Butare Deaf Theatre

The Spirit of Deafness

 

Fantastic day yesterday. Starting from the beginning...

I've been in the office most of the week due to the Sign Language approval. I've taken a back seat and locked myself in my office as I'm neither Deaf nor Rwandan, so don't really feel I have the right to say anything. Karen's had a little talk to the American students visiting from Gallaudet. They have been up from Gitarama to take part in the process. Their original attitude was: 'well, we have a degree in linguistics so they need our help'... hmmm. Dangerous ground. Two Australian academics, Jan Branson and Don Miller, wrote a very interesting paper on Nationalism and the linguistic rights of Deaf communities: Linguistic imperialism and the development of sign languages, which basically looked into the issue of the top-down approach to standardising sign languages. 

Anyone who is interested in reading it can find it through Google Scholar, or drop me a line. I studied it for a Sociolinguistics paper whilst doing my MA in Language & Communication Research at Cardiff. Fascinating subject. 

The Americans have made some useful input so far, suggesting we include photographs of the signs as well as words, so that rural Deaf people who can't read and write can still make use of the dictionary. That's easy to do for iconic signs, which make up pretty much 95% of our dictionary at the moment, but it could be more difficult as we branch into abstract signs later on. These are concept signs such as 'attitude', 'management' and 'ideology'. For the time being, though, it's a very useful suggestion indeed. We will have around 250-300 signs in the first edition. That's about an eighth of the total of the British Link Dictionary, but it's a place to start from - strong foundations on which to build.

Wednesday was a bit of a tough day. We've had a three and a half hour shake-down from Amanda and Emilliane at the RNAD office. The previous quarterly report that we submitted was well below par. Receipt numbers relating to the wrong receipts and figures that weren't always correct. There's a lot of work to be done. It's difficult to know what to do as, keeping in-line with VSO's 'participatory approach', it isn't my job to tell them what to do. It's my job to ask them how they think they should do it and drop a few hints. The problem being that my colleague is an absolutely lovely guy, but not much cop when it comes to reports. I've tried a few things, such as explaining procedures (which are then ignored), writing very easy on the eye step-by-step instructions - even getting them translated into French - which are then left in a draw... I'm not sure what else to do but get heavy-handed and say 'you MUST do this'. He's in his position because he's the President's brother. Since the last head of organisation ran off with all the cash, he doesn't trust anyone else to do it.

It's a big dilemma. My colleague, with all due respect, is not the right person for the job. My solution to this has been to budget in our next project application for an Office Manager and an additional Project Co-ordinator. My thinking is to retain the current person, to keep the office open and check supplies/deal with bills/general administration, but to take one of the volunteers and spend some time each week training them up specifically in project management, planning, monitoring and reporting. I've got my eye on the women's representative who is sharp as anything. Hopefully we could then transfer that responsibility over to someone who is trained to do it, and encouraging them to take on an apprentice of their own and train the rest of the organisation.

I really have to sit down and think this all through, but I've already got a lot on my plate re-submitting the budget for our next project and starting a filing system (other than the bottom draw) for our office.

Thursday continued the tough theme with the monthly Disability Partnership Forum. Second month in a row that I've been the only one from our organisation there. I need to do something about this, too. I ended up going head-to-head with a rather important figure who leads one of the main disability organisations. They'd just got a new project going with the World Bank and, as part of it, the government had asked for a 'list of jobs disabled people can do'. The problem being that, in creating a list of jobs disabled people can do, you're also creating an invisible list of jobs disabled people can't do. "No, it was meant kindly," was the reply, but many things in this world are meant kindly that can result in damage. The Queen of Spain, I believe, only felt it necessary to enslave people who would benefit from being slaves because she felt it would be a preferable way of life to their native homelands.

Besides, are you going to write a separate list for every type of disability? If a guy with no hands can't pick up a bucket of rocks to build a house, does that mean a Deaf person can't build a house either? If a blind person can't be a blood tester in the medical research lab., is a woman in a wheelchair also excluded? 'Disability' is a huge term.

My main concern, however, was that in providing this list to local authorities, it would override the first logical step of equal opportunities: asking the disabled person what they feel they can do. Why bother asking when you can consult the handbook? ;) Saves time and human resources.

Anyway. This was partly responsible for turning a two hour meeting into a three hour one. It became somewhat heated, but it had to be said.

I'm also thinking of starting a campaign on the fact that the Council in Kigali have just built a load of new bus stops, even one directly outside the VSO office. Not one of them is more than a couple of feet from the curb. There isn't a chance of getting a wheelchair past any of them. And this after they just passed the first disability legislation last year. Helloooo... lights on, anyone home?

But on the up side :)

I received a parcel on Thursday which was fantastic. A while back I wrote a promotional article for Celtx, free movie writing software that I'm a huge fan of. They were so pleased with it that they sent me out some promotional goods: a fitted T-shirt and lovely jacket, and a load of things off my 'please send me' list, including a colouring book, crayons, stationary, and four flash drives!! Absolutely fantastic. Huge thanks to them. Plus a really sweet letter thanking me for my article, forum posts, and contributions to Celtx. It said they liked my scripts and to keep it up :) I was well happy.

D got a bit of a beating up, though. He just wandered off with one of the flash disks. He seems to have developed this attitude that what's in the house is also his and he doesn't need to ask. That really irritates me. He's done it with DVDs and other things, too. I explained in no uncertain terms that this has to stop. I've also written him a list of things to do this week, including developing a sample portfolio of work and submitting it, with his CV, to at least five graphic design houses in Kigali. So far I've seen precious little effort to actually get steady employment, and I'm fed up with it. He asks for transport money and money to pay for this and that - he needs to get a job. It's been three months now and he hasn't sorted himself out. Time to go. The July 31st deadline is going to be strictly enforced. Nice guy, we'll remain friends, but I'm fed up now. Annoyed to the point that I don't even find him physically attractive anymore. Time to admit that it isn't working and start having fun again.

Friday, however, was most fantastic. An absolutely brilliant day - VSO outing to Butare.

Antonia is a long-term volunteer who's been here for three years now, working at Butare Deaf School in the South. She and Karen were responsible for approving my application for the placement with RNAD. The things you only learn when you get out here :op Anyway, she's decided it's time to head home. Very sad, but wish her the best of luck.

As a grand finale she set up a Deaf theatre extravaganza at the theatre (yes, you read that right!) in Butare. It was phenomenal.

We left Kigali at around 11am in the VSO truck: Bosco driving, Amanda, Emilliane, Florence, Martine, Mel, Chris and myself. Chris, Mel and I had to squeeze into the boot seats. It was such good fun and we spent the two hour trip to Butare chatting and catching up. Martine was teaching Florence French, and we were mostly singing show tunes. We stopped in Gitarama to pick up Karen who, it transpires, knows all the words to every song every written!

We got to Butare, cutting it fine, and grabbed a quick melange (courtesy of VSO) in a café. Then we dashed up the road. Seven members of RNAD had also made the trip down, especially. Augustin paid their transport from our transport fund. There were hundreds of people there. It was so good to see. Loads of kids from Gitarama, Butare, adults, teachers - 90% signing.

The performance was outstanding. Lots of traditional Intore dancing and some really good drama sketches. Including one where a man and a woman edged closer together across the stage behind black wing boards. They met at a bench in the middle and sat down, snuggling up. Then a kid appeared between them - healthy, normal - they cuddled him and off he went. Then a second kid - a little boy working a sign-language puppet, which is a doll that you put your hands through and sign with. The parents jumped away in shock, then took the wing boards and put them in front of the kid on the bench, showing a complete lock-down in communication. It was so effective. It really made a statement and was very advanced use of theatre technique. Then, two Deaf kids came and started signing and the boards were removed. Very poignant. They also had a dancer who was the spirit of Deafness, which was an interesting concept.

Intore Dancer

It was most excellent. I had a great time hanging out with the Butare students and getting swamped by Deaf kids. It was a brilliant day. Then I squeezed back into the van. We headed home with a couple of new people as Martine and Amanda were staying over in Butare, so we gave a lift back to Emmanuel, who taught IT for RNAD, and a friend of another volunteer. We got back around 8pm, when Dad phoned. Not long now until he and M come out to visit :)

So, wonderful slide into the weekend. Shue, you'll be glad to know, is back to his usual self again. Face stuffed in the food bowl and bouncing about like a tiger once more.