A small selection of phrases I have come across in the past week. I'm on a bit of a steep learning curve in terms of getting to grips with programmatic jargon at the moment...
capacity building
sustainability
sector blending
logical framework matrix
detailed implementation plan
faith and community-based organisation (FCBOs)
mobilizing human capital
community ownership
synergy and complementarity
parameters of stakeholder involvement
transformational coordination of resources
I reckon there must be a committee somewhere whose sole task it is to come up with a new buzz-word every few months that must be included in all NGO reports and publications.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Busy, Busy, Busy (and new faces)
I didn't think it was possible, but things are getting even busier here at IJM Rwanda. In the past couple of weeks we have had three new Rwandan lawyers join the team, and have been training them. Yesterday we also had a third intern join us - Natasha, from Canada. And our schedule for the next three weeks includes three sets of visitors, yet another new intern arriving, finalising casework strategy and program documents, and starting case referrals, amongst other things.
And, during all that my parents and brother are coming to visit!
It's all a bit crazy, but very exciting. Things are really getting going and I think we will hopefully have a big impact on the land rights situation here.
And, during all that my parents and brother are coming to visit!
It's all a bit crazy, but very exciting. Things are really getting going and I think we will hopefully have a big impact on the land rights situation here.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Hello Again! (Baboons and Earthquakes)
Sorry for not posting for more than a month. It's been very gratifying to find that lots of people are actually reading my blog though - thanks to all of you who asked what was going on and why I hadn't posted for a while!
Basically, the reasons you haven't heard from me are (in no particular order):
- I was at home over Christmas for two weeks, so there wasn't much Rwanda-based action to report.
- Since I got back at the beginning of January things have been a bit manic. We've had a new Rwandan lawyer join us (Eugene) and a new American intern (Marissa), plus we had visitors from HQ staying for a week, and we've been gearing up for starting casework soon.
- We've had power outages and internet failure almost every day for the past week.
So that's the excuses. However, now back in business and have two exciting tales to relate. First, a close encounter with some baboons. I went to Akagera National Park this weekend with the Achtzehns and three of our HQ visitors. Akagera is a beautiful stretch of land in the east of Rwanda, on the border with Tanzania, which is set aside as a protected game reserve. It's quite unlike the rest of Rwanda - much flatter, savannah-esque geography, with very red soil and lots of acacia trees and dry bushes and grasses. Much more like the kind of scenery that comes to mind when you think of Africa. It was a great weekend. Sadly we only had one night in the park, but we stayed at the Game Lodge, which was really nice and came equipped with swimming pool and a balcony bar where you could sip cold beer or maracuja juice while watching the sun go down over the lake. We got up ridiculously early on Saturday morning (about 5.30am) for a morning game drive, and got pretty close to zebra, giraffe, hippos, buffalo, vervet monkeys, warthog, impala, topi and guinea fowl, amongst other things. Amazing to see these animals in the flesh - they're just as exotic as they appear on film, only you have to keep pinching yourself when you realise they're actually only feet away from you. Definitely would recommend safari. I think the giraffe were my favourite. Such bizarre animals - elegant and clumsy-looking at the same time. It just made me think how fantastic it is that we live in a world where such strange and beautiful things exist!
Anyways, also got a bit too close to a baboon. We came across a troop of them and wound down our windows to take a better picture. Unfortunately, the guide was in the other car, or he would have warned us that this was a very bad idea. An even worse idea was to have food in the back seat. There was a packet of peanuts sitting on the cushion, and it was sealed but somehow the baboons smelled or spotted it. Two of them came up to the car, and we recoiled, thinking they would just jump up and down or bark or otherwise cause a bit of a fuss. Actually, they bypassed all that and just leaped straight through the windows into the car. The largest one landed right in my lap, and then (presumably startled) started bouncing around on the dashboard. The other three occupants of the car had got out quickly, but I wasn't sure what to do since the baboon was right on top of me. Thankfully, I didn't know how dangerous baboons could be, so stayed relatively calm. That is, until it bared it's rather disturbingly large and dirty fangs at me and hissed. At that point I decided to get out pronto, so I managed to wriggle out the driver door while pushing the baboon away with my feet. So...rather unsettling tete-a-tete with a wild monkey, but somehow managed to survive without being bitten, scratched or contracting rabies.
Secondly, to top off an already exciting weekend, I've also survived my very first earthquake. Actually, my experience this time wasn't very dramatic. Kigali wasn't too badly affected - we just had some slight tremors, although the strength of them seemed to depend what area of the city you were in. I was in church in Remera, which is fairly low, at the time and so I thought the tremor was just some annoying person jiggling their leg behind me. On the other hand, up in Nyarutarama, where the house is, the walls shook and the water tank almost collapsed. Last night we were warned there might be further after-shocks between 8pm and midnight, so we stayed outside in the car for a few hours. Uncomfortable, but probably sensible. Nothing much seemed to happen, but better safe than sorry. There's been quite a few people killed in Cyangugu, in the southwest of Rwanda near the Congo border, and a lot of injuries. One of those who died was the stepmother of our housekeeper, which brings it a bit close to home.
Basically, the reasons you haven't heard from me are (in no particular order):
- I was at home over Christmas for two weeks, so there wasn't much Rwanda-based action to report.
- Since I got back at the beginning of January things have been a bit manic. We've had a new Rwandan lawyer join us (Eugene) and a new American intern (Marissa), plus we had visitors from HQ staying for a week, and we've been gearing up for starting casework soon.
- We've had power outages and internet failure almost every day for the past week.
So that's the excuses. However, now back in business and have two exciting tales to relate. First, a close encounter with some baboons. I went to Akagera National Park this weekend with the Achtzehns and three of our HQ visitors. Akagera is a beautiful stretch of land in the east of Rwanda, on the border with Tanzania, which is set aside as a protected game reserve. It's quite unlike the rest of Rwanda - much flatter, savannah-esque geography, with very red soil and lots of acacia trees and dry bushes and grasses. Much more like the kind of scenery that comes to mind when you think of Africa. It was a great weekend. Sadly we only had one night in the park, but we stayed at the Game Lodge, which was really nice and came equipped with swimming pool and a balcony bar where you could sip cold beer or maracuja juice while watching the sun go down over the lake. We got up ridiculously early on Saturday morning (about 5.30am) for a morning game drive, and got pretty close to zebra, giraffe, hippos, buffalo, vervet monkeys, warthog, impala, topi and guinea fowl, amongst other things. Amazing to see these animals in the flesh - they're just as exotic as they appear on film, only you have to keep pinching yourself when you realise they're actually only feet away from you. Definitely would recommend safari. I think the giraffe were my favourite. Such bizarre animals - elegant and clumsy-looking at the same time. It just made me think how fantastic it is that we live in a world where such strange and beautiful things exist!
Anyways, also got a bit too close to a baboon. We came across a troop of them and wound down our windows to take a better picture. Unfortunately, the guide was in the other car, or he would have warned us that this was a very bad idea. An even worse idea was to have food in the back seat. There was a packet of peanuts sitting on the cushion, and it was sealed but somehow the baboons smelled or spotted it. Two of them came up to the car, and we recoiled, thinking they would just jump up and down or bark or otherwise cause a bit of a fuss. Actually, they bypassed all that and just leaped straight through the windows into the car. The largest one landed right in my lap, and then (presumably startled) started bouncing around on the dashboard. The other three occupants of the car had got out quickly, but I wasn't sure what to do since the baboon was right on top of me. Thankfully, I didn't know how dangerous baboons could be, so stayed relatively calm. That is, until it bared it's rather disturbingly large and dirty fangs at me and hissed. At that point I decided to get out pronto, so I managed to wriggle out the driver door while pushing the baboon away with my feet. So...rather unsettling tete-a-tete with a wild monkey, but somehow managed to survive without being bitten, scratched or contracting rabies.
Secondly, to top off an already exciting weekend, I've also survived my very first earthquake. Actually, my experience this time wasn't very dramatic. Kigali wasn't too badly affected - we just had some slight tremors, although the strength of them seemed to depend what area of the city you were in. I was in church in Remera, which is fairly low, at the time and so I thought the tremor was just some annoying person jiggling their leg behind me. On the other hand, up in Nyarutarama, where the house is, the walls shook and the water tank almost collapsed. Last night we were warned there might be further after-shocks between 8pm and midnight, so we stayed outside in the car for a few hours. Uncomfortable, but probably sensible. Nothing much seemed to happen, but better safe than sorry. There's been quite a few people killed in Cyangugu, in the southwest of Rwanda near the Congo border, and a lot of injuries. One of those who died was the stepmother of our housekeeper, which brings it a bit close to home.
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