A small fish in a very big sea.
In case you didn't know, the government in this country now issues fines to anyone who tries to marry more than one woman. Despite this, there still seems to be a lot of marriages being celebrated each weekend! Last sunday one end of the street was blocked off by a massive African imitation of a marquee, which was filled with women dancing & singing for a good few hours. Then, this past saturday more logs & tarpaulins got set up at the other end of the street & they were celebrating for the whole afternoon! It's never quiet on my street though - if it's not the kids you can hear then it's the mosque. And if the muezzin doesn't wake you with his call to prayer at 4am then it's the sound of thunder & all the rain smashing on the roof. Although Rwanda is one of Africa's smallest countries it is also the most densely populated, so even when I think I have got myself to a more isolated spot it's never gone completely quiet: you can always hear the sound of voices. I don't mind it though - it's hard to imagine that it was ever any other way...
Today we were teaching the children shapes & things like that so that in the afternoon we could paint their faces. It was a lot of fun, although I'm sure that by now they've smeared their faces so much that there are no recognizable shapes painted on them & I don't reckon many of them will have washed by tomorrow, so there will probably be a lot of blue & green tinted children up there!!!
For some reason there was an Oxfam car parked outside when I came down here. You see a lot of ONG's (or should I say NGOs?!?! I didn't even realise that was wrong until I read back though... Damn that spanish influence!) driving around, easily identifiable because they've all got nice cars & it's marked on the numberplates. I'd like to spend a day or so with them to see what kind of things they're doing & who they have working for them, I'm quite curious about it because I've heard from several sources that they don't inform the government too much about what they are doing & where the aid is going. Although what I'm working with is miniscule compared to the massive operations they seem to be running, I am at least glad that we're working alongside the government's aims & targets for this sector...
... Argh. The whole aid issue gets massively more complex the more you think about it. I know they're doing good things out here, of course they are, but I don't think I'll ever get my head around all these issues. I am just doing what I can, it's not much but if it gives more children something to smile about then it can't be too bad.
xXx
Today we were teaching the children shapes & things like that so that in the afternoon we could paint their faces. It was a lot of fun, although I'm sure that by now they've smeared their faces so much that there are no recognizable shapes painted on them & I don't reckon many of them will have washed by tomorrow, so there will probably be a lot of blue & green tinted children up there!!!
For some reason there was an Oxfam car parked outside when I came down here. You see a lot of ONG's (or should I say NGOs?!?! I didn't even realise that was wrong until I read back though... Damn that spanish influence!) driving around, easily identifiable because they've all got nice cars & it's marked on the numberplates. I'd like to spend a day or so with them to see what kind of things they're doing & who they have working for them, I'm quite curious about it because I've heard from several sources that they don't inform the government too much about what they are doing & where the aid is going. Although what I'm working with is miniscule compared to the massive operations they seem to be running, I am at least glad that we're working alongside the government's aims & targets for this sector...
... Argh. The whole aid issue gets massively more complex the more you think about it. I know they're doing good things out here, of course they are, but I don't think I'll ever get my head around all these issues. I am just doing what I can, it's not much but if it gives more children something to smile about then it can't be too bad.
xXx