So while I’m just waiting for the internet to sort itself out thought I’d fill you in on what I’ve been up to over the last few days.

A lil’ bit of luxury

As you know a group of us have been asked to carry out some baseline surveys on levels of English in the secondary schools so spent Wed-Fri last week c/o MINEDUC at a nice hotel in Kigali. We were all very impressed by the fact we had a room each (rare with VSO), a stocked mini-bar, TV and a swimming pool (never…). It was such a treat. What wasn’t so good was the organisation of the project. John, who was representing the British Council, did his best to limit the damage, acting as the diplomatic go-between for MINEDUC but really the whole thing was pretty disasterous.

We knew it would be a long 3 days when Herman the ‘charasmatic’ (yes, that’s sarcasm..) rep for the ministry who, unluckily for us, is co-coordinating the whole thing revealed our first obstacle. You see when you carry out any work for an organisation here you have to present what’s called an ‘ordre de mission’ detailing your movements so travel and other expenses can be met. Anyway, a few of us didn’t have these to present so he informs us that he only has 7 and that there being 12 of us… Here Herman pauses for a good 3 minutes while we all wait expectantly and he looks skyward….There being 12 of us, he continues…There are 5 missing (hoorah). We were all so relieved that he’d made the calculation, we had to stop ourselves from applauding this amazing feat of deduction. With a lot of deliberation Herman finally solves the problem (with a lot of help from his friends)- we will all send new ones on Monday together with separate ones to cover the project itself.

Another pretty major problem was that each of us was to have a Rwandan counterpart but that only 3 had turned up for this training. This is essential especially as one of the assessment tools will be to check attitudes of teachers around their own English language needs by way of a forum and if true opinions were to be gathered it must be done in Kinyarwanda . A muzungo suddenly turning up at the school wielding English tests and conducting discussions would not be popular and fair enough! At this point, John looked once again to Herman for assurance that our Rwandan colleagues would turn up but was met with a vacant stare until Herman at last responded that perhaps us VSOs could double up. ‘No way’! was our unanimous response. So I think he’s trying plan B-we were too tired to ascertain what this might be but as long as we have a Rwandan partner I guess it will still go-ahead. The training continued by familiarising us with the tools we’d be using. Luckily for me my counterpart is Diane. She not only was present but seems ‘on the ball’ so that’s good. I’ll be giving out and marking the English test and carrying out observations while she’ll be holding the ‘market research’ type discussions.

Yesterday, I managed to get hold of my ordres de mission and have couriered these over to MINEDUC in Kigali, it’s now a case of blind faith …once again.‘Come on Herman, you can do it!’

Red wine

Contrary to the persuasive UB40 hit, red wine does not make you feel so fine…Or at least not if you have 4 glasses of it. So excited was I to find red wine on the menu at Stella 2, I indulged in 2 carafes of the stuff (at £2.50 a pop, it was pretty good value too). Anyway, needless to say I regretted it. At the bar, J called but as we’d just got there I said (insisted) he could ring me later, cos I wouldn’t be out long blah blah and no I wouldn’t be too pished to talk… Anyway, around 1.30am I took the call but of course had no idea what I said…He took great delight in exploiting this fact and I’m working on ways to get him back!

I had agreed to do a training with Soraya on the Saturday morning but only woke up when she texted me a moto driver’s number who she had arranged would take me to the school! Arrgghh. As it happens, Moira and Kerry, who were also helping out, phoned me as I was on the way and persuaded me to stay in Gitarama and not continue to the school as it was very far and I’d probably be too late now.

Sauna & massage in Gitarama

Eventually, about 2 hours late, I arrived in Gitarama and with no training to go to headed for the girls’ house. Charlotte and Hayley were already up and planning to go to the sauna, great! They had been given a tour some time ago and it all looked really nice so we were disappointed when, despite assurances, it was closed when we got there. It seems that though the sign says it opens at 10am, you are foolish if you believe this. No, of course it doesn’t open till 4pm! So anyway, we chilled out for the rest of the day until it was time to go back…We were not disappointed, the whole thing was just fab. At first we thought we’d be the only ones but slowly the steam room began to fill up and included 2 local girls and quite a few blokes who were being decidedly energetic. The hot air made by burning eucalyptus leaves was a bit smoky, so we had to close our eyes to stop them watering. As we relaxed though, audible grunts made us sit up and stare, then eye-contact with each other reducing us to fits of laughter as the men continued with their workout regimes for us all to admire. Following a good steam, the delicious tea with a slice of lemon was refreshing. It was only after we finished it that we realised everyone was picking the fruit, with sweaty hands, only to rub over all over their bodies…Ah well, still tasted good :0)

Pub crawl

Another vol who lives quite near Gitarama is leaving soon so a pub crawl had been planned. Kerry, who is just brilliant at organising, was in charge. Her previous achievements have included the currency converter line graph we used when we went to Uganda which had money changers in awe…Anyway she devised a great route together with dining options and strict instructions of one drink (large) in each since it was going to be a long night and anyway she didn’t want to be responsible for those unable to hold their beer…

Starting at 1pm for a civilised lunch, it was indeed a triumph. By the end of the night I was going thirds but I was still very merry and despite the lack of red wine was still feeling the effects the next day.

Back to work

It’s Tuesday and I’m back in the office. I’ve sent all the letters to the schools in four of the sectors so am just waiting for them to send them back before I start working with 3 or 4 individual schools more intensely. After the training, it’s soooo boring to be back here but as soon as these applications are in I’ll be out in schools more often which will be good. That said (and if Herman does his thang) I’ll be in secondary schools for the next 2 weeks anyway so it’s nice to have a bit of variety…

Of course the ‘model schools’ project is dependent on transport so have also sent a rather ‘direct’email to Marc so he is prepared for my demands :0)