The patter of tiny feet? Maybe.
on Melissa Hipkins (Rwanda), 20/Mar/2011 09:34, 34 days ago
Jackie had something she needed to say on Friday. I could tell this was more than run of the mill as she murmured“Mademoiselle”. This means I have to ring up Zebounissa who still serves as interpreter for serious or complicated stuff. Jackie and I communicate a little better than we used, but it’s still very much in the realm of nouns and gestures, better than a series of grunts but not exactly the Oxford Union. When I have to call on Zebounissa's help it’s often bad news, the last time was a death in Jackie's family that meant 3 days off for her to attend the funeral.It turned out that she had to go to the doctors on Monday and needed not only time off but 2000 Rfr to pay the fee. Lending her the money was not a problem; it was nearly time for her to be paid and we had planned to give her a bit extra this month anyway, it being a year since she started. She wanted all morning because there’s no appointment system. In some places you get a ticket when you arrive and go up when your number is called. Otherwise it’s probably worse than the lottery of getting on the busses when they’re short of seats.Zebounissa volunteered her thoughts on why Jackie may have had to seek medical advice. She had heard a rumour that Jackie is pregnant; something we had also pondered looking at her increasing girth. Zeb had also heard that she had been knocking around with a married man so that the usual sequel of a hasty wedding was out of the question. None of us officially know yet, so Zebounissa is reluctant to broach the subject with Jackie. This leaves us in some doubt about what plans Jacky may have for the future. It’s Zeb’s opinion that she will not want to give up the job as there will be no husband to fall back on; that she will return after an indeterminate period once the child is delivered. I hope she does; we rub along pretty well and as I’ve said before she’s pretty quick on the uptake and basically a good worker and a lot more trustworthy than the average if some of the stories I've heard are true.Marriage in Rwanda seems a necessary and ideal state but undertaken, particularly by men, in rather a casual manner. We have heard up and coming executives declare that they are going to get married in 3/6 months but when asked who the bride will be they don’t yet know. They hope that love will follow but are quite prepared for it not to and for that to be an excuse for affairs or separation. It is very common for the brides to be 3 or 4 months pregnant at the wedding. The rate of infidelity is high and because Catholicism is by far the dominant religion there is little divorce. Needless to say abortion is equally taboo and for those who might contemplate it and all its ramifications the tin hat is the cost. Rwanda is a very conformist country thus marriage is the model and the thought of living together and having a family an anathema. Beforecoming here, one or two couples who are volunteers in this country have had to go through a marriage ceremony for form’s sake even though they have had a stable relationship for years. Single female volunteers over the age of 25 have a tough time perpetually explaining to Rwandan colleagues why they are not yet married.Recently on one or two mornings each week, at about 8.00 after Melissa has gone to the office, I catch the sound of animated conversation and the susurration of soft soled shoes going past up on the road. A look out of the window shows 40 or 50 men walking past dressed in prison garb. Garb here is distinguished by its eye watering day-glo orange or pink. These are men on a work detail from the gaol a few kilometres out of town. Agricultural hoes are carried at the slope or more comfortably parallel to the ground at arms’ length. I haven’t seen any machetes yet but I doubt that’s a security decision. There is no jingling of chains or shuffling as if feet were fettered; there are no restraints and it takes a little while to spot the two laid-back guards with AKs at the head and foot of the column. The pace ofthe men shows no reluctance to get where they are going but there’s no hint of keeping in step. The whole procession is a testament to the assumption that no-one would want to cause trouble or escape. The day-glo colours have significance; those in pink are being held in relation to the genocide and awaiting a decision from the gacaca courts. On a rough count of those going past I should say pink is the outfit most in demand by far from the prison stores.Gacaca is the system of trial introduced to try and deal with the overwhelming numbers of suspects detained since 1994. It’s based on a traditional structure that was set up in the community to resolve conflicts between families with the heads of households as arbitrators. It’s now superficially very democratic; community representatives of both sexes have been elected to act as local judges. From the bus we sometimes see gacaca taking place in villages. There’s what seems like the whole community in attendance, all gathered round the few pink figures in the centre. The accused are being tried in the community where the offences took place and a lot of the villagers are called as witnesses. How fair this all is open to debate but if the conventional courts had to cope it has been calculated to take hundreds of years to clear the backlog. On the plus side up to 20% are acquitted so there seems to be less kangaroo that in other unconventional forms of justice.If it’s a good day for them they will sometimes be seen hanging out of the back and sides of a lorry instead of having to walk. Melissa and Melanie often pass them on the road and they have remarked to themselves that the guards are often seen to be buying stuff from the kiosks or gossiping with the locals. Equally the prisoners natter with passers by and everyone is very relaxed. Without wanting to sound too Daily Mail, they probably have very little motivation to escape. Conditions are no worse than outside and on the whole penalties and sentences are not too harsh; the death penalty was abolished in 2007