Holidays cancelled

Since last October, we have been preparing for a group of English teachers to come to Cyangugu and to hold a 10-day training course for over 100 of the teachers in diocesan schools. We have been hoping for many benefits from this – improvement in teaching methods, improved use of visual and practical aids, building relationships among our teachers. A very generous donor in the UK funded it : flights, £5000 of materials and the costs of accommodation and transport.
One of our concerns all along has been that something else would crop up, so even last year we went to the district education office to share our plans. They were enthusiastic. On Wednesday, 2 days before the end of term and 3 days before the arrival of the English teachers, we learned that the government is taking ALL teachers for a residential training course from 1-18 April. Many of the teachers learned this officially on Friday 28th March. The topic is genocide ideology and there are to be no exceptions – anyone missing it is to be punished. The government is taking this very seriously (see the earlier post on burning books). The previous education minister probably lost her job because it was felt that “genocide ideology” was not being tackled vigorously enough. A secondary school about 50km from here was closed for the last 2 weeks of term following an inspection of their performance in this.
The teachers do not have long to prepare and childcare will be a problem for several that we know. It is being accepted in the usual resigned way, although we know that many are very disappointed to be missing our course and feel that the topic of genocide ideology has already been more than thoroughly covered.
Of course our plans are in ruins. The flights are changeable, but the “advance party” has already arrived and we have spent a lot of time and money in preparation both here and in England. We also now have a large hole in our plans for our last 3 months here – follow-up of the training was to be a major part of Sheena’s role.

In some ways this whole episode epitomises one part of the African experience. The poor are at the mercy of forces completely beyond their control, which can suddenly and unexpectedly change their lives for the worse. In that respect, almost everyone here is poor. It is a salutary but bitter lesson. (I realise very well that it is also one with much less drastic effects than people suffer every day). It feels as if this was preventable and indeed it was, but the same is true of course of much of the disease, war, incompetence and corruption which plague this continent.