Mended laptops, and stuffing ourselves at Amani

Apr 14-16th ICT 2 Training Course at Kigali
To Kigali with Épi, then changed a load of Euros so I reckon I should be solvent for the rest of the month after the extravagances of the Volcano trip!

Epi had to collect her laptop from the computer repair shop, so decided to see what they could make of mine. Charming Ugandan Asian (Moslem) set up with patriarchal shop owner and son, but the young woman working in the shop treated as a skivvy.

Épi’s laptop is repaired and running well, so she’s a really happy bunny. And within 10 minutes the technician had identified the problem with my laptop (any laptop users reading this, take note!). The hinge along the lid had loosened, allowing the lid some free play as it opened and closed. This put pressure on the motherboard below (the clearances are tiny), and cracked a corner of the motherboard. The crack was very small, and right in a corner, but nevertheless it has fractured one of the tiny printed circuits, giving a precarious connection which breaks easily and causes the computer to go blank. The motherboard is like a sandwich in three layers, and it’s fortunate that the crack is in the topmost layer. If it had been in the middle layer we’d have had a really difficult and expensive repair job. Interesting to see inside a laptop, though, and the sheer amount of stuff there is crammed inside. But a bit worrying to see the amount of chalk dust and other gunk that has accumulated in three years.

He’s fixed the problem by soldering in a short piece of wire to repair the broken circuit, and has strengthened and repaired the lid hinges. He says I’ll have no more problems with it, but it has cost me RwF40,000 (£40) which is a lot, but much less than having to buy a new laptop out here. So I’m glad I changed those Euros; they didn’t last long, but they’ve come in useful!

Our training course is O K, neither deadly dull nor wildly exciting. Best of it has been the prodigious amount of eating we’re doing at Amani; I guess I’ll have put back some of the weight I’ve lost over the past three months! Best session so far has been one on the Rwandan education system with a rep from MINEDUC, another from an NGO and one from DFID. Yours truly weighs in with questions about school fees, teacher training etc and I think the MINEDUC guy was rather taken aback that we should have got so much to grips with the system in just a few months. Just you wait till I’ve got my entire census statistics organised!

Worst sessions are the (advanced) Kinya-rwanda. Each individual session is fine, but I just can’t carry the stuff from one day to the next. As soon as we’ve finished the lesson we’re straight into some other topic, and by lunchtime it’s as if I’ve never done the stuff at all. I’m beginning to understand how so many children must have felt during my French lessons at Beaminster. (Sorry, kids, all is forgiven).

It’s nice being part of a bigger group (we’re here with the ten February arrivals and various ones like George who have arrived later. One person, Berthe, only arrived this afternoon. She’s flown in from Australia and is replacing a youngster who chucked the placement in because her boyfriend was pining for her back in Australia).

In the evenings we’re either going out to a bar or in watching videos (or both). Last night we saw the third of the videos about the Genocide. (First and worst is “Hotel Rwanda”; second and marginally better is “Shooting Dogs”; this third one is called “Sometimes in April” and is worth seeing. I understand there’s a fourth just out which covers the French intervention (or lack of it) called “Operation Turquoise” towards the end of the conflict.

“Sometimes in April” is good because it flits backwards and forwards between the atrocities of 1994 and the reckoning at a Gacaca court in 2004. It also manages to avoid having to create a love affair to sustain people’s interest. And its set in Rwanda so all the locations are perfectly authentic. It’s definitely worth seeing because you can take it for granted that Rwandan people are watching it. (By contrast, “Hotel Rwanda” was filmed in South Africa and arouses fury here). The copy we watched was in Kinya-rwanda without subtitles because it was one which Elson had loaded at the INSET boot camp and transferred to Cathie’s computer just before we came to Kigali. Cathie’s here as a trainer; she’s the only volunteer being used as part of the training team. Anyway, I’m rambling. If you get a chance to see “Sometimes in April” then take it, but don’t expect happy endings or enjoyable viewing.

The avocado trees at Amani are absolutely laden with ripe fruit; I’m wondering if I can scrump one or two before we leave on Saturday morning!

The social scene is already winding up; it’s Els’s birthday on Friday so there’ll be some sort of booze up that evening.

They want new people to stand for the Volunteers’ Committee, which represents our interests with the Programme Office in terms of our welfare, and I’ll offer to stand unless there are loads of other takers. There’s plenty of people from the south already, and too few from the east, so they might decide to put some of the others on it. And I reckon I’m pretty likely to be asked to do some of the welcoming and training when the September volunteers all arrive; that’ll mean committing myself for a week of over eating at the end of August. Tough job, but someone’s gotta do it!

This morning a bunch of us got up very early to do yoga at dawn on our veranda, led by Alicia (one of the volunteers). Then I got a rush hour matata to the town centre to wait until the computer shop opened to collect my machine.
It’s amazing what a difference a short time in Africa makes to you. I can remember how during our January training the guest house felt like a protective cocoon against the wild Africa outside. Now we just want to escape from it into the outside world – no longer wild but something we understand and enjoy. Crazy, crowded buses; people yelling in Kinya-rwanda – no problem; I enjoy them! We’ve come a long way!

Best thing about these three days – mended computer, socialising, eating.
Worst things – earnest discussions about Disability policy and such like.