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.