Back in the Emerald Isle

Alfred: well, well, well and sure isn't it grand being back. Though in my case, I have spent virtually my entire furry life in Rwanda, so 'back' is a lot less applicable to me than it is to His Nibs. But we got here all in one piece, a little late leaving both Kigali and Brussels but nothing startling. I think he is working on a proper entry in Word but I thought you all might like to know that we actually got here safe and sound and so far all seems OK, though it is a lot cooler and showery here. Things not as expensive as I thought, which is more a reflection on how expensive Rwanda is than Dublin's being remarkably cheap! So a big thank you on Ruairí's behalf to all of you who phoned, wrote, emailed, Facebooked and so on - I'll TRY and make sure he does update soon, but you know what he's like ........

And so it ends ..... for now.

In thirty one hours I will board Brussels Airways to Entebbe-Brussels and then on to Dublin. The last week or so have been really hectic so my apologies to all for the lack of communication. Much of my time has been taken up with the gorilla statue the district presented me with as a going-away present (see photo in previous blog entry) - eventually I had to DHL it at enormous expense (along with a bunch of other stuff). Now I have said goodbye to pretty much everyone, packed my things, given away the stuff I can't fit in (Alfred: Hmmm, tomorrow morning he does the final packing so I suspect there may be some more items being 'donated' to people whether they want them or not), am going this afternoon to collect my police clearance which they assured me would be signed and ready for collection by 1300 (Alfred: any comment here by me would be superfluous).

So, how am I feeling? Actually, OK to be honest. Earlier in the week and a lot of last week I was feeling a bit emotional and stressed but a lot of that was the hassle of packing and all the other arrangements that had to be made. Now that the decks are cleared, the baggage stowed and the sails ready to be raised (Alfred: Oh pleeeeeze! And nautical metaphors are so unRwandan!) I have time to sit back and think about things and what I am mostly thinking is how nice it is going to be to see people again. Email and Facebook are all very well - brilliant, actually, when you are living thousands of miles from almost everyone you know - but I am only now beginning to realise how much I have been missing people (Alfred: with any luck, some of them may even have reciprocated the feeling).

People keep on asking me what I will miss about Rwanda. It's a long list - avocados, moto rides, brochettes, the beer, accompanying people on the road home, wandering down the main street of Butare in my Chelsea shirt and being greeted as 'Joe Cole', the cheesy pop music videos (Alfred: he has loaded 3.7GB of Rwandan music and videos on his laptop so that one is OK), the tranquil calm atmosphere of Gisagara village and so on. But above all else I will miss my friends, both Rwandan and muzungu. My colleagues at work who were so supportive and friendly, the VSO Program Office staff and all the volunteers I have met, worked with and with whom I have become such close friends. Of course many of them have already left and, if I were to stay, they would all eventually leave as well but the time we have spent and worked together has been amazing.

And most of all I will miss my friend Enock, who I think of as a brother rather than a friend. Enock was the first friend I made in Gisagara - he translated for me, advised me, drank beers with me every week, was there every time I needed someone. Without him it is hard to imagine my time here would have been anything as positive and enjoyable as it turned out to be. Goodbye, my brother, until we meet again.

My Last Evening in Gisagara

Just got back down to the village after spending the night in Butare. Went around Butare this morning saying goodbye to various people - Pascal and Chantal in the Africana Lodge, Hamed in the Casablanca internet cafe, the waiters in the Faucon, Olivier in the phone shop and so on. Now, here in Gisagara, for some strange reason everything looks the same way it was the first day I arrived - the landscape strange and exotic, the little shops strange and mysterious, the view from the back of my house fresher and even more beautiful than ever. The kids greet me with their usual cries of 'Good morning' and 'komera' and, if I am lucky, 'good evening'! I run into a bunch of men clambering down off the back of a lorry, obviously not from around here. Unlike the locals, they freeze, then stare and then start up the usual cries of ‘amafaranga, muzungu’. But that’s just like it was at the beginning too!

Even coming into my house seems a different experience. All my stuff is up in Kigali, I feel like I am staying over with a friend with that slightly intrusive feeling you always have when you let yourself into a friend’s house with their key and they aren’t there. And shortly I will head down to the bar to meet my moto driver Alexis and my best friend Enock – hopefully Sarah will join us later when she gets back from her workshop in Save – for my official goodbye. Strange days indeed.

Alfred's Leaving Do

Alfred: As you may have noticed, whatisname has been too 'busy' reecently to write up the blog, so I decided to have a big going-away party with all my friends to cheer me up (I did invite Ruairí as otherwise there would have been no-one left for him to see that night). And we had a great time in Zaffran Indian Restaurant in Kiovu, Kigali: great company and awesome food (well, of course awesome food, that's why I picked Zaffran!). In fact, other than Kerry Carrington's constant efforts to sexually interfere with my person, it went off just about perfectly!!

Anyway, here are a few pics for now to give a flavour - more details to come. Also: Ruairí's ride home on the moto afterwards and what happened when they met the army patrol pickup, Ruairí's encounter with a drunken Rwandan in the Kisimenti branch of BCR, hilarious anecdotes from the Leavers' Conference and much much more if he ever bloody gets around to writing about it!!

Day 647 in Rwanda - eleven days left

As Carol Bayer Sager once said (more tunefully than I could) 'You're moving out today.' Just finished packing and, while I will be back here on Monday night, it'll be more as a guest than a resident. I moved into this house 568 days ago and have beeen very happy here but, wow, I do seem to have accumulated a lot of stuff!!! Anyway, one way or the other, it is all packed in suitcases, boxes, rucksacks and backpacks and I am splashing out and taking a taxi from my house to Kigali as I just cannot bear the thought of lugging all this stuff onto and off buses (but a big 'Thank You' to Christine Mack for offering to help!!). All that remains here is to unplug and turn off the laptop and wait for the taxi driver. Mind you, there's a lot of work still to be done in the last eleven days!!! Will keep you posted!

CÉAD SLÁN LE RUANDA!

OK, that’s a bit premature, I’m not quite saying ‘Slán’ yet but having had my first big official going way party it certainly has dawned on me that I am definitely leaving. (Alfred: Hmmm, ‘dawned’ – if one can compare sunrise to being hit on the back of the head with a cosh I suppose the idiom is reasonably accurate). Alfred has a point: sitting there beside the new swimming pool that President Kagame recently opened and looking at the 82 school directors for the District assembling to bid me farewell, it really did hit me for the first time that in two weeks I am heading off into the unknown.

Yep, the unknown, because that is what it really seems like. It is hard to cast one’s mind back accurately a whole two years but I definitely think I feel (Alfred: ‘definitely think’ – for goodness’ sake!) more nervous about returning to Ireland than I did about coming back to Rwanda in the first place. It would help if I didn’t actually like this place so much (Alfred: Duh? You think?) and if there weren’t so many people I am going to miss (Alfred:Yeah, but most of them are also VSO volunteers and they will be leaving eventually even if you stayed, so, same difference. Think of all the people you already miss who have headed home before you...). But, in the most commonly used French phrase in English ‘c’est la vie’.

The farewell ceremony went well apart from a rather dreadful speech by me. At the last directors’ meeting I had made a brief speech because it was the last time I would be attending such a meeting and I basically gave the same one all over again and only realised half way through. Ah well, nta kibazo, as we say here. Below are some photos and commentary in between.

The day started with going late to the office (an unofficial farewell at the bar the previous night turned into a four-Mutzig session and I wasn’t the best when I arose). Then, while there, I tried to find out if anyone knew exactly when or where the thing was going to take place. At 11:30 someone came in and handed me the following (really sweet) invitation:

INVITATION
GISAGARA DISTRICT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

Due to his contribution in the quality of Education promotion, Educators in GISAGARA District wish to invite you in the party celebrations prepared for “Good Bye & Providence” Allowed to “Mr RUIRI”.

The party will he held at 11th June 02pm in GSO BUTARE (piscine) at Huye District.

Your Presence will be highly appreciated

Two o’clock?? And being held in a swimming-pool? There is only one bus an hour from the village so I would need to be on the 1300 one to be on time. So rushed home to change, grab overnight thingies and head for the bus. As it happened the 1200 bus was so late I got it at 1235 into Butare and had plenty of time to go to the Ineza and find a room (Alfred: Number 8 of course – see all blog entries for September, October and part of November 2008 if you don’t know why Room 8 is significant) and then get a moto to the new swimming pool near Groupe Scolaire Butare.

I had never been there before and it is really nice but, despite the invitation saying the event would be held in the swimming pool, it was in the garden with lots of little tables and big umbrellas against the scorching sun. And it was great! All the directors were there, some more punctually than others. We had beer, some speeches, then food and more beer, and then more speeches, then my (forgettable) speech, then presents being ... presented, then a final beer while most scattered to their homes. There were all the schoold directors there, some sector officials and both my bosses – Alexis the District Education Officer and Sukuma Simeon who is the Co-ordinator of social affairs.

Then it was off to the Faucon to watch Uruguay – France (via some beef burritos in Matar), more beer, hoping Uruguay would score so I could leap around and cheer and annoy all the Rwandans who were furiously shouting for the French as if they were still best friends (Alfred: Actually, consciously or subconsciously, Ruairí was hoping someone would come over and ask him WHY he was cheering for Uruguay so he would get the chance to do the whole Thierry Henry whining thing again. Get over it!!). And then to bed!!

The setting - nice and peaceful. The swimming pool is behind the hedge at the back. And me sitting beside Bigira Alexis, District Education Officer and my boss




Beer is good; beer with chicken and roast potatoes, awesome! And it was good chicken too. There must have been almost 100 people there and everyone got half a chicken - what did that cost??

Sukuma Simeon, the Social Affairs Co-ordinator, my presents waiting for me, and me with my friend Antoine, the Gisagara District Labour Inspector and someone I am going to miss a lot.

The hat was one of my many presents: this is Alexis modelling it and on the right, Aimable, the Director of Mugombwa Groupe Scolaire

Me speechifying - enough said.

Coolest shirt at the party, and me receiving my presents.

Alfred: OK, he's not getting away with this. One of the two boxes showed a kettle and tea-pot on the outside and Ruairí spent ages telling everyone how well-timed it was because his kettle had burned out that very morning. Everyone laughed and then Ruairí said he would just open the other box, which had the gorilla in it. It was only much later that Enock pointed out to Ruairí that the other box probably did not contain a kettle and teapot but was merely being used to transport other items he had been bought (.i. see photos below). This meant that by the time he actually opened the box, most people had left. Igicucu!)

Me holding gorilla aloft; later, at home, all the presents laid out (bar the hat which I left in town and will collect tomorrow): gorilla, minature drum in frame with 'Thank You' message, table mats, bamboo decorative hanging and banana-leaf football.

Close-up of gorilla: the box in the shape of Africa is mounted on his ... well, arse to be blunt. Then you remove the lid and it is a box to hold things in. BUT - and this is the awesome bit - when you remove the rest of Africa, the East African Community countries DO NOT MOVE! Love it!