The week that was...

God how did that happen it’s Wednesday already which means I haven’t updated this thing for ages, damn so much to remember so apologies if this jumps around a bit..



Jogging in Gikongoro

Last Thursday, decided I couldn’t wait for gym-tonic- I needed some exercise! I have literally done nothing here and I’ve been enjoying far too many goat brochettes lately as well as good quality chocolate and mayo from the parcel. I was quite strategic about the whole thing. The children leave school about 5pm so made sure I didn’t leave the house till after then and off I went. It had been a gorgeous day and it was still pretty warm as I started the run. I took the dirt track just behind the house and like Forrest ‘just kept on running’. It was really peaceful at first, just beautiful views through the eucalyptus trees. There weren’t too many people about but those who were just smiled or said ‘miriwe’. It felt great. Then I reached the next village where I was greeted with looks of amazement and shouts of encouragement (I’m sure they were!). And despite my planning, I hadn’t counted on the after school volley ball match taking place in one of the primary schools, a group of giggling school children joined me for a good while before eventually leaving me to continue. An hour later I arrived home…SAT nav would be soo useful here!



Friday

Visited a really nice school early Friday morning. We’re delivering a two day training workshop to them in April and just went to finalise a few arrangements. There is such a pressure on teachers to teach all subjects in English that understandably they are desperate for word lists/lesson plans in English. Trouble is, even if the teacher can deliver a lesson perfectly in English, this is pointless if the children don’t understand what’s going on. Anyway, I think we’ve managed to convince them that they should concentrate on the lesson content and methodology and then gradually translate concepts etc. It really is crazy though. Imagine the government telling all teachers in the UK to teach in Japanese! That said, I also think that many teachers here don’t feel they can be honest about how hard this is for fear of losing their jobs. There was already a cull of teachers who it was decided no longer had adequate qualifications just before Christmas… So when asked how it’s all going you understand why the positive response may not be all it seems.



Kigali, Kayonza and Lake Muhazi, Gahini

Following the early morning visit, I caught the 10.30 bus to Kigali and headed straight to the VSO Programme Office (PO). I like it there. Despite the very slow internet connection, there is a pretty good collection of books and there are always people to chat to. Fridays are always quite busy as everyone flocks to get their expenses in before spending it all in Kigali. This week Bruce, a volunteer in Gitarama, was celebrating his birthday so lots of us were heading to Gahini, a village to the East of Rwanda where you can chill by the beautiful lake Muhazi. Before that though, I was looking forward to staying with Sarah and Rinske who live in the capital and who are always letting us country folk stay with them…

Pleasure/pain...

Having done everything I needed to do at the PO, I headed for Novotel. My legs haven’t seen a razor since I arrived in January and though I must admit it’s felt pretty liberating, the novelty was wearing thin. So off I went. Stepping into the hotel, it was like another world. Lots of smart looking people tapping away on laptops and sipping cocktails by the pool. I felt very underdressed in my jeans and flip-flops. I went to the loo at the gym where an aerobics class was taking place and I could have been back in London- an LA Fitness perhaps. It was bizarre. I’m sure I’ll be really grateful to experience such a contrast soon but for now it was a relief to step back out into Kigali…albeit painfully. Actually, the waxing was good - very thorough with one beautician for each leg which I hope is normal practice and not a reflection of my neglect!



Sandra popped round to join us for a very yummy dinner. She also lives in Kigali and was on our ICT (In-country training) course. Actually, it’s not long till the next one of these - in about 2 weeks time now. I’m not sure how VSO are going to fill the week but it will be fab catching up with everyone and enjoying Amani hospitality. Part of our excitement is undoubtedly the prospect of a hot shower every day as well as Kinyarwanda lessons with the hilarious Emmanuel who couldn’t help but point out the rude words at every opportunity and got his knickers in a twist when talking about bras and undergarments. His big mistake was thinking that drawing might make things clearer for us but let's just say, he wouldn’t win at Pictionary…



Saturday

Well, after some glorious days of sunshine, Saturday was probably the rainiest so far. Still we made the most of it. We headed to Bridget’s for lunch. She lives in Kayonza which is about an hour’s walk from Gahini. We were all very impressed with the food! A lovely pasta/tuna dish followed Pringles, guacamole and olives, yum. As we were in no hurry to reach the lake without sunshine we all stayed for coffee and biscuits before finalising plans for the April holiday. Having spoken to previous vols, it’s a good idea to go away in that first week of Genocide remembrance. So, after ICT 2, we’re off to Uganda. Rinske has already spent a year there so has given us an excellent rough guide, can’t wait! Around 5pm we left Bridget’s for the lake. It was a long walk but lovely to see where she lives and after such a good lunch we were all grateful for it. Arriving at Gahini, we were quite impressed by the accommodation, clean rooms and hot showers. Of course, with so many of us, there was the usual confusion…To ensure a discount we needed a certain number of people who were arriving in dribs and drabs, but all was sorted soon enough and it was off to Jambo beach for some fish and chips…waragi and dancing.



Monday

After a great weekend, waking up early on Monday morning was hard work. There was definitely more snoozing going on today. I decided to get my green card, now I've got my working visa, it's good to get because you get all kinds of discounts on museums and the wildlife Parks, so I took a detour to work via the immigration office. It wasn’t easy to find and I got lost a couple of times but a friendly prisoner, dressed in the usual pink pyjamas came to my aid. Well I say friendly, how do I know? He smiled a lot but at the end of the day this was a génocidaire- a Hutu prisoner -either sentenced or awaiting trial for his crime. Thing is apart from the clothes, he looked like anyone else...funny that! When I eventually arrived, it looked like they were in the middle of a celebration. As the officer was going through all the things I’d neglected to bring, he explained they were having an open day and I was invited. Not that I wasn’t grateful but I’m not sure a party at the immigration office was going to be all that so I politely declined his request knowing that I was never on the guest list but that being a muzungo affords you lots of benefits...sometimes. After that, it was off to Electrogaz to pay my electricity/water bill. It was pretty painless really, waited about half an hour which is good so lots of time to read the posters about the consequences of stealing other people’s electricity. It warned that should you do it, you might die, face a big fine and EVEN prison…Shudder indeed, that's community service wearing pink pyjamas!

Stayed at Amy’s last night because we’ve got another round of training coming up which we needed to plan for. We’ve realised too that we haven’t got much time what with my course next week then hols, so we bashed out some ideas and I’ve got lots of admin to get done as well as begging to do chez World Vision, arrgghh. Still, just had an excellent meeting with the mayor, Alphonse. He’s younger than I expected and despite being two hours late for our meeting, he seems interested and keen that I keep him updated with the projects, so that’s positive. The only thing is that he’s also keen that I work with Marc who quite frankly couldn’t give a s*** about education here. It looks as if he has now been officially seconded as the director but he’s rarely here and is less than helpful. Ah well, have managed to invite myself to the head teacher’s meeting on Thursday so maybe I will see a new side to him there. It seems that I’ll be having some visitors. A couple of friends have said they’d like to come over and J too is talking about a trip later in the year. I am so excited! In the meantime, I’ll get on with life and work here but I’m so looking forward to sharing a little bit of the experience with them.