Day 15 (Saturday)

The weekend! The day dawned bright and sunny, but as it tends to do it has clouded over by late morning.  The wind gets up for half and hour or so and it seems ready to storm, and then suddenly the wind drops and the sky clears to high scattered cumulous. 

On the last Saturday of every month, the morning is dedicated to civic duties and everyone  is supposed to join in.  Our civic duty seems to be entertaining the local children who can stand looking over our fence for hours on end.  We introduce ourselves and say hello many, many times.  

After careful consideration we have purchased an electric iron and kettle.  We have no other way of getting our clothes ironed and pressed clothes are expected at work. A hot iron also helps kill the eggs of the tumba flies which can be laid in clothes whilst they are drying.  If you are unlucky they hatch and the larvae burrow into your skin creating a nasty boil.  The kettle revolutionises our water purification procedures, although it is more difficult to do a three minute rolling boil to sterilise the water because of the thermostat.  Instead we boil the water and reboil it 4 or 5 times in 15 minutes.

During the afternoon I go for a walk away from the town on the road that passes our house, taking photographs of our immediate surroundings and the people living nearby.  Children come out of their houses and walk with me.  Some ask me to take their photos, which I do.  As I walk past a “Sunday School” class, I get invited to, “come to church tomorrow to praise the Lord”.  I say, “Thank you, that is very nice of you”.

Day 16 (Sunday)

 This is now the seventh day in our house.  As we settle in we find better ways of doing things.  We have moved our water supply tub into the sunshine, so that we can fill up our bucket bath with warmer water.  The climate here is almost perfect.  It is cool enough at night to sleep comfortably.  During the day the temperature climbs quickly to between 25-30°C, which is very pleasant with the cooling breeze.  However, the water from the pump is quite cool and was not warming up in our bathroom.  Our bucket baths were bracing, but today’s is much better!

I am out of necessity, enduring a largely vegetarian existence, but I have a favourite meal. David makes flat breads, which we have with homemade guacamole and salsa. Delicious! On Friday we bought some tiny limes, which we thought would be nice in tea instead of powdered milk.  Last night we bought local gin, all we need now is tonic!  What dietary commodity am I missing the most? No, it’s not meat; its cheese to flavour all the vegetable dishes we are eating.

To continue to explore the area further I follow a track behind our house that seems to go down into the valley.  It is not busy with foot traffic and inaccessible to bicycles and other vehicles, so it seems a good place to see a different side of Kabarore.  The path leads to a water pump about a km away, but on the way I come across a field with 2 cows in it. There is a small copse of trees and bushes alive with birds, which venture out every now and again to eat the seeds of a tall marigold like flower. Perched on two nearby trees are two crested eagles, one a juvenile, I think. I manage to get some good pictures and then back home for lunch.

Top picture is my bedroom, then the "bathroom", the latrine, the living room, the kitchen and finally the house from the outside.

Day Twelve (Wednesday)

Went to the market yesterday and not just to look.  They have system which is easy to use.  Piles of fruit and vegatables are laid out on the stalls. Each has a mixture of big/small/bruised and perfect items and the price is almost always 100 Francs (10p). So passion fruit, mangoes, onions etc all 2p each.  There is no meat for sale, but to be honest I wouldn’t want to buy it even if there was.  What we really need to find now is cheese and eggs.  Came back with a big bag of produce (mostly fruit and veg.) and material for curtains. The material was cut to size and then carried up to the tailor for the edges to be sewn and a top loop made to fit the curtain pole.  You should be able to see the product of this endeavour in the attached photographs of the house.  Yes, that really is the bathroom.  Oh, and that is the latrine block.  The kitchen is a masterpiece of make-do organisation, but on the outside the house itself is well built and secure.

Spent some time today trying to produce some documents that might be helpful when I meet up with my partner headteachers.  I put some school data into a  spreadsheet, wrote lists of issues for discussion and created a powerpoint.  I really want to be busy and feel that I am doing something useful. I shall just have to learn to be patient!

My motorcycle arrived just as we were eating dinner.  As it was dark it was impossible to do much other than help unload it and put it in one of the outhouses at the rear of the house. Then back to our first made-at-home dinner!  I can see I will be a vegetarian before I return to England.

Day Thirteen (Thursday)

A visit to a very large school (2700 pupils) in a sector adjoining the one my schools are in.  It is about 2 ½ km from our house in Kabarore.  The motorbike would not start, so we had to walk.  Quite a trek in the heat.    I am accompanying another Education Management Advisor and taking the opportunity to see a school at work, which hopefully will mean I can contextualise what  I see when I do get to visit my schools.  After all there are now only eleven weeks left to achieve something useful (and two of those will probably be lost with school holidays etc.).

I am still unable to meet the headteachers I should be working with, but at least this gives me time to get household matters organised.  And getting organised  in the house is very important!  With no running water we have to get a boy on a bicycle to stop and agree to deliver four jerry cans full of water  every day.  The pump is not far away, probably about 400m and we pay 5p per jerry can. Everything takes longer than at home.  When washing your hands (which I tend to do about 10 times a day), soaping up is ok, but trying to rinse the soap off is difficult as you pour water from a jug with one hand onto the other. You cannot rub your hands together under running water to help get the soap off. Essentially, living here is like indoor camping without a washroom block being nearby!

Day Fourteen (Friday)

At 9.00 a.m. we are outside the District Office waiting to see the Divisional Director of Education.  Unfortunately, he has had to stay in Kigali, and so I am still unable to ask him to introduce me to the people with whom I will be working. 

I spend some time ringing people to try to kick start things into action, but it is not easy without the introductions and in the end I achieve nothing and just run out of credit on my phone.

So after doing a bit of work (a lesson observation record sheet) I am going to take a journey on the bike to explore a little and get used to the way it handles.  Now it has a bit of petrol in the tank, it is much more amenable to starting.   I ride 5 km to the east along dirt tracks through collections of houses in clusters along the sides of the road.  To be able to travel with such freedom is a real privilege.  Most of the land is fertile and laid to agriculture.  But at the farthest extent of my ride is a ridge which is clearly too dry with soil that is too thin.  This is the first really uncultivated stretch of land I have seen and it may be a good site for an early morning amble.

Friday is market day.  The afternoon market is very busy and with a wider range of produce than in the morning.  There are aubergines and limes neither of which we have seen before.

Last days in Kigali

Day Eight

Today is Saturday, so things are slowing down for the weekend.  After what I think is my final lesson in Kinyarwandan I am far from fluent. I can do the basics though and I know my numbers, so I can haggle over prices.  Spent much of the day at rest and missed lunch with a bad stomach!  The evening was meant to be a formal dinner, with traditional Rwandan dancers.  I gave the meal a miss, but watched the dancing, which I enjoyed, because each dance told a story that even I could interpret from the moves of the various dancers.  Having been resting in the afternoon, I got up late and rushed up to the dinner without my camera.  I have pictures though, from my phone!

Day Nine (Sunday)

Up very early to go bird spotting in a central Kigali park.  We got there relatively easily after negotiating the price of a ride on the back of motorbike taxis (known locally as motos).  The park consists of an artificial lake surrounded by a golf course on one side and walks in semi cultivated parkland on the other.  The display of wild birds in a city park watching was amazing.  From the many we saw the high lights were the crested eagles, weaver birds, kingfishers, bee eaters and best of all a bishop bird, hopefully pictured.  After 3 ½ hours of ambling through the park we moved on by moto to a market.  There was a huge variety of food for sale; five or six types of flour; even more types of beans and of course loads of different types of fruit and vegetables. There was also a lot of freshwater lake caught fish as well.  After a short stay we headed back to the guest house for a shower followed by lunch.  This should be my last day at the guest house, so I have to pack my bags ready to be taken to Kabarore with all the house equipment some time tomorrow.  It will almost certainly be my last proper shower for some time, but for the first time in Rwanda I had warm water. Luxury!

Day Ten (Monday)

Action!  At 9.00 a.m. we have a phone call.  We are being picked up and taken with all of our gear to Kabarore to meet the Director and to move into our house.  Looking back it was a very long day.  The journey out to Kabarore was on excellent roads, so we made good time.  Kabarore is clearly a growing town and hosts the Gatsibo District offices.  It has a new hospital and a fair number or newly built houses, one of which is ours!  Before we get to move in we drive off to meet the District Director of Education.  He is a very gracious host and takes us for lunch at a local restaurant.  After lunch he leaves us in the hands of a local headteacher and we walk to his school, where we have a quick look around and talk in more detail about him and his work.  We then walk back to our house to unpack.   It becomes clear that a lot of our equipment (pots, pans, bowls, cutlery, crockery, sheets, pillows etc.) has been left behind.  We will have to make do, but luckily we have had a good lunch, so we have a marmite sandwich for dinner!  Rwandan houses are very sparsely furnished.  We have two tables, two coffee tables, four comfy chairs and four dining chairs, two small cupboards and two bookcases for three people.  I have unpacked and thankfully everything has a place.  The house is very spacious. It has four bedrooms a large living area and a bathroom (the bathroom has no shower, bath or toilet) which is really just a wet room.  After hanging the mosquito nets we head into town to buy kerosene, bread and bananas.  We also come across avocado and then head home for a cup of tea and the promised marmite sandwich plus the unexpected avocado mmmm!  Tomorrow we will need to do a more comprehensive shop!

Day Eleven (Tuesday)

Today the Divisional Director invited me to a meeting with the headteachers I am going to be working with from the Kiramuruzi Sector.  He would not be there as he has business in Kigali and will be gone at least until Friday.  Unfortunately, my partnered Headteachers did not know they had been invited, so they did not turn up.  I spent time with the headteacher I met yesterday asking questions and listening.  The headteacher’s English is very good, and we make good progress.  Eventually, I left and went back to the Divisional Office, where I tried to find out more about my schools.  The DD’s secretary was extremely helpful, allowing me to copy some statistics into my notebook for me to consider at my leisure.  As expected photocopying is just not possible.

I walked back to the house just after midday.  This was a very positive move as I had left in the morning without any water, so needed a drink.  No food except bananas, but now I have a bit of time to get organised!

Day Four

Over breakfast we had our first serious rain.  It really was torrential, but it lasted less than ten minutes.  Today I had to start thinking about setting up house!  Our accommodation has never been used by VSO, which means it will have a bed a table and a chair, mosquito nets, but Rwandan houses rarely have a kitchen, or electricity and it is likely to have an outside bathroom.  We will be cooking on kerosene stoves, filtering and boiling water and splashing water all over ourselves to get clean, so there will be a lot to get used to.  In one of our sessions I learnt that if I want to go running, I will have to do it in long trousers, shorts are definitely not acceptable.  At the VSO office, I was able to finalise the arrangements for getting a motorcycle.  They took a copy of my driving licence and are going to make the insurance arrangements.  Travelling to schools is going to be a bit of an adventure on the rough roads, particularly in the rainy season, which is less than four weeks away.

Day Five

After my early morning run (in long trousers) and shower I went on a shopping expedition for household equipment.  The shower was interesting; it gave me an electric shock (not static).  Apparently I am supposed to wear flip flops in the bath to provide insulation! The shopping trip gives me  a lot of very unfamiliar things to think about.  What pots and pans do I need given I only have one stove with one place to heat things?  What do you clean an outside bathroom with? (What is the floor made of?)  How do I wash up and do my laundry.  We know we will pay someone to collect water in jerry-cans and then have to treat it for drinking or store it for all of our washing needs.  Perhaps they can do the laundry as well?  Even washing powder is different – we settled on, “Power Boy” in the end.  At least it sounds as if it can get the job done.

The afternoon was filled with more details of the post I will be filling and what to expect in terms of working relationships and what might be achievable.  The more I hear the more daunting it all becomes!  Some of the schools are in a really poor state.  There are holes in the roofs; benches and tables on but almost nothing else in the classroom.  There is no electricity, so the headteachers have no equipment at all, but amazingly they are really enthusiastic and keen to work to improve their schools, so that is encouraging.

Day Six

Nothing much of interest to report.  Hundreds of black kites circle the city and one landed on the wall of our guest house even though there were plenty of people around. I’m not sure what they feed on but they don’t look particularly pleasant close up. People have been telling me that they have seen runners in shorts, so I thought I would give it a go.  The afternoon was particularly cool (about 22C), so it seemed a good time, because it would be quieter than either morning or evening.  I did not get any strange looks or comments but a couple of girls started running ahead of me to see if I could catch up.  I did eventually and we exchanged smiles and a greeting.

Day Seven

Today we went to Gisogi, the genocide memorial centre in Kigali. The centre opened 6 years ago on the tenth anniversary of the genocide during which a million Rwandans were killed.  There are the mass graves of over a quarter of million people on the site along with a carefully and skilfully crafted message about the origins of the genocide, the context in which it happened, the aftermath and the reconciliation work which is still on-going.  The most moving part for me was the stories of those who tried to save the lives of their friends and neighbours, putting themselves at incredible risk.  An exhibition of photographs at the end was dedicated to the children who were killed with the words,  “In memory of our beautiful children who should have been our future.”

 And finally, some more memorable words from Yolande Mukagosana.
 “There will be no humanity without forgiveness. 
There will be no forgiveness without justice. 
There will be no justice without humanity.”

Days one to three

Day One

A good and easy flight after being turned over by security at Brussels Airport.  I had my camera tripod in my hand luggage.  Not a prohibited item, but not sensible!  The highlight of the flight was seeing the Sahara from the air.  Endless tracts of tan brown spotted with dark pools which were the shadows of clouds. We landed at Kigali airport at about 7.30 p.m. local time and were met by the VSO team and taken to our guest house (Amani).  Comfortable enough with running water and electricity!  After a meal a few of us went out for a beer at a local bar.  Sitting under a thatched pergola in the dark was interesting, but everyone was very friendly and I practised a few words of Kinyarwandan.

Day Two

A late start, as many of my fellow travellers were tired and wanted a lie in.  We gathered together at 11.00 a.m. to go into Kigali centre by bus.  The city is busy, but not really crowded.  The streets are clean and you can go about your business without being constantly hassled like in some developing countries.  I am already becoming complacent about the mosquito peril.  I have not seen or felt one yet!  I now have a plug in USB modem so I can use the internet and Skype Jane back in England.  The food in the guest  house is good with fish meat and a variety of vegetables for both lunch and dinner.  I have eaten both fruit and vegetables I have never seen before and I cannot find out what they are called. 

The town is built on a number of hills.  The main roads are good quality but the side roads are very rough.  Down these side roads you find little communities and all sorts of stores and of course a number of bars.  Often these are very small, seemingly only  8 or 10 foot square.  I even found a bar at which to watch Spurs v Man Utd.

Day Three

At last I know a little bit more about where I am working and living.  After at first being told I was going to be living in Kiramuruzi Trading Centre (supposedly in a beautiful area near a lake).  However the trading centre is really very small although it has a thriving market and no accommodation could be found.  Consequently, I have been moved further north to Kabarore Trading Centre.  This is more like Savannah with more dangerous mosquitoes and further from the schools with which I will be working.  The good news is that I might as a consequence be trusted with a motorcycle to get to my two schools.  And Kabarore is the town in which the District Education Office is based, so I will perhaps be able to spend sometime building capacity beyond that of the two Headteachers in their primary schools.

We had our first power cut today.   The bathroom has no window.  My headtorch was invaluable and the floor was still dry after doing my business!