Nataraja's Foot: Bad to be British

Here begins a mammoth catch-up of the past month. Been so busy.

Things kicked off after my last post with all the internationals arriving on 22nd. They're all from the same school in New York, but within that we had representatives of Germany, Netherlands, Poland and Zambia. I went to the airport with my team, and Senga, the best taxi driver in the whole of Kigali.

Kigali International Airport
Not one of our participants...

Managed to lose one of the participants in Bujumbura. Plane took off from Nairobi and had a technical fault. How it ended up in Buj, no one's entirely sure as that's not exactly between Nairobi and Kigali. Kigali airport looks pretty, but in terms of customer services it's pretty bad when things like this happen. There's no arrival/departure boards on view for people waiting, and airport staff, in my experience over the past few months, are fairly unhelpful when you ask for assistance or information. Nobody picking up the phone at Kenya Airways either. When a plane goes missing, the least you'd expect is an announcement.

Thankfully the participant managed to get hold of my number from her pre-departure information and we hooked up via Whatstapp. They put her up in a hotel for the night and she arrived next morning. A little hairy as things in Bujumbura have been deteriorating over the election period and we advise against all travel there.

Meanwhile, at the British Embassy up the road from my house, massive protests against the British after the arrest of Rwanda's intelligence chief Karenzi Karake at Heathrow on a Spanish warrant. I won't go into this too much. You can Google it to get up to speed, but a good way to understand the sort of anger here is to imagine the head of America's CIA, or the UK's MI6, travelling on a diplomatic passport, getting arrested in Rwanda on behalf of Uganda. Could you imagine the outrage that would cause? They'd call in the marines, there'd be economic sanctions and 24-hour media coverage. So you see the sense of double-standards, that the west can do exactly the same thing and Rwanda has no means of recourse.

It's a continuation of what happened to Rose Kabuye back in 2008. Whilst travelling on a diplomatic passport to Germany, she was arrested on behalf of France. I was here during that, too.

This time, there has been a large rally for several days outside the British Embassy, which is close enough that I heard the music from my house. It's also right next to the place where I was going to withdraw money for the program. The main road was closed, so I had to rough it off-road with a moto down the back streets. On one occasion, the moto stopped at the blockade on the main road and I decided to walk, right through the heart of the protest (picture at top of post). I was a little bit nervous, but the alternative was taking another bike all the way back through the side streets.

Deep breath. Started walking.

I can honestly say, I was impressed by the peaceful nature of the protest. The music and dancing was pleasant, and nobody stopped me to ask my nationality like they did with the Germans in 2008. I was free to wander through, no hassle, felt very safe.

A few days later the government asked the protest to disband. It was right outside one of Kigali's large hotels and the road closure and noise were causing a disturbance. It interfered with our program a little as we were due to have an NGO come to talk, but on that day they had received orders from local community leaders to go and protest, so had to cancel. It reminded me of the time I turned up to work after Kabuye's arrest. I was working for a disability organisation. When I arrived, everyone was painting banners and informed me that we were going on a 'disability march.'

"Where are we marching to?" I asked.

"The German Embassy."

Hmmm.

We drove through the protest during the orientation day city tour, so participants got to see human rights and politics in action.

Anyway. All very peaceful.

The night before they all arrived, we went out for a team dinner. The team comprised of myself, Maja, my Bosnian Program Assistant, Rose, Vincent and Gilbert, Program Manager, Program Assistant and Acting Country Director respectively from our local NGO partner, a legal aid organisation that helps deliver the program. We had Chinese at Bamboo, which is on the roof of a supermarket called T2000 with an incredible view of the entire city. Perfect for watching the sunset.

Over the next couple of days we ran orientation for the internationals and the local participants. We match the number of international participants with the same number of local Rwandans, and include two refugee participants, one from Gihembe camp and one from Kiziba. The idea is to explore all aspects of Human Rights together for three weeks - go talk to ministries, site visits, NGO volunteering and homestays. It's pretty intense.

Bus Tour Around the
Back Streets of Kigali

Ineza Cooperative

Nation Building Exercise

That last one is us participating in Umuganda. Every last Saturday of the month is community service day throughout Rwanda, when neighbourhoods get together to repair roads, build things and clear land, like we did. Well, the participants did, I was quite naughty and stood chatting to a fascinating IT Consultant about his work. He's invented survey software for a tablet or phone, which means you can take a survey into rural areas and the data will immediately be transferred via GPS/internet to a spreadsheet in the office. I was considering the possibilities of this for NGO monitoring and evaluation.

It's probably a good thing I held back. Towards the end, people cottoned onto my Britishness and apparently told my colleagues that I should stand up and account for my country's actions. Vincent didn't tell me this until we were safely out of there. I'm not really sure what I would have said, other than 'Yes, the situation sucks. Sorry.'

Instead, we found a lovely woodcraft shop down the road. Some really beautiful items, including this statue, apparently carved from Jacaranda.

We returned to our hostel in town and undertook a number of Human Rights workshops and discussions. I'd put together a day on Human Rights, Monorities and the Media, which included the deputy editor of New Times coming to lead a discussion on freedom of speech, which was extremely interesting. When we asked participants to rate the perceived level of freedom of media in their country, the Americans went for around 7/8 and the Rwandans 4/5. When asked if 4/5 was a bad thing, Rwandans mostly said 'no', that it was necessary to maintain peace whilst their country developed. I expected the Americans to have a strong reaction to this line, but they mostly ended up agreeing and saying that sometimes they felt there was too much freedom of media in their countries - that anyone cold say anything.

Drama Presentation on LGBTI Rights by
Pride Ark Association

We also had a lengthy debate with Pride Ark Association, one of Rwanda's leading LGBTI rights organisations, plus HDI, a progressive health NGO, plus CHABHA on HIV/AIDS and the National Paralympic Committee on disability rights. It was great to see Celestine again, having worked with NPC for two years on the Disability Coalition.

Minor logistical issue. Damascene only comes to do my dishes and laundry once a week. Working every day I was getting through twice as many clothes, so had to knuckle down and do some washing myself for the first time since being a VSO. This is my laundry corner at 6PM in the evening after a long day, note the bottle of beer?

In between all of that, I did manage to escape for an afternoon to attend my friend Patrizia's leaving party. So sad about this. Met whilst doing the AVSI contract last year, and bonded over horror movies. After something like six years in-country her organisation terminated her post. She's gone back to Italy with her son and husband for a rest.

I helped out in the kitchen and the food was spectacular.