Kigali's nice but Gitarama's home!

Jan 25th

Took some photos of the flat and around Gitarama as I walked to the matata park. Joined by Karen and Polly for day out in Kigali. Matata squashed in as usual, but quick and safe journey. Kigali felt hot and close after the cool heights of Gitarama.

Toured the UTC shopping complex; drooled over bars of Cadbury’s chocolate, quaker oats and just about every English delicacy you can imagine. But it’s all very expensive, and they do something to the chocolate to prevent it from melting in the tropics. As a result it tastes nothing like as nice as it does back home. Honest!

Bought a few goodies including a banana cake so I can indulge during the weekend. The we treated ourselves to hot chocolate and cake in the bourbon café. The place seemed full of other VSOs; I didn’t realise until today that there is something of a tradition of coming to Kigali on Friday to collect mail from the VSO office and shop before the weekend’s exertions.

At the Programme Office met Epiphanie, who nobody had seen since we left Amani, and various other VSOs new to me. Frantic swapping of phone numbers. By the end of the day I think I’ve met a good three quarters of the entire contingent in Rwanda.

We had two meetings, an informal one over lunch which turned into a long series of moans about how inefficient the Programme Office was and how obstructive and dilatory some people’s Rwandan bosses could be. Made me feel very lucky, once again. Claude has loads of meetings and is difficult to pin down at short notice, but at least he is straight and trustworthy.

The afternoon meeting was a working party on capacity building. It felt rather inconclusive except where we shared strategies for pinning down our bosses to make decisions and on how to find information. My strategy for the latter has been to simply read every file on every computer in the office (nobody seems to co-ordinate information and there’s no such thing as a staff handbook). Other people suggested going through all unlocked drawers. It’s a funny way to do business, but it’s the Rwandan way!

Unbearably stuffy in the meeting, and realised that my stomach has decided to rise in revolt again. Dreaded the bus ride home – we left Kigali on one of the last matatas of the day and if I’d needed to make a quick exit en route I’d have been stranded all night out in the wilds. Fortunately, with lightning flickering all round and a light drizzle falling, I made it back to home intact. Sweaty, clammy, tired and jaded. But Gitarama definitely feels like home now, and it was good to be back.

High points of the day – meeting new VSOs, touching base with people from my little group; chilling in the coffee bar.
Low point – not a wasted day but felt it could have produced more. But then, Cathy said Claude was once again out at meetings all day so even if I’d stayed in Gitarama I wouldn’t have been able to get any decisions made. It’s just the African way and I’ve got to get used to it. As somebody’s boss kept saying, “You volunteers produce good ideas and have lots of energy, but you stay a while and then you go. We are here for good. So we do things our way”.