I'm Here. It's All Good.

Magical Cheeze Toasties

Nobody panic. I'm absolutely fine :)

Just been extremely busy the past week.

First off - CONGRATULATIONS! to my best mate Cassie and her wonderful husband Sean who have just had a little baby boy: Ryan Lucas Kingswell. He's a stunner and I'm gutted I can't be there to give him a li'le snuggle. All rather wonderful.

The first week back at work was a nightmare of stress. My organisation had done naff all in my absence, except undertake some free training given by a visiting Deaf guy from Holland on leadership... Who are they planning to lead? There's only two people in the office!

But they enjoyed it. 

Meanwhile, there was huge confusion over the state of the finances. They were complaining that we hadn’t been given enough money from VSO to complete our tasks, but they're supposed to report on the money already spent before they get any more of it. I spent the first week trying to clarify this rather straightforward concept.

However, on the up-side, we've got a new Office Manager starting tomorrow called Peace. She's a student in Business Management - praise be! Can't wait. Although, my boss is convinced she'll be a perfect accountant, and that I can train her! Err... I can do many things, but accountancy ain't one of them.

Still, I will be nice to have another intelligent female in the office. I'm also championing the Deaf women's representative, Goreth, who is a top lady. When no one else bothers to turn up for an inclusiveness workshop, she does at last-minute notice, and participates fully and intelligently and... well, I like this gal. She's smart.

A recent article in The Times (I think) explained how women are changing the face of Rwanda whilst blokes bumble about and spend their earnings on beer. So far, the women I've met here are key: Rose, Goreth, Florence, Michalline, Claire... all get-up-and-do people.

Anyway, whilst my organisation is giving me a bit of a headache and progressing extremely slowly - mostly in a circle - I've expended some energy in different directions: Kivu Writers.

They're a group founded in 2000 to try and kick-start a literary culture in Rwanda through workshops with secondary-school kids. There's also a writers' guild of previous participants. It's a great project, but although VSO support it they don't have their own volunteer. It's something other volunteers donate spare time to in a bid to make it a self-sufficient NGO.

For my part, I'm helping with the funding side of things. VSO's budget for Education (which this falls under) has been cut and, as such, they can't give as much to Kivu as they did before, so they wanted help. I've sequestered two volunteers - one guy and one gal - and I'm training them as Statutory & Trust Funding Officers.

Originally, it was going to be three hours on a Tuesday for five weeks, but they're in the holidays now and can't go home until this course is finished, and the uni don't pay their accommodation in Kigali over the holidays, so it's being condensed down to Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next fortnight. That's a lot of work for me, but we had our first session today and they are excellent. Real pleasure to work with them, and restored my faith in development work. They just soak up the information, make really intelligent responses, and really want to do the job. I love it. Real buzz. Much prefer intensive one-on-one training than large group exercises.

I hope to do a session with the Treasurer after this, and then the Committee, just to get everyone up to speed and make sure they get the support they need to do the job well. Kivu Writers is a pretty marketable NGO given the objectives, and the people are enthusiastic and with it. I predict great things for this group.

So, yeah, just been busy really. Not masses to report in comparison to the holiday. No gorillas in my garden or mwami huts next to the office.

Oooh, but gossip over the dinner table today: apparently, last weekend, a guy had an argument with a moto driver in town and then shot him! Then, when everyone ran to intervene, shot five more! Then ran off, and they haven't caught him yet!

That's extreme news. Violent crime is extremely low here, quite a crazy thing to happen.

But, yeah. Nothing much else. Cats are fine. I kind of got back together with D for a bit. It was all nice, but all too soon I remembered why not. Nice guy, just not what I need.

Made a couple of new friends who were en route to do some research on refugees in Chad. The contract fell through, so they're stranded in Kigali for a few months. One German, one American - lovely people. Might be going for pizza with them later. I was supposed to call them after training but I completely forgot. Instead, I came home and had a cold beer and cheese toastie... :op

Dad brought me a cheeze toastie maker out. I make them with eggs and sometimes beans. They're amazing! Some sort of metal god.

Mum's French tapes eventually got here, too. It took about six months! I thought we'd lost them. Linguaphone. They're great, and I've been chattering away. Even used some French in my training today. Only one line, but it made me feel good :)

It's a great language learning opportunity here. You can practise French or Kinya with just about anyone you meet.

But, yeah. Very tired at the moment. Very busy. But fun. Love feeling like I've achieved something.