, Lesotho and the Ukraine before coming to Rwanda. More importantly, he built his own pizza oven in his back garden (based on a traditional Brazilian design) and we dined on divine fresh-baked pizzas all night – best food I had since I got here!! Everyone had a wonderful time!
Next morning I headed up to Tina’s and hung around with her for a bit to see her place about which I had heard so much (Alfred: no sign of the famous rat but I’m sure he was there somewhere). We ran into a Canadian volunteer called Andy who remembered seeing me in Kigali at the St Paul guesthouse. He is working in the secondary school is Rusumo south of Kibungo and not far from Sonya and Joe. Then I decided to get all the travelling over with quickly: Kibungo – Kigali (2½ hours) and Kigali-Butare (2¼ hours). Got to Butare in time (unfortunately) to see the second half of Chelsea-Hull City and then stayed over with Jane.
Sunday I called over to Tiga’s and had a long chat with the new Education Management volunteer for the Anglican diocese, Gerrit. Then shopping (sardines, matches, candles, eggs, onions, peppers, carrots, batteries and bread) and home with Deo.
BOOKS
Have been doing a lot of reading again recently. Finally managed to read Donna Tartt The Secret History: this was my third or fourth attempt to get into it and this time successfully – a great read! Also finished the Philip Gourevitch book We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families which was also excellent and very interesting for seeing his vision of Rwanda in 1998/1999 and how he thought things might pan out in the future (it has turned out rather better than he did expect!). Kurt Vonnegut Galapagos I can’t recommend I’m afraid – it was OK but a one-message book that got a bit tiresome. Various Kellermann and PD James whose titles never stay in the memory. William Boyd’s Brazzaville Beach was a fantastic read, strongly recommended. Another book on African history called The Graves Are Not Yet Full looking at how evil manifests itself in Africa and focussing on Liberia, Sudan, South Africa, Rwanda, DCR Congo and Uganda which was so-so. And finally Blood River by Timothy Butcher (which I read cover-to-cover on my Kibungo-Kigali-Butare bus trip), a description of Butcher’s retracing of Stanley’s exploration of the Congo River which was pretty hair-raising at times and recommended reading (and this from someone who usually hates travel books). All of the above (apart from Blood River) are available in the VSO Resource Room in Kigali in case you are reading this in Rwanda!
BAD NEWS
The one disappointing thing about the weekend was when I visited the Program office on Friday. I mentioned before that VSO were hoping to send a Primary Methodology trainer to join me in April. Well, she has decided not to take up the placement, which is really sad as I was really looking forward to having a colleague to work with here. Ah well ...
FOOD!
Ah yes! Eggs, coffee, stir-fry, soup – real food at last. Managed to spill kerosene all over the kitchen floor while trying to decant it into smaller bottles but now have a fabulously clean kitchen floor as a result! Finally getting to use the herbs and spices so many of you kindly sent me!!
MTN – WORLD’S WORST INTERNET PROVIDER??
As I type this (in Word) I have been checking the internet connection on and off for the last two hours. The modem is connected, the signal strength is between 60-75% (which is fine) but there is absolutely no traffic whatsoever. Last night it worked for about half an hour at a rate of 1kps or less before giving up the ghost entirely. And for this MTN charge RWF20,000 per month (c.€30) out of my salary of RWF150,000 (c.€220). Come on Rwandatel (new competitors) – get in there and do something!
UNEXPECTED VISITOR!
Well, well, well! Gerrit suddenly turned up in my office today with his Director of Education Valentin. They were hoping to see my director and chargé (who are both gone for the day). (Alfred: turns out Alexis is doing interviews for principalships, not exams – the word ‘examen’ means both). This is the very first person who has ever come to this office to see ME! Good omen, I hope!
SONG OF THE WEEK
There is no better thing here than visiting old friends and meeting new ones. I’ve met loads of really nice people in the last three days – some old friends (‘old’ even though I have only known them a few months!) and new ones like Gerrit, Tina, Jeff, Andy, Addison, Streton, Camilla, Kristen and goodness knows how many others. So this week’s song is an old ABBA favourite, Knowing Me, Knowing You!!!
KEROSENE LAMP
The inside of my kerosene keeps on getting really black and sooty very quickly – anyone know why???
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Thursday 5th February: Day One Hundred and Fifty Two in Rwanda (I think)
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.
That Day Whatever thing is getting a bit creepy so I think I'll forego it. It's not like I'm doing a day-by-day any more anyway.
EDUCATION REFORMS HIT A SNAG
If you have been following my accounts of the Rwandan government's education reforms (Alfred: And let's face it, who hasn't?) I had some interesting conversations today about how they are going. The government extended basic primary education from six to nine years and set up special new schools to cater for these new levels. And what has happened? Well, they are still advertising for teachers and - especially - for Principals for these new schools (the ads for Principals went up yesterday). Meanwhile, the schools opened a week ago: the students turn up each day, sit in their classes hoping a teacher may turn up and eventually slink off home hoping tomorrow may turn out better. Depressing, eh?
BUSY DAYS
It's so nice to be busy again! Mind you, today was just a little TOO busy for my liking. The problem with making yourself out to be good at something is that people who are useless at it presume you are actually capable of actual miracles. Today, Francois asked me to update the results data for 65 primary schools and analyse the results for printing off for the school principals who were filing into the room as we spoke. More fool me for doing it, I suppose, but, boy was I knackered by the end. I had forgotten how good that feels, mind you!! (Alfred: Is that the saddest comment yet? It is certainly in the running).
Kerosene stove working means more time for cooking! Savoury rice today, crepe suzette tomorrow!
Back at home my students are sitting their mocks (Alfred: though some of them seem to be spending a suspicious amount of time on Facebook!!!) - best of luck guys, there with you in spirit!
And what else? I'm heading off to somewhere in the east for the weekend (I am in Marion's hands - there's a scary thought!!) .
SONG OF THE DAY
The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum (by Collide or Fun Boy Three - take your pick)
Ah, who needs lyrics (Alfred: the lyrics are actually pretty crap - it's the title and the chorus that says it all).
JANE DAWSON-HOWE and SUSAN CONNOLLY
Happy Birthday Jane and congratulations on your engagement Susan. Greetings a;so to all those people who constantly send me messages, parcels and so on (plus my star letter writer from Dalkey!!) I know I am absolutely useless at putting pen to paper so please accept this electronic acknowledgement of your kind efforts!!
That Day Whatever thing is getting a bit creepy so I think I'll forego it. It's not like I'm doing a day-by-day any more anyway.
EDUCATION REFORMS HIT A SNAG
If you have been following my accounts of the Rwandan government's education reforms (Alfred: And let's face it, who hasn't?) I had some interesting conversations today about how they are going. The government extended basic primary education from six to nine years and set up special new schools to cater for these new levels. And what has happened? Well, they are still advertising for teachers and - especially - for Principals for these new schools (the ads for Principals went up yesterday). Meanwhile, the schools opened a week ago: the students turn up each day, sit in their classes hoping a teacher may turn up and eventually slink off home hoping tomorrow may turn out better. Depressing, eh?
BUSY DAYS
It's so nice to be busy again! Mind you, today was just a little TOO busy for my liking. The problem with making yourself out to be good at something is that people who are useless at it presume you are actually capable of actual miracles. Today, Francois asked me to update the results data for 65 primary schools and analyse the results for printing off for the school principals who were filing into the room as we spoke. More fool me for doing it, I suppose, but, boy was I knackered by the end. I had forgotten how good that feels, mind you!! (Alfred: Is that the saddest comment yet? It is certainly in the running).
Kerosene stove working means more time for cooking! Savoury rice today, crepe suzette tomorrow!
Back at home my students are sitting their mocks (Alfred: though some of them seem to be spending a suspicious amount of time on Facebook!!!) - best of luck guys, there with you in spirit!
And what else? I'm heading off to somewhere in the east for the weekend (I am in Marion's hands - there's a scary thought!!) .
SONG OF THE DAY
The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum (by Collide or Fun Boy Three - take your pick)
Ah, who needs lyrics (Alfred: the lyrics are actually pretty crap - it's the title and the chorus that says it all).
JANE DAWSON-HOWE and SUSAN CONNOLLY
Happy Birthday Jane and congratulations on your engagement Susan. Greetings a;so to all those people who constantly send me messages, parcels and so on (plus my star letter writer from Dalkey!!) I know I am absolutely useless at putting pen to paper so please accept this electronic acknowledgement of your kind efforts!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Joe and Tiga's Birthday Party!!!!
General crowd scene (like you couldn't tell)
Andy and Tina
Jane, Andy and Els
Eh ..... the cake!
And LOADS and LOADS of other people - might get around to identifying them later!!
Suleiman wearing a typically understated shirt
Matar at its best!!
Nidhi, John and Hayley
The birthday pair!! Joe and Tiga!
General crowd scene (like you couldn't tell)
Andy and Tina
Jane, Andy and Els
Eh ..... the cake!
And LOADS and LOADS of other people - might get around to identifying them later!!
Suleiman wearing a typically understated shirt
Matar at its best!!
Nidhi, John and Hayley
Woops - seems to be a technical error here!
Ah! That's more like it!
The birthday pair!! Joe and Tiga!
Eric, Amy and unidentified friends
Wednesday 4th February
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.
POSTS AND PROJECTS
OK – not sure what happened with the last two posts. I hadn’t realised I was posting essentially the same thing twice but – as the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed – there is a chunk missing from the first post, part of the section on the Kivu Writers’ Workshop but it is all there in the second post, which is a copy of the email I sent out to just about everyone on my mailing list and includes the text of the first post).
Two more things: I have had quite a few responses from friends and family and students on the moto driver (in particular) and the single-parents organisation. The Kivu Writers didn’t seem as attractive, though my sabotaging the entry in the blog probably didn’t help!! I am also looking at the work of the Liliane Fonds organisation which assists disabled and handicapped children with small grants for small but vital things – crutches, calipers, wheelchair repairs, whatever they need to enable them to get out of the house and, in particular, to get to school. They do a lot with small amounts of money and every cent they spend goes straight to a specific individual to solve a specific problem. More details on www.lilianefonds.nl
GENERATOR SAGA
Alfred: Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!! This one is so funny I’m glad I’m a stuffed teddy bear – otherwise I would have either broken a bone or wet myself laughing at the latest story. Remember the generator saga – the shop that sold him the contaminated petrol, some of which he kindly gave to his moto driver and thereby screwed up both the generator and the motorbike? Then he was wondering how he was going to go back to the shop and get them to either refund him or replace the petrol?
Well, it wasn’t petrol at all, it was kerosene. The word for ‘kerosene’ in Kinyarwanda is ipetroli and the woman in the shop, hearing Ruairí talking in English about petrol to Enoch, was reassured that she was selling the right thing. This shop only sells kerosene – and everyone in the village knows this. There is another shop that sells petrol and that is the only thing THEY sell! When told Ruairí had poured kerosene into both a generator and a motorbike she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!
Anyway, upshot of the matter is that, having got Alexandre to lug the 16 litres of what we now know is kerosene all the way to the shop, he then lugged it all the way back, as kerosene is just fine for the stove and lamp; we just need to find another jerrycan to buy petrol in! And maybe he will finally start using his kerosene stove!
TIGA and JOE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY ... AND THE MATCH!
Well, we had a ball. For Tiga and Joe’s birthday on Saturday we had hired out the restaurant section of the Matar supermarket (Alfred: ‘restaurant section’ - that’s putting it a bit grandly!) We had about thirty people there in all and it was great fun! There was also a fabulous cake, hats and streamers and posters, food and beer, and just a load of fun basically! Afterwards most went off dancing but I’m afraid I took to my bed – chest infection has still not cleared up. The following day – Sunday – was February 1st which is a national holiday here, so there were some indications that – as at home – the day off would be transferred to the following day. Therefore I decided to stay over and watch the Chelsea-Liverpool match. I also visited Tiga’s new house which is really nice and has a fabulous garden. We had lunch in the Chineese Restaurant (which is closer to Tiga’s than the Chinese Restaurant) and then headed off to watch Chelsea-Liverpool at 1800. Disaster – the TV company GTV, which handles premiership football for this area of Africa, had gone into receivership! However, somehow or other, they managed to hack in to some French-language sports channel that was showing it and I got so see from about the 25th minute onwards. Given the eventual result I now have mixed feelings!! We are not having much luck with referees this season, are we (Alfred: you’re not having much luck at playing well either – that might help even more!).
WORK-RELATED ISSUES
Work continues to be busy. The Health Unit asked me to help them by translating French resumes of their research into English, which was fine (with a little help from my mother). Otherwise it has been exam results all day every day. Amazing discrepancies between school – ranging from 100% pass to 99% failure rates. There is an inbuilt bias in the marking system in favour of female candidates: to get from lower secondary to higher secondary boys have to achieve a considerably higher mark than girls; the same applies at the primary school terminal exam, though this is about to become redundant as – in theory – all students now progress to lower secondary level.
It is also interesting that they use a system where the lower the mark the better. At primary level they are tested in three subjects, Mathematics, Sciences and Languages. The best overall mark is three, grade 1 in each subject. The worst is 27, a grade 9 in each subject.
Next week I should start doing my school visits/inspections - still trying to pin Francois down on specific days and times. He is keen to do the visits/inspedctions with me which is great, if it does happen. There is no point my doing inspections unless I get a chance to pass on something to whoever will be doing it when I am gone. Meanwhile the English classes continue: I can’t say I am a born English language teacher but – to be brutally frank – the bar is set so low they seem to be pleased with pretty much anything I do! It would help if the same people actually turned up for two consecutive classes!!
FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK
Alfred: this is MY idea to try and liven things up a bit – get him to pick a song that captures the sense of the moment (no Céline Dion allowed, obviously). This week’s offering is from LOVE IS IN THE AIR by John Paul Young.
Love is in the air, everywhere I look around.
Love is in the air, every sight and every sound.
And I don’t know if I’m being foolish,
I don’t know if I’m being wise
But it’s something that I must believe in
And it’s there when I look in your eyes.
Love is in the air, in the whisper of the tree
Love is in the air, in the thunder of the sea
And I don’t know if I’m just dreaming,
Don’t know if I feel safe
But it’s something that I must believe in
And it’s there when you call out my name.
And it is ABSOLUTELY POURING DOWN AT THE MOMENT! (Rain, that is; maybe love also for all I know). A solid sheet of rain has obliterated the view from the window. Getting home is going to be an interesting experience So this is what the wet season is like – I thought it was pretty tame so far ............
Later .....
When I got home the porch of my house was absolutely jammed packed with people sheltering from the rain - had to elbow my way through and then squash a few people as I opened the door. Will change into my wellies and poncho for the trip to the District Office. Can't imagine what it will be like trying to visit schools in this weather, especially if I have to go on the back of Francois' moto - he isn't the best of drivers at the best of times!!
POSTS AND PROJECTS
OK – not sure what happened with the last two posts. I hadn’t realised I was posting essentially the same thing twice but – as the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed – there is a chunk missing from the first post, part of the section on the Kivu Writers’ Workshop but it is all there in the second post, which is a copy of the email I sent out to just about everyone on my mailing list and includes the text of the first post).
Two more things: I have had quite a few responses from friends and family and students on the moto driver (in particular) and the single-parents organisation. The Kivu Writers didn’t seem as attractive, though my sabotaging the entry in the blog probably didn’t help!! I am also looking at the work of the Liliane Fonds organisation which assists disabled and handicapped children with small grants for small but vital things – crutches, calipers, wheelchair repairs, whatever they need to enable them to get out of the house and, in particular, to get to school. They do a lot with small amounts of money and every cent they spend goes straight to a specific individual to solve a specific problem. More details on www.lilianefonds.nl
GENERATOR SAGA
Alfred: Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!! This one is so funny I’m glad I’m a stuffed teddy bear – otherwise I would have either broken a bone or wet myself laughing at the latest story. Remember the generator saga – the shop that sold him the contaminated petrol, some of which he kindly gave to his moto driver and thereby screwed up both the generator and the motorbike? Then he was wondering how he was going to go back to the shop and get them to either refund him or replace the petrol?
Well, it wasn’t petrol at all, it was kerosene. The word for ‘kerosene’ in Kinyarwanda is ipetroli and the woman in the shop, hearing Ruairí talking in English about petrol to Enoch, was reassured that she was selling the right thing. This shop only sells kerosene – and everyone in the village knows this. There is another shop that sells petrol and that is the only thing THEY sell! When told Ruairí had poured kerosene into both a generator and a motorbike she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!
Anyway, upshot of the matter is that, having got Alexandre to lug the 16 litres of what we now know is kerosene all the way to the shop, he then lugged it all the way back, as kerosene is just fine for the stove and lamp; we just need to find another jerrycan to buy petrol in! And maybe he will finally start using his kerosene stove!
TIGA and JOE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY ... AND THE MATCH!
Well, we had a ball. For Tiga and Joe’s birthday on Saturday we had hired out the restaurant section of the Matar supermarket (Alfred: ‘restaurant section’ - that’s putting it a bit grandly!) We had about thirty people there in all and it was great fun! There was also a fabulous cake, hats and streamers and posters, food and beer, and just a load of fun basically! Afterwards most went off dancing but I’m afraid I took to my bed – chest infection has still not cleared up. The following day – Sunday – was February 1st which is a national holiday here, so there were some indications that – as at home – the day off would be transferred to the following day. Therefore I decided to stay over and watch the Chelsea-Liverpool match. I also visited Tiga’s new house which is really nice and has a fabulous garden. We had lunch in the Chineese Restaurant (which is closer to Tiga’s than the Chinese Restaurant) and then headed off to watch Chelsea-Liverpool at 1800. Disaster – the TV company GTV, which handles premiership football for this area of Africa, had gone into receivership! However, somehow or other, they managed to hack in to some French-language sports channel that was showing it and I got so see from about the 25th minute onwards. Given the eventual result I now have mixed feelings!! We are not having much luck with referees this season, are we (Alfred: you’re not having much luck at playing well either – that might help even more!).
WORK-RELATED ISSUES
Work continues to be busy. The Health Unit asked me to help them by translating French resumes of their research into English, which was fine (with a little help from my mother). Otherwise it has been exam results all day every day. Amazing discrepancies between school – ranging from 100% pass to 99% failure rates. There is an inbuilt bias in the marking system in favour of female candidates: to get from lower secondary to higher secondary boys have to achieve a considerably higher mark than girls; the same applies at the primary school terminal exam, though this is about to become redundant as – in theory – all students now progress to lower secondary level.
It is also interesting that they use a system where the lower the mark the better. At primary level they are tested in three subjects, Mathematics, Sciences and Languages. The best overall mark is three, grade 1 in each subject. The worst is 27, a grade 9 in each subject.
Next week I should start doing my school visits/inspections - still trying to pin Francois down on specific days and times. He is keen to do the visits/inspedctions with me which is great, if it does happen. There is no point my doing inspections unless I get a chance to pass on something to whoever will be doing it when I am gone. Meanwhile the English classes continue: I can’t say I am a born English language teacher but – to be brutally frank – the bar is set so low they seem to be pleased with pretty much anything I do! It would help if the same people actually turned up for two consecutive classes!!
FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK
Alfred: this is MY idea to try and liven things up a bit – get him to pick a song that captures the sense of the moment (no Céline Dion allowed, obviously). This week’s offering is from LOVE IS IN THE AIR by John Paul Young.
Love is in the air, everywhere I look around.
Love is in the air, every sight and every sound.
And I don’t know if I’m being foolish,
I don’t know if I’m being wise
But it’s something that I must believe in
And it’s there when I look in your eyes.
Love is in the air, in the whisper of the tree
Love is in the air, in the thunder of the sea
And I don’t know if I’m just dreaming,
Don’t know if I feel safe
But it’s something that I must believe in
And it’s there when you call out my name.
And it is ABSOLUTELY POURING DOWN AT THE MOMENT! (Rain, that is; maybe love also for all I know). A solid sheet of rain has obliterated the view from the window. Getting home is going to be an interesting experience So this is what the wet season is like – I thought it was pretty tame so far ............
Later .....
When I got home the porch of my house was absolutely jammed packed with people sheltering from the rain - had to elbow my way through and then squash a few people as I opened the door. Will change into my wellies and poncho for the trip to the District Office. Can't imagine what it will be like trying to visit schools in this weather, especially if I have to go on the back of Francois' moto - he isn't the best of drivers at the best of times!!
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