Gitting rid of viruses, Rwandan style

Feb 26th

Well, things do change here in Gitarama. Tuesdays are supposed to be Gacaca days. No shops are supposed to open; no matatas run; everything is supposed to shut down until the afternoon. But today it’s all changed. We haven’t seen any notices, heard anything official, but Gacaca is over. The shops are busy, buses are running, porters are running up and down the street and there’s a conspicuous absence of police and militia.

I have to say I’m glad Gacaca is over. The courts have descended into petty score settling and are being manipulated in some cases to get one over on people you don’t like. To take just one case, there’s a woman whose husband was a local mayor and was killed during the chaotic period just after the end of the genocide. (Remember that thousands were killed in very dubious circumstances in the refugee camps in an orgy of score settling and power jostling long after the end of the genocide proper). At some point in proceedings the official mayor’s truck disappeared. This woman is now being pursued via Gacaca courts to stump up a replacement vehicle. Try doing that when you earn less than ten dollars a day. She can’t prove she’s innocent, so the courts will tend to assume she’s guilty. She’ll be ruined and disgraced in a culture where your moral probity is paramount.

When I arrive at the internet café for 7.30 I find it open, and Elson and I spend an hour and a half downloading the updates to Théophile’s virus checker. The internet is slow, but not as bad as it has been in the past. While the virus thingy is chugging away in the background I check emails; return letters have come from Andrew in Surrey and Jane in Zanzibar.

Only problem is that the updated virus checker doesn’t seem to be killing my viruses!

Give up eventually and head off to the District Office. Nothing much to do there; neither Béatrice nor Innocent are in and Vedantie comes and goes. Mostly goes, so I’m back into receiving visitors and apologising for everyone’s absence. I’m trying to get a snappy pie chart into a powerpoint presentation and spend an hour fruitlessly mucking about with the software. Still plagued by the Odinga virus.

At one o’clock I decide to call it a day and head off home grumpy, whereupon it starts raining and I have to make a dash for the first arcade of shops before it comes on a deluge. I’m in the dressmaking and tailoring quarter of Gitarama (yes, folks, this place really does have quarters for different trades just like medieval London) and I get offered a stool and lots of giggles from around four women who think it’s a hoot that this dozy muzungu hasn’t got a car and has got himself caught in the storm. (If you’ve been reading this blog for a long time you’ll know I’ve been caught in just this way before, but in a different dressmakers. I’ll be getting a reputation).

However, I offer them peanuts from my emergency supply, and they let me take a photo of them. They’re not exactly working flat out; the muzungu at the door’s far too great a distraction for that, but it’s the first time I’ve been able to take a snap of local artisans. There’ll be more, I promise you! Take some pics of the heavy rain, too

Rain over I start walking home; get half way there and get a lift from Alphonse in the District pick-up truck. There’s a woman in the back; I assume she’s one of the secretaries or other functionaries from the office, but no, it’s Mrs Alphonse and he’s commandeered the truck to get her home dry. Picking up me, of course, will be a useful excuse if he gets reprimanded. Artful or what?

Back home I fire up the laptop to download my pics and discover that this time the virus check is working and I’m able to disinfect every file on both laptop and flash drive. Yazooks! That’s one of my targets for the week done and it’s only Tuesday!

Polly comes round, we talk about going to Butare and getting some souvenirs and I give her disks with all my photos and powerpoints because she’s not been as lucky as me and had the same number of photogenic opportunities. We invite her and Geert for supper tomorrow.

Spend a riotous evening doing my ironing and writing shopping lists for tomorrow. Tom and I have a fiddle with the powerpoint programme and hey presto – I find I can after all create a flashy (-ish) chart.

High point of the day – loading the laptop and seeing no nasties
Worst thing about today – It feels a long time since I did any “real” work. I’ve lined up four schools for the second week in March on the assumption that at least two will back out. We’ll see. Funny old day, really.