Sunday 14 December 2008
Saturday 13 December 2008
Shopping in the market /isoko
Rwandan markets are the smelliest little rabbit warrens but they are the place to go if you want to really get going with your Kinyarwanda and also get some bargains. The smells come from the piles of tiny dried fish and the cassava root and flour which smells like dried sick! Giterama is supposed to be reknowned for the quality of its cassava and theres a back handed compliment if ever I heard one.
My favourite section is where the African materials are. When I first went I got followed by a huge group of women but they are more used to me know and we have a laugh at my limited knowledge of Kinyarwanda and I jokingly berate them for trying to sell me cloth at Muzungu price not Rwandan price. I tell them in my best Kinyarwanda that I know the real price for two panes ie the Rwandan price and they know now how much I am prepared to pay. Its taken a few visits to arrive at this point and I have had to walk away several times because they refused to bargain. But now when I go they call me by my name – this is because I told them my name was not Muzungu it was Tina!
There is just such a variety and riot of colour that the main problem is choosing. I want to buy them all!!!! Rwandan women and men for that matter take great pride in their appearance. Rwandan women often wear traditional materials, draped and sewn into an infinite number of designs and styles. And any colour and design goes – they always manage to make it look good. They are especially fond of longer skirts to the floor and then often wear matching material as a turban – in all shades of brightness colour and pattern you can imagine. I wish I could take photos but they do not like you to take pictures and are likely to ask you for money if you do.
The tailors here are very skilled in spite of the fact that their only tool is the basic black Singer treadle sewing machine. There are people working the machines in every market , though here in Giterama there is a more up market section at the other end of town which offers wedding and more complicated tailoring. Cerys took in a top and some material and they duplicated it and put in extra detail to boot and it looked super. She also had a dress made up from a picture she had drawn and it turned out perfectly a week later.
So I have bought a few panes of material. Some will be good made up and some will just make fabulous stunning curtains but I just love those stalls and I am sure that won’t be the last material I buy I am sure. I will also get some made up into a style I have seen around because they look extremely elegant as well as comfortable.
Rwandan markets are the smelliest little rabbit warrens but they are the place to go if you want to really get going with your Kinyarwanda and also get some bargains. The smells come from the piles of tiny dried fish and the cassava root and flour which smells like dried sick! Giterama is supposed to be reknowned for the quality of its cassava and theres a back handed compliment if ever I heard one.
My favourite section is where the African materials are. When I first went I got followed by a huge group of women but they are more used to me know and we have a laugh at my limited knowledge of Kinyarwanda and I jokingly berate them for trying to sell me cloth at Muzungu price not Rwandan price. I tell them in my best Kinyarwanda that I know the real price for two panes ie the Rwandan price and they know now how much I am prepared to pay. Its taken a few visits to arrive at this point and I have had to walk away several times because they refused to bargain. But now when I go they call me by my name – this is because I told them my name was not Muzungu it was Tina!
There is just such a variety and riot of colour that the main problem is choosing. I want to buy them all!!!! Rwandan women and men for that matter take great pride in their appearance. Rwandan women often wear traditional materials, draped and sewn into an infinite number of designs and styles. And any colour and design goes – they always manage to make it look good. They are especially fond of longer skirts to the floor and then often wear matching material as a turban – in all shades of brightness colour and pattern you can imagine. I wish I could take photos but they do not like you to take pictures and are likely to ask you for money if you do.
The tailors here are very skilled in spite of the fact that their only tool is the basic black Singer treadle sewing machine. There are people working the machines in every market , though here in Giterama there is a more up market section at the other end of town which offers wedding and more complicated tailoring. Cerys took in a top and some material and they duplicated it and put in extra detail to boot and it looked super. She also had a dress made up from a picture she had drawn and it turned out perfectly a week later.
So I have bought a few panes of material. Some will be good made up and some will just make fabulous stunning curtains but I just love those stalls and I am sure that won’t be the last material I buy I am sure. I will also get some made up into a style I have seen around because they look extremely elegant as well as comfortable.
Saturday 29th November
Sorry for the huge gap ..............because I was still not settled anywhere it was difficult to get to the internet but..............
Finally
A rather important day in my life in Rwanda. I finally moved into my own house and it is such a relief that I feel unable to describe it – I have been living out of my suitcase for 3 months almost. I had reached the point where I could not be bothered to do anything because it was just too much trouble because I did not know where anything was. Some stuff was in Giterama, some was in Shyogwe where poor Cerys had to put up with it till she left and some was in a small cramped room I was staying in at the Bishop’s House and everything was piled up all over the place so it was impossible to find anything. It has been a long time to live in that kind of jumble. This is the reason I am so hopelessly out of date with my blog.
Anyway I am now in my house and it is lovely. It is in a small community out in the country – I have never lived out in the countryside before but I like it here, and feel very at home. It is very small but it is like a cosy little cottage – Rwandan style of course. The floors are made of concrete and the doors and windows are small and made of metal. But I have my furniture around and my things on the bookshelves and it feels good.
I have electricity but no running water- we have jerry cans to flush the toilet and our domestique brings us a bucket of very hot water each morning for a shower (ie to throw over my head) I have an inside toilet and shower so at least i don’t have to go outside if i need the loo in the middle of the night. There was water but its not working at the moment and no one seems to know why. I have stayed with a couple of volunteers who only have squat toilets in the back yard so this is luxurious. But its a long walk to fetch the water. Samuel carries two Gerry cans about half an hour and they are so heavy that I can only just carry them a couple of yards! Immaculae carries it back on her head in a bucket!
I spent all day cleaning and rearranging the furniture and it just feels wonderful to be in my own space. I have had to live in motels or with other people for the last three months so it is just great to sit and watch DVDs until midnight because I can and I do not have to worry about disturbing anyone. I put up new cheery curtains that Bearta gave me and I am quite settled.
Sunday 30th November
I have reorganised the breakfast arrangements so that Michael can have his breakfast on his own. I prefer not to hurry in the morning and so I get up and have breakfast wearing the big fluffy Marks and Spencers dressing gown that Bill (my brother) and Christina sent me. They asked me if there was anything i wanted and I said please can you send a towelling robe. It can be quite cold after you have had a cold shower or bucket of water over your head in the morning! It took six weeks but this gorgeous big pink fluffy dressing gown arrived in the post and boy was it worth it. Thank you Bill and Chris.
Our domestique is called Immaculae and she is great – we pay her £20 a month I am afraid and I know it sounds scandalous but we only get paid £150 so in comparison its a good wage for her. It helps her to support her family and she is a treasure. She is here seven days a week and cooks and cleans and washes our clothes.
She only speaks Kinyarwanda though which is amusing I somehow managed to communicate that we only wanted soup and boiled eggs for supper the other night. She cooks exactly the same meals every day almost. Its good and it saves us going to the market and having to haggle – there is no way I would buy meat here anyway – but it is also very repetitive and also very carbohydrate based. We usually get two carbs at least – probably chips and rice or potatoes and pasta and one square inch cube of meat which is as tough as old boots and gets stuck in your teeth. We have managed, by a combination of very basic Kinyarwanda and some hilarious sign language to communicate that we only need one carbohydrate at a meal. Well I think we have at least – I still don’t know what I am going to get today. (Today is Monday as I am writing this – Michael has gone out with Bruce and I have been catching up ) But she is very attentive to our needs and very thoughtful. It seems weird having someone to do the work but it is easy to get used to!!!!!
Yesterday I got a phone call from Pete the cheery Belgian eye doctor who works at the hospital nearby. He invited us over for cake so we grabbed a push bike taxi down to the main road and stopped to pick up Bruce and Tom and went over to his place. By how the other half live – it almost looked like a normal house – but even he had no water and the tank had to be filled by jerry can!!! The cake was delicious but his domestique had been well trained by a Belgian and knew how to bake. Had a nice stroll in the countryside with the usual entourage of children following us. They don’t see a muzungu for years and then five come along at once. NO wonder we were a novelty.
What I have been doing since I last wrote in my blog – back to the beginning of November
The beginning of November was ICT 2 and we all met back at Armani. Interesting since I was not actually in my house or working still at that point.
The time that has gone since September has been out of my control in terms of actual work but I have gained a lot of experience of the country and the way things work as well as gathering information and support from other volunteers and I look at this as useful experience and inside knowledge so that I can get in with both feet in January. Michael and I work well together as a team – he lets me come up with my ideas but then makes them workable in a down to earth way. We have discussed how we will work in January and have several ideas of things we want to achieve when we start again.
I also decided I might as well make the most of living in Rwanda by visiting some areas I had not yet visited and catching up with people I had not seen since ICT1. Last weekend I went across to see Sonya in the east near the border with Tanzania. It is different immediately you leave Kigali. The hills are smaller and rounder and the vallies are wider. But there is still the green patchwork of cultivation everywhere the eye can see. It also seemed a little less populated both in terms of houses and people you could see.
Nyamagati where Sonya lives is a small town on a broader flatter plain. It has a good friendly feel to it and a relaxed atmosphere though much drier and dustier too. It also felt much more typically African somehow and especially when the stars came out while we were sitting on her verandah drinking Mutzig. How can you describe the African night sky ? Its impossible. Its like twinkly white freckles on pitch black backround there are so many. And constellations you see in the northern hemisphere are upside down. Orion’s belt is the opposite so he is standing on his head.
Sonya seems very well adjusted and settled into life in Rwanda. She shocked the whole town apparently by taking the car keys and driving the car to take some stuff that needed moving. A white woman driving a car was enough to keep the town talking all week. She has no running water a squate toilet and an outside room for a bucket of cold water for a shower or electricity and yet she looks very at home and she was a wonderful hostess. It was great to see her as we had not caught up since ICT1.
The next day we headed back to Kigali because we had been invited to tapas for Paula’s birthday. The beer was frightfully expensive 1700 RWF “It’s a sin” Joe kept saying in this wonderful Irish accent. He comes from the Arran Isles off the west coast of Ireland and has a wickedly dry sense of humour. We all finished off by nightclubbing at One Love until 3.30 am.
The next morning (not bright and early!) we meet Els and hear she was mugged on the way to her hotel and had her purse and phone stolen at 4.am.. She was very unlucky as generally Rwanda does feel very safe most of the time. It sounded like an opportunist as he was walking the other way and turned round when he saw her and she was nearly at the hotel when it happened although it was late. He had pushed her to the ground and tried to kick her before her screams alerted the guard at the hotel and she was very shaken understandably.
Later we caught the bus to head for Els place in Nyamata and it is very different – flat and hot with a bright blue sky. I stayed there for the night and then helped with her training before heading back to Giterama in the evening.
I check my wallet and I have spent £35 since setting off last Friday and its Monday night. Not bad considering where I have been and what I have done.
And also..........finally did some work
Michael and I finally ran some training. We had met with Stephanie the head teacher from the local primary school. A petite lady but formidable who wears the most wonderful African fabrics in all sorts of colours and creations. When you speak to her she seems to be analysing your every word and woe betide you if you say the wrong thing.
As it turns out she is really pleased with the two days training we offer. The teachers in her school have suddenly been told that they will teach maths in English from January 2009. Does this sound familiar to any teachers out there in England.? The problem is that these teachers have mainly done their schooling in French and speak little English so to suddenly have to teach in a language they don’t speak is an impossible task. It makes the changes in the English education system look sedate.
Anyway we took their problems on board and tried to address them by preparing rice sack resources in maths. We make them by writing on rice sacks with marker pens and although they are very basic it provides a resource which they can put up in their classrooms to provide them and their pupils with the English vocabulary needed in maths. They were thrilled to bits with the training and resources and realised that it would give them a good head start in January.
As for me I was in my element. Doing the Mrs Payne clock and all the other things I like doing to help children understand maths. I was buzzing! Some work finally after all this time – it helped give me a sense of purpose.
So I have done 2 days real work since I got here in theory – but in practise I have done a whole lot more. I have really enjoyed the whole experience and I feel very at home here. I am speaking more and more Kinyarwanda each day and that really helps. I just try things out all the time and most of it is wrong but bit by bit it starts to come right. I am sure i will never be able to say a whole sentence but I have some basic communication now and at least I have fun trying. It makes me feel more a part of Rwanda if I can at least say something in the language.
MY Little house
I am very happy and settled in my house, which I share with an assortment of creatures. There is a gecko which lives behind the bookcase and there was one on my bedroom wall as I got into bed the other night. I told him he could stay there if he ate the mosquitos I could hear whining around. I always sleep under my mosquito net but they make a very irritating noise. There are several splatted against the walls already! There are some huge bees that look like giant ants and one very intimidating one which makes a noise like a football rattle as it flies.
We also share the roof space with something noisy, probably mice or rats. The kitchen is outside and there is food in there so rodents are an inevitable part of life here. Michael hates them and has bought some very vicious looking traps but so far we haven’t caught anything. Its like mouse Olympics when they get going at night.
The bird life in Rwanda is a twitcher’s dream! Just in our garden we have tiny blue birds and bright red ones as tiny as a small child’s fist who visit regularly to feed on the red flowers. But there are many other different coloured visitors too many to mention. It was funny too to see the swallows return at the beginning of October. They may be the same ones I pointed out to the children at Windmill Hill in the playground last May but I doubt it! It is odd to think they have been all the way to England and I am now here to see their return journey. There are plenty of insects around here for them to feed on thats for sure. There are many kites and sometimes eagles and the national bird the ibis goes honking overhead throughout the day, Its an ugly old creature with a long pointed bill and a very distinctive cry. I got the binoculars out to look the other day and Samuel the domestique from the bible school was utterly fascinated – probably never seen anything like them before – he was playing with them for about an hour.
Have been buying presents in Butare and Kigali and am ready to pack now. I was on a bus in Kigali yesterday and the door dropped off just as we pulled away from picking someone up! I was trying so hard not to laugh but everyone else just smiled a knowing smile and we all waited patiently while the driver and the conductor put it back on again! You never know what to expect next.
So not much more to add now. It seems very odd to be coming home at Christmas. Today is the 1st December and I have avoided all the tacky buildup to Christmas and the cold weather. Its sunny here at the moment but it is going to rain. And its pleasantly warm like a nice September day. It has only been hot enough to sunbathe once while I have been here but its just pleasantly warm during the day, though it does get cold at night and you do need a jumper or a cardigan on. But generally it is sunny and it doesn’t feel like December at all – its quite disconcerting really!
But I am looking forward to coming home and especially to seeing all my family and friends. It seems a bit wrong because I have done so little work (but I know that is not my fault) and a bit soon really. But there is no work to do here while the schools are shut so I would rather be at home with my family and friends. I have plenty of time to travel round Rwanda when I come back.Have made a good start but have saved some of the more touristy things for another time.
Most of all I can honestly say that in spite of the fiasco at the beginning I have really enjoyed being here. I have sorted out the initial problems and I am now happy, relaxed and settled where I am. It may be odd, but I did not really feel settled until I got in my own place, but now that I am in I feel very at home both in Shyogwe and in Rwanda. My Kinyarwanda is not fantastic but just being able to talk to people a little makes me feel part of the place I live in too. It is funny to look back to my arrival at the beginning of September and think how quickly it is possible to adapt to new people, new faces, new food, new culture, new transport, new scenery etc etc and how quickly this just feels like how life is. It will be strange to be home........but good too.
Sorry for the huge gap ..............because I was still not settled anywhere it was difficult to get to the internet but..............
Finally
A rather important day in my life in Rwanda. I finally moved into my own house and it is such a relief that I feel unable to describe it – I have been living out of my suitcase for 3 months almost. I had reached the point where I could not be bothered to do anything because it was just too much trouble because I did not know where anything was. Some stuff was in Giterama, some was in Shyogwe where poor Cerys had to put up with it till she left and some was in a small cramped room I was staying in at the Bishop’s House and everything was piled up all over the place so it was impossible to find anything. It has been a long time to live in that kind of jumble. This is the reason I am so hopelessly out of date with my blog.
Anyway I am now in my house and it is lovely. It is in a small community out in the country – I have never lived out in the countryside before but I like it here, and feel very at home. It is very small but it is like a cosy little cottage – Rwandan style of course. The floors are made of concrete and the doors and windows are small and made of metal. But I have my furniture around and my things on the bookshelves and it feels good.
I have electricity but no running water- we have jerry cans to flush the toilet and our domestique brings us a bucket of very hot water each morning for a shower (ie to throw over my head) I have an inside toilet and shower so at least i don’t have to go outside if i need the loo in the middle of the night. There was water but its not working at the moment and no one seems to know why. I have stayed with a couple of volunteers who only have squat toilets in the back yard so this is luxurious. But its a long walk to fetch the water. Samuel carries two Gerry cans about half an hour and they are so heavy that I can only just carry them a couple of yards! Immaculae carries it back on her head in a bucket!
I spent all day cleaning and rearranging the furniture and it just feels wonderful to be in my own space. I have had to live in motels or with other people for the last three months so it is just great to sit and watch DVDs until midnight because I can and I do not have to worry about disturbing anyone. I put up new cheery curtains that Bearta gave me and I am quite settled.
Sunday 30th November
I have reorganised the breakfast arrangements so that Michael can have his breakfast on his own. I prefer not to hurry in the morning and so I get up and have breakfast wearing the big fluffy Marks and Spencers dressing gown that Bill (my brother) and Christina sent me. They asked me if there was anything i wanted and I said please can you send a towelling robe. It can be quite cold after you have had a cold shower or bucket of water over your head in the morning! It took six weeks but this gorgeous big pink fluffy dressing gown arrived in the post and boy was it worth it. Thank you Bill and Chris.
Our domestique is called Immaculae and she is great – we pay her £20 a month I am afraid and I know it sounds scandalous but we only get paid £150 so in comparison its a good wage for her. It helps her to support her family and she is a treasure. She is here seven days a week and cooks and cleans and washes our clothes.
She only speaks Kinyarwanda though which is amusing I somehow managed to communicate that we only wanted soup and boiled eggs for supper the other night. She cooks exactly the same meals every day almost. Its good and it saves us going to the market and having to haggle – there is no way I would buy meat here anyway – but it is also very repetitive and also very carbohydrate based. We usually get two carbs at least – probably chips and rice or potatoes and pasta and one square inch cube of meat which is as tough as old boots and gets stuck in your teeth. We have managed, by a combination of very basic Kinyarwanda and some hilarious sign language to communicate that we only need one carbohydrate at a meal. Well I think we have at least – I still don’t know what I am going to get today. (Today is Monday as I am writing this – Michael has gone out with Bruce and I have been catching up ) But she is very attentive to our needs and very thoughtful. It seems weird having someone to do the work but it is easy to get used to!!!!!
Yesterday I got a phone call from Pete the cheery Belgian eye doctor who works at the hospital nearby. He invited us over for cake so we grabbed a push bike taxi down to the main road and stopped to pick up Bruce and Tom and went over to his place. By how the other half live – it almost looked like a normal house – but even he had no water and the tank had to be filled by jerry can!!! The cake was delicious but his domestique had been well trained by a Belgian and knew how to bake. Had a nice stroll in the countryside with the usual entourage of children following us. They don’t see a muzungu for years and then five come along at once. NO wonder we were a novelty.
What I have been doing since I last wrote in my blog – back to the beginning of November
The beginning of November was ICT 2 and we all met back at Armani. Interesting since I was not actually in my house or working still at that point.
The time that has gone since September has been out of my control in terms of actual work but I have gained a lot of experience of the country and the way things work as well as gathering information and support from other volunteers and I look at this as useful experience and inside knowledge so that I can get in with both feet in January. Michael and I work well together as a team – he lets me come up with my ideas but then makes them workable in a down to earth way. We have discussed how we will work in January and have several ideas of things we want to achieve when we start again.
I also decided I might as well make the most of living in Rwanda by visiting some areas I had not yet visited and catching up with people I had not seen since ICT1. Last weekend I went across to see Sonya in the east near the border with Tanzania. It is different immediately you leave Kigali. The hills are smaller and rounder and the vallies are wider. But there is still the green patchwork of cultivation everywhere the eye can see. It also seemed a little less populated both in terms of houses and people you could see.
Nyamagati where Sonya lives is a small town on a broader flatter plain. It has a good friendly feel to it and a relaxed atmosphere though much drier and dustier too. It also felt much more typically African somehow and especially when the stars came out while we were sitting on her verandah drinking Mutzig. How can you describe the African night sky ? Its impossible. Its like twinkly white freckles on pitch black backround there are so many. And constellations you see in the northern hemisphere are upside down. Orion’s belt is the opposite so he is standing on his head.
Sonya seems very well adjusted and settled into life in Rwanda. She shocked the whole town apparently by taking the car keys and driving the car to take some stuff that needed moving. A white woman driving a car was enough to keep the town talking all week. She has no running water a squate toilet and an outside room for a bucket of cold water for a shower or electricity and yet she looks very at home and she was a wonderful hostess. It was great to see her as we had not caught up since ICT1.
The next day we headed back to Kigali because we had been invited to tapas for Paula’s birthday. The beer was frightfully expensive 1700 RWF “It’s a sin” Joe kept saying in this wonderful Irish accent. He comes from the Arran Isles off the west coast of Ireland and has a wickedly dry sense of humour. We all finished off by nightclubbing at One Love until 3.30 am.
The next morning (not bright and early!) we meet Els and hear she was mugged on the way to her hotel and had her purse and phone stolen at 4.am.. She was very unlucky as generally Rwanda does feel very safe most of the time. It sounded like an opportunist as he was walking the other way and turned round when he saw her and she was nearly at the hotel when it happened although it was late. He had pushed her to the ground and tried to kick her before her screams alerted the guard at the hotel and she was very shaken understandably.
Later we caught the bus to head for Els place in Nyamata and it is very different – flat and hot with a bright blue sky. I stayed there for the night and then helped with her training before heading back to Giterama in the evening.
I check my wallet and I have spent £35 since setting off last Friday and its Monday night. Not bad considering where I have been and what I have done.
And also..........finally did some work
Michael and I finally ran some training. We had met with Stephanie the head teacher from the local primary school. A petite lady but formidable who wears the most wonderful African fabrics in all sorts of colours and creations. When you speak to her she seems to be analysing your every word and woe betide you if you say the wrong thing.
As it turns out she is really pleased with the two days training we offer. The teachers in her school have suddenly been told that they will teach maths in English from January 2009. Does this sound familiar to any teachers out there in England.? The problem is that these teachers have mainly done their schooling in French and speak little English so to suddenly have to teach in a language they don’t speak is an impossible task. It makes the changes in the English education system look sedate.
Anyway we took their problems on board and tried to address them by preparing rice sack resources in maths. We make them by writing on rice sacks with marker pens and although they are very basic it provides a resource which they can put up in their classrooms to provide them and their pupils with the English vocabulary needed in maths. They were thrilled to bits with the training and resources and realised that it would give them a good head start in January.
As for me I was in my element. Doing the Mrs Payne clock and all the other things I like doing to help children understand maths. I was buzzing! Some work finally after all this time – it helped give me a sense of purpose.
So I have done 2 days real work since I got here in theory – but in practise I have done a whole lot more. I have really enjoyed the whole experience and I feel very at home here. I am speaking more and more Kinyarwanda each day and that really helps. I just try things out all the time and most of it is wrong but bit by bit it starts to come right. I am sure i will never be able to say a whole sentence but I have some basic communication now and at least I have fun trying. It makes me feel more a part of Rwanda if I can at least say something in the language.
MY Little house
I am very happy and settled in my house, which I share with an assortment of creatures. There is a gecko which lives behind the bookcase and there was one on my bedroom wall as I got into bed the other night. I told him he could stay there if he ate the mosquitos I could hear whining around. I always sleep under my mosquito net but they make a very irritating noise. There are several splatted against the walls already! There are some huge bees that look like giant ants and one very intimidating one which makes a noise like a football rattle as it flies.
We also share the roof space with something noisy, probably mice or rats. The kitchen is outside and there is food in there so rodents are an inevitable part of life here. Michael hates them and has bought some very vicious looking traps but so far we haven’t caught anything. Its like mouse Olympics when they get going at night.
The bird life in Rwanda is a twitcher’s dream! Just in our garden we have tiny blue birds and bright red ones as tiny as a small child’s fist who visit regularly to feed on the red flowers. But there are many other different coloured visitors too many to mention. It was funny too to see the swallows return at the beginning of October. They may be the same ones I pointed out to the children at Windmill Hill in the playground last May but I doubt it! It is odd to think they have been all the way to England and I am now here to see their return journey. There are plenty of insects around here for them to feed on thats for sure. There are many kites and sometimes eagles and the national bird the ibis goes honking overhead throughout the day, Its an ugly old creature with a long pointed bill and a very distinctive cry. I got the binoculars out to look the other day and Samuel the domestique from the bible school was utterly fascinated – probably never seen anything like them before – he was playing with them for about an hour.
Have been buying presents in Butare and Kigali and am ready to pack now. I was on a bus in Kigali yesterday and the door dropped off just as we pulled away from picking someone up! I was trying so hard not to laugh but everyone else just smiled a knowing smile and we all waited patiently while the driver and the conductor put it back on again! You never know what to expect next.
So not much more to add now. It seems very odd to be coming home at Christmas. Today is the 1st December and I have avoided all the tacky buildup to Christmas and the cold weather. Its sunny here at the moment but it is going to rain. And its pleasantly warm like a nice September day. It has only been hot enough to sunbathe once while I have been here but its just pleasantly warm during the day, though it does get cold at night and you do need a jumper or a cardigan on. But generally it is sunny and it doesn’t feel like December at all – its quite disconcerting really!
But I am looking forward to coming home and especially to seeing all my family and friends. It seems a bit wrong because I have done so little work (but I know that is not my fault) and a bit soon really. But there is no work to do here while the schools are shut so I would rather be at home with my family and friends. I have plenty of time to travel round Rwanda when I come back.Have made a good start but have saved some of the more touristy things for another time.
Most of all I can honestly say that in spite of the fiasco at the beginning I have really enjoyed being here. I have sorted out the initial problems and I am now happy, relaxed and settled where I am. It may be odd, but I did not really feel settled until I got in my own place, but now that I am in I feel very at home both in Shyogwe and in Rwanda. My Kinyarwanda is not fantastic but just being able to talk to people a little makes me feel part of the place I live in too. It is funny to look back to my arrival at the beginning of September and think how quickly it is possible to adapt to new people, new faces, new food, new culture, new transport, new scenery etc etc and how quickly this just feels like how life is. It will be strange to be home........but good too.
Saturday 15 November 2008
November 14th
November 14th and i am still not in my house and still not doing any work. SOOO moment of clarity and realisation ............
Have decided to just enjoy being in Rwanda its a fascinating place so i am travelling about and meeting other vsos and trying to do a bit of work in the meantime. No stressing about it just forget the past few months and start afresh in january - the past months are money in the bank in terms of experience of rwanda and should be able to get something done then and i am just accepting that.
I can't do much of my own work because the schools are shut but i went to work with ken in nyanze and did some resource training with rice sacks. Its all we can manage to encourage teachers to draw and write on rice sacks so they at least have something on their classroom walls
We had an hour to get there on the dirt roads and at one point the taxi driver went over a bridge with a great big hole in it and i really thought we were going to fall in.
We were way out in the countryside and it was very poor. Ken saw a child suffering from malnutrition and the poverty was very obvious. We stopped the car so the driver could get pineapples and we were surrounded by rwandans who just stared intently as though we have two heads.
The begging is quite continuous wherever you are and it does get wearing. I can't answer rwanda's problems by giving to beggars but at the same time i don't know how it feels to live without food and water day after day. Have had to decided to just say no and walk away or it will open a floodgate.
One kid the other day said "Give me my sandwich" so Ken just replied "Do you want ham or cheese and would you like mayo?"
Probably the best thing to joke as it does get a bit tedious. But at the same time you can see whey they do it.
Sorry i have not posted any photos yet - still not sure how to do it but hayley's internet may be working on sunday.
Today i am in butare and i have just been to my first rwandan wedding - it was a noisy colourful affair with lots of beautiful singing and dancing including two choirs who sang in harmony throughout the service to the bride and groom praying for them that their marriage would be blessed by the kingdom of god. The preacher told us that if we prayed then we would go to heaven where there would be honey and food of all kinds that we had never had on earth............
But it was an absolutely wonderful experience - a clever young woman who was training to be a doctor in butare translated for me. My Kinyarwanda is not that good yet!!!
Found out an interesting fact in kinyarwanda the other day. The word for male is muwalimu and to make it female you add the word for work ie kazi so a female is an umwalimukazi ie she is a male who does the work. This is about right as it is the females you see doing all the work in the fields probably while carrying a baby on their back at the same time. When we did the training both headteachers were female and they cooked and waited on their male counterparts!
My kinyarwanda is still a source of great amusement to all rwandans I am trying to learn words and have some vocabulary but adjectives change according to the noun they are with and nouns change according to the verbs they are with so its very hard to learn the rules if there are arny.
Had a great walk through the countryside up to Shyogwe the other sunday. We were accompanied all the way by two gils called rita and mary whom we had asked for directions. Then we came back on the back of push bike taxis. 20pence to the main road! But four muzungus (whites) in a row was too much and the rwandans were just staring. The bike riders thought it was a hoot and it was like being on some crazy film set.
So lots of good stuff like that happening. Some good people around to spend time with and some great experiences. Not done any of the touristy stuff yet really as i am saving it for if anyone decides to come out and visit me.
Feel like a real part of the place now though. Can catch the buses, get around, put up with the food talk to the locals. Still get stared at and called muzungu but trying not to let it get to me. I find the begging harder to deal with.
Moving into my house in two weeks time - cant wait. Oh and bought some lovely african material on the market which you get made up by the local tailors very cheaply so ,may have it made by the time i get home. Looking forward to that too and especially to seeing my family and friends.
intend to get an internet modem when i return - its 20 quid a month plus the initial cost of the modem but it will be worth it just to be able to do e mails when i want to .
Am in the internet cafe at Butare at the moment. I like Butare it has a very relaxed atmosphere.
Going to meet some friends for a beer now so will try to keep this up to date a bit better than i have
Have decided to just enjoy being in Rwanda its a fascinating place so i am travelling about and meeting other vsos and trying to do a bit of work in the meantime. No stressing about it just forget the past few months and start afresh in january - the past months are money in the bank in terms of experience of rwanda and should be able to get something done then and i am just accepting that.
I can't do much of my own work because the schools are shut but i went to work with ken in nyanze and did some resource training with rice sacks. Its all we can manage to encourage teachers to draw and write on rice sacks so they at least have something on their classroom walls
We had an hour to get there on the dirt roads and at one point the taxi driver went over a bridge with a great big hole in it and i really thought we were going to fall in.
We were way out in the countryside and it was very poor. Ken saw a child suffering from malnutrition and the poverty was very obvious. We stopped the car so the driver could get pineapples and we were surrounded by rwandans who just stared intently as though we have two heads.
The begging is quite continuous wherever you are and it does get wearing. I can't answer rwanda's problems by giving to beggars but at the same time i don't know how it feels to live without food and water day after day. Have had to decided to just say no and walk away or it will open a floodgate.
One kid the other day said "Give me my sandwich" so Ken just replied "Do you want ham or cheese and would you like mayo?"
Probably the best thing to joke as it does get a bit tedious. But at the same time you can see whey they do it.
Sorry i have not posted any photos yet - still not sure how to do it but hayley's internet may be working on sunday.
Today i am in butare and i have just been to my first rwandan wedding - it was a noisy colourful affair with lots of beautiful singing and dancing including two choirs who sang in harmony throughout the service to the bride and groom praying for them that their marriage would be blessed by the kingdom of god. The preacher told us that if we prayed then we would go to heaven where there would be honey and food of all kinds that we had never had on earth............
But it was an absolutely wonderful experience - a clever young woman who was training to be a doctor in butare translated for me. My Kinyarwanda is not that good yet!!!
Found out an interesting fact in kinyarwanda the other day. The word for male is muwalimu and to make it female you add the word for work ie kazi so a female is an umwalimukazi ie she is a male who does the work. This is about right as it is the females you see doing all the work in the fields probably while carrying a baby on their back at the same time. When we did the training both headteachers were female and they cooked and waited on their male counterparts!
My kinyarwanda is still a source of great amusement to all rwandans I am trying to learn words and have some vocabulary but adjectives change according to the noun they are with and nouns change according to the verbs they are with so its very hard to learn the rules if there are arny.
Had a great walk through the countryside up to Shyogwe the other sunday. We were accompanied all the way by two gils called rita and mary whom we had asked for directions. Then we came back on the back of push bike taxis. 20pence to the main road! But four muzungus (whites) in a row was too much and the rwandans were just staring. The bike riders thought it was a hoot and it was like being on some crazy film set.
So lots of good stuff like that happening. Some good people around to spend time with and some great experiences. Not done any of the touristy stuff yet really as i am saving it for if anyone decides to come out and visit me.
Feel like a real part of the place now though. Can catch the buses, get around, put up with the food talk to the locals. Still get stared at and called muzungu but trying not to let it get to me. I find the begging harder to deal with.
Moving into my house in two weeks time - cant wait. Oh and bought some lovely african material on the market which you get made up by the local tailors very cheaply so ,may have it made by the time i get home. Looking forward to that too and especially to seeing my family and friends.
intend to get an internet modem when i return - its 20 quid a month plus the initial cost of the modem but it will be worth it just to be able to do e mails when i want to .
Am in the internet cafe at Butare at the moment. I like Butare it has a very relaxed atmosphere.
Going to meet some friends for a beer now so will try to keep this up to date a bit better than i have
Tuesday 11 November 2008
hi there
sorry i have not written anything for a while - i have not been near internet access
still not moved into my house or started work. hAVE seriously wondered if it was worth coming back in january but have decided to write off the last few months workwise and start afresh when i come back in january
will write more tomorrow when i have time.
weather is cold and rainy believe it or not. But the country is bright green
with things growing .
will do more later
sorry i have not written anything for a while - i have not been near internet access
still not moved into my house or started work. hAVE seriously wondered if it was worth coming back in january but have decided to write off the last few months workwise and start afresh when i come back in january
will write more tomorrow when i have time.
weather is cold and rainy believe it or not. But the country is bright green
with things growing .
will do more later
Thursday 30 October 2008
Wednesday 29th October - Pineapple and ice cream
Eeek it will be November soon and I am only just getting my head around what I am doing here. The good news is that it is finally all falling into place a bit more. Have met Michael several times this week and have also met Bruce and Soraya and we have planned a way forward with the work we are going to do before we both go home for Christmas. We are going to make some resources and hopefully work with a school with the resources and some English teaching.
Although its extremely quiet at this time of year have done several things this week: been into Kigali to sort stuff out, met the Pasteur of my diocese and actually been into my office. You have to walk through a field of pineapples and bananas and then down a dirt track and through another field of sweet potatoes and then down a bit of steep grass to get to the office. But amazingly there is an internet connection there. As there are only 2 other people plus Pasteur Emmanuel and myself and Michael it should be possible to get on it to keep up with e mails once i move there. Michael has a master plan to have keys cut so that we can get in the office and use it for free at the weekends. Good plan!
I do like Shyogwe though. It has a nice peaceful feeling to it – its quite rural but not as poor as Gisagara. It has the feeling of a small village community about it but it is not so isolated from the town. You can walk back to the main road in 1 hour and back to the town in 2 hours. I took a ride on the back of a bicycle back to the road - poor man with me on the back and I only paid him 200RWF ie 20pence. Think he deserved a medal. Then walked back to the house in Giterama – called in every shop on the way to try to buy tuna for dinner but there was none to be had anywhere in the place so had to have eggs.
Thus started the virtual food game – see below.
The highlight of the day today was getting the charcoal stove going without having to fan it. We cook outside in the outhouse using a charcoal stove and it invariably goes dark by the time we have the charcoal going. Its like trying to light a barbecue without the firelighters and then trying to keep it going without the sacrificial sausage! We have to fan it to get the flames going and it takes ages. We always end up cooking by torch light as there is no electricity out there.
But today with a combination of Soraya’s charcoal arranging skills and my skills at making firelighters (to which I am indebted to my grandmother who showed me how when she used to light her coal fire) and a little bit of synchronised fanning, we managed to get it raging. We cooked a moussaka – except that we had to imagine that it had lamb in it because we had no lamb.
Then when we had eaten we had virtual dessert. This game started yesterday when I bought some eggs and I said to Hayley we could have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs but we will have to imagine the smoked salmon. And today for the first time it was actually hot so we had pineapple and ice cream but without the ice cream. So for virtual dessert Hayley had (imaginary) rhubarb crumble and Soraya had (imaginary) chocolate mousse. It has far less calories that ordinary chocolate mousse.
Its strange because I am not craving or missing anything back home but the range of food is so limited. Still its very healthy as it is often direct from the ground to the market to the saucepan.
Also today for the first time we actually had some hot weather. Angela Watt was under the impression that I was going to surprise her and come back in December as a bronzed goddess. But its been the short rainy season and although its always warm in the daytime it is often cloudy and it rains every day. The only way I am going to get brown is if I go rusty.
Though today Hayley and I managed to sit out in the sun – I actually got my legs burned. You have to remember the altitude. We are just below 2000 metres above sea level here and parts of Rwanda around the volcanoes national park goes up to 4000 metres above sea level. Bearing in mind that Everest is 9000 metres thats pretty high up. But it was lovely and hot and we laid outside and pretended we were in Greece. It was another virtual game to imagine we had the swimming pool. Decided we could have a pool party by everyone bringing the bowl they wash their clothes in and having a paddle...... We were obviously getting a little carried away by all this imagination stuff at this stage.
Thursday 30th October
Had hoped to move my furniture but it didn’t happen so went to Kigali instead and met Nidhi. On the way back we got the most fantastic view of the volcanoes in the distance. This area of Rwanda is very hilly and goes into mountains the further west you go. Its really stunningly beautiful and a lovely bus ride just to gaze out of the windows. Because its the rainy season everywhere is very very green at the moment and the markets are well stocked. We keep seeing the occasional thing that we have not seen before. Today we saw sweetcorn.
One thing that is also very noticeable in Rwanda is the number of people. It is the most densely populated country in Africa and it feels like it! It doesn’t matter where you are in any day there are always people around. They are either working in the fields or hanging around outside their houses or walking along the sides of the roads or travelling by bike or bus or moto. But you never ever go anywhere without there being people around.
And there seem to be so many children. Hayley works with the YMCA equivalent and they told her that 47% of the population are 18 or under. The organisation she works with has projects which support orphans and helps them to support themselves as communities. You do see a lot of children and a lot of women carrying them on their backs. How this population is going to continue to feed itself is very difficult to imagine. Most of the population live off the land and every bit of land is already cultivated so it just seems impossible to sustain this level of growth. Its a problem just waiting to happen.
Although it feels like a very safe place to be – you never ever feel worried that anyone is going to harm you in any way the Rwandans are so friendly with us and with one another – there is an obvious difference between hutus and Tutsis but it is never spoken about. When you have been here a while you can recognise the Tutsis and the Hutus. But you never ever mention it or ask a person which they are. Some people tell you when they get to know you and we have heard some pretty grim tales but unless they volunteer the information it is kept quiet. The president is keen to build Rwanda as a united country where everyone is Rwandan but it is a distinctly varied population. There are still gashaka trials going on where people can accuse others of atrocities committed during the genocide and they meet at a local level to decide if the accused people are guilty or not. There was a trial going on right outside our back door the other day and a crowd had gathered to listen so we went past but of course it was all in Kinyarwanda. It has to be difficult though for the Rwandans as it sets neighbour against neighbour 14 years on from the genocide. The longer you live here the more you are aware of an underlying tension which is not threatening to us in any way but is there nevertheless.
We are also aware at the moment of the news across the border at the northern point of lake Kivu where there is conflict between Rwanda and the Congolese and UN troops have been brought in. So far we have not heard anything from the Embassy or Programme office apart from being told not to travel there. Hayley and I noticed a bus to Goma in Kigali but it was definitely empty! Well it would be wouldn’t it.
There is also a very clear divide between the rich and the poor. This is very evident when you go into Kigali and see all the big cars and the people shopping in Akumat. Back in the countryside most of the population would not even be able to afford to get into Kigali to look round never mind buy anything.
So as a volunteer you have to be very conscious that you cannot change the world. I can see a role for myself now that I have got more into my work but I also recognise that whatever I do will be a small drop in the ocean and will only touch the lives of a few people. But it is a great experience living here and seeing and perhaps beginning to understand what life is like here. Even though it has been impossible for me to get started on work as I had hoped, I have become immersed in the culture and the way of life and that in itself has been a great experience.
For example people are always trying to sell us things. They see a white person and they think money. There is a Rwandan price and a muzungu price and we know this so it sort of becomes a big joke between us and the person trying to sell us something. Even when you are sitting on buses people are shoving stuff in through the windows trying to sell you anything from a bag of peanuts to a pair of shoes. And as soon as you say “ni menshi” which means too much they just fall about laughing.
They always laugh at any Kinyarwanda we attempt but then I am not surprised as it is pretty crazy.
I will just finish this by writing out (if I can ) the phrase “Its the 29th of April 1976.
Take a deep breath
Turi ku itariki ya makumyabiri na’ icyenda, ukwezi kwa Mata, umwaka wa’igihumbi maganacyenda minronwirindwi na gatandatu.
On that note I am fairly up to date. We have in country training next week in Kigali. It will be great to meet up with everyone and share stories and experiences but a little boring for the blog I should imagine. I am going to a party this weekend up in the mountains and I will try to take some more photos and try to get them on the blog if i can. It takes ages with the speed of the internet and I never feel like attempting it.
Eeek it will be November soon and I am only just getting my head around what I am doing here. The good news is that it is finally all falling into place a bit more. Have met Michael several times this week and have also met Bruce and Soraya and we have planned a way forward with the work we are going to do before we both go home for Christmas. We are going to make some resources and hopefully work with a school with the resources and some English teaching.
Although its extremely quiet at this time of year have done several things this week: been into Kigali to sort stuff out, met the Pasteur of my diocese and actually been into my office. You have to walk through a field of pineapples and bananas and then down a dirt track and through another field of sweet potatoes and then down a bit of steep grass to get to the office. But amazingly there is an internet connection there. As there are only 2 other people plus Pasteur Emmanuel and myself and Michael it should be possible to get on it to keep up with e mails once i move there. Michael has a master plan to have keys cut so that we can get in the office and use it for free at the weekends. Good plan!
I do like Shyogwe though. It has a nice peaceful feeling to it – its quite rural but not as poor as Gisagara. It has the feeling of a small village community about it but it is not so isolated from the town. You can walk back to the main road in 1 hour and back to the town in 2 hours. I took a ride on the back of a bicycle back to the road - poor man with me on the back and I only paid him 200RWF ie 20pence. Think he deserved a medal. Then walked back to the house in Giterama – called in every shop on the way to try to buy tuna for dinner but there was none to be had anywhere in the place so had to have eggs.
Thus started the virtual food game – see below.
The highlight of the day today was getting the charcoal stove going without having to fan it. We cook outside in the outhouse using a charcoal stove and it invariably goes dark by the time we have the charcoal going. Its like trying to light a barbecue without the firelighters and then trying to keep it going without the sacrificial sausage! We have to fan it to get the flames going and it takes ages. We always end up cooking by torch light as there is no electricity out there.
But today with a combination of Soraya’s charcoal arranging skills and my skills at making firelighters (to which I am indebted to my grandmother who showed me how when she used to light her coal fire) and a little bit of synchronised fanning, we managed to get it raging. We cooked a moussaka – except that we had to imagine that it had lamb in it because we had no lamb.
Then when we had eaten we had virtual dessert. This game started yesterday when I bought some eggs and I said to Hayley we could have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs but we will have to imagine the smoked salmon. And today for the first time it was actually hot so we had pineapple and ice cream but without the ice cream. So for virtual dessert Hayley had (imaginary) rhubarb crumble and Soraya had (imaginary) chocolate mousse. It has far less calories that ordinary chocolate mousse.
Its strange because I am not craving or missing anything back home but the range of food is so limited. Still its very healthy as it is often direct from the ground to the market to the saucepan.
Also today for the first time we actually had some hot weather. Angela Watt was under the impression that I was going to surprise her and come back in December as a bronzed goddess. But its been the short rainy season and although its always warm in the daytime it is often cloudy and it rains every day. The only way I am going to get brown is if I go rusty.
Though today Hayley and I managed to sit out in the sun – I actually got my legs burned. You have to remember the altitude. We are just below 2000 metres above sea level here and parts of Rwanda around the volcanoes national park goes up to 4000 metres above sea level. Bearing in mind that Everest is 9000 metres thats pretty high up. But it was lovely and hot and we laid outside and pretended we were in Greece. It was another virtual game to imagine we had the swimming pool. Decided we could have a pool party by everyone bringing the bowl they wash their clothes in and having a paddle...... We were obviously getting a little carried away by all this imagination stuff at this stage.
Thursday 30th October
Had hoped to move my furniture but it didn’t happen so went to Kigali instead and met Nidhi. On the way back we got the most fantastic view of the volcanoes in the distance. This area of Rwanda is very hilly and goes into mountains the further west you go. Its really stunningly beautiful and a lovely bus ride just to gaze out of the windows. Because its the rainy season everywhere is very very green at the moment and the markets are well stocked. We keep seeing the occasional thing that we have not seen before. Today we saw sweetcorn.
One thing that is also very noticeable in Rwanda is the number of people. It is the most densely populated country in Africa and it feels like it! It doesn’t matter where you are in any day there are always people around. They are either working in the fields or hanging around outside their houses or walking along the sides of the roads or travelling by bike or bus or moto. But you never ever go anywhere without there being people around.
And there seem to be so many children. Hayley works with the YMCA equivalent and they told her that 47% of the population are 18 or under. The organisation she works with has projects which support orphans and helps them to support themselves as communities. You do see a lot of children and a lot of women carrying them on their backs. How this population is going to continue to feed itself is very difficult to imagine. Most of the population live off the land and every bit of land is already cultivated so it just seems impossible to sustain this level of growth. Its a problem just waiting to happen.
Although it feels like a very safe place to be – you never ever feel worried that anyone is going to harm you in any way the Rwandans are so friendly with us and with one another – there is an obvious difference between hutus and Tutsis but it is never spoken about. When you have been here a while you can recognise the Tutsis and the Hutus. But you never ever mention it or ask a person which they are. Some people tell you when they get to know you and we have heard some pretty grim tales but unless they volunteer the information it is kept quiet. The president is keen to build Rwanda as a united country where everyone is Rwandan but it is a distinctly varied population. There are still gashaka trials going on where people can accuse others of atrocities committed during the genocide and they meet at a local level to decide if the accused people are guilty or not. There was a trial going on right outside our back door the other day and a crowd had gathered to listen so we went past but of course it was all in Kinyarwanda. It has to be difficult though for the Rwandans as it sets neighbour against neighbour 14 years on from the genocide. The longer you live here the more you are aware of an underlying tension which is not threatening to us in any way but is there nevertheless.
We are also aware at the moment of the news across the border at the northern point of lake Kivu where there is conflict between Rwanda and the Congolese and UN troops have been brought in. So far we have not heard anything from the Embassy or Programme office apart from being told not to travel there. Hayley and I noticed a bus to Goma in Kigali but it was definitely empty! Well it would be wouldn’t it.
There is also a very clear divide between the rich and the poor. This is very evident when you go into Kigali and see all the big cars and the people shopping in Akumat. Back in the countryside most of the population would not even be able to afford to get into Kigali to look round never mind buy anything.
So as a volunteer you have to be very conscious that you cannot change the world. I can see a role for myself now that I have got more into my work but I also recognise that whatever I do will be a small drop in the ocean and will only touch the lives of a few people. But it is a great experience living here and seeing and perhaps beginning to understand what life is like here. Even though it has been impossible for me to get started on work as I had hoped, I have become immersed in the culture and the way of life and that in itself has been a great experience.
For example people are always trying to sell us things. They see a white person and they think money. There is a Rwandan price and a muzungu price and we know this so it sort of becomes a big joke between us and the person trying to sell us something. Even when you are sitting on buses people are shoving stuff in through the windows trying to sell you anything from a bag of peanuts to a pair of shoes. And as soon as you say “ni menshi” which means too much they just fall about laughing.
They always laugh at any Kinyarwanda we attempt but then I am not surprised as it is pretty crazy.
I will just finish this by writing out (if I can ) the phrase “Its the 29th of April 1976.
Take a deep breath
Turi ku itariki ya makumyabiri na’ icyenda, ukwezi kwa Mata, umwaka wa’igihumbi maganacyenda minronwirindwi na gatandatu.
On that note I am fairly up to date. We have in country training next week in Kigali. It will be great to meet up with everyone and share stories and experiences but a little boring for the blog I should imagine. I am going to a party this weekend up in the mountains and I will try to take some more photos and try to get them on the blog if i can. It takes ages with the speed of the internet and I never feel like attempting it.
Saturday 25 October 2008
Starting work finally – sort of!!!!!!!!!!!
Well Monday was the day i was supposed to be starting work – but of course the schools are all now closed for their exams and then the holidays. I have wasted so much time messing around sorting out my job that I have missed the opportunity to go in and see much more than one school.
However its not a problem as for most of this week Michael and I have met and discussed what we are going to do , how we are going to work and have met other volunteers in their offices to see what we need to do when we finally get going.
In the middle of all this we took time to visit a fantastic museum at Nyanze. It has a reconstruction of the kings palace that he lived in until 1931. It is completely made of straw and wood and we had a fantastic personal guided tour by a Rwandan woman in costume who spoke impeccable French and whose historical knowledge of Rwanda was excellent. It was really interesting to see the photographs and information about the German and Austrian colonisers of the 19th century and read about the historical development of Rwanda. The guide never faltered under the bombardment of questions she got from Mike and Myself. The photos of the previous king of Rwanda were quite formidable. He looked about 7 feet tall. – It is one way of recognising the tutsi aristocracy because they are so tall . He died in mysterious circumstances in 1959 and was succeeded by his younger brother who is in exile in America. I came away feeling much more knowledgeable about the history of the country – an excellent afternoon’s visit.
The rest of the week has been taken up with meeting other volunteers and discussing our work. I am really looking forward to working with Michael. He is the only other primary head teacher here (many volunteers are secondary trained) and as such we speak the same educational language. Any of my primary colleagues reading this will know exactly what I mean.
I am in Butare today to meet some other education people and am catching up with Ruairi for a beer tonight. He has finally managed to get himself into the district office and get his hands on the statistics he needs to analyse the results of the schools in the gisagara district. Good for him – he deserves a medal. But it will be nice to see him and have a beer.
Well Monday was the day i was supposed to be starting work – but of course the schools are all now closed for their exams and then the holidays. I have wasted so much time messing around sorting out my job that I have missed the opportunity to go in and see much more than one school.
However its not a problem as for most of this week Michael and I have met and discussed what we are going to do , how we are going to work and have met other volunteers in their offices to see what we need to do when we finally get going.
In the middle of all this we took time to visit a fantastic museum at Nyanze. It has a reconstruction of the kings palace that he lived in until 1931. It is completely made of straw and wood and we had a fantastic personal guided tour by a Rwandan woman in costume who spoke impeccable French and whose historical knowledge of Rwanda was excellent. It was really interesting to see the photographs and information about the German and Austrian colonisers of the 19th century and read about the historical development of Rwanda. The guide never faltered under the bombardment of questions she got from Mike and Myself. The photos of the previous king of Rwanda were quite formidable. He looked about 7 feet tall. – It is one way of recognising the tutsi aristocracy because they are so tall . He died in mysterious circumstances in 1959 and was succeeded by his younger brother who is in exile in America. I came away feeling much more knowledgeable about the history of the country – an excellent afternoon’s visit.
The rest of the week has been taken up with meeting other volunteers and discussing our work. I am really looking forward to working with Michael. He is the only other primary head teacher here (many volunteers are secondary trained) and as such we speak the same educational language. Any of my primary colleagues reading this will know exactly what I mean.
I am in Butare today to meet some other education people and am catching up with Ruairi for a beer tonight. He has finally managed to get himself into the district office and get his hands on the statistics he needs to analyse the results of the schools in the gisagara district. Good for him – he deserves a medal. But it will be nice to see him and have a beer.
blog 6
Monday 13th October – The Derelict House
Today is the day to go and look at the house at Gisagara. Naturally we were late setting off and then no one knew who had the key and it was the usual messing about – well it was worth the wait for the astonishment value. The house was virtually derelict!!! How they could have thought we could live there I just do not know.
It had broken glass, rat droppings, no ceilings for starters and that was just inside.
Outside it was a worse story. There was a filthy tumbledown concrete building which was supposed to be the kitchen and bathroom. The “toilet” was even worse. You had to balance along a ledge about 6 inches wide at the edge of this building to get round to the back where there was some sort of room which almost had a hole in the ground. Half of the building was collapsing down the side of the hill with subsidence round the back
To his credit the district executive secretary was almost apologetic as he knew it was basically inhabitable. He then proceded to say what could be done to do it up – and its probably feasible but I have no idea how long it will take.
This was really the nail in the coffin for me as far as Gisagara was concerned. I e mailed Charlotte and told her there was no way I was going to work there. It was time to find me something else. I suggested the Shyogwe connection I had made with Michael but she said there was too much overlap with other districts.
Finally met the mayor – who suddenly seemed really interested in us and then we realised why. He wanted us to teach his district staff English as they have just had a directive from the government that all lessons in schools will be in English and all work at district level. Thats why they were so keen to find a house and do anything they could to keep us. Nothing to do with primary methodology whatsoever. It all begins to make sense.
Arranged another meeting with Charlotte in Kigali for Wednesday.......................................
Tuesday 14th October
GREAT EXCITMENT – AM GOING TO VISIT A SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michael has very kindly let me accompany him on a visit to a school near Nyanze. I am quite excited as it is my first chance to see what actually goes on. In the event I am horrified............
Its easier to do it class by class
1. Just as we are visiting first class some glass comes flying out of a window behind us just missing us by a few seconds. The teacher has gone to the bank to sort out her salary and there is no cover for her so the kids are running riot. No one bats an eyelid
2. The first classroom is ok. Just a teacher and a blackboard and chalk and children in rows of desks. The same few children are answering all the questions and the others are letting them. I sit next to a boy of around 15. If children fail end of year exams in Rwanda they have to sit the whole year again.
3. IN Reception the children are also sitting at wooden benches looking at the blackboard. The youngest is 3. The “teacher” is a young boy of around 18 because the teacher has left. There are no toys no crayons no paper - nothing.
4. In the next three classrooms which are catch ups for those who missed school we meet the same teacher in each classroom. She is “teaching” three classes at once. They are copying out conjugations of French verbs but when we try to address them in French she tells us that they do not speak it?~?
5. The next classroom is dire. There are five sums on the board with addition and subtraction of hundreds tens and units. There are around 50 children. They have tried to do the sums and the teacher is walking round the room marking their books while they all wait and throwing them back in the most desultory fashion.
6. Out on the grass two classes are being covered by one teacher. There are around 100 children copying out words in Kinyarwanda. She is going round marking them with no interest whatsoever
Need I carry on............ There is no running water in the school and we didn’t even try to look at the toilet blocks.
When asked about her school development plan the headteacher rolled her eyes and said she would like two new classrooms. Wasn’t quite what we meant.
Michael and I asked a few more questions and left feeling every disheartened.
We walked along the track to meet another volunteer called Ken for lunch. I had been speaking to him at the party. He did have a very tough time in his place at the beginning and I sympathise with him and how difficult it was but now that I am in Nyanze I can compare the two situations and they are quite different. Here in Nyanze there is a house and an office and transport. In Gisagara there none of those - then there is a boss who is not committing himself either and says anything at all just t try to keep us happy. In addition the people who matter like the mayor and the executive secretary seem to be giving no support – Francois is way down in the pecking order in their eyes. And it all became very obvious why they wanted us when they asked for English lessons.
Everyone is beginning to see that the Gisagara placement is not ready for a methodology trainer. Even Ruairi agrees because we have both been together in this situation for the last month and we both know that it is a waste of time trying at the moment. Its a pity VSO did not get all this situation sussed before we got here to prevent us wasting all the time we have.
However over lunch Ken Michael and myself discuss the possibility again of me working in Shyogwe with Michael. It took Ken an awful long time to feel he was getting anywhere with what he is doing in Rwanda but it does seem to make sense to build on from what he has already successfully put in place. Work together and consolidate rather than all trying to do our own separate thing in isolation.
Will Try again with Charlotte tomorrow
Wednesday 15th October
Leave at 6.30 to catch bus for meeting at Programme Office.
Charlotte has nothing much more to offer than a new placement coming up in Butare but she has not even done the initial meeting yet and it will be January at least before I can get working. So I state my case again for the Shyogwe option. She listens and starts to see that it is a good idea. So she decides to make a few phone calls after all.. I talk to Mike Silvey (VSO) boss over coffee and tell him I have come up with an idea and he also agrees it is a good idea too. About two hours later Charlotte comes back and says that everyone she has asked has agreed that its a good idea and they want me to start asap. I HAVE A JOB AT LAST!!!!!!
But mostly due to the fact that I found it myself and not I have to say thanks to VSO. Cannot say I have been very impressed so far but at least I can start work next week. I have to move to live with Soraya and Hayley at Giterama on Friday until the house at Shyogwe is vacant at the end of November . That would be okay because they are both lovely and their house is big and has electricity – then I suddenly remember about the bloody puppy that lives there that bit me on Saturday night!!
Well there’s one thing about coming and doing stuff like VSO – you just learn to get on with things and puppy or no puppy it’s a good idea as it is very close to the Shyogwe village. My daughters will be laughing their socks off when they read this because they know how much i really don’t like dogs.
That evening Francois (Gisagara boss) finally turns up at the Faucon the third time he has said he would but at least an hour and a half late as usual. I have to explain that I am leaving to work elsewhere which isn’t easy but Ruairi is going to stick it out and see if he can make it work. I think he has a lot on his plate and I think he is very brave to take it on – in addition he is going to have to live in the house in Gisagara when it is done up but good luck to him. I still have my doubts about the whole place – but I do think that Ruairi has more chance of getting something done than I have as the district office can be built up first before they take on a methodology trainer next year.
Thursday 16th October
Go up to Kigeme to make rice sack resources with Amy – we have a great time and a good laugh as well as putting the world to rights – and VSO!!!!
The rice sacks are very basic resources for classroom walls – we draw things like alphabets and weather charts on to clean rice sacks. It sounds really basic but Ken was saying that it is the first sign that any changes can be see in classrooms now - teachers are at least putting them on the walls. The training that is being done with teachers includes these rice sacks and the fact that they are using them is some evidence of change, however small.
It seems that no matter how much training is given in methodology and how many model lessons volunteers give, there is no evidence of this happening in primary schools even now so at least the rice sacks are making one small difference.
Friday 17th October – Moving Day
Am packed and ready as promised by 12.30 pm. Of course it is hours later and dark by the time my cases are picked up and I am off to Giterama – arrive in the dark to a lovely welcome from Soraya. The puppy does seem to have calmed down a little. I bet i end up looking after him the next day and I do!
Unpacking and the market and the puppy - Saturday
Phew!!!!! Next day I can unpack at last - I put some furniture in the room and hang up some clothes. What a difference to the tiny room at the motel.
Soraya and I go to the market. Its necessary to barter but she turns out to be a demon at it! And she does it all in Kinywarwanda too which is very impressive but I tease her at the way she flutters her big brown eyes to get 500RWF off the mayonnaise. She’s amazing.
The food here is very limited in its variety. So its easier to list it
You can buy the following vegetables – and nothing else!!!!!!!!
· Green bean s
· Tomatoes
· Cucumber
· Carrots
· Cabbage
· Avocado
· Onions
· Cassava leaves
· Spinach
· Some nasty little aubergine things which are rank
· AND THAT IS IT
Fruit – you can buy
· Bananas
· Pineapple
· Passion fruit
· Tree tomatoes (disgusting)
· AND THAT IS IT
· Oh sorry sometimes mangoes
You can also buy sweet potatoes, ordinary potatoes, plantain, rice and beans
I have seen some garlic and sometimes even parsley and something that i think is some sort of coriander . You can also buy cassava flour to make this horrible bread stuff that looks like is hasn’t been cooked.
AND THAT IS YOUR LOT!!!!!
In Giterama you can buy all of these things but in the rural areas there are times when you can only buy maybe two of these things. So you live on cabbage and beans for a week if thats all there is. It depends on the crops.
You can buy more in the supermarkets in the towns but then you have to pay because they have been imported. An apple costs 300 RWF - which would make it around £10 in real terms for one apple. No ordinary Rwandan family can afford that. No VSO volunteer can afford them on a regular basis either. But you have to treat yourself now and again or you would go nuts.
At least now that I am living in a house with a kitchen I can make some things for myself and I buy a grater and make a lovely cabbage, carrot, cucumber and tomato salad which Soraya and I eat with boiled eggs and avocado. Its just yum to have some nice simple fresh food that I made myself. Such little things but they make a lot of difference to how you feel.
Soraya goes off to the party (I was invited but it is just so nice to be in the house with my things and I want to get sorted so I have sent apologies) And Hayley rings to say she wants to stay in Kigali as I knew she would so I have to look after the puppy. He is still trying to bite but i wack him on the nose a few times – he growls at me – but i just walk off. I would rather have a class full of 8 year olds any day!!!!! Have to wack him a few times before he gets the message and i just leave him to his own devices. He starts to go into Hayley’s room where he sleeps in a box. I think he is wondering where she is but he goes and gets himself in the box and I actually stroke him until he is settled and asleep Unbelievable but true.
During the afternoon I got my solar powered shower going. Its brilliant – i only left it out in the sun for about three hours and I have enough warm/almost hot water for a long shower. I had to wedge it in the window of the bathroom to get the pressure to work but then it was really efficient. Its wonderful - thank you Angela. Such thoughtful things make you very happy here!!!!!
Little things remind you of the lovely people back home. Sterilising wipes from Liz for example for the bathroom in the Ineze. It was yuk until I remembered I had them and Imodium also from liz. Notebooks from people to just write stuff down so I don’t forget all the varied experiences so far. Presents from the children in my class all of which I brought with me and have read/used/worn etc My little Zen player that they got me from work – I have used it so much and I didn’t even have time to load lots of music on before I came. Its great to listen to in bed at night. I’ve brought with me all of the gifts and cards i got before I left and its quite overwhelming just how much they remind you of home and of all the lovely people that gave them to you.
So thats where I am right now. Feeling a bit nervous in a strange house on my own. The children have been knocking on the door and ringing the bell but i used my best teacher voice to shout Hagarara which means stop and they did. I suppose we are being watched all the time – but you can get a bit neurotic about it. A man shouted muzungu at me from up a tree into the back yard where I was washing my clothes. You do this with soap and a scrubbing brush and cold water. I thought he had gone to a lot of trouble to gt a glimpse of me as he was very high up – but then I realised he was trying to get a bird’s eye view of the footie match Muzungu I might be but more important that football I am obviously not!
Shyogwe
Grab a moto up to Shyogwe on Sunday to see what its like and its a very pleasant spot. Not so hilly and dramatic as the area to the west of Giterama but very pretty nevertheless. As its a diocese you can see the difference in standards of housing all the way along the dirt road. The people seem very friendly and I get a look at the house where I will be living for the next year. Its next door to a dormitory containing a bible group who apparently start singing at every random opportunity, and a colony of bats roosting noisily in the trees nearby.
The house is small but comfortable and there is a domestique who cleans and cooks and washes clothes seven days a week for £15.00 per month. She brings hot water every morning for a shower which is a great luxury - by shower of course i mean bucket of water over the head! She only speaks Kinyarwanda though so I had better do some practising. I am sure I will be fine there, though Michael and I will have to come to some arrangements about where we eat breakfast and stuff because at the moment they eat in Cerys house every day which is where I will be eventually. It has electricity too – heaven.
The three of us walk back for some exercise and its only an hour back to the main road which is great. Civilisation is near at hand. It is surprising how very quickly being somewhere so different as this soon becomes the norm. You just accept that this is where you are here and now. Dirt roads, motos, tiny dark shops, things not available in shops, people walking everywhere many with things on their heads, people without shoes, beggars, people shouting muzungu at you, tiny children staring, markets. Everything around you is so different – the whole range of sights and sounds of an average town street – but yet everywhere you go people are just the same. Here in Rwanda people are so helpful. If you ask them where you can get something they will walk you to where you need to be and show you what to do as well as telling you what price you should be paying so you don’t get ripped off. There is definitely a muzungu price and a Rwandan price and you really have to stand your ground. More reason to learn some more Kinyarwanda.
Today is the day to go and look at the house at Gisagara. Naturally we were late setting off and then no one knew who had the key and it was the usual messing about – well it was worth the wait for the astonishment value. The house was virtually derelict!!! How they could have thought we could live there I just do not know.
It had broken glass, rat droppings, no ceilings for starters and that was just inside.
Outside it was a worse story. There was a filthy tumbledown concrete building which was supposed to be the kitchen and bathroom. The “toilet” was even worse. You had to balance along a ledge about 6 inches wide at the edge of this building to get round to the back where there was some sort of room which almost had a hole in the ground. Half of the building was collapsing down the side of the hill with subsidence round the back
To his credit the district executive secretary was almost apologetic as he knew it was basically inhabitable. He then proceded to say what could be done to do it up – and its probably feasible but I have no idea how long it will take.
This was really the nail in the coffin for me as far as Gisagara was concerned. I e mailed Charlotte and told her there was no way I was going to work there. It was time to find me something else. I suggested the Shyogwe connection I had made with Michael but she said there was too much overlap with other districts.
Finally met the mayor – who suddenly seemed really interested in us and then we realised why. He wanted us to teach his district staff English as they have just had a directive from the government that all lessons in schools will be in English and all work at district level. Thats why they were so keen to find a house and do anything they could to keep us. Nothing to do with primary methodology whatsoever. It all begins to make sense.
Arranged another meeting with Charlotte in Kigali for Wednesday.......................................
Tuesday 14th October
GREAT EXCITMENT – AM GOING TO VISIT A SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michael has very kindly let me accompany him on a visit to a school near Nyanze. I am quite excited as it is my first chance to see what actually goes on. In the event I am horrified............
Its easier to do it class by class
1. Just as we are visiting first class some glass comes flying out of a window behind us just missing us by a few seconds. The teacher has gone to the bank to sort out her salary and there is no cover for her so the kids are running riot. No one bats an eyelid
2. The first classroom is ok. Just a teacher and a blackboard and chalk and children in rows of desks. The same few children are answering all the questions and the others are letting them. I sit next to a boy of around 15. If children fail end of year exams in Rwanda they have to sit the whole year again.
3. IN Reception the children are also sitting at wooden benches looking at the blackboard. The youngest is 3. The “teacher” is a young boy of around 18 because the teacher has left. There are no toys no crayons no paper - nothing.
4. In the next three classrooms which are catch ups for those who missed school we meet the same teacher in each classroom. She is “teaching” three classes at once. They are copying out conjugations of French verbs but when we try to address them in French she tells us that they do not speak it?~?
5. The next classroom is dire. There are five sums on the board with addition and subtraction of hundreds tens and units. There are around 50 children. They have tried to do the sums and the teacher is walking round the room marking their books while they all wait and throwing them back in the most desultory fashion.
6. Out on the grass two classes are being covered by one teacher. There are around 100 children copying out words in Kinyarwanda. She is going round marking them with no interest whatsoever
Need I carry on............ There is no running water in the school and we didn’t even try to look at the toilet blocks.
When asked about her school development plan the headteacher rolled her eyes and said she would like two new classrooms. Wasn’t quite what we meant.
Michael and I asked a few more questions and left feeling every disheartened.
We walked along the track to meet another volunteer called Ken for lunch. I had been speaking to him at the party. He did have a very tough time in his place at the beginning and I sympathise with him and how difficult it was but now that I am in Nyanze I can compare the two situations and they are quite different. Here in Nyanze there is a house and an office and transport. In Gisagara there none of those - then there is a boss who is not committing himself either and says anything at all just t try to keep us happy. In addition the people who matter like the mayor and the executive secretary seem to be giving no support – Francois is way down in the pecking order in their eyes. And it all became very obvious why they wanted us when they asked for English lessons.
Everyone is beginning to see that the Gisagara placement is not ready for a methodology trainer. Even Ruairi agrees because we have both been together in this situation for the last month and we both know that it is a waste of time trying at the moment. Its a pity VSO did not get all this situation sussed before we got here to prevent us wasting all the time we have.
However over lunch Ken Michael and myself discuss the possibility again of me working in Shyogwe with Michael. It took Ken an awful long time to feel he was getting anywhere with what he is doing in Rwanda but it does seem to make sense to build on from what he has already successfully put in place. Work together and consolidate rather than all trying to do our own separate thing in isolation.
Will Try again with Charlotte tomorrow
Wednesday 15th October
Leave at 6.30 to catch bus for meeting at Programme Office.
Charlotte has nothing much more to offer than a new placement coming up in Butare but she has not even done the initial meeting yet and it will be January at least before I can get working. So I state my case again for the Shyogwe option. She listens and starts to see that it is a good idea. So she decides to make a few phone calls after all.. I talk to Mike Silvey (VSO) boss over coffee and tell him I have come up with an idea and he also agrees it is a good idea too. About two hours later Charlotte comes back and says that everyone she has asked has agreed that its a good idea and they want me to start asap. I HAVE A JOB AT LAST!!!!!!
But mostly due to the fact that I found it myself and not I have to say thanks to VSO. Cannot say I have been very impressed so far but at least I can start work next week. I have to move to live with Soraya and Hayley at Giterama on Friday until the house at Shyogwe is vacant at the end of November . That would be okay because they are both lovely and their house is big and has electricity – then I suddenly remember about the bloody puppy that lives there that bit me on Saturday night!!
Well there’s one thing about coming and doing stuff like VSO – you just learn to get on with things and puppy or no puppy it’s a good idea as it is very close to the Shyogwe village. My daughters will be laughing their socks off when they read this because they know how much i really don’t like dogs.
That evening Francois (Gisagara boss) finally turns up at the Faucon the third time he has said he would but at least an hour and a half late as usual. I have to explain that I am leaving to work elsewhere which isn’t easy but Ruairi is going to stick it out and see if he can make it work. I think he has a lot on his plate and I think he is very brave to take it on – in addition he is going to have to live in the house in Gisagara when it is done up but good luck to him. I still have my doubts about the whole place – but I do think that Ruairi has more chance of getting something done than I have as the district office can be built up first before they take on a methodology trainer next year.
Thursday 16th October
Go up to Kigeme to make rice sack resources with Amy – we have a great time and a good laugh as well as putting the world to rights – and VSO!!!!
The rice sacks are very basic resources for classroom walls – we draw things like alphabets and weather charts on to clean rice sacks. It sounds really basic but Ken was saying that it is the first sign that any changes can be see in classrooms now - teachers are at least putting them on the walls. The training that is being done with teachers includes these rice sacks and the fact that they are using them is some evidence of change, however small.
It seems that no matter how much training is given in methodology and how many model lessons volunteers give, there is no evidence of this happening in primary schools even now so at least the rice sacks are making one small difference.
Friday 17th October – Moving Day
Am packed and ready as promised by 12.30 pm. Of course it is hours later and dark by the time my cases are picked up and I am off to Giterama – arrive in the dark to a lovely welcome from Soraya. The puppy does seem to have calmed down a little. I bet i end up looking after him the next day and I do!
Unpacking and the market and the puppy - Saturday
Phew!!!!! Next day I can unpack at last - I put some furniture in the room and hang up some clothes. What a difference to the tiny room at the motel.
Soraya and I go to the market. Its necessary to barter but she turns out to be a demon at it! And she does it all in Kinywarwanda too which is very impressive but I tease her at the way she flutters her big brown eyes to get 500RWF off the mayonnaise. She’s amazing.
The food here is very limited in its variety. So its easier to list it
You can buy the following vegetables – and nothing else!!!!!!!!
· Green bean s
· Tomatoes
· Cucumber
· Carrots
· Cabbage
· Avocado
· Onions
· Cassava leaves
· Spinach
· Some nasty little aubergine things which are rank
· AND THAT IS IT
Fruit – you can buy
· Bananas
· Pineapple
· Passion fruit
· Tree tomatoes (disgusting)
· AND THAT IS IT
· Oh sorry sometimes mangoes
You can also buy sweet potatoes, ordinary potatoes, plantain, rice and beans
I have seen some garlic and sometimes even parsley and something that i think is some sort of coriander . You can also buy cassava flour to make this horrible bread stuff that looks like is hasn’t been cooked.
AND THAT IS YOUR LOT!!!!!
In Giterama you can buy all of these things but in the rural areas there are times when you can only buy maybe two of these things. So you live on cabbage and beans for a week if thats all there is. It depends on the crops.
You can buy more in the supermarkets in the towns but then you have to pay because they have been imported. An apple costs 300 RWF - which would make it around £10 in real terms for one apple. No ordinary Rwandan family can afford that. No VSO volunteer can afford them on a regular basis either. But you have to treat yourself now and again or you would go nuts.
At least now that I am living in a house with a kitchen I can make some things for myself and I buy a grater and make a lovely cabbage, carrot, cucumber and tomato salad which Soraya and I eat with boiled eggs and avocado. Its just yum to have some nice simple fresh food that I made myself. Such little things but they make a lot of difference to how you feel.
Soraya goes off to the party (I was invited but it is just so nice to be in the house with my things and I want to get sorted so I have sent apologies) And Hayley rings to say she wants to stay in Kigali as I knew she would so I have to look after the puppy. He is still trying to bite but i wack him on the nose a few times – he growls at me – but i just walk off. I would rather have a class full of 8 year olds any day!!!!! Have to wack him a few times before he gets the message and i just leave him to his own devices. He starts to go into Hayley’s room where he sleeps in a box. I think he is wondering where she is but he goes and gets himself in the box and I actually stroke him until he is settled and asleep Unbelievable but true.
During the afternoon I got my solar powered shower going. Its brilliant – i only left it out in the sun for about three hours and I have enough warm/almost hot water for a long shower. I had to wedge it in the window of the bathroom to get the pressure to work but then it was really efficient. Its wonderful - thank you Angela. Such thoughtful things make you very happy here!!!!!
Little things remind you of the lovely people back home. Sterilising wipes from Liz for example for the bathroom in the Ineze. It was yuk until I remembered I had them and Imodium also from liz. Notebooks from people to just write stuff down so I don’t forget all the varied experiences so far. Presents from the children in my class all of which I brought with me and have read/used/worn etc My little Zen player that they got me from work – I have used it so much and I didn’t even have time to load lots of music on before I came. Its great to listen to in bed at night. I’ve brought with me all of the gifts and cards i got before I left and its quite overwhelming just how much they remind you of home and of all the lovely people that gave them to you.
So thats where I am right now. Feeling a bit nervous in a strange house on my own. The children have been knocking on the door and ringing the bell but i used my best teacher voice to shout Hagarara which means stop and they did. I suppose we are being watched all the time – but you can get a bit neurotic about it. A man shouted muzungu at me from up a tree into the back yard where I was washing my clothes. You do this with soap and a scrubbing brush and cold water. I thought he had gone to a lot of trouble to gt a glimpse of me as he was very high up – but then I realised he was trying to get a bird’s eye view of the footie match Muzungu I might be but more important that football I am obviously not!
Shyogwe
Grab a moto up to Shyogwe on Sunday to see what its like and its a very pleasant spot. Not so hilly and dramatic as the area to the west of Giterama but very pretty nevertheless. As its a diocese you can see the difference in standards of housing all the way along the dirt road. The people seem very friendly and I get a look at the house where I will be living for the next year. Its next door to a dormitory containing a bible group who apparently start singing at every random opportunity, and a colony of bats roosting noisily in the trees nearby.
The house is small but comfortable and there is a domestique who cleans and cooks and washes clothes seven days a week for £15.00 per month. She brings hot water every morning for a shower which is a great luxury - by shower of course i mean bucket of water over the head! She only speaks Kinyarwanda though so I had better do some practising. I am sure I will be fine there, though Michael and I will have to come to some arrangements about where we eat breakfast and stuff because at the moment they eat in Cerys house every day which is where I will be eventually. It has electricity too – heaven.
The three of us walk back for some exercise and its only an hour back to the main road which is great. Civilisation is near at hand. It is surprising how very quickly being somewhere so different as this soon becomes the norm. You just accept that this is where you are here and now. Dirt roads, motos, tiny dark shops, things not available in shops, people walking everywhere many with things on their heads, people without shoes, beggars, people shouting muzungu at you, tiny children staring, markets. Everything around you is so different – the whole range of sights and sounds of an average town street – but yet everywhere you go people are just the same. Here in Rwanda people are so helpful. If you ask them where you can get something they will walk you to where you need to be and show you what to do as well as telling you what price you should be paying so you don’t get ripped off. There is definitely a muzungu price and a Rwandan price and you really have to stand your ground. More reason to learn some more Kinyarwanda.
Sunday 12 October 2008
Wednesday 8th October
Got up and c aught the bus into Kigali for the meeting with Mike and Charlotte. Popped into the Lebanese supermarket for some lunch first and was actually amazed to find a meat counter of some kind which you would actually dare buy meat from. Not that we can cook anything yet because we are still stuck in the motel but worth remembering for future reference. They actually had things in there i had not seen before including olives!. Not much use anyway as its a two hour drive to Kigali and we are not there often enough to use the meat counter – probably couldn’t afford it either!
The meeting with Mike and Charlotte went well. Mike is quite new to the job but he clearly listens to what is being said and we came up with several solutions. They are going to try to get a meeting with the mayor of the district to see if they are really committed to having the volunteers there. I really don’t think the district is really geared up to having the both of us still but we will see.
Called in at the travel agents before catching the bus back home to get my ticket home for Christmas. Ha ha !! thats funny i have my ticket home although i haven’t even started work yet.
The bus ride is a long two hours twisting and turning and up and down hills, but the scenery is beautiful along the way. The traffic police were out in force both ways – we saw at least 10 on the way up to Kigali and about 6 on the way back. It doesn’t seem to stop the bus drivers driving like loonies though. They drive at ferocious speeds even though the road winds backwards and forwards all the way, and they swing round curves so fast that your feet lift off the floor! Anyway got back safe and sound but not feeling any more positive.
Thursday 9th October
Had a very vivid dream about my friend Ann and woke up feeling quite lucid. Realised that I was in a position which was a long way from what i intended when i first came out here. I wanted to work in a rural village and live in the community and here i was being asked to live in a town and do motor cycle training so that i could get in and out to work each day. So I e mailed Programme Office and told them I didn’t really think Gisagara is going to work for me on that basis. I know that I work better in a community situation where you really get to know everyone and not in isolation in an office or a place on my own.
Met an interesting guy while I was having my dinner at the Ineze. He was called John and was a Ugandan who was working at the National University of Rwanda doing some auditing he said - he gave me his card and it turns out he is actually the chief internal auditor so quite an important person in the university in fact. He spoke very good English and although he is Ugandan he asked the usual questions about family and so on. He was amazed when I said that most people in England do not go to church and just said “Why” quite incredulously. Nice guy though and very interesting to talk to. I’ve met so many nice people while i have been here which is a good thing at least.
Friday 10th October
Actually felt quite down and miserable about the whole situation today. Although Mike and Charlotte have a meeting today with the mayor it just feels like we have been hanging around ages and there is not really any prospect of anything happening either.I have sent a few messages to other people working in education in Rwanda nd hope to go and work with them before i come home for Christmas. But the schools are now on shut down mode for the end of the year – all children do exams at this time of year. Certain years do national exams and the rest do internal exams – if they fail they have to do the year again so you can end up with teenagers still in primary school! But there is little chance of me getting my teeth into a job now until January really.
Its actually quite hot today and I could have gone for a swim if I had got organised. I went for a walk around the block instead.
After calling at the cybercafé and updating my blog we went straight to the Faucon for a beer and we ended up sitting there for about five hours just watching the world go by. Had a nice meal there of some sort of meat escalope and sauté potatoes – have to treat ourselves now and again to keep sane. But unfortunately something I ate did not agree with me rather violently and I woke up with severe stomach pains and diarrhoea – I was up and down to the loo all night. It is going to be an inevitable part of living here I think.
However we did get news from VSO that the Mayor has found a house for us to look at in Gisagara on Monday. I am not holding my breath though until i have seen it.
Saturday 11th October
I was planning to go for a walk today with Jane from Giterama up into a lake in the mountains but i really daren’t go after my stomach upset from the previous night. Also it was raining heavily and I don’t really have the waterproofs and my trainers are up at Gisagara so decided to stay here. Eli, the young man who works at the hotel came and kept me company looking at my photos and listening to my music on the computer. Ruairi has gone as planned so now on my own for the weekend but am perfectly ok with that. Got some good books to read and if its sunny tomorrow i will go for the swim I have been promising myself for ages.
Decided to go to the party after all – and am glad I did. Met loads of other volunteers who are working in Rwanda – it was a really busy party. Got talking to loads of people but the most positive so far was talking to Michael who is working in Shongwye and has visted 10 schools all of whom are crying out for teacher training in methodology. Seems a bit crazy that I cannot start work when all the teachers are asking him everywhere he goes.
Hayley – whose house the party is at has bought a puppy!!!! It is very partial to biting and bites my leg and draws blood. Spend the rest of the evening wondering what the symptoms of rabies are. So far I have not developed an irrational fear of water which i think is one of the main symptoms.
Got up and c aught the bus into Kigali for the meeting with Mike and Charlotte. Popped into the Lebanese supermarket for some lunch first and was actually amazed to find a meat counter of some kind which you would actually dare buy meat from. Not that we can cook anything yet because we are still stuck in the motel but worth remembering for future reference. They actually had things in there i had not seen before including olives!. Not much use anyway as its a two hour drive to Kigali and we are not there often enough to use the meat counter – probably couldn’t afford it either!
The meeting with Mike and Charlotte went well. Mike is quite new to the job but he clearly listens to what is being said and we came up with several solutions. They are going to try to get a meeting with the mayor of the district to see if they are really committed to having the volunteers there. I really don’t think the district is really geared up to having the both of us still but we will see.
Called in at the travel agents before catching the bus back home to get my ticket home for Christmas. Ha ha !! thats funny i have my ticket home although i haven’t even started work yet.
The bus ride is a long two hours twisting and turning and up and down hills, but the scenery is beautiful along the way. The traffic police were out in force both ways – we saw at least 10 on the way up to Kigali and about 6 on the way back. It doesn’t seem to stop the bus drivers driving like loonies though. They drive at ferocious speeds even though the road winds backwards and forwards all the way, and they swing round curves so fast that your feet lift off the floor! Anyway got back safe and sound but not feeling any more positive.
Thursday 9th October
Had a very vivid dream about my friend Ann and woke up feeling quite lucid. Realised that I was in a position which was a long way from what i intended when i first came out here. I wanted to work in a rural village and live in the community and here i was being asked to live in a town and do motor cycle training so that i could get in and out to work each day. So I e mailed Programme Office and told them I didn’t really think Gisagara is going to work for me on that basis. I know that I work better in a community situation where you really get to know everyone and not in isolation in an office or a place on my own.
Met an interesting guy while I was having my dinner at the Ineze. He was called John and was a Ugandan who was working at the National University of Rwanda doing some auditing he said - he gave me his card and it turns out he is actually the chief internal auditor so quite an important person in the university in fact. He spoke very good English and although he is Ugandan he asked the usual questions about family and so on. He was amazed when I said that most people in England do not go to church and just said “Why” quite incredulously. Nice guy though and very interesting to talk to. I’ve met so many nice people while i have been here which is a good thing at least.
Friday 10th October
Actually felt quite down and miserable about the whole situation today. Although Mike and Charlotte have a meeting today with the mayor it just feels like we have been hanging around ages and there is not really any prospect of anything happening either.I have sent a few messages to other people working in education in Rwanda nd hope to go and work with them before i come home for Christmas. But the schools are now on shut down mode for the end of the year – all children do exams at this time of year. Certain years do national exams and the rest do internal exams – if they fail they have to do the year again so you can end up with teenagers still in primary school! But there is little chance of me getting my teeth into a job now until January really.
Its actually quite hot today and I could have gone for a swim if I had got organised. I went for a walk around the block instead.
After calling at the cybercafé and updating my blog we went straight to the Faucon for a beer and we ended up sitting there for about five hours just watching the world go by. Had a nice meal there of some sort of meat escalope and sauté potatoes – have to treat ourselves now and again to keep sane. But unfortunately something I ate did not agree with me rather violently and I woke up with severe stomach pains and diarrhoea – I was up and down to the loo all night. It is going to be an inevitable part of living here I think.
However we did get news from VSO that the Mayor has found a house for us to look at in Gisagara on Monday. I am not holding my breath though until i have seen it.
Saturday 11th October
I was planning to go for a walk today with Jane from Giterama up into a lake in the mountains but i really daren’t go after my stomach upset from the previous night. Also it was raining heavily and I don’t really have the waterproofs and my trainers are up at Gisagara so decided to stay here. Eli, the young man who works at the hotel came and kept me company looking at my photos and listening to my music on the computer. Ruairi has gone as planned so now on my own for the weekend but am perfectly ok with that. Got some good books to read and if its sunny tomorrow i will go for the swim I have been promising myself for ages.
Decided to go to the party after all – and am glad I did. Met loads of other volunteers who are working in Rwanda – it was a really busy party. Got talking to loads of people but the most positive so far was talking to Michael who is working in Shongwye and has visted 10 schools all of whom are crying out for teacher training in methodology. Seems a bit crazy that I cannot start work when all the teachers are asking him everywhere he goes.
Hayley – whose house the party is at has bought a puppy!!!! It is very partial to biting and bites my leg and draws blood. Spend the rest of the evening wondering what the symptoms of rabies are. So far I have not developed an irrational fear of water which i think is one of the main symptoms.
Blog Entry 4
Monday 6th October
Start of 2 days training for Rwandan primary teachers
Soraya and I got up at 5.30 and were on the road on the back of a motorbike taxi by 7 a.m. The workshop we were running was at least half an hour away by moto, some of which is on the main road which has tarmac, but some of which was off road motorcycling for quite a distance.
As soon as we arrived at the school we were surrounded by a crowd of very excited children shouting muzungu and trying to hold our hands – a bit like playtime at Windmill Hill but a lot more interest in us. We met Agnes a cheerful, sunny woman who was the headteacher of the school. Though how she remains smiling in the face of such adversity is amazing. She has 1600 children in the school, all of whom have their heads shaved to prevent them catching head lice. Their clothes are generally dirty and raggy and many of them are barefoot. The day started with the whole school singing the national anthem and the sound was actually so beautiful it made me cry.
Then with the tears in my eyes I had to address the whole school in French. They were so polite and it was lovely. They then go off to their lessons where there will be at least 60 children in a classroom half the size of any in England. They only have wooden benches to sit on with twice as many children crammed to a bench as there should be and the only thing in the classroom is the blackboard which the teacher writes on in chalk. Thats it! Nothing on the walls and a concrete floor.
And the school toilets were something else again. They do have doors but they are simply holes in the ground and the smell was so bad it made me wretch. The teachers toilet is in the same block but has a lock on the door. I did attempt to go but couldn’t face even going in when I got near because the stench was so bad. I would rather have gone in the bushes and let all the children stare at my white bum!!!!!
Anyway I am sure I shall meet worse and have no choice sometime during my stay here. 16 teachers eventually turned up for the workshop but certainly not at the start time. Nothing starts on time in Rwanda and I think the more important you think you are the later you arrive. Its almost a question of status and honour that if you are important people will wait for you. No one seems to bat an eyelid about it here.
The workshop went well. We introduced all kinds of games and songs that the teachers could use in their methodology instead of just writing on the board and getting the children to repeat. It is tiring though and it is hard to get the teachers involved. When you ask a question they stand up to speak just as the children would.
But by the end of the second day they were talking much more and they had lots of ideas for things they would do in their classrooms as a result of the training so it felt that we had been successful. I was only the stand in for another volunteer but I was glad to be there working at last and also it was helpful for Soraya as it was very tiring even for two of us.
The headteacher very proudly showed us the plantations which the school had set up. They had coffee beans and macademia nuts growing which is a way of supplementing the income for the school. The children have two hours of “practical studies” at least each week so that is when they pick the coffee beans or do other household sort of tasks around school.
I then went and waited for the bus back to Butare to meet up with Ruairi so we could talk about our meeting with Mike the director of VSO Rwanda which is scheduled for tomorrow. Waiting at the bus stop a young Rwandan man who is training in IT starts up a conversation with me. Every time you sit down someone starts to talk to you. They usually ask you if you are married and if you have children. Also often they ask you if you go to church! The young women out here have been asked all sorts of personal questions like do they have a Rwandan boyfriend and all sorts of things. But its not intimidating – its just how it is and its friendly. There is no point getting out your book because as soon as you sit still you can guarantee some Rwandan is going to start talking to you and interrogating you on your personal life!!!!
Monday 6th October
Start of 2 days training for Rwandan primary teachers
Soraya and I got up at 5.30 and were on the road on the back of a motorbike taxi by 7 a.m. The workshop we were running was at least half an hour away by moto, some of which is on the main road which has tarmac, but some of which was off road motorcycling for quite a distance.
As soon as we arrived at the school we were surrounded by a crowd of very excited children shouting muzungu and trying to hold our hands – a bit like playtime at Windmill Hill but a lot more interest in us. We met Agnes a cheerful, sunny woman who was the headteacher of the school. Though how she remains smiling in the face of such adversity is amazing. She has 1600 children in the school, all of whom have their heads shaved to prevent them catching head lice. Their clothes are generally dirty and raggy and many of them are barefoot. The day started with the whole school singing the national anthem and the sound was actually so beautiful it made me cry.
Then with the tears in my eyes I had to address the whole school in French. They were so polite and it was lovely. They then go off to their lessons where there will be at least 60 children in a classroom half the size of any in England. They only have wooden benches to sit on with twice as many children crammed to a bench as there should be and the only thing in the classroom is the blackboard which the teacher writes on in chalk. Thats it! Nothing on the walls and a concrete floor.
And the school toilets were something else again. They do have doors but they are simply holes in the ground and the smell was so bad it made me wretch. The teachers toilet is in the same block but has a lock on the door. I did attempt to go but couldn’t face even going in when I got near because the stench was so bad. I would rather have gone in the bushes and let all the children stare at my white bum!!!!!
Anyway I am sure I shall meet worse and have no choice sometime during my stay here. 16 teachers eventually turned up for the workshop but certainly not at the start time. Nothing starts on time in Rwanda and I think the more important you think you are the later you arrive. Its almost a question of status and honour that if you are important people will wait for you. No one seems to bat an eyelid about it here.
The workshop went well. We introduced all kinds of games and songs that the teachers could use in their methodology instead of just writing on the board and getting the children to repeat. It is tiring though and it is hard to get the teachers involved. When you ask a question they stand up to speak just as the children would.
But by the end of the second day they were talking much more and they had lots of ideas for things they would do in their classrooms as a result of the training so it felt that we had been successful. I was only the stand in for another volunteer but I was glad to be there working at last and also it was helpful for Soraya as it was very tiring even for two of us.
The headteacher very proudly showed us the plantations which the school had set up. They had coffee beans and macademia nuts growing which is a way of supplementing the income for the school. The children have two hours of “practical studies” at least each week so that is when they pick the coffee beans or do other household sort of tasks around school.
I then went and waited for the bus back to Butare to meet up with Ruairi so we could talk about our meeting with Mike the director of VSO Rwanda which is scheduled for tomorrow. Waiting at the bus stop a young Rwandan man who is training in IT starts up a conversation with me. Every time you sit down someone starts to talk to you. They usually ask you if you are married and if you have children. Also often they ask you if you go to church! The young women out here have been asked all sorts of personal questions like do they have a Rwandan boyfriend and all sorts of things. But its not intimidating – its just how it is and its friendly. There is no point getting out your book because as soon as you sit still you can guarantee some Rwandan is going to start talking to you and interrogating you on your personal life!!!!
Friday 10 October 2008
There is a resource room – this consists of using empty rice sacks with picture which have been drawn on with permanent marker.
We haven’t actually been in any classrooms yet – apart from once when i got caught in a shower when i was on the back of a moto and we had to stop and dive in for shelter as it was raining too fast to carry on. It was a bizarre half hour sitting with all these Rwandans on the school benches until the rain stopped and no one saying a word. There was nothing in the room apart from the benches and the blackboard. Nothing on the walls at all and just a concrete floor. Its going to be a bit of a change from using the interactive whiteboard.
Thursday 2nd October
Beginning to get a bit fed up with lack of interest from VSO in our situation.
We are still in the hotel and have been here over a week now not doing any work. Even if they find us a house in Butare – and so far the district office haven’t come up with anything – there are still huge problems with transport. There is no bus service and the motos are expensive – that can’t come out of our pockets as we simply cannot afford it.
Sent the message at 9 am and we had a phone call back at 2 minutes past. Later I actually told Charlotte straight out that if this placement had been thought through properly and had been well prepared we would have been in a house and working by now and someone should have done their homework and realised that it is a placement which essentially needs the volunteers to have their own motorbikes as there is no real convenient form of transport. She should also have known that there were no suitable houses in the village of Gisagara. She simply apologised which at least acknowledged my point.
So that kind of brings me up to where i am right now. Today is really hot and sunny and it would have been a good day for a swim. I have found out that there is a swimming pool at the hotel credo but not been to check it out yet.
So bye for now
If you want to see photos Ruairi has posted some on his blog
The address iss www.roheithir@blogspot.com
Friday 4th October
An interesting day in the scheme of things. We set out in the rain to catch the bus at 6.30 am only to find that it is always full of workers and we were not allowed on. Unable to face a moto in the rain we jumped in a taxi. We were due to attend a meeting of headteachers at 9.30. True Rwandan style it actually started at 10.30. I had to make a short presentation in French and then Ruairi and then we had to sit through four hours of Kinyarwande without a break.
Later at the internet cafe I e mailed mike the country director for VSO and asked him for an urgent meeting to discuss our placement.
Saturday 4th October
Its raining very hard!! We have walked to see a house and it would be okay once it had a good clean. Its has several bedrooms and three bathrooms and a lovely view. Just not sure whether everything will work out so that we can eventually live there........
Because I didn’t manage to get this blog set up until I arrived in Butare I haven’t mentioned how much we are actually getting paid for this work that we are supposed to be doing. VSO pay us 15000RWF a month which works out at £150 approximately. That means we are living on around £5.00 a day. This kind of puts it into perspective when you consider a moto ride up to Gisagara is 4000 RWF (£4.00) round trip. To visit Rwanda is very cheap for British people and there is a tempatation when you are here to think that you are well off. For example i went for a swim at the Novotel in Kigali one day and it was 3500 RWF ie £3.50 but in relation to what I am earning that swim realistically cost me around £70.
I haven’t even started trying to live on my salary yet. I feel a fraud as we haven’t started work – so am having to be very careful what I spend. But once I do start living on it I am going to have to be very careful. A large beer is 900cents ie 90p but put that into the context of what I am actually earning and it is much more – more like £30 so if you have two beers a night you have spent £60 in relation to your earnings – won’t be doing that for sure once i am living on VSO salary.
This is nothing really when you consider that the majority of the Rwandan population actually live on 10pence a day. Primary school teachers earn £30 a month. 90% of the whole population live on what they can grow. All rather scary statistics.
But yet they are lovely people always smiling and joking and really friendly and the country is very beautiful with spectacular scenery around every corner.
So today is Saturday and I have at least found the swimming pool but its not very warm weather and certainly not hot enough to swim and then laze around the pool. It seems quite amazing that I am in the centre of Africa and the weather is so mild – just like a nice summer’s day at home. And also often cloudy by early tea time before the heavens open!!
We actually had a small earthquake the other night. It was enough to make the bed shake and in my half dream like sleep i thought it was just some big fat bloke turning over in bed in the next room at the motel as the walls are quite thin!!!!!
Another funny story concerns Ruairi – he had stood up to greet a Rwandan woman and had not realised that in Rwandan fashion she had a baby strapped to her back with a cloth – he leaned forward to kiss three times on the cheek as you do and put his hand round the woman’s back and promptly poked her baby right in the eye and made it scream! But there are no pushchairs here- mothers simply wrap them on their backs until they are old enough to walk. We worked out the other day that people walk about all the time because they can’t afford to catch a bus or a moto and also because its probably dark and cold inside their houses!!!!
Sunday 5th October
I have had enough of hanging around. Another volunteer named Soraya has some teacher training workshops which she has to do on her own Monday and Tuesday so I have decided to go up and give her a hand. I catch the bus with Bearte an Australian volunteer of German descent and get off at Giterama. Its better to catch the larger express buses on long journies if you can afford it and not the other buses which I have now nicknamed sardine buses on account of the number of people they cram on. But they still drive far too fast especially round bends and overtake in the craziest places. The driving is utterly reckless and its always a relief to get off.
Soraya met me from the bus and took me to her house where I had completely forgotten that Hayley was living too. Its big and has some electricity including solar power but they still only have a charcoal cooker which they cook on in an outbuilding while sitting on the floor.
I am invited to MUzungu dinner. On Sunday all the foreigners living in Giterama meet up to have a meal together in a local restaurant. Well I will call it restaurant but on the menu are chips, omelette and chips or brochette and chips and thats about it. Quite normal for here. Great to meet up with other volunteers and share stories. Apparently Ruairi and I are quite famous with the things that have happened to us since we arrived.
We haven’t actually been in any classrooms yet – apart from once when i got caught in a shower when i was on the back of a moto and we had to stop and dive in for shelter as it was raining too fast to carry on. It was a bizarre half hour sitting with all these Rwandans on the school benches until the rain stopped and no one saying a word. There was nothing in the room apart from the benches and the blackboard. Nothing on the walls at all and just a concrete floor. Its going to be a bit of a change from using the interactive whiteboard.
Thursday 2nd October
Beginning to get a bit fed up with lack of interest from VSO in our situation.
We are still in the hotel and have been here over a week now not doing any work. Even if they find us a house in Butare – and so far the district office haven’t come up with anything – there are still huge problems with transport. There is no bus service and the motos are expensive – that can’t come out of our pockets as we simply cannot afford it.
Sent the message at 9 am and we had a phone call back at 2 minutes past. Later I actually told Charlotte straight out that if this placement had been thought through properly and had been well prepared we would have been in a house and working by now and someone should have done their homework and realised that it is a placement which essentially needs the volunteers to have their own motorbikes as there is no real convenient form of transport. She should also have known that there were no suitable houses in the village of Gisagara. She simply apologised which at least acknowledged my point.
So that kind of brings me up to where i am right now. Today is really hot and sunny and it would have been a good day for a swim. I have found out that there is a swimming pool at the hotel credo but not been to check it out yet.
So bye for now
If you want to see photos Ruairi has posted some on his blog
The address iss www.roheithir@blogspot.com
Friday 4th October
An interesting day in the scheme of things. We set out in the rain to catch the bus at 6.30 am only to find that it is always full of workers and we were not allowed on. Unable to face a moto in the rain we jumped in a taxi. We were due to attend a meeting of headteachers at 9.30. True Rwandan style it actually started at 10.30. I had to make a short presentation in French and then Ruairi and then we had to sit through four hours of Kinyarwande without a break.
Later at the internet cafe I e mailed mike the country director for VSO and asked him for an urgent meeting to discuss our placement.
Saturday 4th October
Its raining very hard!! We have walked to see a house and it would be okay once it had a good clean. Its has several bedrooms and three bathrooms and a lovely view. Just not sure whether everything will work out so that we can eventually live there........
Because I didn’t manage to get this blog set up until I arrived in Butare I haven’t mentioned how much we are actually getting paid for this work that we are supposed to be doing. VSO pay us 15000RWF a month which works out at £150 approximately. That means we are living on around £5.00 a day. This kind of puts it into perspective when you consider a moto ride up to Gisagara is 4000 RWF (£4.00) round trip. To visit Rwanda is very cheap for British people and there is a tempatation when you are here to think that you are well off. For example i went for a swim at the Novotel in Kigali one day and it was 3500 RWF ie £3.50 but in relation to what I am earning that swim realistically cost me around £70.
I haven’t even started trying to live on my salary yet. I feel a fraud as we haven’t started work – so am having to be very careful what I spend. But once I do start living on it I am going to have to be very careful. A large beer is 900cents ie 90p but put that into the context of what I am actually earning and it is much more – more like £30 so if you have two beers a night you have spent £60 in relation to your earnings – won’t be doing that for sure once i am living on VSO salary.
This is nothing really when you consider that the majority of the Rwandan population actually live on 10pence a day. Primary school teachers earn £30 a month. 90% of the whole population live on what they can grow. All rather scary statistics.
But yet they are lovely people always smiling and joking and really friendly and the country is very beautiful with spectacular scenery around every corner.
So today is Saturday and I have at least found the swimming pool but its not very warm weather and certainly not hot enough to swim and then laze around the pool. It seems quite amazing that I am in the centre of Africa and the weather is so mild – just like a nice summer’s day at home. And also often cloudy by early tea time before the heavens open!!
We actually had a small earthquake the other night. It was enough to make the bed shake and in my half dream like sleep i thought it was just some big fat bloke turning over in bed in the next room at the motel as the walls are quite thin!!!!!
Another funny story concerns Ruairi – he had stood up to greet a Rwandan woman and had not realised that in Rwandan fashion she had a baby strapped to her back with a cloth – he leaned forward to kiss three times on the cheek as you do and put his hand round the woman’s back and promptly poked her baby right in the eye and made it scream! But there are no pushchairs here- mothers simply wrap them on their backs until they are old enough to walk. We worked out the other day that people walk about all the time because they can’t afford to catch a bus or a moto and also because its probably dark and cold inside their houses!!!!
Sunday 5th October
I have had enough of hanging around. Another volunteer named Soraya has some teacher training workshops which she has to do on her own Monday and Tuesday so I have decided to go up and give her a hand. I catch the bus with Bearte an Australian volunteer of German descent and get off at Giterama. Its better to catch the larger express buses on long journies if you can afford it and not the other buses which I have now nicknamed sardine buses on account of the number of people they cram on. But they still drive far too fast especially round bends and overtake in the craziest places. The driving is utterly reckless and its always a relief to get off.
Soraya met me from the bus and took me to her house where I had completely forgotten that Hayley was living too. Its big and has some electricity including solar power but they still only have a charcoal cooker which they cook on in an outbuilding while sitting on the floor.
I am invited to MUzungu dinner. On Sunday all the foreigners living in Giterama meet up to have a meal together in a local restaurant. Well I will call it restaurant but on the menu are chips, omelette and chips or brochette and chips and thats about it. Quite normal for here. Great to meet up with other volunteers and share stories. Apparently Ruairi and I are quite famous with the things that have happened to us since we arrived.
Thursday 2 October 2008
Blog Round 2
I think last time i finished writing this I was just finishing the In Country Training (ICT) in Kigali. It was very interesting in that it introduced us to the office politics of the VSO Rwanda office if nothing else.
It was also a great time to meet the other volunteers – there are a group of about twenty of us all going off to do different things – some working in education, some in AIDS awareness programmes and some in disability.
Mike the new In Country Director led the final session himself which was the feedback about what we all thought about the last 10 days – and he laid himself open for quite an onslaught in fact. A lot of it was constructive criticism but nonetheless there was a lot of it.
I actually stopped him in the car park afterwards and said to him that it had on the whole been a good time and that I hoped he hadn’t found our comments too negative to which he replied not at all and if he did not want the answers he should not have asked the questions.
Fair enough – but little did we know that that was small fry in comparisons o the next problems we were going to face.
So the next day we all got up and had our nice cold showers and the same old breakfast if we could still stomach it and waited around in the Armani courtyard until our employers turned up. It was quite sad waving off the people we had spent the last ten days with quite intensely and hoping so much that everything was going to turn out ok for them when they found themselves on their own and working in their individual placements. But one by one the employers turned up with their cars and pick up trucks and we waved our sad farewells.
When it came to our turn (mine and Ruairi’s) many people had already left. There were two other people in our car as well as our boss Francois – whom we had met at the employers’ workshop the previous Friday. Actually a really nice chap. Very softly spoken but also obviously an intelligent and thoughtful guy who seemed very grateful to have two people as experienced as Ruairi and myself coming to work in his district.
So we squeezed into our pick up thinking we were finally off to Gisagara but we were wrong – we had to stop at some offices on the way for one of the blokes in the car to do something. Then we had to stop and pick up some dry cleaning or a suit or something then finally we were off, out of Kigali , into the unknown and into some stunning and spectacular countryside. Rwanda is called the land of a thousand hills and it is just that. Our drive to Butare was actually amongst the mid range of hills in Rwanda but it was a continuous up hill and down hill route for the whole two hour journey. It made the Peak District look gentle in comparison. Each hill took around 15 to 20 minutes to get up and then the same to get down so the views were obviously quite spectacular.
Much of the Rwandan countryside is cultivated so there are lots of small square plots lining the hills. Down in the valleys there is rice growing or other crops still in small square patches of cabbages, potatoes and all the other things that Rwandans grow in order to be self sufficient. And everywhere along the route is lined by Banana trees – a staple of the diet for many people and also the leaves are used for other things like making rope and for building out buildings for keeping animals or storing vegetables.
And all along the way are houses. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa. The frightening statistic is that the population will double in the next 26 years This land is already saturated by people growing things just in order to live – it is inconceivable to see how the people will survive when the population is twice the size. There is evidence of poverty all around already even along the main roads so what it is like in the more rural areas is difficult to imagine.
Every bit of land available is built on – by built on I mean it has dwellings ranging from mud huts to some quite sophisticated brick buildings. But by and large the majority of Rwandans live in houses made of mud bricks. They make them into oblongs and leave them to bake in the sun. They then make a frame from pieces of timber and build thebricks around them. The poorest houses are then smeared with cow dung - pleasant – and have straw roofs. Considering the way it rains here in Rwanda that is another story I am sure. Just consider that combination. Cow dung walls and straw roofs and rain that comes down in bucket fulls!!!!
The next better off houses also use the mud bricks but they manage to to put on some sort of roof tiles which really are essential considering the rainstorms. Though some poorer houses just have tin roves. Then some people manage to have cement pl.astered onto the mud – these look like council houses in a way as they all look similar. And really thats it apart from the elite like thehouse of the mayor o f the village or the police station or the district offices or the health centre or the church!!!! Who all have buildings made of proper bricks.
Arrival in Gisagara – Thursday 18th September
After about two hours driving from Kigali we finally arrived in Butare. It is about the size of Chapeltown with one or two supermarkets and basically a row of shops and things about the size of station road, though the road itself is much wider than that. The road through the centre of town has tarmac and as soon as you leave that you are onto the dirt roads.
After stopping in a so called supermarket which is about the size of a Co-op store in England and which has things spread out on the shelves so that they don’t look as bare as they actually are, we left Butare and set off along the dirt road to Gisagara. It was immediately obvious that this district was even poorer than what we had passed en route. The houses were very basic and all along the route we saw dirty barefoot children – but in spite of the poverty the people seem cheerful and smiling most of the time.
We finally arrived at the allocated house – which is a large brick house – the only brick house in the village which is the mayor’s house.
It looked ok but all our furniture was piled up in the kitchen and we should have realised something was amiss when we saw the pots in the sink and the food underneath. However we had worse things to worry about as it was getting dark and none or our furniture was made up, so we hurridly found our torches and our head torches and set to putting our beds together. Two of the rooms in the house were locked – second sign that something was not quite right – so Ruairi very gallantly agreed to take the tiny room for the time being. Then a locksmith has to be brought in to put a lock on my room because all our stuff was in there – this was in the pitch black by this time – thank goodness for head torches.
Finally we got the beds made up and sat down to tuna sandwiches – we had no cooking facilities or inclination to do anything else. We were sitting in candlelight both sort of wondering what we had come to and what was going to happen next. We soon found out!! Just as I walked into the kitchen a tall Rwandan strange man walked in. I smiled and said hello and he smiled b ack and said “Hello I am Jacques the district exectutive secretary and I live in this house”
It was one of those moments when you really wish that you could see your own face – you could have knocked me down with a feather. It turned out that the room was locked because he lived in it and he had done so for the last two years. Not quite what Francois had meant when he said that the room was locked because it was not ready yet!
That night I couldn’t sleep as I was trying to work out what to do next. By about 1 o clock in the morning I finally decided that it was not acceptable and I was not prepared to stay, whatever Ruairi had decided for himself.
Friday 19th September
The next morning I couldn’t get in the bathroom because I had to wait until Jacques had gone. We couldn’t do much – anyway there was a nice young man – a sort of house servant who lived outside and had a shed at the back where he had a wood fire to cook on and to heat water for our “shower” in the morning. The house has no water or electricity so you have to throw a bucket of rainwater down the toilet to flush it. And a shower consists of a bucket of hot water which you throw over yourself as best you can.
The young man’s name is Ephraim and he only speaks Kinyarwanda. Somehow with a mixture of sign language and pointing and a very limited knowledge of Kinyarwanda I managed to get him to boil the eggs we bought the previous day and make us some tea.
Eggs – imagi
Tea ichyi
In case you wanted to know!
So we got ready and waited for Francois to turn up which he eventually did at 11. We had a quick tour of the offices and then went through the village to the mayor’s office where we were invited to meet the vice mayor.
In discussion about our housing situation we made it plain that we could not live in someone elses house for a year, we couln’t cook or put our things out or the furniture when someone elses stuff was there already. The vice mayor asked us if we would be okay living in Butare and we agreed that that was a good solution – little did we know what was yet to come.....................
Apparently they had suggested this to VSO all along because the village is very very poor and there are literally no spare houses to put us in and if they did it would have to be an actual mud hut!!!!! Well there are limits to what I am prepared to put up with and that is past my limit. But VSO (and in particular our Programme Manager who is called Charlotte and about whom you will hear more later!!!!) had said to the Gisagara district that we must live in the village as it made it a more authentic experience or some such rubbish. Bet she doesn’t live in a mud hut!!!!
So we buckled down the hatches so to speak and prepared to sit it out with no water and no electricity and living in someone elses house until they found us somewhere else to live.V
We played scrabble in the dark and just went to bed early as there was nothing much else to do. Apart from quite bizarrely a Subara car rally racing through our village which Ephraim took us to watch.
Sunday 21st September
By Sunday we were looking a bit short on food. We had been living on two small meals a day – peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast and rice and a share of tin of sardines for tea, or some such exciting combination! But as we weren’t doing much we wernt too hungry anyway.
But our stocks were running very low and there were no buses – the village is so poor that it has no bus service – so there was nothing else for it but to try to walk into Butare,. We estimated it to be around a 3 hour walk but we had no choice. So off we went .
We soon turned into the Pied Piper syndrome. Hoards of children followed us shouting muzungu which means white man. We picked some up and some dropped off along the way. All trying to talk to us in French and daring each other to get close and touch our skin! We knew it was inevitable and they weren’t really bothering us so we just kept walking. It had been just the same when we braved the local market the previous day and i think it is just something you have to accept if you live here.
After about an hour and a half we met a man en route - a Rwandan who had been out to watch the rally the previous night and was also walking to Butare so he tagged along with us and we chatted in French along the way. Then after over 2 hours of walking a police car went past , stopped and asked us if we wanted a lift. We had at least another hour and a couple of hills to go so we said yes and gratefully jumped in.!!
OH NO!!!!!!
Kisoto had picked up the policeman’s bag from the back seat of the police car. He was mortified! Ruairi and I were trying really hard not to laugh. Kisoto jumped on the back of the nearest moto and chased after the police car while we just stood at the side of the road absolutely killing ourselves laughing. Fortunately the policeman saw the funny side of it and we took Kisoto for a beer – though I think he may have actually needed a double brandy considering the shock!
Tuesday 23rd September
We had been managing in the house for the last few days and had taken ourselves into Butare by moto. We were just sitting having a beer in the Faucon hotel when the heavens opened and the rain started. Realising that there was no way we could go on the back of a motorbike up the dirt road to Gisagara in that kind of rain – it was coming down in bucketfuls – I suddenly thought that it was only the same price for a room in the motel as it was for a return moto ride. We then got a message from Francois saying that we should buy enough food for a week – that meant that we were going to be stuck in the house in Gisagara for at least another week if not longer.
Enough was enough.
I booked myself into the Ineze hotel and decided that the next day I was going to ring VSO and tell them I was staying there until they and the district office sorted out what was going to happen next in our placement.
Wednesday 24th September
We had a quick moto ride up to Gisagara to grab some stuff and got ourselves settled in the Ineze motel. We can eat here for 1000RWF (£1.00) each day. They serve an enormous buffet meal both lunchtime and evening. But don’t get too excited. Rwandan food is unexciting to say the least.. The buffet here is very similar to the one at Armani – and it is carbohydrate overload. Eat as much as you like of potatoes, rice or pasta and beans and vegetables but extra for meat – which you can’t actually chew its so tough and I’m not sure even what it is – maybe goat. There are vegetables – the same ones everyday – green beans, some aubergine which is absolutely rank! Something that tastes like spinach but which has been cooked all morning and some carrots if you are lucky. But its cheap and its filling and when you have eaten it you don’t need to eat again all day because you are so full!
Saturday 27th September
Have been invited to a party in Kigali so decide to go up there for a change. Go out to catch the bus early and discover that its “umuganda “ day.
This is the last Saturday of each month. All the shops and everything is shut and all Rwandans are expected to help out with some community project like building houses or schools or tidying grass verges. The streets are deserted as everyone is away doing some community work somewhere.
There is a bus at 11 and I get one of the last seats but fortunately a kind Rwandan man moves from his seat by the window so that i don’t have to do the two hour journey on the fold down seat. This is a new bus service a kind of express service from Butare to Kigali and it actually has a timetable and every person on the bus gets their own seat – unlike the bus taxis which are designed to take 12 people and always take at least 16. Amy told me that she was in one which has 25 people in. That means that there were 6 people on each row instead of 3. Talk about claustrophobic!!!
Anyway was nice to get into Kigali and catch up with Tina, Sonya, Ivana and Christina who kindly put me up at her house. We just hung around at the internet cafe and the Hotel des Milles Collines which is the hotel from the film Hotel Rwanda. Did a bit of shopping in the Chinese supermarket and that was all.
Also went and provisionally booked my ticket home at Christmas even though i haven’t done any work yet! Hahahaha!
Monday 29th September
Another volunteer named Amy has invited me to her place at Kigeme to look at system of teaching which another volunteer has put in place. So at least i feel like i am doing something. Get in a very crowded bus which sets off up the mountains at a frightening pace. No slowing down for the bends either and I am utterly relieved when we finally arrive at Gikongero where I need to change. Get another bus up to Kigeme but almost didn’t realise i was there until the Rwandans all started saying something about “muzungu” Its a hairy drive but the scenery is spectacular. Amy meets me and i get to see the inside of a district office finally. Her house is lovely and it has an incredible view across the mountains. Where she is is very religious and she has to go to prayers for an hour and a half in Kinyarwande each morning and everyone is trying to get her to join their prayer fellowship – but its got a lot of money because it is based around the diocese. There is a resource room – this consists of using empty rice sacks
It was also a great time to meet the other volunteers – there are a group of about twenty of us all going off to do different things – some working in education, some in AIDS awareness programmes and some in disability.
Mike the new In Country Director led the final session himself which was the feedback about what we all thought about the last 10 days – and he laid himself open for quite an onslaught in fact. A lot of it was constructive criticism but nonetheless there was a lot of it.
I actually stopped him in the car park afterwards and said to him that it had on the whole been a good time and that I hoped he hadn’t found our comments too negative to which he replied not at all and if he did not want the answers he should not have asked the questions.
Fair enough – but little did we know that that was small fry in comparisons o the next problems we were going to face.
So the next day we all got up and had our nice cold showers and the same old breakfast if we could still stomach it and waited around in the Armani courtyard until our employers turned up. It was quite sad waving off the people we had spent the last ten days with quite intensely and hoping so much that everything was going to turn out ok for them when they found themselves on their own and working in their individual placements. But one by one the employers turned up with their cars and pick up trucks and we waved our sad farewells.
When it came to our turn (mine and Ruairi’s) many people had already left. There were two other people in our car as well as our boss Francois – whom we had met at the employers’ workshop the previous Friday. Actually a really nice chap. Very softly spoken but also obviously an intelligent and thoughtful guy who seemed very grateful to have two people as experienced as Ruairi and myself coming to work in his district.
So we squeezed into our pick up thinking we were finally off to Gisagara but we were wrong – we had to stop at some offices on the way for one of the blokes in the car to do something. Then we had to stop and pick up some dry cleaning or a suit or something then finally we were off, out of Kigali , into the unknown and into some stunning and spectacular countryside. Rwanda is called the land of a thousand hills and it is just that. Our drive to Butare was actually amongst the mid range of hills in Rwanda but it was a continuous up hill and down hill route for the whole two hour journey. It made the Peak District look gentle in comparison. Each hill took around 15 to 20 minutes to get up and then the same to get down so the views were obviously quite spectacular.
Much of the Rwandan countryside is cultivated so there are lots of small square plots lining the hills. Down in the valleys there is rice growing or other crops still in small square patches of cabbages, potatoes and all the other things that Rwandans grow in order to be self sufficient. And everywhere along the route is lined by Banana trees – a staple of the diet for many people and also the leaves are used for other things like making rope and for building out buildings for keeping animals or storing vegetables.
And all along the way are houses. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa. The frightening statistic is that the population will double in the next 26 years This land is already saturated by people growing things just in order to live – it is inconceivable to see how the people will survive when the population is twice the size. There is evidence of poverty all around already even along the main roads so what it is like in the more rural areas is difficult to imagine.
Every bit of land available is built on – by built on I mean it has dwellings ranging from mud huts to some quite sophisticated brick buildings. But by and large the majority of Rwandans live in houses made of mud bricks. They make them into oblongs and leave them to bake in the sun. They then make a frame from pieces of timber and build thebricks around them. The poorest houses are then smeared with cow dung - pleasant – and have straw roofs. Considering the way it rains here in Rwanda that is another story I am sure. Just consider that combination. Cow dung walls and straw roofs and rain that comes down in bucket fulls!!!!
The next better off houses also use the mud bricks but they manage to to put on some sort of roof tiles which really are essential considering the rainstorms. Though some poorer houses just have tin roves. Then some people manage to have cement pl.astered onto the mud – these look like council houses in a way as they all look similar. And really thats it apart from the elite like thehouse of the mayor o f the village or the police station or the district offices or the health centre or the church!!!! Who all have buildings made of proper bricks.
Arrival in Gisagara – Thursday 18th September
After about two hours driving from Kigali we finally arrived in Butare. It is about the size of Chapeltown with one or two supermarkets and basically a row of shops and things about the size of station road, though the road itself is much wider than that. The road through the centre of town has tarmac and as soon as you leave that you are onto the dirt roads.
After stopping in a so called supermarket which is about the size of a Co-op store in England and which has things spread out on the shelves so that they don’t look as bare as they actually are, we left Butare and set off along the dirt road to Gisagara. It was immediately obvious that this district was even poorer than what we had passed en route. The houses were very basic and all along the route we saw dirty barefoot children – but in spite of the poverty the people seem cheerful and smiling most of the time.
We finally arrived at the allocated house – which is a large brick house – the only brick house in the village which is the mayor’s house.
It looked ok but all our furniture was piled up in the kitchen and we should have realised something was amiss when we saw the pots in the sink and the food underneath. However we had worse things to worry about as it was getting dark and none or our furniture was made up, so we hurridly found our torches and our head torches and set to putting our beds together. Two of the rooms in the house were locked – second sign that something was not quite right – so Ruairi very gallantly agreed to take the tiny room for the time being. Then a locksmith has to be brought in to put a lock on my room because all our stuff was in there – this was in the pitch black by this time – thank goodness for head torches.
Finally we got the beds made up and sat down to tuna sandwiches – we had no cooking facilities or inclination to do anything else. We were sitting in candlelight both sort of wondering what we had come to and what was going to happen next. We soon found out!! Just as I walked into the kitchen a tall Rwandan strange man walked in. I smiled and said hello and he smiled b ack and said “Hello I am Jacques the district exectutive secretary and I live in this house”
It was one of those moments when you really wish that you could see your own face – you could have knocked me down with a feather. It turned out that the room was locked because he lived in it and he had done so for the last two years. Not quite what Francois had meant when he said that the room was locked because it was not ready yet!
That night I couldn’t sleep as I was trying to work out what to do next. By about 1 o clock in the morning I finally decided that it was not acceptable and I was not prepared to stay, whatever Ruairi had decided for himself.
Friday 19th September
The next morning I couldn’t get in the bathroom because I had to wait until Jacques had gone. We couldn’t do much – anyway there was a nice young man – a sort of house servant who lived outside and had a shed at the back where he had a wood fire to cook on and to heat water for our “shower” in the morning. The house has no water or electricity so you have to throw a bucket of rainwater down the toilet to flush it. And a shower consists of a bucket of hot water which you throw over yourself as best you can.
The young man’s name is Ephraim and he only speaks Kinyarwanda. Somehow with a mixture of sign language and pointing and a very limited knowledge of Kinyarwanda I managed to get him to boil the eggs we bought the previous day and make us some tea.
Eggs – imagi
Tea ichyi
In case you wanted to know!
So we got ready and waited for Francois to turn up which he eventually did at 11. We had a quick tour of the offices and then went through the village to the mayor’s office where we were invited to meet the vice mayor.
In discussion about our housing situation we made it plain that we could not live in someone elses house for a year, we couln’t cook or put our things out or the furniture when someone elses stuff was there already. The vice mayor asked us if we would be okay living in Butare and we agreed that that was a good solution – little did we know what was yet to come.....................
Apparently they had suggested this to VSO all along because the village is very very poor and there are literally no spare houses to put us in and if they did it would have to be an actual mud hut!!!!! Well there are limits to what I am prepared to put up with and that is past my limit. But VSO (and in particular our Programme Manager who is called Charlotte and about whom you will hear more later!!!!) had said to the Gisagara district that we must live in the village as it made it a more authentic experience or some such rubbish. Bet she doesn’t live in a mud hut!!!!
So we buckled down the hatches so to speak and prepared to sit it out with no water and no electricity and living in someone elses house until they found us somewhere else to live.V
We played scrabble in the dark and just went to bed early as there was nothing much else to do. Apart from quite bizarrely a Subara car rally racing through our village which Ephraim took us to watch.
Sunday 21st September
By Sunday we were looking a bit short on food. We had been living on two small meals a day – peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast and rice and a share of tin of sardines for tea, or some such exciting combination! But as we weren’t doing much we wernt too hungry anyway.
But our stocks were running very low and there were no buses – the village is so poor that it has no bus service – so there was nothing else for it but to try to walk into Butare,. We estimated it to be around a 3 hour walk but we had no choice. So off we went .
We soon turned into the Pied Piper syndrome. Hoards of children followed us shouting muzungu which means white man. We picked some up and some dropped off along the way. All trying to talk to us in French and daring each other to get close and touch our skin! We knew it was inevitable and they weren’t really bothering us so we just kept walking. It had been just the same when we braved the local market the previous day and i think it is just something you have to accept if you live here.
After about an hour and a half we met a man en route - a Rwandan who had been out to watch the rally the previous night and was also walking to Butare so he tagged along with us and we chatted in French along the way. Then after over 2 hours of walking a police car went past , stopped and asked us if we wanted a lift. We had at least another hour and a couple of hills to go so we said yes and gratefully jumped in.!!
OH NO!!!!!!
Kisoto had picked up the policeman’s bag from the back seat of the police car. He was mortified! Ruairi and I were trying really hard not to laugh. Kisoto jumped on the back of the nearest moto and chased after the police car while we just stood at the side of the road absolutely killing ourselves laughing. Fortunately the policeman saw the funny side of it and we took Kisoto for a beer – though I think he may have actually needed a double brandy considering the shock!
Tuesday 23rd September
We had been managing in the house for the last few days and had taken ourselves into Butare by moto. We were just sitting having a beer in the Faucon hotel when the heavens opened and the rain started. Realising that there was no way we could go on the back of a motorbike up the dirt road to Gisagara in that kind of rain – it was coming down in bucketfuls – I suddenly thought that it was only the same price for a room in the motel as it was for a return moto ride. We then got a message from Francois saying that we should buy enough food for a week – that meant that we were going to be stuck in the house in Gisagara for at least another week if not longer.
Enough was enough.
I booked myself into the Ineze hotel and decided that the next day I was going to ring VSO and tell them I was staying there until they and the district office sorted out what was going to happen next in our placement.
Wednesday 24th September
We had a quick moto ride up to Gisagara to grab some stuff and got ourselves settled in the Ineze motel. We can eat here for 1000RWF (£1.00) each day. They serve an enormous buffet meal both lunchtime and evening. But don’t get too excited. Rwandan food is unexciting to say the least.. The buffet here is very similar to the one at Armani – and it is carbohydrate overload. Eat as much as you like of potatoes, rice or pasta and beans and vegetables but extra for meat – which you can’t actually chew its so tough and I’m not sure even what it is – maybe goat. There are vegetables – the same ones everyday – green beans, some aubergine which is absolutely rank! Something that tastes like spinach but which has been cooked all morning and some carrots if you are lucky. But its cheap and its filling and when you have eaten it you don’t need to eat again all day because you are so full!
Saturday 27th September
Have been invited to a party in Kigali so decide to go up there for a change. Go out to catch the bus early and discover that its “umuganda “ day.
This is the last Saturday of each month. All the shops and everything is shut and all Rwandans are expected to help out with some community project like building houses or schools or tidying grass verges. The streets are deserted as everyone is away doing some community work somewhere.
There is a bus at 11 and I get one of the last seats but fortunately a kind Rwandan man moves from his seat by the window so that i don’t have to do the two hour journey on the fold down seat. This is a new bus service a kind of express service from Butare to Kigali and it actually has a timetable and every person on the bus gets their own seat – unlike the bus taxis which are designed to take 12 people and always take at least 16. Amy told me that she was in one which has 25 people in. That means that there were 6 people on each row instead of 3. Talk about claustrophobic!!!
Anyway was nice to get into Kigali and catch up with Tina, Sonya, Ivana and Christina who kindly put me up at her house. We just hung around at the internet cafe and the Hotel des Milles Collines which is the hotel from the film Hotel Rwanda. Did a bit of shopping in the Chinese supermarket and that was all.
Also went and provisionally booked my ticket home at Christmas even though i haven’t done any work yet! Hahahaha!
Monday 29th September
Another volunteer named Amy has invited me to her place at Kigeme to look at system of teaching which another volunteer has put in place. So at least i feel like i am doing something. Get in a very crowded bus which sets off up the mountains at a frightening pace. No slowing down for the bends either and I am utterly relieved when we finally arrive at Gikongero where I need to change. Get another bus up to Kigeme but almost didn’t realise i was there until the Rwandans all started saying something about “muzungu” Its a hairy drive but the scenery is spectacular. Amy meets me and i get to see the inside of a district office finally. Her house is lovely and it has an incredible view across the mountains. Where she is is very religious and she has to go to prayers for an hour and a half in Kinyarwande each morning and everyone is trying to get her to join their prayer fellowship – but its got a lot of money because it is based around the diocese. There is a resource room – this consists of using empty rice sacks
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