Archive for 'Rwanda'
I arrived in Kigali at the end of August, to begin my first experience of working here in Africa. I have looked forward to this for many years. And I know I am especially fortunate to come to Rwanda and Burundi – two of the smallest, but most populous and poor countries in Africa. I had [...]
Don’t you get worried when you are given a leaving present as you are about to board the plane, and your suitcase is already stuffed to the gills with souvenirs? So when a friend gave me a beautiful painting at my leaving do last week, I was both delighted and bemused. How was I going to get it home? It could [...]
Who has the main say - donors or recipient countries? Isn't it obvious? Don't donors have all the resources and so control the show?
No, it isn’t always like that, and in the last few years there has been a shift towards a more equal partnership, with a real desire growing to make aid have even more impact. On the [...]
Saturday morning in Kigali felt weird; it was spookily quiet in the streets as the whole population of the country spent the morning doing some community work in their local area - cleaning the street, digging the ground or just tidying the place up. Even the President was out there, digging holes for banana trees.
This [...]
Do you think announcements by British Government Ministers make any difference at all to people in Rwanda?  If I told the woman in the red cap who walks everyday along the road past my front gate here in Kigali what Douglas Alexander and Jack Straw said today (7th July), would she take any interest? I reckon that [...]
The nurse gently turned the over the little baby in the incubator, checking his condition; she indicated that he was doing well. In the Intensive Care Unit in Kibagabaga District Hospital, Dr Blaize showed us the equipment they have for premature and sick babies. It looked good, clean and new – just like the hospital [...]
OK, let's back to the Swallows - I've got to write about them first, as several people reading this blog have asked me how they are getting on. Four weeks ago, the three baby swallows in the nest on my balcony fledged.  ie they came out of the nest and flew - up onto the [...]
Have you heard that water flows one way down the drain in the southern hemisphere and the other way in the northern hemisphere? Is it true? I live 1 degree south of the equator, and when I experimented pouring water in my washbashin, the water flowed anticlockwise. Does it flow clockwise in the northern hemisphere? Why not try it [...]
Over the Labour Day break I took a trip to Akagera National Park on the Eastern border of Rwanda, next to Tanzania. It is a large open expanse of savanna and woodland dotted with beautiful lakes. The wildlife is limited and rather hard to spot, but I did find some interesting examples of people trying to make livelihoods [...]
I was lucky enough to get back home to Sussex for a few days over Easter to see my family - it was great to see my children for real rather than over a blurry Skype connection. Two of them go to our village primary school at the end of the road, where they get a [...]
