Making the most of yet another slow day.......

Feb 20

Frustrating day today; a good example of how this place doesn’t work! Went up to the office late, for a ten o’clock meeting with all the primary heads. Discovered when I got there that, firstly, the meeting had been cancelled but nobody had bothered to tell Cathie or me, and secondly that Claude is off work until March 18th.

That means we’ll have had about 6 weeks without any guidance or criticism from the boss. How do I know if I’m doing my inspections and reports the way he wants them? How can Cathie arrange her training courses in English for primary teachers if Claude isn’t there to authorise them and agree to the expenditure?

We both fumed but spend a busy couple of hours doing things like printing off final drafts of inspection reports. Claude now has five waiting for him on his desk, and I think there’ll be at least five more before he comes back. I don’t think he managed five himself in the whole of last year, judging by the “fiches d’appréciation” sheets in his folder. If his isn’t satisfied with us, then I’ll kick him!

So Cathie and I have drawn up our own plans for the next few weeks. Easter approaches and it’s a tricky time to be working in Rwanda. Tomorrow we’re up the “great north road” again to do another isolated primary school, Nyenyeli. Friday I’m off to Kigali for a education managers’ meeting in the afternoon, and a bit of shopping beforehand. I’ve arranged to crash at Marion’s place on Friday night, provided I can cope with a horde of cats. (Why on earth do so many Vols want to keep pets)? Saturday is Marion’s birthday, and it’s another Umuganda day in the morning so everything will stop. Hope I can still get into the Prog Office to use the internet! Won’t be able to go to Marion’s party because Cathie is running a training course all weekend and I’ve promised to come for Sat afternoon and Sunday morning.

The next week we’ve got three schools to inspect, all local (provided they don’t cry off). I’m very conscious that I haven’t done a formal secondary inspection yet, but I’m getting into the groove with the primaries and it’s where the chief problems lie.

Then (deep breath) I’m taking advantage of Claude’s nuptials and skiving for the whole of the first week in March. VSO’s been asked to help train teachers at the Byumba refugee camp. I’ve pledged to go. I’ve never been in a refugee camp in my life, so it could be an interesting experience. This is a very settled, long-established camp, so it’s not starving people huddled under plastic sheets. They’re Congolese people, but ethnic Tutsis and Kinya-rwanda speaking, who were driven out of the Congo some years ago by the constant fighting and in particular by the arrival in their areas of Interahamwe militia and remnants of the former Rwandan army, who had been chased out of Rwanda by the victorious forces during the genocide. Got all that? Good, go to the top of the class! VSO is desperate for French speakers to help, so I’ve been welcomed with open arms. God help me if they’re French is as muddy as some of the locals’ here! (And it almost certainly will be). I had a head teacher on the phone twice yesterday, and with all the will in the world I just couldn’t understand him. I asked him to speak in French and he indignantly replied that he already was! Had to get Cathie to help. Being Canadian does have its advantages, and because she’s been here for ages she’s so much more tuned in to the local accents than me.

During the second week in March we’ll do some more visits. I’ve learned that we need to phone at least a week in advance to avoid last minute changes of plan. And that we need to plan for about 4 or 5 visits a week if we mean to actually succeed in 3 or 4. Schools won’t be too happy with us that week; its revision week ahead of end of term exams. But lessons should still be going on, and if I find that revision means the teachers all leave their classes unattended and go off to do admin I’ll slate them!

Then there’s exam week, during which we definitely can’t do visits. Not sure what we’re going to do during that time, but Claude should be back so I suppose we’ll consult the oracle if we can get through his door! And by that time we should be deep in training courses. After exam week there’s just a few days till he end of term. That would be a good opportunity to talk to Claude about a change of focus from inspecting to advising and doing training courses ready for when Cathie leaves.

Our plans to go residential and do a batch of schools in the far north are going to have to be put on hold. The timing is all wrong. Never mind, there’s still 9 months of work ahead of me after Easter.

The worst problems come in the month of April. This is when the main Genocide memorial days are held, and Rwanda as a whole virtually grinds to a halt. Once again, we need Claude to advise us on what is practicable and what really is a definite no-no. We really don’t want to do anything which would be seen as culturally insensitive.

Well, that’s how we saw it by lunchtime today. Dined at “Tranqillité” again, but not so good today – they’d no plantains or sweet potatoes or imboga in the mélange. Either the markets weren’t on form or somebody’s slipping. And by now we were on today’s first power cut, and with a massive generator throbbing in the yard the restaurant didn’t live up to its name. But, hey, they do really good chips – isn’t that funny! Fresh, light and crunchy! They’re forgiven the missing imboga!

My injured toe is still giving me a lot of pain, but it’s very slowly starting to heal. I suppose walking four or five miles a day minimum is a sort of kill-or-cure treatment.

In the afternoon we bought all the stationery we need for the weekend’s training course; as I write it’s all dumped in our flat.

Went to the bank and drew money (need to pay my share of the Domestique’s wages), and tried to pay for the map I’ve ordered from GIS. However, it seems I must pay at the bank’s branch in Butare. So it’s all going to have to wait till Monday and cost me another round trip south.

Finally, I had by far the most successful part of the day. Used what photos I have taken so far to create a couple of power point presentations, one on primary school in Rwandan and the other on life in Rwanda in general, which I’m going to burn on CD and send home to England. I’m sure Andy M and Ann B will be able to try them out on their classes. Great fun to do, and they’ve enabled me to use about half my total pics so far. Satisfactory end to a mixed day.

High point of the day – the power points: complete works of fiction but they feel right
Worst part of the day – getting to work to find everything cancelled.