Viva Republica

This is Julie and me relaxing at Republica restaurant at the end of the first of our three workshops.

We had actually raced in to the centre at the end of the day to pay for our trip to the Volcanoes National Park and the Nyungwe National Park, in the northwest and southwest of Rwanda respectively, which we're doing from 3 to 7 October, after the workshops are finished. It was largely a wasted trip since when we arrived the credit card machine wasn't working, and the person who knew how to work it had gone home anyway. But at least we were able to find out a bit more about the logistics of the trip. However we'll have to find time to go in during the following week during business hours (8am to 5pm) which is going to be difficult since we're at work from 7.30am to 5pm except for Friday when we get away at 4pm. There doesn't appear to be any way to pay except by going in in person, but I'm sure we'll work something out.

Image courtesy of Trip Advisor www.tripadvisor.com

Anyway we took the opportunity to have an early dinner at Republica, which turned out to be a good move as the location is fantastic and our meal was really good and the staff wonderful. Julie had liboka fish (cooked in banana leaf) and I had goat stew which was delicious.

I've just read a review on Tripadvisor and now I'm worried - every review was enthusiastic except one which had the headline 'A Kigali staple - shame about the prostitutes' and went on to say that everything was good, but one should "...Avoid sitting at the bar though... unless you want to be pestered by aggressive sex workers for the entire evening".  I saw no sign of any sex workers but I guess now we'll have to go back ...

Changing money - or, My Visit to the XXXX Bureau

It's actually Forex Bureau of course but the first time I was directed to one I stupidly asked "Do they really sell Australian beer here?"

Changing money is one of those things that have to be experienced. It's done in a Forex Bureau, of which there are a lot. In the centre of Kigali there is a whole city block devoted to them. When you pull up in a car you are mobbed by guys from the Bureaux trying to get your custom and proclaiming loudly and forcefully why their particular one offers you a better deal than all the hundreds of others. Which is interesting, as they all seem to advertise exactly the same prices - currently 600 RWF to the AUD.

You walk inside and are ushered into a pokey little dark booth with the teller a mere shadowy presence behind a glass panel. You pass your American dollars through a hole and he checks them carefully to make sure they're genuine - fortunately I followed everyone's advice and brought only large, new notes as they don't like taking used ones and give you a much worse rate for small notes. Both times I've been to one the power has been off which makes the booths even darker and which means that the money-counting machine doesn't work so you have to be careful to check you're getting the right money. Power being off is not a rare situation as there are two or three outages most days - usually only short though, no more than a couple of minutes.

Despite their appearance they are all perfectly legal and regulated by the banks. But the first time it felt vaguely illegal not to mention immoral - rather like lining up for a porno peep show. Not that I have ever been to a porno peep show of course, but I'm sure if I ever did that's what it would be like.

Kimironko markets

 Last Saturday Rosine took us to the Kimironko markets to buy some fruit and veges. It was quite an experience and I have to say that on my first visit I was glad to have a local with me.

It's the largest market in Kigali and is on the eastern side of the city. The central covered area is all fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, dried beans etc. One side of the covered area sells shoes, hardware, fabrics (quite good ones) clothes (new and used) and a few crafty items. Outside the covered area there are meat and fish stalls and stalls selling mobile phones.

When we drove into the car park the car was mobbed (literally) by a group of five or six young guys offering to watch the car while we were in the markets, and another group of younger kids wanting to carry our bags and show us around the market. This latter group generally work for particular stall-holders and I understand are pretty good value. However Rosine just opted to have her car watched - from what I understand this is a very sensible precaution, otherwise bits of it will go missing. The young guys took great pains to point out that they were wearing the yellow jackets indicating that they belonged to the market and could therefore be trusted. Standard price for this service appeared to be 500 RWF or about 85 cents.

Inside the covered area of the market is a labyrinth with dark narrow walkways through which you have to squeeze single file. We wandered first through the fabric and clothing area and I even bought a pair of shorts to wear around the apartment. This was an experience in itself - attracted quite an audience and eventually the stall-holder found an old pair that he insisted would fit - even producing a tape measure to support his argument - and even sewed on a missing button.

We squeezed our way over to the produce area and the range and amount of produce was pretty staggering. Again, we had to run the gauntlet of the bag boys and the sellers who are very very pushy. It wasn't helped by the fact that at this moment the heavens opened and everyone squashed inside to escape the pouring rain. The space betwen the stalls was even smaller than in the clothing area so it was a bit of an effort getting around. We settled on one stall who seemed to have everything we wanted and if he didn't the stall-holder would run off and find it for us. We bought ample supplies of potatoes, tomatoes, beans, celery, carrots, bananas, pineapple (have I mention that the pineapple here is to die for?), pawpaw, passionfruit and tamarillos. All for just over AUD10. Rosine did a bit of haggling and saved us a little bit of money but it appears that they are less willing to haggle than they used to be and may be heading towards a fixed price system.

When we got back to the car it appeared the young guys had done their job as it was still intact, even though there was a bit of heated discussion about (apparently) whether the agreed price was in fact 500 or 1000 RWF. However we got away with the 500 and escaped unharmed.

Being my first time there I confess it was a bit daunting. But if we go back I'm sure I'll be better for knowing what to expect.

The shorts turned out to be about four sizes too big, but if I wear a belt I can keep them up. Won't be wearing them outside the front door though.

Last night I went to Heaven

I've been dying to say that!

Not the heaven up in the sky, but Heaven a restaurant here in Kigali which shows movies on Saturday nights. Julie's (and David and Mandy and Jennie's) friend Di - more about Di in a future post - is in town and texted us and said would we like to join her to catch the movie. The scheduled movie was 'Water for Elehants' and she was keen to see it having enjoyed the book. I also enjoyed the book and quite enjoyed the movie and was very happy to see it again.

We had spent the morning doing some preparation for next week's workshop, and Julie's (and David and Mandy and Jennie's) friend Rosine - more about Rosine in a future post - had taken us to the market and the National Genocide Memorial and to change some money in the afternoon, so we all went on to Heaven and had a buffet meal before watching the movie. More about all those experiences in a future post as well.

As it happened, Di also brought along four other friends, one of whom was Shirley Randell whom I'd heard a lot about and is (among many other things) the Director of the Centre for Gender, Culture and Development Studies at the Kigali Institute of Education.

Heaven is in a delightful location set among trees on a hillside overlooking the centre of Kigali and the view at night is terrific. Meal was pleasant, particularly a spicy Thai-style fish dish.

It had poured rain during the afternoon but fortunately it stopped since Heaven is partly open to the elements.

Everyone agreed the movie was excellent too.

Another workshop down

Just finished the second of the two Leadership workshops. One to go next week on Communication Skills. So a big part of the weekend will be taken up with getting ready for that.

Again, a lovely group to work with, although different from the first. The majority of this second group were from District Offices and Border Posts, so a lot of their day goes in just processing, and many of them don't have teams to manage. In fact many of the District Offices consist of just one person. Also because in a District Office they are dealing almost exclusively with Rwandans, they don't get a lot of experience speaking English, so in general the level of proficiency in English in this group wasn't as high as in the first group.

However, they still got stuck into it and there were some highly animated discussions. And like the first group, once they got their teeth into something they wouldn't let it go until they'd finished it.

Again, at the end of the workshop when they got their certificates one of them got up and gave a lovely speech thanking us, and again gave us some beautiful gifts. I'm starting to wonder of how I'm going to get them all back home.

Our apartment and environs

The apartment we've been provided with is in a modern complex called Kacyiru Executive Apartments and is very comfortable - roomy with three bedrooms, a study and two bathrooms. It's about 5 km northeast of central Kigali or about 15 minutes by taxi. We're on a street called Boulevard de l'Umuganda. 'Umuganda' means 'community work' or can, I believe, also mean a Ugandan person (although that is more commonly 'Umugande') so I can't be sure which our street refers to. But just for interest, umuganda happens on the last Saturday of every month - between 7am and 12 pm everything closes and the whole country takes part in community work such as building, digging, clearing, gardening etc - what an amazing idea!

But back to our street. It's quite a large well-constructed street with the very latest in traffic signals which tell you exactly how long you've got to wait before they change and flashing cats-eyes. In this area it's lined with government ministries, banks, a number of embassies, modern apartments and hotels. The Parliament building is not far up the road, the Presidential offices are just up the street on the other side, and the US Embassy is also down the way. The DGIE offices are also a few minutes down the road. There is a strong security presence along here (as in all of Kigali, I understand) - armed police, security guards and soldiers every 200 or 300 metres along the street. So I feel very safe. The security guards on our apartment block are very friendly, and helpful if you need a taxi.

Our street runs along a ridge (one of the many ridges in Kigali - it's pretyy hilly) and as soon as you move away from the top of the ridge everything quickly becomes much less modern, and the roads that go down the hill are anything but well-constructed. There are signs that some of the older little shops, bars and houses down the hill are being torn down and replaced with modern structures - and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.


Next door we have a largeish hotel which has a very nice French-style patisserie which is very useful for Sunday breakfast. It also has a very nice bar. On the other side of that is a little shopping plaza with a couple of small supermarkets where we can get the basics - i.e. beer - and a little cafe called the Havana Klub which makes pretty good pizzas. So far this is the only restaurant I've experienced here, but I'm looking forward to trying some of the huge number of good restaurants in Kigali once I get time.

We cater for ourselves quite a lot and have been doing pretty well. My contribution has been chook (note - not "chicken") in red wine which I slow-cooked for four hours - the only way to prepare meat here, since animals and birds only make it to the table after having lived long and useful lives. We haven't been cooking much in the way of vegetables as we haven't had a chance to get to the main market, which I'm assured is quite amazing. We'll manage that on Saturday. You can get some veges at the supermarkets but the choice is very limited. Fortunately the lunches that DGIE have been providing us with at the workshops contain a lot of vegetables.

Washing our clothes takes a bit of an effort - washing machines aren't common so it's done in a big bucket in the bathtub. By the time I get to do mine I've been on the road for two weeks, so it's a big job and takes up a large part of Sunday.

We're on the third floor so we have a nice view from our balcony across to the next hill - very pleasant for breakfast ....

View from our balcony

.... or for a cool beer after work!

First workshop over

Our first workshop on Leadership, Management and Change is over. It started on the 13th, the day immediately following my arrival so I was there in body only for the first day. Thank goodness Julie who has been here for a week had it all under control. I didn't present in earnest until the third day by which time I'd recovered a bit.

The participants were wonderful. We had 18 in the group and all 18 were there every day all day - something unheard of in Australia in my experience. They really got into it from the beginning and loved participating and doing activities. Also, they all seemed to be in tune with the goals both of DGIE and of Rwanda. One thing we noticed is that they really feel the need to finish everything off, and there's no use trying to get them back from an activity or exercise if they haven't finished it. Again, a bit different from Australian groups I've worked with. It does however make time management a bit of a challenge.

Hard at work

 We aren't using the training room in the DGIE offices since that is full of computers being tested before being rolled out to district offices and border posts to process a new Laissez-Passer system. So we're in a conference/training centre up the road run by the Jesuits. It's in a very pretty spot with beautiful grounds and is reached by the roughest "road" I've ever seen. We're picked up at 7:30 am by a DGIE driver who also picks us up at 4:30 pm to bring us back to the apartment.

The only down side to the venue is that the sun streams into our room after lunch so it gets really really hot. After the first day we started doing the afternoon sessions outside - there's a sort of big rotunda/summer house which is ideal for the purpose. Even though it gets very hot inside, outside it has been very pleasant, even on hot days. Doing classes outside reminds me of schooldays in Queensland when this was a bit of a treat on hot summer afternoons.

During one of these outdoor sessions we took the opportunity to teach them to sing Waltzing Matilda, which they picked up quickly, along with an associated discussion of how this reflects what we Aussies like to think of as our national character. They were intrigued by the fact that it is our "unofficial" National Anthem, and indeed that we would have two National Anthems.

The workshop finished at midday on Saturday. It was meant to be five days, but we had to squeeze it into 4 and a half days to finish by midday on Saturday, because there were two weddings scheduled during Saturday afternoon.

They seemed to have genuinely enjoyed the four and a half days, and presented us with gifts at the end - including a lovely big wooden plaque each (which is going to be interesting to squeeze into my already-overloaded bag on the way home).

This little chap made my day when he wandered into the grounds during one of our outdoor sessions

Next stop Rwanda!

Sunday 11 Sep 2011

On my way!

For those whom I haven't bored about my upcoming trip to Rwanda: I'm off to help deliver workshops to staff in the Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration (DGIE) in Rwanda. This is voluntary work organised by my friends David and Mandy Wheen, and is a continuation of a program David organised last year. There is a team of six going - Julie left last week and I'm joining her to do workshops on leadership and communication for the first month, then David, Mandy and Jenny arrive to do workshops on business communication and English skills, and later Rosemary will be arriving to give workshops on using IT effectively.

First (minor) hurdle occurs at Sydney airport where I have to redistribute my luggage. I'm carrying a number of books for us to use during the workshop, and some which I'll be leaving there. I've just spent four days at the Institute of Professional Editors national conference, so I've got a bit of stuff from that as well. So at 7am on a Sunday morning there I am on my knees in the check-in area of Sydney airport repacking my bags. Fortunately I can get away with basically moving all the books to my luggage which makes it exactly 23 kg, leaving my hand luggage just a bit over but they let it through.

Easy flight apart from waiting for an hour on the plane waiting to take off for some reason that wasn't made clear, something to do with some cargo I think. So arrive an hour late inn Johannesburg where I have to stay overnight, there being no connecting flight to Kigali.

Higlight of the plane flight was flying over the Antarctic, which afforded a fabulous view of ice sheets and icebergs.

After checking into the hotel (the Protea OR Tambo Hotel at the airport - it's not until later that I realise that  OR Tambo, the name of the airport, refers to THE Oliver Tambo of the law firm Mandela and Tambo) there is a flurry of communication with Julie via phone and SMS. She and Gladys (head of HR at DGIE) have been following up on my visa application which I made two weeks ago and which appears to have been approved but hasn't actually been sent to me. It's DGIE who are responsible for approving it and since they are the people we're doing the volunteer work for I don't anticipate they will have any problem letting me in. However between Gladys and Julie they track it down and it appears in my inbox - three times no less. Can't print it off but copy it to my mobile phone so I can at least flash it when I arrive.

The flight from Johannesburg to Kigali isn't until 3:45 pm so I have the morning free. Shame to waste it even though after a 14-hour flight I'd be quite happy to sleep it away. So I book into a half-day tour of downtown Johannesburg and Soweto.

Downtown Johanbesburg doesn't do much for me, although I think our driver shows us mostly the southern part of the CBD which is pretty depressing. The high point is Chancellor House which is where Mandela and Tambo had their offices and you can still see the sign on the window of their office. The building had been allowed to become quite derelict but was restored a couple of years ago and is now a museum.

Then it's off to Soweto, about half an hour's drive to the south-west (its name, in case you don't remember - I certainly didn't) is derived from South-Western Townships. It was created as a place to move the black population to following an outbreak of the bubonic plague in Johannesburg in 1904.

Soweto is a bit different from what I expected. There are still shanty towns but the government is developing better-quality housing and moving the people from the shanty towns into it. There are now 'middle class' and 'upper class' suburbs (these terms are a bit relative) and a lot of construction work going on. A lot of cottage industry and roadside stalls offering all sorts of services. A highlight of the tour was the Regina Mundi ('Queen of the World') church, the largest Catholic church in South Africa, which played a pivotal role in the struggle against apartheid. During the 1976 student uprising, demonstrators (all school students) took shelter there and were fired on by the police. You can still see the bullet holes and the internal damage.

One of the remaining shanty towns. In the upper left corner you can see some of the new housing being built to resettle the shanty town dwellers

The other highlight was the Hector Pieterson memorial. He was the second child to be killed in the riots (although for a long time he was believed to have been the first) and there is an iconic photo of him being carried by a friend with his sister running alongside

After the tour, it was off to the airport to catch the flight to Kigali. Uneventful flight which arrived exactly when it said it would.

My welcome to Rwanda is truly memorable. When I got off the plane, there to meet me airside (that's jargon for the plane side of customs and immigration) were Gladys, Julie and Cyril (who also works in HR). While I am being introduced, a nice gentleman called Gide takes my passport and returns it a minute later all stamped and visa-ed, then I am escorted straight through immigration and customs as if I was a real VIP. We're driven to the apartment that has been provided for us and a chance to settle in.

If this is a foretaste of the hospitality of the Rwandans then it's going to be a memorable few weeks indeed.