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.
I started to do a day-by-day but it has been so long and some of the days were sooooooo boring I can’t bear to inflict it on myself, let alone you guys. So here are the edited highlights by category.
WORK
Work is really awful at the moment and has been getting me down somewhat. Part of it is my own fault because, now that the opportunities are there to actually do something I am finding it incredibly difficult to actually get myself off my ass and start working properly. Then when I do manage to do so, everything I tried to do went pear shaped. First of all I worked out a really good schedule to cover all the schools in my sector in two weeks, eight schools, one school a day Mon-Fri each week, to be followed by training sessions with the eight directors. Then VSO rang to say MINEDUC were looking for ten volunteers to work on a survey of secondary schools around Rwanda to assess teachers’ levels of English, information that would be used to develop a training course for them. This sounded like too good a chance to miss so I reluctantly cancelled the arrangements I had made to visit the schools. Two days later MINEDUC postponed the work to late April. When I recontacted the schools to rearrange the visits I was a week further down the term and found out they were going to be doing exams for the last two weeks of term and didn’t really want to be inspected (not to mention there not being any classes for me to observe). So now I am trying to find some of the new Tronc Commun schools to visit because they may not (‘may’ not) be having exams but no-one seems to want to answer their phones and some of the phone numbers I’ve been given are obviously wrong (or else they have employed school directors who speak neither French nor English) and I am seriously worried that I am going to hurl my phone through the window soon so I thought I’d update my blog instead. On my own in the office today which is nice actually – I am actually getting to talk to people and feel a little bit useful, even if it is only to tell people who walked for three hours to get here that the two people they need have gone away for the day.
FOOD
Cabbage is a very under-rated vegetable. It stir-frys really well and lasts far longer than I expected even after you have started chopping off a quarter at a time to use. A quarter of a cabbage makes a LOT of stirfry mind you! Bought satay sauce in Kigali for a change, and some crunchy peanut butter. Most people here like the real authentic Rwandan peanut butter but it’s too authentic for me. It’s like the time my sister drove me down to Devon to taste real cider, because I am very fond of cider, and I thought it was horrible!!! Give me the synthetic artificially coloured version every time! I also got a big bag of Tesco apricots in the post from my mother (as well as another consignment of cup-a-soups) and am frantically trying to prevent myself devouring the whole bag in one go (I do love apricots!). Finally, I invested in a large bag of chickpeas, which promptly burst in my rucksack so I’ll be finding them for months probably!
BUTARE and GAHINI
I went into Butare on Friday 13th to stay with Jane overnight before heading on to Gahini for Bruce’s party – I went to the bank first and it was PACKED, I mean absolutely jammed to the doors. Apparently that day was the last day to pay your taxes and of course everyone had decided to wait until the last day. They had actually opened up one till just for people who were not paying taxes so I escaped after only an hour and a half – goodness knows what time the staff got home! Then Jane asked me to pick up some beer in the Faucon to bring to her place where I was eating with her and her new driver Thierry. I swear to God and all the lesser deities up there, solving the Middle East problem would be easier than trying to buy bottles of beer here. It took forty minutes and I had to leave a deposit per bottle of RWF1000 (€1.40) even though the beer in each bottle only cost RWF800 (€1.10).
Anyway, Jane hasn’t been feeling well so VSO have assigned her a car and driver for the time being. Thierry seems very nice though not the chattiest in the world and another of these who insists on speaking English even though his French is far better. Nice evening and it was nice to see Jane after missing each other a few times.
Off to Kigali in the morning, earlyish, a journey enlivened by sitting beside Harerimana Jean Bosco, an English teacher from Butare who works in a private school there but had had some previous VSO training some years ago. We had an interesting talk about teaching methodology and language in Rwanda in general. I’ve had really good luck recently in the people beside me on buses – hope it lasts!
When I got to Kigali I went into the Atraco office to get a ticket for Gahini. It wasn’t hard – as soon as I walked up to the counter, the man said: ’A ticket for Gahini, I presume?’. Apparently I was the eighth or ninth that morning. And sure enough, there were Tina and Kristy and Mike and Berthe and various others all there. Got to Gahini only to find they weren’t showing the Liverpool-Manchester United match so I hopped on a bus back to Kayonza. Now this was an experience I will remember for a long time. In Kayonza I had seen a sign saying ‘live football’ and presumed it was a pub. No – it was a room, maybe four metres by five metres with benches and a TV and there were 137 people crammed in (I counted). Instead of a door there was a Backstreet Boys bed sheet to block out the light. Fantastic match though I got a fierce lot of slagging for being in a Chelsea shirt at a Liverpool-Man Utd game!!
The party itself was great fun (see pictures in previous blog) and a huge crowd had come. Unfortunately one of my friends got taken ill later and I spent the night with her in Gahini hospital but she was fine by the next day.
So Sunday was a rather sleepy affair. We arrived back down to the Seeds of Peace guesthouse (my bed still unslept in) to the most disorganised breakfast one could imagine! They knew they were having loads of people to stay but no one had thought to get any extra eggs or bread or anything! Anyway, I headed off on a bike to Kayonza as I had to do a radio interview in Kigali about the St Patrick’s Day Ball. On the way I decided to see how far I could get only speaking Kinyarwandan and did very well thank you – bought all the tickets, went shopping and said ‘Hi’ to a few people. Not exactly advanced level but I was still very pleased with myself. And again I struck it lucky on the bus: sat beside an electrical technician called (again) Jean Bosco and we talked for 90 minutes solid in French about the economic and political situation in Rwanda. It was particularly good because my French, having improved enormously (Alfred: steady on there, choose your adverbs carefully) is now deteriorating because everyone wants to speak English all the time.
The radio interview was a bit of a waste of time: the two guys were really only interested in getting me to buy radio advertising space from them and stuck me with their bill for two cappuccinos at Bourbon but what the hell: it was the absolutely first thing whatsoever I had been able to do as a so-called member of the St Patrick’s Day committee! Then last bus to Butare and collapsed in the door on Andy who was still up thank God! Slept very well that night and even remembered to text Francois to tell him I wouldn’t be at the meeting Monday morning.
St PATRICK’S DAY – OFFICIAL
It rained. Rained and rained and rained and rained; then when it got tired of raining, it kept on raining anyway because it had run out of alternative ideas. So, couldn’t even struggle to the pub for a beer. Thought of trying to make hot whiskey out of Mango vodka and cloves but luckily didn’t try – my experiments with waragi have not been a howling success so far. The next evening Enock and I did go for a drink to celebrate. The pub was out of Primus so I had to have Mutzig. Then an amazing thunderstorm swept down and buried us, so we ended up in the pub a much longer time than expected and drank three Mutzigs each.
(Alfred: For those of you reading this who haven’t been/aren’t in Rwanda, Mutzig is a lot stronger than Primus: drinking three 65cl bottles of it the night before you have to get up for work the next morning is NOT a good idea! Not for Ruairí anyway it isn’t/wasn’t!)
St PATRICK’S DAY – KIGALI VERSION
Oh yes, this was fun! I cannot find the words to congratulate the committee who organised this event, a howling success enjoyed by absolutely everyone who was present (see pictures). 400 guests, fantastic food, a free bar with Black Velvet, free wine on the tables, great music from an Irish band called Riff Raff based in Galway and tons of Irish people from Rwanda, Uganda and further afield. Made lots of new friends, especially Jane, Micheál and Douglas and got to see some more of the new volunteers of whom I have not seen as much as I would like (though I still haven’t had a proper conversation with Moira since she arrived – note the cute waragi-picture of her on the night!). I also got to meet and chat to Malcolm Quigley, head of VSO Ireland, who was visiting! The pictures will say more than I could! I was on the door for much of the night but eventually we left it to the Serena Hotel security and headed upstairs (Alfred: ‘Much’? ‘We’? ‘WE’? Paul Stewart was actually on the door the whole time. You were wandering around upstairs wondering where you were supposed to be and by the time you figured out where the door WAS Paul had already processed half the guests!! Your main contribution of the evening was bringing jokes to the MC in case he needed them!). Well, OK, I wasn’t exactly overstretched!
I also got to meet my ex-pupil and now Irish ambassador’s wife, Pamela Uwakwe and her three kids. Unfortunately I never caught up with her later as (contrary to what Alfred says) I was actually rushing around an awful lot and by the time I found the ambassador’s table again she had gone. Still, I’ll catch her again in Kampala and tell her all the stories about Nurse Anderson, Miss Green and other teachers she remembers from her Rathdown days!!
The party ended around three and Steve and I headed off back to his place! Great night, best in a long time. Well done Kieron, Mory, Paul, Jane, Rowan (who was sick on the night, worse luck), Cathryn, Paula, Sonya and all the others involved (Alfred: and if he left out names, I apologise on his behalf, but it’s because he never actually GOT to a single committee meeting and doesn’t really know who is ON the committee!)
RUGBY FABULOUSNESS!!!!!
The next day I shopped in Nakumat for a new rucksack, and then headed off to the Serena hoping to catch up with Kevin and Pamela but no joy. I hung around for a few hours reading the book Andy lent me (Anthony Seldon’s amazing biography of Tony Blair, haven’t enjoyed a book so much in ages), then went trawling around shops and various backstreets. It was really fun, the first time I have ever really just strolled around Kigali because I am usually there doing stuff.
So, the big question was – where can we see the rugby? This was the only reason I was staying up in Kigali as I figured my chances were considerably better there than in Butare. Also, I was hoping to watch it with more Irish people if possible. Jane Baxter, the Deputy Head of Mission in the British Embassy had very kindly offered to make her place available but as our numbers swelled some of us felt a bit uneasy about imposing on someone like that so we thought of going to a pub instead.
Initial inquiries revealed that the kick-off coincided with the Arsenal-Newcastle match and in a country where Arsenal are worshipped and no-one knows what rugby is (Alfred: that’s not fair: Rwanda actually have a good women’s rugby team) that put the kibosh on our chances of finding a pub. So we all landed in on Jane. Jane has a really beautiful house not far from Novotel – huge big place and she had laid on what has to be the most impressive hospitality I’ve seen since I got here: giant pizzas, oceans of beer and wine (including – and this is the epitome of luxury here – chilled white wine!), fresh popcorn and a giant TV screen. You don’t need me to tell you about the match but there were about fifteen or more of us there: one Englishwoman supporting Wales, two rather bemused Rwandans who couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on, one guy whose name I forget who was either Dutch or German (and I’m guessing from the accent) who I don’t think had ever seen rugby before but got quite enthusiastic about it and about twelve Irish supporters (not all of whom were actually Irish it has to be said) alternating between joy and potential despair right up until the final whistle. It was a really fantastic night, couldn’t have been in a better place or in better company to watch it! And Micheál gave me a lift home too – perfect!!
I was a bit shell-shocked the next morning. Chatted to Steve and Nidhi a bit, having availed shamelessly of their hospitality yet again and then went off to meet Tina and Austin in the Bourbon Cafe. Austin is Tina’s boyfriend/partner and has arrived over for a holiday: I’ve emailed him but never met him before so it was great to finally see him in the flesh. We had a great chat, including an interesting discussion on the British Army’s role in Northern Ireland and how that knowledge was or wasn’t useful in the Iraqi conflict. Then I met with Amy and we chatted about our plans for Uganda for a bit before heading off to catch our respective buses. I went Atraco this time: cheaper (RWF1500 instead of RWF1800) but for a reason: uncomfortable bus and frequent pauses to look for passengers, but it wasn’t full so I had plenty of space to sprawl out. Popped in to see Tiga and Andy for a few minutes and then off home with my moto driver Déo (who went visibly pale when he saw the size of my new rucksack).
MONDAY MORNING MEETING
Every Monday there is a meeting that lasts one to two hours for all District staff. In it we read out the minutes from last week, report on whether we actually did what we had said we were going to do and outline what our departments are going to do in the next week. Despite being in Kinyarwandan (mostly) they are interesting and I have learned a lot about what is going on in the District.
Today was a particularly interesting meeting so I thought I would give you a résumé of the high points:
a) The scheme for giving cows to poor people and families has run into difficulties. Too many of them have never owned cows and have no idea what to do with them or lack any areas for grazing or shelter. Scheme is to be put on hold, department to talk to those who got cows and did well with them for advice on how to train others.
b) No-one seems to have planted any cassava this year. There was tons last year but a major shortage this year. Speculation: was there so much it was hard to sell so people planted other stuff this year? Agriculture Dept to report next Monday.
c) Family Planning campaign: complaints (from men) that the campaign is really only targeting women and that men need to be made aware of their responsibilities in this area. Concern from some staff that it was fear of a reaction from the Catholic Church that was inhibiting the District from doing this (I presume they are talking about using condoms though how 90% of the men in this district could possibly afford condoms I don’t know, even if they could be persuaded to use them).
d) The law currently on the statute books saying that land left unused for three years can be seized by the district and reallocated is to be rigorously enforced from now on.
e) Nadine (District worker) is sick and the only available medical treatment is in Nairobi. District is to look at ways to gather the money to pay the costs, we may all be asked to pitch in.
f) This was the big one: following meetings of the government departments dealing with local government to consider the effects of the global economic crisis, the District budget (I presume for all Districts) is to be cut by 38%, in our case from RWF4billion to RWF2.5billion for the second half of the year. The 42 District staff is to be reduced to 32 though these will be reallocated to the sector offices and won’t actually lose their jobs. There was a general call to save money wherever possible – paper, toner, travel costs, phones etc. I’ll bet – a 38% budget cut?? Big ouch!!
GOODBYE OR GET BETTER SOON!
The only thing that isn’t going so well (other than my own actual work) is the number of people who are either leaving early or have been getting sick. Already Marjoulaine left from our group and now Suzanne, Ivana and Tina Payne are also off (Alfred: Ivana? There goes your joint birthday party in August!!) for a variety of different reasons. In addition Jane, Tina and Tiga have been struggling with various medical problems. And that’s only the ones I have heard of so far as I am not usually very much in the loop! Get better guys and the rest of you – stay put!!!!!
General pictures from the St Patrick's Ball. If anyone want me to email them one at a better resolution, just drop me a line at roheithir@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment