Postscript to community work

There was not much sign of “umuganda” community work happening around here, everyone seemed to be going for the common option of tidying their own gardens / land. I’ve heard this justification several times. However, our neighbour was travelling from Kigali by public minibus. When they reached Butare, Rwanda’s second town, about 8am, the police stopped them and made them get out and “work” for a couple of hours picking up litter before they could resume their journey. It seems the authorities in Butare take a tougher line on umuganda than those in Cyangugu.

One and a half shopping days

It’s the Saturday 22nd December and with three days until Christmas the markets are shut this morning. “Umuganda”, the monthly Saturday morning of community work, has been brought forward by a week, apparently so that the country will look good for Christmas. The plan is that people will work today on tidying the roads and the verges.
I found this out, along with most of the population, just yesterday afternoon, although in typical Rwandan style I had previously heard a rumour. A man with a loudspeaker was wandering the streets of Kamambe making the announcement.
I’m trying to think of Glasgow city centre being shut 3 days before Christmas so that everyone can do community work, but it’s a step too far for my powers of imagination!

How we repaired the Acuson X128 ultrasound scanner

With duck tape of course!
A year ago, just after we arrived in Cyangugu, a medical container arrived at the dispensary run by the diocese. We are still working out the best way to use the equipment and it will take at least another year before this process is complete. Africa requires and develops patience.
The Acuson scanner did not work when it arrived, but we managed to determine that the monitor was broken (we could get a picture on a portable TV). After a few months a Siemens technician came, confirmed our diagnosis and went away. It took another few months before he sourced a second-hand part in Antwerp and another few weeks before we managed to get it here. Then customs held it for 2 weeks and charged $200 as a “waiver” for import duty!?
Last week, we had an American team visiting and among them was Sharon, a radiographer from Kansas. She had brought a complete set of tools and instructions from an engineer in the US, so we set to. It took us about 5 hours, disconnecting and reconnecting cables, but what an adrenaline rush when we switched on and the date appeared on the screen. It works! By prayer, skill, Sharon's preparation and luck, it works!! And yes, there is indeed duck tape inside it and around the screen, which is not quite the same size as the old one (well, we can’t exactly send it back).
Much of working life in Cyangugu like this. It’s unpredictable; projects start, go into limbo and then resurface; you end up tackling all kinds of work you would never dream of doing (nor be let near) at home. The joys and disappointments are all the greater because of it.

Gakenke, shoe boxes and Advent thoughts

Last week I visited my last parish of the 13 in the diocese in order to start our welfare programme there. Gakenke is in the forest, 2.5 hours away from our base in Kamembe and is another of the parishes without electricity, running water or even a market, but there is a church there with a pastor’s house and 4 partly-built daughter churches in the surrounding hills. I was probably the first white visitor in many months.
One of the jobs was to distribute gifts from Christmas shoe boxes. I have been involved with shoe box appeals before – collecting, donating and packing - and I know lots of other people who have, too, so I have absolutely no objection in principle. The basic idea of packing a shoe box with suitable gifts for a child breaks down here, however. There are simply too many children. In the end this project was just the wrong thing to be doing in rural Rwanda.
Cyangugu Diocese had received 50 boxes each containing around 6 shoe boxes. This was our share of a container load of boxes delivered to Rwanda for the Anglican church. “Fairness” meant that each diocese had to receive an equal share : the same principle resulted in each parish getting 4 boxes. Unfortunately, Gakenke alone had more than 100 children from the various churches, so the boxes had to be opened and the contents divided.
The first step was to remove anything which looked edible but wasn’t – Playdo being a prime target. These gifts would quickly end up in the hands of children who were too young or just unable to read English.
Stage two was to break up the packets of crayons, coloured pencils and sweets and to remove any excess packaging. There was now a great heap of gifts at the front of the church and an even bigger heap of wrapping.
Finally, the distribution began and as usual the children waited patiently in turn. I don’t know if those at the end of the line expected to get much less than those at the head of the queue, but that is what happened.
So, after my visit to Gakenke, my reasons for hating shoeboxes are as follows :
1. It creates a huge amount of work in order to distribute. We never asked for it and if we sat down and thought rationally about the costs and benefits, we would have burned the lot, but once the stuff has arrived, it is inevitably going to have to be shared “equally”.
2. Many of the gifts arriving here were quite inappropriate. Even yoyos and jigsaws potentially good toys, are useless without instructions.
3. The children do not understand why they are getting gifts or from whom. I had a terrible thought in the middle of the morning – “they must think that I have organised this!”
4. It is divisive – there were as many kids excluded from the distribution as were admitted and those outside were even more scruffy than those inside.
5. It creates a lot of litter. Outside the church was littered with Christmas wrapping and discarded jigsaw pieces.

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I had real pangs of sadness as the end of the distribution came to an end. This whole episode throws some disturbing light on the human condition. How often our hearts are set on the wrong things! How easily we are pleased with a few pathetic possessions! How incompetent and misdirected even our best-intentioned actions can be!
How little all of this has to do with the celebration of God coming into the world to live as one of us – but it shows why we need saved and why he needed to come.

Fairy lights

This is a place of stunning natural beauty, but one of the prettiest sights around at the moment is the lake at night. The fishing boats attract “sambaza”, small sardine-like fish, by suspending lamps just above the water. When the moon is full, there is no fishing, but at the time of the new moon the whole lake near us is lit up as if by fairy lights (over 100 that I could count last night). I wish a photo could do it justice, but in any case the internet link here is too slow to upload.

Strength and weakness

We had just spent 2 days on “strategic planning” – a difficult exercise with about 25 people involved, many of whom had little experience of the process and very little idea of what might realistically be achieved in a given time. The “wish lists” which were the first product of the sessions will require a lot of further work. Planning generally is a huge area of weakness in this country. There often seems to be nothing in the gap between the immediate action and dreams, between “we will do this now” and “it would be nice if”.
As the meeting ended, we turned to worship and as usual the unaccompanied singing was beautiful. This is one of the huge strengths of Rwanda : I have seldom heard poor or reluctant singing, nor experienced anyone being unwilling or unable to pray publicly.
The transformation as we changed from an area of great weakness to one of great strength was remarkable. There is a lot said about being “out of our comfort zone” and I often feel out of mine here, but it is also great to be with people when they are well within their comfort zone.

We may meet, but

“You may find me when I am not there”. I have heard this phrase twice in the last week. It’s amusing to our ears, but it also makes me think that I will never understand the thought processes which can produce such language! There is no doubt that we think very differently from the people we are working with and it sometimes seems to become more apparent every day.

Antibiotics

There is no question that I have “new eyes” on the subject of antibiotics. Even way back as a microbiology student I learned about microbes acquiring resistance and the threat this could pose to the effectiveness of antibiotics. In the UK, of course, there is great caution among doctors about prescribing antibiotics and MRSA (multiply-resistant Staphylcoccus aureus) is a big problem in hospitals. Sparing use is one of the main strategies for preventing the spread of resistance.
However, after 3 skin infections this year, all requiring minor surgery, my attitude here is very different and could now be described as “the more the merrier” and “the sooner the better”. For some reason I seem to be vulnerable to these skin infections and they have been very virulent and quite severe. I have just finished another course in response to having an infected spot on the back of my neck and for the first time the drugs were successful in preventing the spread of infection. As they can be bought at any pharmacy, I will also keep a supply handy in case of further need.
It has brought a new realisation of how attitudes can change as a result of personal circumstances and need. My desire to avoid further problems (and in particular any more surgery!) certainly overrides any other considerations about limited use of antibiotics.
In general, there is a lot of faith in and use of drugs in Rwanda among those who can afford them. I have also known a few cases of people who have spent more money than they could afford. By western standards, they are very cheap : our anti-malarials cost one tenth of what we paid in the UK. However, it seems that there is a readiness to prescribe a lot of drugs and people will have quite long prescriptions with a variety of medications.