Oh this is going to be a post of soaring highs and drop-dead lows.
Let's start with the up ;)
The first ever trial run of the Foundation Curriculum in Rwandan Sign Language began Monday evening, 5:30-7:30 at the VSO Programme Office.
It went absolutely swimmingly. Better than expected. Goreth is an excellent teacher and we had about eight or nine students from amongst the VSO vols and staff.
I'm totally in awe. It's a really weird feeling, seeing this document that Goreth and I wrote a couple of months back suddenly being used to train people. It's wonderful to see it working, and so much positive feedback from the participants.
It's also an outstanding feeling to see money going into the pockets of Deaf people in the form of tuition fees. The potential for income generation is really good and it'll provide a secure income for so many people who would otherwise be overlooked by the job market.
It's also benefiting the Deaf Association in the form of examination fees and dictionary sales so helping them to move away from aid dependency and stand on their own two feet - woop woop!
I think I feel even more proud of this than the dictionary. Of course you couldn't do this without a dictionary, but I feel more personally attached to this part of the project. I was learning before and felt everything would probably have been completed even if I wasn't there, but with the curriculum I know I brought some real expertise to the situation and made a tangible, personal contribution. If, in a few years time, Rwanda starts training sign language interpreters, it'll be because they all started with this Foundation course that Goreth and I wrote. That's an amazing feeling.
That's one thing I've really discovered during my time here - I have a lust for helping people to make money. Say what you like about capitalism, but often it's the fastest way to get a community out of poverty, off aid dependency, and into secure livelihoods. I really like those sort of systems.
Just need to find a job and some money myself now ;)
I've also helped re-budget for the Charlotte Wilson Memorial Fund who are giving us some money to bring 20 Deaf people from around the country to Kigali to train them in teaching the curriculum so that they can set up courses in their local areas. Should be getting that in the next few weeks and, thanks to Fina Bank's free NGO accounts, we shouldn't lose any of it in bank fees. Major thumbs-up there Fina Bank, and your business customer service people rock, so friendly :)
So, that was the hugely positive side to the week.
The not-so-positive has been Rose's situation. My friend and co-founder of the Single Parent's Network. She had a very difficult job situation a while back where her employer had her working twelve-hour days seven days a week. No time off: cook, domestic, nanny. Rose has two young children of her own and needed time to be with them. Whilst she works, her house girl, Pacific, looks after the two children as she is also a single mother with a young daughter herself.
The situation was not good and eventually she lost the job because she'd taken time to go to Uganda to re-bury her mother, and later needed a couple of days off when she fell ill.
A few days before I left for the UK I got a phone call from her, very upset, panicking. The problem being that I've helped out where I could in the past financially, but I'm at the end of my placement. I don't have any money, and I don't have a job lined up, so the little I do have I'm going to need when I get back to the UK. The best I could do was take her some books and clothes to sell, which would make her enough to buy food at least.
By the time I got back to Rwanda she'd found another job, working as a nanny again for the same money, but this time with weekends off. Win. Only, two days ago I get a phone call, she's in a terrible state, the guy she was working for accused her and two other house girls of taking money and sacked them all without pay. So the month she had been working, she has not been paid the FRW 80,000/GBP 80 she's owed. Firstly, I believe Rose is very honest and trustworthy, she has always kept good accounts for the Single Parent's Network. Secondly, I don't think the man had any evidence, otherwise he wouldn’t have sacked all three and he would have gone to the police.
Rose refuses to go to the police to raise the matter even though I said I'd go with her as a character reference, because she thinks they'll believe him as she is originally Ugandan, not local.
There seems to be very little she can do about it, such is the employment situation for many here, and I cannot afford to give her FRW 80,000 for the lost month.
Before I left for the UK we were discussing a business plan she had for importing clothes from Uganda to sell in Rwanda. It's quite a lucrative market as the exchange rate means you can buy a lot of good quality stuff in Kampala for a few shillings, then sell it at double or triple its value in Kigali. The bus costs around GBP 8 each way.
If she was self-employed she'd be in control of her own income, doing something she loves doing (she has a diploma in fashion design) and then she'd be able to put her kids through a better school and work the hours she needs to.
So, the plan is I'm going to meet up with her this week and take her to Urwego Bank, who offer microfinance loans. I think she'd be a prime candidate.
She's just really low at the moment and it's hard to know what to do. Money solves most things, but it needs to be used sustainably - i.e. to set up a business - otherwise it runs out.
So, that isn't so good.
Finally. Can one die of embarrassment?
I think I probably could.
I went out last night to the American Embassy's Ladies' Night at the Marine House. The alcohol is so cheap you could very easily get as drunk as I did. FRW 500/GBP 50p for a Mutzig and 1,000/GBP 1 for a glass of wine! Ladies get all their drinks half-price, see. Though I certainly ain't no lady.
Finished about midnight, was a lot of fun: Programme Amanda, Sarah, Amy, Els, Amalia, Charlotte, lots of Peace Corps, Hugh, Cathryn - much fun was had.
Ran into a guy I met ages ago at someone's leaving do. He's 6ft something, hunky, grew up in Burundi, uni in America, and now has a very nice job with a big company and a big car.
He ended up driving me home and, after the last issue of having to step over my guard with Baudouin, plus the terrible water situation, we started getting steamy in the car.
I live down a mud road in the back end of beyond. At 1:30 in the morning it's usually completely deserted. So, imagine my horrified surprise to glance out the window and realise I was starring in my own teen slasher movie a decade too late!
A man in a huge, dark Parker with the hood pulled shut like Kenny from South Park, two foot from the car. All the guy needed was a machete and it could have been Urban Legend. You know that whole killing lovers in a car thing - that was based on a real person: the Zodiac Killer.
Then another guy appears at the other window, just staring in.
Ooookay.
So we back out and head up the road to a deserted car park. Nobody around. Start making out and - OMG! There's somebody standing by the window!
I was more than a little perturbed by this point. Was like Night of the Living Dead. So we once again move further up the hill to a parking area. I'm finding it a little hard to get in the mood.
He says it was just the local security guys and that they probably wouldn't have recognised me. Ermn, hellooo - I glow in the dark. Little hard to miss.
It was funny and disturbing all at the same time. There's a guy and a girl clearly having some private time so you do your very best to scare the crap out of them. You know, there are internet movie sites for things like that people! Mind you, with MTN's download speed it's probably left a nation in frustration.
Deary me.
So to feign innocence he dropped me off at the petrol station down the road and I took a moto home lol I do feel rather ashamed, lowering the tone of the neighbourhood. This is the third bloke I've brought home since I moved in. I think my guard's a little confused. But what's a gal to do? Trials and tribulations of the heart... *wistful sigh*
Right, I'm off to Nakumatt today to see if I can get them to stock our dictionary. Big conference on the Disability Census tomorrow, then all quite quiet again until the funding comes in. I'm at a loss what to do with myself since I finished my book. Could start another I suppose, but going to get this one proofed and opinioned first.
Weather's been soooo hot since I got back. Every road is like walking down a powderpuff and my bread's turned to toast. Desperate for some rain, roll on the wet season!
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