Siva and Anisha - Accountants in the Mist

Ups and Downs of Muhanga Life

We have been here for about a month now, and thought we’d give an update on our daily life here in Muhanga. We have managed to settle into a routine where we wake up at 6am from the noise, eat some Nutella on bread for breakfast (that takes care of Anisha’s chocolate cravings), walk uphill to work, sit on our laptops all day working, go for a “melange” buffet lunch nearby, have dinner at Raina’s house, walk back down the hill in torchlight, watch some Stargate SG1 in our room, and are in bed by 9.30. We’re quite happy in our new life; well it has only been 3 weeks so the novelty hasn’t worn off yet! But we thought a quick comparison between life here and life back home would be enlightening:

Things that we don’t miss back home:

• Pollution from traffic – as previously mentioned, there are very few vehicles in Muhanga
• Long commute to work – we have a 25 minute walk instead, 10 minutes of which is on a steep uneven dirt track
• Work deadlines – we have lots to do, but no stressful deadlines
• Household chores – we eat out or at Raina’s, her servant does all our laundry and fruit shopping, and we just don’t need to clean
• Getting home late from work – we can’t stay late at work here because it gets dark by 6 and there is no electric light in our office!
• Busy evenings and weekends – we have no stress of managing our diaries, we just chill out in the evening, and travel around Rwanda on the weekend
• Inflated London prices – we eat an enormous plateful of carbohydrates every lunchtime for £1.50 each or less
• English weather – here it is sunny but mild nearly every day, except when there are thunderstorms (these handily happen only at night on the weekends)

Things that we miss back home:                                             

• An hour of boiler time giving us more than 10 minutes of hot water
• Not finding slugs in the shower, and spiders in the room every other day
• The electricity not running out every weekend
• Nice clean toilets wherever we go
• Having a hairdryer (Anisha)
• Watching TV (Siva)
• Fast internet access
• Streetlights – we carry our torch with us everywhere we go
• Spicy tasty food! The Indian and Chinese restaurants in Kigali are an hour away and relatively expensive (although we have sampled them and they are yummy)
• Going out with friends – there is no foreigner hangout in Muhanga, and Rwandans here are either too poor to go out, or don’t speak English well enough, or they are older and go back home to their families on the weekends.

The Ahazaza Schoolchildren Discover a Whole New World

Last week it was really brought home to us how different the reality of the Ahazaza school children was. Raina, in her inspired way of teaching real life to the children, decided to take 55 of the older children on a tour of Kigali, the capital city, while they were visiting for a science exhibition. She told us the story afterwards; oh how we wished we had been there to see first-hand when they discovered what modern life was like!

They had NEVER EVER before seen:

• Traffic lights: Raina had to teach them what the red and green lights meant, and that you could only cross the road when the little green man lit up.  Muhanga doesn’t have enough traffic to need traffic control.
• Underground car parking: Well, they had never before seen so many cars in one place, let alone a “house” especially for the cars! They were fascinated by the ticket barriers to let cars in, and by the electronic gate for privately purchased spaces, where you had to enter a code. Even the teachers had never seen anything like it before.
• A shopping mall: They couldn’t believe how clean and polished the floors were, and that the shops all had glass fronts. In Muhanga, all the shops are like small grocery stores or little hatches crammed with goods; they all look the same with wooden open doorways, whitewashed walls and pillars outside, cement floors, barely any lighting, and a huge counter inside.
• A supermarket: The security staff at the Nakumatt supermarket took a photo of them, because they had never before had a group of schoolchildren on a field trip to see a supermarket before! The children (and teachers) couldn’t believe how big the place was, how many varieties of product were on display, and the fact that people bought so much in one go that they needed a metal trolley to put their shopping in! They had never seen a microwave, deep freezer or refrigerator before (in Muhanga, only very wealthy households have fridges, and no-one has a freezer). Raina taught them about the checkout tills, barcodes, electronic scanners, and the little display that shows how much change you are owed.
• A lift: Raina took the whole group to the Hotel Des Milles Collines, one of the most expensive hotels in Kigali. She showed them the lifts – they had never even imagined such a concept before! Even the teachers were scared to go in because they didn’t know how it worked (no building in Muhanga has more than two floors). Raina had to teach them all about the different buttons, and how you could EVEN go down, below the ground floor, as well as up.

 And these are mainly children from the wealthier families in Muhanga!

This really shows how disconnected we in the West are from the reality of the developing world. While we are chasing more and more hi-tech ways of making our lives easier, most of the people here don’t even have running water.

Once the children came back from Kigali, we each took a class for 45 minutes until the teachers came back. It was daunting, suddenly standing alone in front of a classroom of children all staring at you and not knowing what to say! When we told them we were not married, there was a shocked silence! They are taught very traditional values at church. We both talked about our lives in England, how far we travel to work, where we live, and answered their questions. But they didn’t come close to understanding what our lives are like, because their own reality is so different. Life in the developed world has to be seen to be believed.

First Impressions of...

...Rwanda

We have finally landed in Rwanda! Our first impressions on arrival was the sheer scale and magnitude of the airport terminal - it was about the size of one gate at Heathrow! Raina the Project Director of Ahazaza school picked us up and whisked us away to Muhanga, about an hours drive from the capital Kigali. Kigali was hot and seemed to sparkle under the bright sunshine. The road to Muhanga was lined with banana trees and meandered around the many hills covered with fields of crop terraces - everything was lush and green. Muhanga is the third largest town in Rwanda, and at an altitude of 2000m it has a temperate climate (luckily for us!).

...Raina

Raina is the most youthful and energetic 77 year old lady we have ever met. Originally from Italy, she came to Rwanda from Belgium in 1995 as a UN laywer to train local officials on the prosecution of war crimes through the judicial system and also to teach law at the local university. She definitely puts most Western pensioners to shame with her modern outlook (she is on facebook!), liveliness and determination to improve Rwandan society.

...Ahazaza School

As a "hobby"(!) and to improve critical thinking amongst Rwandans, Raina and some of her Rwandan friends set up the school back in 2006, which since then has grown in size and become the most popular (and cheapest) independent school in the province. The school gives scholarships to poor children, and funds these from sponsors, other donors, and the fee-paying students. The schoolkids are all extremely excited to see the foreigners and rush up to shake our hands and show off their English. They put on a Welcome Show for us of traditional Intore drumming and dancing, which was awesome!

...Our Accomodation

One of the other projects which has recently started is an independent farm school, whose philosophy is to promote sustainable and organic farming techniques to the local community. We are staying in a room in the farm, which is very basic but at least the bed is comfortable! The farm is a wonderfully vibrant place and situated on 7 hectares of land, where the locals keep many livestock including goats, cows, rabbits and chickens, and a large variety of crops is grown. The cockerels and birds do their best in trying to wake us from our slumber - however they are generally beaten to it by the other teachers/helpers living at the farm who wake up by 6am every morning!

...The Food

For dinner on the first night, we ate goat brochettes! They are spicy goat and onion kebabs. Raina feeds us a delicious meal every now and again, all from the organic produce of her farm. The range of food in the restaurants is quite limited, with most a la carte menus offering brochettes, chicken, fish, omelette and chips. We've found two buffet restaurants offering a mixture of: rice, cassava, yam, potatoes, plantain, noodles, spinach, and beef stew.

...The Locals

People here are very friendly, and we feel safe even when walking at night. Foreigners are a rarity in Muhanga, so everyone stares at us as they pass, whether they are walking, on bicycle or motorbike - we're going to cause an accident one day! The little children near the farm run over to hug us and shout "Muzungu!" (meaning foreigner) when they see us. Strangers come up to us in restaurants just to say hello and practice their English, and are always excited that we have chosen to come to Rwanda.

...The Work

We're on our third day now working at the school with Philbert, the accountant. He is very enthusiastic and has grand plans both for us and for the school. There is a LOT to do, ranging from implementing the Quickbooks accounting system, improving budgeting, introducing a cashflow forecast, improving financial management and controls (e.g. templates), reviewing budgets for income-generating business plans, and producing HR employee handbooks! So whoever is jealous of our "holiday", can think again ....