The event was supposed to start at 0900 and finally got going at 1140 – even by Rwandan standards that is pretty terrible. I was sitting on a small wooden school bench and by the time we finished (1530) my ass was as sore as … well, it’s never been that sore before so it is hard to say.
We had presentations from all 13 Executives Secretaries of the 13 sectors regarding their plans and priorities for next year, then the Executive Secretary of the District had his, much longer, plan. Then the Mayor asked for suggestions from the floor for areas that had not been mentioned and that people felt should be (there were three – youth empowerment, family planning and reminding women that it is traditional in Rwanda that when they applaud, they are also supposed to hum at the same time). Then the Mayor added on a whole stack of additional ideas for everyone to prioritise – in fact the idea seemed to be “Prioritise everything”. His suggestions included:
- Promoting the ‘one cow per family scheme’ (the scheme was suspended in our district as many of the cows got sick and/or died as people didn’t know how to take care of them. Now they have training courses and backup advice in place and are presumably restarting the scheme)
- Environmental protection and tree-planting (he strongly advised planting fruit trees so as to kill two birds with one stone)
- Regular performance appraisals at local levels to identify high-performing workers who can act as mentors/exemplars to others
- Innovation (didn’t get any more details on that one)
- Health care – provision of ‘smart toilets’ (I think these are toilets with washing facilities … I think)
- The Nine Years’ Basic Education construction programme
- Tackling high dropout and nonattendance rates in schools
- The need to increase social security membership (at 28% of the population, I think we rank 30th out of 30 districts)
- Family planning
- Reducing the rates of kwashiorkor/beriberi and other malnutrition-related illnesses (presumably by tackling malnutrition which is a massive problem in this district)
- Promoting the planting of kitchen gardens to grow vegetables, especially green vegetables (see previous point)
- Reducing the rate of maternal deaths in childbirth (didn’t realise this was a major problem here)
- Continue and escalate the fight against corruption – RUSWA OYA! (No Corruption). Our district is ranked 3rd of 30 in the anti-corruption war so we’re doing a good job there
All that to be ‘prioritised’ on top of the various things the 13 Exec Secs already mentioned. When he finished, there was another suggestion from the audience – why had none of the Exec Secs mentioned developing tourism in their areas? After all, tourism is now Rwanda’s number one earner, having displaced both tea and coffee. I tried – more-or-less successfully – to keep a straight face as I struggled to think of anywhere whatsoever in our rather inaccessible district that could possibly qualify as a tourist attraction.
While the Mayor was speaking, a succession of young girls came in carrying boxes of laptops – TOSHIBA Satellite – and stacking them on the floor, over fifty of them. Then 13 printers, a box of flash disks and a few other bits and pieces. It turned out that there was one for every sector and cell (Alfred: boring political science intervention – Rwanda (which is almost exactly the size of Munster/Yorkshire) is divided into 30 districts each run by a Mayor (elected) and Executive Secretary (appointed). Each district is divided into a number of sectors (13 in my district), each run by an Sector Executive Secretary. Each sector is divided into cells, run by …. You guessed it, a Cell Executive Secretary. After that, cells are subdivided into umudugudu which is a small group of houses, originally a hilltop of houses I am told. Ruairí has just asked Enock, his friend to clarify. Enock – who has been in Rwanda 13 years, says it beats the hell out of him, he has never been able to get his head around it). Many of the cells and sectors do not have electricity readily available but most have generators and the rural electrification scheme is forging ahead, so it’s all progress.
We also had a demonstration of a new torch/lantern. It is made of steel and some kind of toughened glass, recharges in only five minutes and then gives off light for 24 hours, is very tough (the guy demonstrating bounced it up and down off the concrete floor to illustrate the point) … but it costs RWF 25,000 or about €30/£27 which seems a lot to me.
(Alfred: by the way, in case you think Ruairí’s Kinyarwandan skills have taken a sudden leap into the stratosphere, New Augustin sat beside him for the whole meeting and translated really well. There was an Augustin in the District before him who is the Logistics and Human Resources co-ordinator which makes HIM the busiest person in the district; New Augustin used to work in the Genocide Memorial Centre in Gisoze in Kigali with Julie Hurst and Christina Campbell, two VSO volunteers, before he was transferred out to us in the sticks. I say ‘us’, I’ve never actually met the guy but Ruairí and Sarah seem to like him).
What else? In retrospect, it was more interesting than most six-hour-all-in-Kinyarwandan meetings I have attended – they sang the national anthem at the start and finish which was nice (I do love the national anthem here, a little reminiscent of the South African one in places and every verse has a different rhythm or tune). Oh yes, we now have a mobile ICT bus which will visit every sector and train about 20 people in each one. The Mayor was majorly pissed off with district and sector staff not doing sports and waved the national District volleyball trophy at us (which our team won on Sunday) to emphasise how important it was (‘mens sana in corpore sano’ and all that). My friend Jacques (you reading this, Tinks?) got an award as his present sector – Muganza – was the best-performing sector in the District. He gave a speech that had everyone roaring with laughter but was, according to Augustin, untranslatable.
We finished with the Mayor giving a speech summarising everything that had already happened. A long speech. Then he said he only had one more year in office and he really really wanted Gisagara to win the best District award this year – we finished 10th and 4th in 2008 and 2009 so it is all shoulders to the wheel!!!!
And that was that. We scattered outside (luckily the torrential downpour that lasted most of the meeting had finished) and got a Fanta and a lunch box. It was actually quite edible – three roasted half-potatoes, two pieces of grilled banana, two pieces of goat with onion and green pepper slices and an egg. And then walked home with Enock and typed this up to keep people happy.
(Alfred: But what, I hear you cry, has been happening in the long gap since the last entry? Well, stay tuned. Labia-stretching aside, we have puppies and goats, the progress of customer service in Rwanda, TURBO KING, April’s Bad Taste Birthday Party, the role of avocado in the Gisagara diet, the ongoing saga of English training, and watching Ireland-France. Stay tuned!!)
No comments:
Post a Comment