I will follow you, follow you wherever you may go
on Rose Hardman (Rwanda), 27/Sep/2010 06:53, 34 days ago
As I am now settled into work there seems little point in me writing a blog for each day as they would pretty much read the same: woke up, went to work, had a good day, had Muzungu shouted at me a lot (not at work!), came home, ate dinner, faffed around, went to bed. So I have decided to make them weekly blogs instead.So this week...It was my first full week of work and it absolutely flew by. I am going to be assisting with fundraising and strategies and I got stuck in straight away which was great. All my colleagues are lovely and I think I am really going to enjoy working here.The week ended with drinks with the Muzungus at the Green Garden. It was an early night though as Julia and I were getting up VERY early on Saturday for Umuganda. On the last Saturday of every month all Rwandans come together with their community to work on a community project. Julia and I went to Kamonyi (the district where she works) to help build new classrooms for a school. To get there we had to get a moto, then a matatu (which is a bus that doesn’t leave until it is full so you’re pretty much guaranteed to be late to wherever you’re going!) and then we were picked up by the Vice Mayor! All transport stops wherever it is at 8.00am because of Umuganda so you really have to time it well to ensure you’re not sat at the side of the roaduntil 11.00am (when Umuganda finishes).As seems to be a common theme, the Muzungus were the main attraction at Umuganda. Julia and I were put to work on levelling the ground where the toilets are going to be built. This wasn’t fully explained to us at first and it did seem very much like we were just moving dirt from one pile to another. Before our motivation started to wane though, Julia’s boss explained what we were doing. There were at least 30 other people working on levelling the ground for the toilet and moreworking on building the school so the community really had come together to get this done. There wasn’t enough tools so Julia and I took it in turns which, to be honest, was just as well as it was very hard work! Everyone was very nice, although I think they did find us a bit comical. I suspect they thought we weren’t up to it so Julia and I worked extra hard and refused to stop even when Julia’s boss said we could. After an hour though I think we realised that maybe we weren’t cut out for it so we had a look round the school as Julia will be working there over the coming year. Within minutes we had a small gathering of children following us round. Everywhere we went they were there watching us. We weren’t doing anything remotely interesting but they seemed to think we were, and followed us round for a good hour and a half. One of the children had a ball so we started playingcatch with them. It started with only a few brave children willing to play with us but then the numbers grew until we were playing with about 20 children.Umuganda is absolutely brilliant and is another example of how, in some areas, Rwanda is way ahead of the UK. Not only does it ensure that essential work happens, like schools being built, it also brings the community together. There was such a great atmosphere with everyone working as a team and singing and dancing when the ground had been levelled. In addition, once Umuganda has finished at 11 they have a community meeting to discuss issues in the community and how to resolve them. And it’s good exercise!Julia and I didn’t stay for the meeting as we went to help set up the drinks reception for after the meeting. There were some VIPs at Umuganda this week so they had drinks and snacks afterwards which was really nice. They had filmed Umuganda and it turns out Julia was on the tele! We haven’t managed to see heryet but we are working on it!After Umuganda, Karen took me and Suzanne to the market to show us around and to give us some advice on bartering and the best shops. It was really useful as to be honest I was a little overwhelmed by the whole thing. But it is not at all scary just very busy and packed! By the evening I was exhausted and fell asleep by 8.15! I ended up having 13 hours sleep!Julia and I both woke up on Sunday with pink faces and sore throats. The pink faces were because we stupidly didn’t put sun cream on (it didn’t feel very hot but I now know that the weather is deceptive here and the sun is a lot stronger than the UK!) Luckily I’m not too pink and there is no peeling- but I won’t be making that mistake again! We figure the sore throats must be from all the dust we inhaled whilst working.A potential Kinyarwanda teacher came round in the morning to discuss lessons. Julia and I then made scrambled egg on toast and watched Gavin and Stacey which seems to be becoming a regular Sunday thing. Pauline popped in briefly on her way back from Kigali so we walked with her to the matatus and had a fanta citron which was very pleasant until someone decided to show off how much they could rev their motorbike right by us. I’m not sure if the aim was to create as much exhaust fumes as possible but he certainly achieved it!Sunday ended with the Muzungu dinner and then I was in bed by 9! I obviously need to be catching up on my sleep!