Ruairí and Alfred: Random Musings

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 CATHOLIC CHURCH
Just to clarify something from my last blog (as I have received a few queries) - it wasn't that I hadn't heard about the Ryan Report about the Catholic Church in Ireland, it was just that I had to pretend I hadn't as I really didn't want to talk about it. Thanks to all those who sent articles, weblinks and commiserations on how out of touch I seemed to be!!!

Interestingly enough, the Church or churches in general came up in conversation twice recently in rather unexpected ways. One was when I was talking to Albert (see last blog). Now one of the few things I know about Albert (apart from his having been in prison for fifteen years after the gennocide) is that he is very religious; in fact the only time he leaves his house every day is to go to church. However, at one stage where I mentioned the fact of Rwanda being a very religious country, he suddenly came out with about a five-minute diatribe about how Rwanda's miseries really all started when the first christian missionaries arrived, disrupted the existing stable social order and started Rwanda on the long downward spiral to all the difficulties it suffers today!

And yesterday, still being officeless (as are my Director and chargé) I was using Irene's desk in Antoine's office and we were, of course, talking and not doing any work (Alfred: Antoine is a lovely guy but he DOES like to chat and if Ruairí has to use his office faut de mieux Antoine sees this as an opportunity for an extended English conversation class). The conversation took an unusual turn as Antoine raised the (not at all unusual question) of why I am not married. This took us on an extended tour of marriage, divorce, relationships, children and goodness-knows what else, all in a direct and bluint fashion that would have completely freaked me out back in Ireland.

Antoine is genuinely upset that I do not have children and made the comment 'So they will bury you with charcoal then, eh?' I thought I had misunderstood or that he had used the wrong word in English. But, after taking a few minutes to go through 'charbon' and 'charbon de bois' I realised he did mean 'charcoal'. Apparently the tradition here is that if a man dies without having had any children, a lump of unburnt charcoal is put into the coffin with him, signifying the extinction of his line! Antoine even came over to my desk and patted my left side where he said the charcoal would be placed when I was laid out.

I said that this was an interesting tradition which I hadn't heard of before - Antoine said such beliefs were extremely common. He then went on to tell me - and again this is a very religious and observant Christian - that Rwanda isn't really as Christian a country as it makes itself out to be. Christianity only arrived here in 1900 and spread slowly enough initially, usually by merging with rather than replacing the indigenous beliefs (just like Christianity in Ireland, as I told him). He then started telling me of some of the things people believe, about the afterlife, about how the dead never actually leave us but are always around us watching us and keeping an eye, how they can become malevolent and aggressive if you offend them or if you are not leading your life in an appropriate way. Not having children is apparently a recipe for serious retribution because, having expended their efforts and lives in perpetuating the family line, they do not take kindly to those of us who waste those efforts.

Anyway, it was a really fascinating conversation, which actually made me late for my class for the first time ever (Alfred: not that anyone else had actually turned up by then anyway!) - I've been invited to a wedding on july 11th in Kigali and people tell me this is one way to get an idea of just how traditional Rwandan Christianity really is!

TONGUE TWISTERS
The class I was late for was tongue twisters. I am using these to try and improve their pronunciation and I am amazed at how quickly they can master them - even 'Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry' which I had frankly thought would be next to impossible for a Rwandan, they all managed to get - and repeat - eventually. The toughest one was 'Round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran', partly because the words are so strange (and bloody difficult to explain) but they had no problems with 'She sells sea shells by the sea shore', 'Busy buzzing bumble bees', 'A cheap sheep is cheaper than a cheap ship', 'Fresh fried fish,Fish fresh fried,Fried fish fresh,Fish fried fresh', and even the really difficult one 'Not these things here but those things there'.

The only one that tripped them up - and really badly - was 'Pirates' private property'!! And did they enjoy them!!

THE KNEE
Still no word from the VSO Medical Unit in the UK about what they intend doing about my knee. It is getting really frustrating because I can't make any hard and fast plans for inspections etc if I am likely to disappear off for a few days at any stage. Not that it is very painful or anything, as long as I don't bend it either too much or for too long. But the next sector on the work schedule is Gishubi which is a good distance away and with apparently (I can't wait to see this) the worst roads in the District. Is is also ranked 13th of the 13 sectors in Gisagara for educational attainment so I wanted to tackle it next and see just what the problem is (Alfred: like you can't make an educated guess already!).

Alexis seems to have become suddenly energised by my work schedule and seems (I repeat the same verb deliberately) really keen to accompany me on all my visits. Maybe I misjudged him. (Alfred: Maybe. Proof of the pudding etc).

CRICKET
Pity to be missing the Twenty20 tournament which is turning out to be a cracker, even if Ireland seem to be falling apart at the seams a bit (Andy and I and Joe and John Simpson and whoever else is interested are hoping to organise a cricket outing to Kigali some weekend where there is a regular cricket league). England played miserably against South Africa yesterday and the online over-by-over commentator tried to relieve the gloom by running a haiku competition based on what was happening on the field. These were the four entries - pretty good, eh! (Alfred: And if you don't know what a haiku is, .... look it up!! I think the last one is the best!).

England are to mouse
as South Africa are to
sadistic kitty

England in despair
South Africa with disdain
hit the winning runs

England are to worms
As South Africa are to
Early morning birds

The haiku, with its
five syllables, seven, five,
knows no boundaries

Off to Kigali for the weekend to say goodbye to Heloise Allan (and her sister Rosie) who is the first of our group to make it (well, almost) to the end of her posting, though she is leaving a little early. Will try and keep in touch!!

RANDOM PICTURES
Some of these I already posted on Facebook, some are from Rwanda, some are just ... random photos!!

Stingray migration, somewhere in the Caribbean I think.

This is Pappy, Hayley Pert's dog. As she is leaving Rwanda soon, he is looking for a home. If you can help .....

The biggest swimming pool in the world (it's in Chile)

A 5 megabyte drive being loaded onto an airplane for delivery in 1957. Yep, 5MB!

Flowers in Mexico or somewhere in the US (I forget). I know it looks like it was photoshopped or something, but this is a real, genuine 100% true photo!