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Rwanda

a travel blog by Sue Mugwiza

How much can one girl do in 2 years with little more than good intentions? We will have to see......... With friends and family to blog on and blog off I have my life-support right here in this strange and wonderful cyber world where geeks no longer rule, access to you all!
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Two weeks to go

Northwich, United Kingdom

Yikes!! Only two weeks to go and a million and one things to do (after writing this that only leaves a million -phew!) The main thing I MUST do is find my passport. Can you believe the one thing I mustn't loose and I have! I am hanging onto the Hope that it made it into a random box of things in the loft of my house, having moved out in a rush and a panic in between training courses.

However, if this ends up being the first and final blog then you will realise I never did find my passport and was far too embarassed to admit that I got stuck in England dwelling in my own stupidity and disorganization forever!

Anyway, lets Hope this doesn't occur and the next time you blog on I am in Rwanda!!

permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on August 22, 2006 from Northwich, United Kingdom
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First Impressions

Kigali, Rwanda

Well, luckily I did find my passport (yep in the loft) and so have landed in Africa! First impressions have contradicted all preconceptions and I find myself living in a very clean, very quiet city. Kigali is what other cities might describe as a village in comparison! Traffic is pretty chilled out, lots of green hills and very few street lights so my last minute Lidl torch was an inspired buy!!
We've had workshops and training a-plenty! With time in between for a visit to a Lake (although still had training lakeside!) popping into town and doing a bit of cow dancing! This is the local dance style and maybe I did represent a cow dancing quite well (though don't think that is the aim)!
The only worrying thing is that everyone keeps telling me how 'challenging' my job is going to be. Don't like the word 'challenging' as it basically translates as rock hard! I am working in the actual government education office and am so hoping I will not be stuck there for two years having meetings about meetings etc. Gonna be tricky to have contact with real children in real schools - which I don't relish. But we will see........ beginning to wish I'd packed a suit rather than combat trousers!
Oh yeah my first purchase in Rwanda was insect spray, since my biggest fears were compunded on arrival: being welcomed by a cockroach in the shower. When I had my second 'visitor' I again called for help, then when my third 'roommate' joined me I decided I had to deal with such things alone - or rather with my handy killer spray! So I must brag about my conquest in dealing with such an ugly evil creature by myself, as I feel a certain sense of pride! Sure I'll become at one with them before long!?

permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on September 14, 2006 from Kigali, Rwanda
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The good, the bad and the terrible (attempts at speaking a new langauge)

Kigali, Rwanda

Well, such a lot has been happening and such a lot has not been happening! Some good things have occurred and some not so good things! Such is life….

I’ll get the bad out of the way…. Got some money swiped from my bag. But my own fault really, I was careless and distracted by bartering for what amounts to a saving of 20p and ended up getting 45 quid nicked instead! For the person that nicked it though that will be two months salary probably (if he has a job) I live and learn – and have since been quite attached to my money belt! The good things however outweigh that one bad thing as most people I have met have been nothing but helpful and friendly.

So onto my house – I am trying to download photos but I am abit slow when it comes to technology (and many others things too you may be muttering to yourself) My house is very grand, huge rooms, very safe and clean and therefore very comfortable for any visitors out there! I mean I do have to cook on a kerosene stove out the back, wash my clothes in a bucket and shower in cold water so it’s not complete cushiness, but I do have constant electricty and water (which is rare!) I have a house to myself and complete privarcy to the point of isolation. This means it is very safe of course, but can’t nosey at comings and goings of the neighbourhood as my house has a high wall all around, a huge gate which is locked and a guard called Eustache who hangs out here in the evenings, cleaning, sleeping and guarding (I suspect mainly sleeping.) I know, I know, a guard makes it sound like I am about to be attacked or burgled any minute but in reality guards seem to be the equivelent of having a burglar alarm on a house in the UK. He has a little room outside where he sleeps, so it’s just reassuring and he has proven to be invaluable for things like ‘How do I work my kersoene stove?’ ‘How do I get rid of rubbish?’ All such requests rely mainly on sign language and pointing due to my many failed attempts to pronounce words looked up in my dictionary of Kinyarwandan!

I ventured out to the market yesterday and tried to use my newly acquired knowledge of this language! Ni angahe? (How much?) The shameful thing is my comprehension of numbers is now better in Kinyarwandan than French! But it means I provide a little light entertainment to the stall holders and (hopefully) don’t get ripped off too much. Many people just look at you completely puzzled, until I try many different pronunciations until I hit on one which is a close approximation.

Young lads hang out at the market asking ‘give me work?’, then carry your bags of veggies for you. (Think I was over generous as my lad looked very chuffed with the 200RWF (20p) I gave him!) It’s better than the alternative of begging and was in fact very helpful. However, shame he couldn’t come back with me as I later had to struggle off the bus with my fruit and veggies, not realizing how much I had bought. But sure it was hilarious for locals to watch the ‘muzungu’ struggling home trying to contain potatoes in a broken bag, with bananas threatening to escape, spinach hitting me in the face and bags rice and dried beans exploding! Think I am going to have to swallow my pride and invest in a local shopping bag (reminiscent of the 80’s plastic jelly-bean bag if you recall? - the ideal accompaniment to the jelly-bean shoe!)


permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on September 24, 2006 from Kigali, Rwanda
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Questioning my sanity

Kigali, Rwanda

I have spent my first full week at work and I have the following questions……
1) Why did I ever leave Fox Wood?
2) Why would anyone choose to work in an office (answers welcome)
3) What am I actually doing here?
So, as you may detect, I am not overly chuffed about my job! The main problem being I have nothing to do. I am trying to research and plan, but I don’t have much to plan as yet. On the up side – things can only get better! That motto seemed to work for Tony Blair and look at him now … okay maybe an unfortunate comparison. However, I know I am not the only one feeling like this, so think it is a common VSO volunteer experience when coming from ‘hectic-pressures on-deadlines-not enough time’ western world to ‘kick back-hang out-disappear quite a bit’ African world.

So food features quite high on my daily highlights at the moment (no change there then!) But you’d have no chance of sticking to the Atkins diet here! Dinner is always on all-you-can-eat style buffet with every carb going piled onto a plate – rice, fried potatoes, pasta, some unfamiliar type of carb stuck together in a big white lump, banana savory stuff and finally a sweet banana for pudding! But somehow I’m hungry again at night and am currently experimenting with ‘101 things to do with one pan and the same basic ingredients.’ However Lisa came for dinner on Wed and was impressed with my ability to make a tasty banana-free meal!

But for those weight-watchers amongst you, you may conclude from this little insight that so much stodge + sitting in office on bottom all day = weight gain. So don’t be surprised if I return home donning an affluent African style bum… No need to invest in Wonderpants™ I feel!


permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on October 1, 2006 from Kigali, Rwanda
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Yet more lingusitic challenges

Kigali, Rwanda

Work picked up slightly, but I went to a conference to develop the EDPRS (Something poverty reduction strategy’) and felt completely lost in a world of jargonized academia. “Waaay out of my depth,” was how I would sum up the experience. However, was worth going for three reasons; got me out of my cage (the office), met some useful people, (workwise) and the food was very nice! My brain, however, struggled to cope with the extremes of such a lack of stimulation one day (in the office) to an over-load of jargon, statistics and strategy the next.

Anyway, onto something of much more interest. I ventured out of Kigali and into Butare where another VSO volunteer is working with pupils at a school to develop a unified Rwandan sign language. So I went to observe lessons and see how pupils with various disabilities are integrated into mainstream lessons. Quite bizarre to observe lessons which is a mixture of French, Kinyarwandan and sign language. I understood almost nothing!!!

The next day I hooked up with the ‘deaf crew’ who were going to teach sign language to ‘parents’ at an orphanage. The orphanage has many deaf children but they don’t use much signing. On the journey there Betty and Joyce (quite unsexy names, I know!) gave me a crash course in Rwandan sign language, so by the time I arrived I was no longer the new signer on the block. So, when I joined in the lessons, I was able to help a little. By the end of the day I had learnt so much!!! This is testimony to the pupils’ skill and determination (and great patience) at teaching sign language.

My spirits were lifted after having contact with children who are an inspiration and remind me why I am here! And maybe I can bear being stuck in the office and going to boring conferences if I can remember that there are so many other disabled children who haven’t been so lucky as to have access to education. So with my determination renewed, I face another Monday!!!

In addition, I now have some lovely new friends who are keen to teach me more signing during their holidays, as most return to Kigali then. And, I have discovered, what makes Rwandans stare more than white-skinned, blonde girls talking in a café? White-skinned, blonde girls conversing in sign language with deaf Rwandan teenagers!!


permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on October 9, 2006 from Kigali, Rwanda
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Bean Busy?

Kigali, Rwanda

Such is the excitement of my evenings, that I spent a good half hour this evening evacuating horrid grey bugs from my rice! Having found two little mites in my pan of rice I thought I should investigate further and discovered they had left a few mates behind in my bag of rice. So, sorting out the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, I found the culprit…. dried beans. Having escaped during the previously mentioned shopping trip, where bags exploded randomly, the beans had infested my rice and given birth to live creatures! I wouldn’t mind so much but the only reason I bought beans in the first place was because they were attractively multi-coloured and I happened to remember their name in Kinyarwandan (very cool sounding ‘ibishyimbo’) In fact I didn’t have a clue what to do with them, so they had been quietly sitting around waiting to be made into something edible. Meanwhile, these little mites had been slowly gnawing their way out and the beans now looked like beads waiting to be threaded onto cord. So, having made this ‘beans + time = mites’ connection I sought out my big bag of beans and yes indeed, it was slowly turning into a bag of mites!! Yummy! So yes, even, the mighty frugel Sue decided to chuck them. But one question remains… what would have happened if I had cooked my beans earlier? Are beans merely homes for lice? I may e-mail Heinz…

permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on October 11, 2006 from Kigali, Rwanda
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Unhappy bunny bouncing back!

Kigali, Rwanda

I have nearly gone mad with boredom this week and haven’t been a very happy bunny. However, maybe have turned a corner, or at least negotiated a small obstacle in the road; but I better not get too excited – one day at a time.

Maybe I should tell you a bit about the country now, it is not terrible or anything, indeed it seems very fine, lots of new buildings, lots of progress, lots of international support. But I have found it difficult to feel at home because it is not like India (the joys!) where people invite you into their homes and treat you as a long-lost family member. People here are more reserved and private, they say hello in the street and help if you ask for help, but they are not gushing with joy! It is, however, thought to be partly due to the genocide; people are cautious and trust has to be earned slowly. I suppose why should you trust strangers when not so long ago neighbours turned on neighbours and life-long friends suddenly became enemies? But that doesn’t make it any easier for little old me trying to fit into a society. I think my area is particularly quiet as most houses are very private like mine, with gates, high walls and guards, so once I am home I am quite alone. So I tend to potter about cooking on my keroscene stove, reading books, attempting to converse with Eustache (my guard,) burning rubbish, climbing the walls etc (only joking mum, not that bad!) So if I want to be sociable it would have to be either with other VSO volunteers or men (as women don’t seem to go out) so I have been a bit cautious so far (with the men, not VSOers.) So it is taking a while and it doesn’t help when work is as exciting as watching mould grow (though to be fair to the mould it does seem to develop at a fair pace on my food!)

Anyway, I have not yet gone mad and I did visit a school for blind children last week and am going to a conference for the deaf this week. Just trying to carve out a path for myself at work and have some goals. No-one promised it would be easy, I think I just forgot that!



permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on October 18, 2006 from Kigali, Rwanda
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Nightclub 1:church 1

Kigali, Rwanda

Is work improving or I am becoming more adept at killing time in the office? Who knows? I suspect the latter but what I do know is that this week has generally been better. Started the weekend well with free beers at the deaf conference to celebrate the reformation of the Rwandan Deaf Association, which culminated in me dancing in front of the speakers with some of the deaf crew! Think they found it hilarious that a girl drank beer and danced in an African stylie (well I thought I did!) Then went onto a nightclub later, so was a lot more sociable than I have been as 10pm is now way past my bedtime! However, as the African style of dancing hotted up, I didn’t even try to keep up!

Then, in contrast to that I went to church on Sunday. Although not too much of a contrast I suppose, with drums and dancing! It wasn’t as radical and unfamiliar as I thought it might be, my sisters churches had prepared me well, it was less way-out than them! However, there were a few cries of ‘preach it pastor’ and ‘amen’ during the sermon which I don’t think people have ever shouted out at my Dads sermons!! However, it was very cool and the pastor was funny and energetic, he reminded me of Dave Benson-Phillips (Fox Wood guys will know him from the Makaton raps!) But I found it really paradoxical to be in a rudimentary building made of bits of wood and corrugated iron, yet with amps, mics, drums and keyboards!

So this weekend may turn out to be a similar story and I will become one of those people who live for the weekend, as that is where the action is. It is certainly not in the office, unless you count beating my own record at spider solitaire? Wow the excitement of Africa!


permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on October 26, 2006 from Kigali, Rwanda
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Chickens and Chat

Kigali, Rwanda

Well, I’ve made it through the month on my VSO salary, with a combination of local living and ex-pat lifestyle! Ex-pat being my weekly luxury of an aerobics session at the Novotel with the added bonus of a hot shower! I have also employed a cleaner now, which sounds extravagant, but I must stress that it is very normal, even for an average local family. I mean I have tried to be self-sufficient, but I just cannot wash the floors properly or get my clothes really clean. And I don’t know about ‘women’s work’ as you certainly need decent muscles to get clothes clean and Pierre does perform cleaning miracles!! However, I was struck with guilt when I realize his wage for a day’s hard graft was less than my hour’s aerobics session! I know the simple solution is to pay him more but I pay him in line with VSO, which is considered generous! It just highlights the chasm between rich and poor Rwandans.

Another new addition to my routine is I have started teaching my guard English in the evenings. It is proving to be good fun and is a good ‘exchange of skills’, since he teaches me the Kinyarwandan words as I teach him the English. It gives me something useful to do on an evening. However, work is also picking up, I have actually made some progress and am getting more involved, so watch this space!!

Before I sign off, a small story to amuse you from last week. Went to the market to buy my fruit and veg and was just about to sit on the bus when I noticed a dead chicken under ‘my’ seat, so, slightly squeamish, I decided to wait and let a local occupy that seat. Good move, as the dead chicken suddenly decided it wasn’t quite dead yet and intermittently let out a few random clucks and squawks! I do get easily freaked by such things, so I was so jumpy all the way home. Whenever I see people carrying half-alive chickens home for dinner I do make a point in giving them a wide berth. The other week a lady was carrying an enormous Turkey, half her size, onto the bus. I was just relieved I wasn’t on her bus!


permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on November 7, 2006 from Kigali, Rwanda
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Big Brother is watching

Kigali, Rwanda

This week I have experinced an alternative Big Brother with varied house guests and some evictions. This morning I began by evicting a large sleepy grasshopper from his bed inside my keroscene stove. He hasn’t moved much since so not sure if he has keroscene posioning! Earlier this week I had a sneaky family trying to settle into my bedroom roof. The new residents seemed suspiciosuly like rats, this assumption is based on audio rather than visual evidence. However, there stay has so far been restricted to one day and one night. Perhaps realising they were unpopular with the general public they left voluntarily, hopefully with no plans to return. I have a buzzy housemate, lodging in a hole in my bathroom, who seems to be making herself comfortable for the forseeable future. She may face eviction before she gives birth and the buzzing becomes unbearable with many baby bees. The rains are becoming ever more frequent and aggressive here, so another unpopular guest is sneaking in through a drip-drip in the roof. So far this is easily evicted with a cloth, but how long before a bucket is required? I am, however, not completely unsociable and have so far allowed a couple of geekos and small spiders to stay put for purposes of mosquito eating. However, BB must inform a new baby geeko that dropping onto my head when I leave for work is considered impolite. I have had a more more appreciative appreciative guest for the last fortnight, who is most welcome as she washes up, provides converstaion and entertainment in the form of DVD’s – yeah! Vote Ruth; VSO sign language researcher!

The BB challenge this week was to enrol on a French course. I had to do a short test so I was put in the right ability class, which was just like being back in school. However, I am no longer considered top set material, but am adjusting to life near the bottom set! A further challenge is trying not to giggle at my teacher who seems to be a black version of Frank Spencer, complete with sleeveless knitted pullover. And despite being in Africa the textbooks are still based in 1980’s France, which makes me smile. Teaching style however, is quite a contrast to the UK, here the teacher quite openly laughs if you get things wrong and it is not considered bad practice to humiliate you if you don’t know the answer! My coping mechanism is to giggle at myself and just think ‘oh Betty!’

BB rewarded my efforts with a trip away to Lake Muhazi at the weekend for a big party, with lots of cheesy music to dance to until the early hours. Then an extra surprise was Monday off for ‘National Tree Planting day’. Yes, really!


permalink written by  Sue Mugwiza on November 20, 2006 from Kigali, Rwanda
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