Still waiting ….

The last few weeks have been the sort of weeks that have volunteers heading for home, especially if they happen early in the volunteering experience.  The mentor and teacher training days that have been planned still do not have budget approval and the officers who have responsibility seem to be distracted by other more ‘urgent’ issues.  My project seems to have been consigned to the ‘too hard basket’.

I have been kept busy typing more practice exams and would like to show the officer responsible how to do it himself using Equation Editor – just as quick as the neat handwriting he is giving to me to type – but he is ‘very busy’ just now. 

I have also been helping compile the Primary School Completion certificates for pupils in the Bukoba District who passed the Standard VII exams in 2009.  These certificates are still to go to the Region for signing by the Region Education Officer (or his deputies!) before being distributed back to the schools to then be forwarded to the pupils involved.

Currently no skills are being transferred!

Wednesday was a whole day meeting of all VSO education sector volunteers and work partners where hopefully our output on flip chart paper will be useful in documenting and quantifying what we are doing here in Kagera.  Luckily we were reflecting on the last 12 months so my current frustrations were just a footnote. I have always been hopeless at anything involving flip chart paper so it was not my idea of fun!

The rainy season has set in and most days have at least some rain.  Though it rarely lasts all day, the rain does add to the degree of difficulty of getting through a day.  I left my car headlights on and came out to a flat battery Friday afternoon that took some time to sort out.  (Why, oh why, didn’t someone come and tell me?  Usually people are only too willing to tell you your headlights are on!!!)

The power is less reliable too, with the thunder and lightning tripping the circuit breakers at home and at the office. These are all little things I know but together they are adding to a level of frustration that, if I didn’t have positive experiences to look back at, would have me wondering why I am here.

The books are slowly being distributed.  Copies have gone to all the Bukoba Rural District schools and to some of the Bukoba Municipal and private schools.  The response has been good but I still need to get out into the schools and see theory put into practice.  On Tuesday I accompanied VSO’s Education Program Manager to one of my schools and we observed a wonderful participatory lesson on adding whole numbers where banana leaves were used to make the teaching aids!  So there are still good things happening to lighten the gloom.

On the ‘tourist’ front, there was a break in the rain this weekend and we had a lovely drive to the Karagwe road west of Kyaka to do some bird watching. A bird highlight was a pair of Grey Crowned Cranes seen previously in Uganda but always worth a look.

These scenes are of the bridge over the Kagera river and the ruins of a church at Kyaka.  These are ‘pretty’ views but they are a reminder that the peace we have now in Kagera is something to treasure and protect with vigilance.  During the Rwanda genocide the Kagera River, which rises in Rwanda and flows into Lake Victoria in Uganda, was used to dispose of corpses and the water flowing under this bridge carried mutilated remains.  The church, which looks like a ruin you’d see anywhere in Britain, is General Idi Amin’s handywork, inflicted only 30 years ago in a war where Bukoba town was also bombed.

Mum and Lyn will be here in a fortnight!  They landed in South Africa yesterday and have begun a trip into Kruger NP.  We are so looking forward to showing them Bukoba and Kagera region - I just hope the weather co-operates!