Death by meetings.......

Feb 29th

Boring day today. Started off with a big meeting of all the primary and secondary heads. Around 130 people, all arriving more or less late and going out at intervals to answer their mobile phones. Claude was there; first time he’s appeared since the wedding. Couldn’t get near him for other people wanting to speak to him. The meeting was in a local hall (nowhere in the District Office is big enough). The vice-mayor presided. The whole thing was in Kinyarwanda, and it went on for about four and a half hours. Claude got someone to sit with Cathie and I and translate, but that meant it was difficult to follow the mood of the meeting. It seemed to be duplicating January’s meeting when school results were officially read out. There were some appalling management tactics – the least achieving schools were named and shamed (again) in public, and the microphone handed to the hapless head teachers to explain themselves. The poor guys talked about staff absence and inexperienced teachers but they were visibly squirming. By the end we were starving. Cathie had brought some cassettes and CDs of children’s songs, and had them for sale after the official business ground to a halt. (After three hours a lot of the head teachers started leaving; by the very end the hall was only half full). We were inundated with a queue of about thirty people, including reps from the local teacher training college.

The meeting was so long there was no way I could get to Kigali for my VSO meeting in the afternoon, so I set off for the capital round teatime. Got to Kigali just as it was getting dark and managed to find the hotel Geert had booked us into ready for the big Akagera adventure tomorrow. With a 4.30 start planned, it was no time to hit the night life in town, so we ate at the German butchers (another traditional Kigali venue I’ve now put on my mental map) and fell into bed. Discovered that we’d only been able to book two double rooms, so ended up sharing a bed with Kest, Geert’s Dutch friend. First time I’ve shared a bed with another bloke since a school trip to Rome in about 1975!

Best thing about today: escaping to Kigali at the end of it, and knowing we were up for a big adventure tomorrow.
Worst thing about today: a meeting which was endless, pointless and in a language I couldn’t understand.