PHOTOGRAPHS AND GRENADES
Sitting in an Internet café in Kigali typing this while uploading about a hundred photos onto my Flikr account (Alfred: www.flickr.com and search for Ruairí if you are interested: if you are reading this IN Rwanda make sure you are NOT working off your modem when you do this - many of the photos are high resolution!). Also trying to get clear information on the latest series of grenade attacks over the last two days which are now escalating beyond what we had previously been used to. One last night was on a bus near the American Embassy, or at least that is 'the word on the street' - nothing on the Internet so far about those ones, only the previous night's two attacks. The other attack was somewhere in Remera where I am staying at the moment but that's all I know.

Some guy, former head of the Rwanda Journalists' Association, has been arrested in Burundi and extradited here - the government claim he is the mastermind but are also blaming a number of former high-ranking members of the RPF and RDF (Rwandan Defence Forces) - these would be very senior former associates of Kagame now living in exile. A much more serious proposition than random ex-Interahamwe members trying to destabilise on a small scale. Best updates are from the BBC news website and also the New Times newspaper which is pretty much the official Rwandan government line on what is happening.

WORK
Work is proceeding as normal. I finished off and printed all 15 of my reports and then trieed to email copies to each of the 13 sector executive secretaries and/or Social Affairs officers (the latter being responsible for education in the sectors). This took the guts of two days! First of all even trying to get a list of email addresses was a challenge. Then the list only had ten of thirteen executive secretaries and no Soc. Aff. So I texted all the Social Affairs officers and asked them to text me their and the Exec Sec's email addresses. After one day three of thirteen had replied. But that's the way it goes here. I am also organising the training that Peter, Cathy and I will be giving on March 24th and 25th to all the directors on Leadership and Management, Quality of Education in the classroom and Data Gathering and Analysis. At the moment this consists of trying to ensure no-one else will be using the room when we want it and the tricky business of negotiating the price for lunch and what exactly will be in each of the lunch-boxes! At the moment it looks like two pieces of meat (goat), one egg, potatoes and I am not sure what else! More anon.

Another problem is the one I wrote about last time - the unrepaired damage to Rwamiko secondary school which has left them with doubled-up classes of up to 120. It turns out that the school is owned by the Catholic Diocese who are - in theory - responsible for the buildings etc. Surprise, surprise, that is not how they see it and they want the District to share the cost. The District seem to have agreed in principle but the argument over how much it will be and who pays what looks like going on forever. The estimate is RWF3m (about €4,000) which seems very high - I suspect the real cost is half that and each side is hoping that if they can persuade the other side to pay 50% they will end up paying nothing!






Meanwhile, my ASTI project of building a staffroom and director's office for Nyarunyinya Primary School has fallen foul of local bureaucracy. The money the ASTI was donating would pay for part but not all of the project. Initially the District said they would match the funding but now say they cannot spend money on anything except classroom construction - staffrooms are not a priority item! They said they can apply again in May but a) there is unlikely to be any more money then and b) that is too close to my departure date. So I am trying to come up with a new project and submit it in time to Standing Committee and then get it implemented before I leave!

NEWS FROM HOME
WTF? Every time I look at the news from Ireland things seem to be getting madder and madder! George Lee? Willie O'Dea? Trevor Sargent? And then the bishops decide that parishioners must pay the bills for the compensation for the sex abuse cases? It makes the revelation of a gay sex ring in the Vatican almost paltry by comparison. I suspect my readjustment to Irish society when I get back is going to be trickier than I thought!!

Alfred: in the next instalment: more on what the hell is going on with all these grenade attacks, creative writing (and the lack of it) in Rwanda, a new poem (currently in preparation) on the wonders of brochettes, and other engaging snippets of Rwandan life (I've told him to ease off on the work stuff, no-one is really interested, though I did phrase it more gently than that).