A few people have asked whether taking motos in Rwanda is as ridiculously dangerous a pastime as their experience in other countries has been. I'm pretty sure the answer is no.
From what I've heard about boda bodas in Uganda or moto-taxis in South-East Asia, the Rwandan version is very tame in comparison. The government regulates them pretty heavily - they're all required to be registered and regularly serviced, and you have to wear a helmet. Plus, the traffic in Kigali is nowhere near as bad as in Kampala or Bangkok. True, most people drive in the middle of the road, rather than the right (as the law says) or the left (as most cars, since they're imported from Kenya or Uganda mainly, are designed for). And true, most people also drive something like a cross between an irate Italian and a man who's had acid spilled in his lap, only with less style. But the motos seem to avoid the carnage generally, and especially at night (which is usually when I take them) the roads are very quiet.
Plus, it's really the only way to get around. Nothing to worry about :-)
Friday, December 21, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Going home for Christmas...
Things have been so busy in the office over the last couple of weeks that I haven't had the chance to post anything, so here's a quick update on what's been going on...
I’ve been working on all kinds of things – from creating invitations to our office Christmas Party to researching Rwandan inheritance law (not easy - there ain't no LexisNexis or Westlaw here!), and from sorting out the address book to preparing documents for re-registration with the government. Can't complain that I don't have enough to do, or that it isn't varied! IJM Rwanda is gearing up to start actual casework in January (which everyone is excited about) and at the moment we are in the middle of conducting a baseline survey in the area we intend to work in. This will give us a bunch of useful information to help us tailor our casework, and also allow us to evaluate how much of an impact our work is having.
We've also welcomed some more staff members - Modeste, our new driver, and Kalisa, our accountant. Our Rwandan lawyers start in January or February, so we'll have a full team very soon. Everyone's been fantastic so far, working really well together and very committed, so things should really be ready to kick into high gear in January.
Other than work, I’ve explored a lot of Kigali (which is full of areas with tongue-twisting names like Nyarutarama, Mbarabuturo and Kacyiru, as well as a surprising number of nice restaurants), and managed to see a little bit of the rest of Rwanda so far – taking trips to two orphanages and a pottery workshop outside Kigali. I haven’t yet made it to Lake Kivu, which I’m told is incredibly beautiful, or gone gorilla trekking near the Volcanoes National Park, but they’re both on the to-do list. I’ve also found a great church, called New Life Bible Church. It’s largely Rwandese, but has an English service. The only drawback is that it starts at 8am, but then here I’m getting used to early mornings (something I never thought I’d say!). Work starts at 7.45am, so I have to get up around 6.30 every day.
And lastly, I'm heading home for Christmas tomorrow! Very excited - will be so good to see family, friends and especially Mairi. Plus, can't wait for cold weather and a proper Christmas dinner (hot sun, casava and matoke - a kind of banana thing - are all very nice, but don't really feel right for this time of year!). Will miss some good friends I've met here though - most I'll see again in January but a few are leaving Rwanda for good over the Christmas period. I guess that's both one of the best and worst things about expat life - you meet incredible people from all over the world, but then they leave to go back to their home countries just as you're getting to know them. Bit bittersweet really, but I really hope we'll stay in touch.
Hope everything's good where you are. Noheri nziza n'umwaka mushya muhire [Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!]
I’ve been working on all kinds of things – from creating invitations to our office Christmas Party to researching Rwandan inheritance law (not easy - there ain't no LexisNexis or Westlaw here!), and from sorting out the address book to preparing documents for re-registration with the government. Can't complain that I don't have enough to do, or that it isn't varied! IJM Rwanda is gearing up to start actual casework in January (which everyone is excited about) and at the moment we are in the middle of conducting a baseline survey in the area we intend to work in. This will give us a bunch of useful information to help us tailor our casework, and also allow us to evaluate how much of an impact our work is having.
We've also welcomed some more staff members - Modeste, our new driver, and Kalisa, our accountant. Our Rwandan lawyers start in January or February, so we'll have a full team very soon. Everyone's been fantastic so far, working really well together and very committed, so things should really be ready to kick into high gear in January.
Other than work, I’ve explored a lot of Kigali (which is full of areas with tongue-twisting names like Nyarutarama, Mbarabuturo and Kacyiru, as well as a surprising number of nice restaurants), and managed to see a little bit of the rest of Rwanda so far – taking trips to two orphanages and a pottery workshop outside Kigali. I haven’t yet made it to Lake Kivu, which I’m told is incredibly beautiful, or gone gorilla trekking near the Volcanoes National Park, but they’re both on the to-do list. I’ve also found a great church, called New Life Bible Church. It’s largely Rwandese, but has an English service. The only drawback is that it starts at 8am, but then here I’m getting used to early mornings (something I never thought I’d say!). Work starts at 7.45am, so I have to get up around 6.30 every day.
And lastly, I'm heading home for Christmas tomorrow! Very excited - will be so good to see family, friends and especially Mairi. Plus, can't wait for cold weather and a proper Christmas dinner (hot sun, casava and matoke - a kind of banana thing - are all very nice, but don't really feel right for this time of year!). Will miss some good friends I've met here though - most I'll see again in January but a few are leaving Rwanda for good over the Christmas period. I guess that's both one of the best and worst things about expat life - you meet incredible people from all over the world, but then they leave to go back to their home countries just as you're getting to know them. Bit bittersweet really, but I really hope we'll stay in touch.
Hope everything's good where you are. Noheri nziza n'umwaka mushya muhire [Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!]
Friday, December 7, 2007
News from around Rwanda
Before I forget, we got two emails this morning warning us about:
(1) continuing violence in the Eastern DR Congo
(2) an Ebola outbreak over the border in Uganda
Slightly scary. But apparently we're perfectly safe in Kigali. T.I.A.
(1) continuing violence in the Eastern DR Congo
(2) an Ebola outbreak over the border in Uganda
Slightly scary. But apparently we're perfectly safe in Kigali. T.I.A.
Christmas in the tropics
It's somewhat bizarre to be in the run-up to Christmas when it's sunny and 28 degrees every day. It should be cold and wet and miserable! On the other hand, it's lovely to be in a country where there's a complete absence of the fevered commercialisation that surrounds Christmas at home. By this stage of Advent the shopping frenzy has been underway for about a month in the UK, but in Rwanda you wouldn't know Christmas was only a few weeks away. Don't get me wrong, I love the food and fun, the presents and parties etc. But it does all get a bit over-the-top. I've been doing my present-buying bit by bit in little craft shops this year, and it's much more pleasant than dealing with the crowds at home.
It's made me see the Christmas story in a new light as well. Even if we do get past the shopping and eating and Santa-Claus-seeing and all the rest of it, and actually remember the real reason for the holiday, we usually imagine a very sanitised version of the Nativity. Yes, there's the manger and stable, but we normally don't think much about what that must have been like - the stench of the cattle, the darkness and the filthy building. We portray Mary as this dignified, saintly figure, whereas in reality she must have been an exhausted teenage mother whose husband was still somewhat suspicious as to how she had got pregnant. We think of the shepherds and wise men visiting and bringing gifts, but forget that shepherds were outcasts and despised, the poorest of the poor, and that the Magi were strange foreigners who presumably didn't speak Mary and Joseph's language and burst in uninvited to their house. We forget that while Jesus was less than two years old, his mother and father had to take him into hiding in Egypt to escape Herod's murderous reprisals, and that they lived there for several years as refugees.
I don't think I ever really thought about what that must have been like, but living in Rwanda - seeing the level of poverty, hearing stories from refugees - brings it home a little more. Yet we celebrate this account of a messy, dirty birth in a grubby little town in Judea, because despite the apparently inauspicious surroundings it was really rather important:
"...to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace..."
Isaiah 9:6
Happy Advent!
It's made me see the Christmas story in a new light as well. Even if we do get past the shopping and eating and Santa-Claus-seeing and all the rest of it, and actually remember the real reason for the holiday, we usually imagine a very sanitised version of the Nativity. Yes, there's the manger and stable, but we normally don't think much about what that must have been like - the stench of the cattle, the darkness and the filthy building. We portray Mary as this dignified, saintly figure, whereas in reality she must have been an exhausted teenage mother whose husband was still somewhat suspicious as to how she had got pregnant. We think of the shepherds and wise men visiting and bringing gifts, but forget that shepherds were outcasts and despised, the poorest of the poor, and that the Magi were strange foreigners who presumably didn't speak Mary and Joseph's language and burst in uninvited to their house. We forget that while Jesus was less than two years old, his mother and father had to take him into hiding in Egypt to escape Herod's murderous reprisals, and that they lived there for several years as refugees.
I don't think I ever really thought about what that must have been like, but living in Rwanda - seeing the level of poverty, hearing stories from refugees - brings it home a little more. Yet we celebrate this account of a messy, dirty birth in a grubby little town in Judea, because despite the apparently inauspicious surroundings it was really rather important:
"...to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace..."
Isaiah 9:6
Happy Advent!
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