Back in Kigeme after 8 weeks leave!
on Annemiek Miller (Rwanda), 30/Aug/2006 09:33, 34 days ago
Back after eight weeks of leave!Yes I was away for 8 weeks, 7 in Canada and 1 in the Netherlands. It started as a sick leave and became a 4-week holiday. And now I am back in Rwanda.There is much to be done!! Where to start? Well it just happens. Valens, whom I have written about before and whose school fees I pay, was nowhere to be found this week, the first week of the final term. He finally showed up at lunch time Friday and told me a frustrating story: frustrating for 2 reasons. Firstly it is complicated and Valens has good French but somehow the Rwandans don’t pass on information as concisely as they could so I got lost in the details. Secondly, the news was bad: he was not at school this week because last term, the 15th of July, he was caught off campus (not in class time, so not skipping!) and told that after the holidays he was to come back a month late, the 25th of September. To make it worse, his friend Pacifique was also accused. The prefet claims he saw both of them and Pacifique swears up and down he was not there. An expulsion of 5 weeks for walking along the road off campus! Valens had come back from my housegirl’s house to see if he could get his report which he had kept in safekeeping in my house. She had the key. I am desperately trying to find the “Prefet de discipline” to see why this very severe punishment was given. He could have cleaned the dorms, or the latrines, but miss 5 weeks of last term before a national exam which will allow him to choose a specialization for the last 3 years of high school?? I clearly have to hear the other side!!!! I will keep you posted.Had a long discussion with Theodore Prefet de discipline. This severe punishment is to show the students they mean business to enforce the rules. Apparently the principal had threatened the students that you could be expelled for the rest of the year!!!! I think I have negotiated a 2 week suspension (rather than 5)provided the boys write a request for pardon and a lessening of the punishment!! Pacifique ended up lying in this request for pardon by saying he had broken the rules when he had not. We decided he had better defer his word to that of the prefet.This prefet, by the way is no bully. He is trying to run a school almost single-handedly because the principal is often absent and the prefet des etudes has been away since January for a“formation politique”. He came back yesterday but will resume his duties a bit later as he has not seen his wife or little girls for all that time! Getting back to Theodore, he admitted to me that he is under pressure from the rest of staff to be stricter and that he decided to flex his muscles.I will have I discussion with the principal and Theodore on Monday. Hope I can convince them to look at other ways to enforce rules.Happy ending: boys' pardon accepted and they can come back to school provided they bring their parents.