Omweso

Butare University

Was a pretty slow week again, though I spent a day in the office on Wednesday. I've got a couple of documents to write but I'm finding it hard to get motivated so I spent most of the day, and Thursday, updating myself on potential funders. They're all dropping like flies - so few that fund Rwanda, so many that have closed their programmes. Perhaps corporate funding is a better bet?

Met-up with Rose on Wednesday evening. Things aren't going so well for her. She was an orphan and her mother's mother brought her up. She died a few weeks ago but thankfully Rose was there when it happened. Her family are arguing over possessions and, as a grandchild, not a child, even though she has no parents and two children to support, she's not entitled to anything. Her uncle's hidden the will and he's dividing up the land himself. She's decided she's got no ties to Uganda anymore so she's just walked away from it all, very sad.

In addition to that the job isn't working out so well. Apparently she's working from 6am-6pm seven days a week as a nanny/cook/domestic. It's around FRW 70,000 a month, which is a good salary here for a normal job, but at around an 84-hour week that's around 20p an hour from which she has to pay her rent, food, transport and Emmanuelle’s school fees, plus support her house girl (another single parent) who works for food and shelter and looks after the kids whilst she's at work.

I find it ironic that in looking after this woman's children, she doesn't get to see her own. She says the woman isn't bad, a nice enough person, but I feel rather let-down as a muzungu to think that someone obviously recognised her desperation for a job and would take such advantage financially. You'd never ask someone back home to do that, and nobody would do it, so why think it's okay here? I'm a mixture of extremely upset that it turned out this way and admiration for Rose, who is doing it.

So, I'm desperately trying to find her something else. Preferably something in an office/NGO as she now has basic bookkeeping skills, administration, project development experience, volunteer mobilization - she's an extremely hard worker and a fast learner. But jobs here are extremely hard to find and she doesn't have a degree.

All really difficult. It's also hard for the Single Parents Network because it leaves her absolutely no spare time to do anything. Huge problem.

My dream would be to find funding for a full-time project co-ordinator for her to focus on it as a career. Not easy, though.

She's asked me if I can find a sponsor for Emmanuelle, her four-year-old daughter. She's an absolute sweetheart and very smart. She currently pays FRW 10,000 per term (around GBP 12), three terms a year. Primary education is technically free in this country, but the demand is so high that sometimes it's not always that straightforward. This term she isn't at school because Rose can't afford to send her.

She would really like to send her to one of the better schools up near Chez Lando, so I've asked her to find out how much it costs. I'm prepared to sponsor Emmanuelle myself later in the year, once I get a job, but if anyone would like to help out in the meantime that'd be great. FRW 10,000 for fees and around 5,000 for uniform and materials (GBP 20 per term/60 per year would cover it easily).

Still, in happier news, Martine and I escaped to Butare together this weekend. She practiced a workshop on Braille with me, taught me about grade one and grade two Braille and how to decode it - it's very cool and I'm pretty good at it now.

Nice thing about weekends: if you get away early on a Friday and come back on a Saturday, you still have Sunday to lounge and it makes the weekend feel much longer :)

We had an excellent time. Fell off the bus and straight into Ibis for a beer and a heart-to-heart natter about life, love and everything. Then we walked around the corner and booked into Ineza, the best guesthouse in town, and cheap at FRW 5,000 per night with hot water included (they deliver it in a bucket in the morning). The staff there are extremely friendly and one young girl in particular had the most brilliant sense of humour and a huge smile. It's where all the VSOs opt for when in Butare. There's a lovely little garden with a bar in it - Martine's taken some photos which I'll upload soon.

Ibis Hotel

Whilst in search of food, we bumped into Rinske, Sandra, and a couple of new vols I don't know. Said hello then continued down the street to Amafu, a restaurant above a row of shops with a little balcony you can watch the world go by on and a fantastic and affordable menu. Martine had steak and I had rabbit. It was delicious and we washed it down with more beer. The service was really friendly (more smiles!) and the ambiance was relaxed.

Butare really is a fantastic town. It's the university quarter of Rwanda and the atmosphere is brilliant. You get so little hassle and people don't have the whole 'muzungu!' stare going on like they do in Kigali. Proportionately there's a lot more muzungus there due to the university, and also most of the people there are students so they're used to having more important things to think about.

We returned to Ineza and finished up with a big treat: Amarula Cream, sort of the Zimbabwean version of Baileys. Expensive, but we were on holiday.

Slept like a log and, after a luxury wash in hot water (including shaving my legs for the first time in about a month due to lack of razor - thank you Nakumatt for fixing that one!), Martine and I sat out in the sunny garden and awaited breakfast...

Sunny Garden at Ineza

...Forgetting completely that it was umuganda (national community service day - last Saturday of every month), and thus everything was closed (with a fine of up to FRW 5,000 if caught working and not doing umuganda). There would be no breakfast until 12pm!!!

Aaaarrrggghh. So much for the tourist industry. Then our lovely receptionist with the big smile came by and, when she learned that we had been turned down for breakfast, she went into the kitchen, talked to some people, and 20 minutes later omelette, bread, jam and coffee arrived on the table! Really, she was outstanding. I'd promote her to head of tourism given the chance, she was absolutely on the ball.

After an extremely leisurely let's-let-umuganda-finish breakfast, we soaked up the sun, read our books, did some writing, and eventually decided to take a wander through town to look for the fabled arboretum.

Breakfast cigarette? Don't mind if I do...

This involved a walk through the National University of Rwanda, passing the Bathos (spelling?) Hotel which is a crazy building designed by a local artist. It's exactly what you'd expect to see in a university town: a giant, slightly surreal mosaic with a huge impala over the gate! FRW 15,000 single, 25,000 double + hot water. Tempting, but I think Ineza probably has more character on the inside. Very cool to look at, though.

We walked all the way down to the university looking for the arboretum. It was a scorching day. Glorious sunshine, but we're not used to seeing it with all the rain in Kigali.

It was really interesting to see the uni. It really had a modern vibe about it. Thousands of students, large campus, great atmosphere. We wandered about a bit, still looking for an entrance to the trees, but after a while we gave up and sat in the campus bar - surprise, surprise.

Martine called up Chantelle, one of the blind students at Butare - there's now around ten of them - and we met up with her and three other blind students and had a fanta. It was really nice to meet up with them and they showed us their rooms, which are small but right in the centre of the campus so close to everything, and hearing them talk about what they're doing. One's doing Social Sciences, another Clinical Psychology, Law, and Journalism. Very clever people and it's fantastic that inclusive education in Rwanda has made this possible. However, there are some teething problems they're having. There's a whole stack of special equipment for them - same as the lab at KIE (Kigali Institute of Education) - but it's all just been sitting in boxes in cupboards for ages. For want of someone to just plug in a computer they're being denied access to technology that would hugely benefit them in their studies.

It's a shame, but that sort of thing does seem to happen a lot. Now that Patrick, one of their greatest advocates from RUB (Rwandan Union of the Blind) has gone to South Africa to do a PhD, they haven't got the back-up they used to have to fight on this issue. It's like there's no distinction between 'we have provided the equipment' (i.e. it's physically there) and 'students are using the equipment' (i.e. we've taken it out of the box and plugged it in). Delivering it seems to equate to 'job done' in somebody's mind.

Really, it makes these students even more exceptional in that they're battling on and continuing with their studies despite not having all the resources they had hoped for. It does show the distance between the disability legislation here and in the UK. People really should be allowed to start testing the new disability legislation with cases like this. The law exists, but I don't know how willing people are to stand up and point to it. Being in university seems to be luck enough without rocking the boat, if that makes sense? Whereas if a blind student turned up to university in the UK and came up against the same situation, you can bet it would become a high priority for the department within a matter of days. I don't think there's the same weight of consequence behind the disability legislation here yet, because nobody has tested it.

But that's just an outside observation. The fact the law does exist and blind people are at university is, in itself, a significant achievement.

We finished-up with a meal at Ibis and a wander around the craft shop. I bought Emmanuelle a doll and treated myself to an omweso board, a form of mancala and the royal game of Uganda. I learned to play it whilst in Kampala and refreshed myself on the rules. These rules are easiest to read, and there's a slide-show [NB 2013: no longer] here. I'm addicted to it and spent most of last night trying to remember how to play. Curious to know if D plays, as it's his national game.

We got the bus back around 4:30pm. The staff at Volcano were extremely pleasant. Everybody seems to smile in Butare. Got back about 6:15pm and went for a final drink at Vinchenza on the roundabout. Had a brows in the shop, quite impressed by the quality of journalism in a glossy new magazine called Dispatch Rwanda. It's FRW 1,000 a copy, but it's pretty good.

Having a nice lazy morning before attempting to tackle housework. D's coming over later to watch movies and chill... and maybe play omweso :op

Four-day week this week due to May Day, which gives me a day to clean the house before Julie arrives on Saturday. So D will probably be coming over to watch movies, chill, play omweso and wash dishes... ;)