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