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Dispatch #10 from Rwanda
It was music to my ears.
After three months in Rwanda and the past week in Kigali training a group of 7 junior radio reporters at
Radio Rwanda, I felt like I was getting somewhere. Friday afternoon, at a reception at a Chinese
restaurant for the reporters for having completed the workshop, one of the reporters got up to speak.
"I think we're going to start a revolution," he said.
Tears came to my eyes, for the significance of this was not lost on me. Not only was Jean Claude serious, but he was saying this in front of three of his bosses. Remember, we're talking about government-(dare I say)sponsored "journalism", what has been (at least up to now) a press lacking little, if any, freedom to be critical of the government, to play the traditional role of "watchdog." But this group of 7 was serious. They were fired up, inspired after an exhausting week of intensive training that included hands-on practical work and some pretty heated discussions of journalism and politics here in Rwanda.
Our second to last day of the workshop was spent talking about political and election reporting. My goal was to at least introduce the topic because Rwanda held its first constitutional referendum since 1959 on May 26. There was some intense discussion, bordering on argument, when we began to discuss political freedom. We talked about one political party, the MDR, that is in the process of being banned. The MDR (also known as the parmehutu), you see, is perhaps the main party many believe responsible in large part for the 1994 genocide. One of the journalists said he believed it was coincidence that the party was being dissolved just prior to the upcoming elections.
We later went online to look up some information. On the government website we found the budget for the upcoming referendum and elections. The budget for the referendum alone was $8 million. They were incredulous not just about the amount of money but that this information could be found so easily. "Incredible," said one of them quietly over and over again. We then found a listing of the numbers of eligible voters broken down by gender and province. I later read that in some parts of the country more than 90% had registered. It will be interesting to see how many actually show up on Monday to vote.
But the week also held some excitement outside of the workshop. Early in the week I went to buy some groceries. As I left the store I was accosted by an elderly man selling 4-stringed ukulele-type instruments. They were quite beautiful, but I thought, what am I going to do with this and how will I get it back to Butare. In the end I relented and for $4 I had my choice of instruments. I chose the smaller one.
So, ukulele in hand I headed back to the hotel. A few hundred meters from the hotel, I was again approached. This time by a man and his friend selling a set of little "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" gorillas. No way, I thought. These are the ultimate in Rwandan tourist kitch. But he was sooooo persistent that I finally gave in; it was one of those days when I found it very difficult to say no. All I had was a 5000 franc note. The men said they had change. As I was passing the money to the man a kid ran from behind me, grabbed the money from my hand and took off. I just stood there with what I'm sure was a stupid look on my face.
The two men took off after him. I was left standing on the street, mouth agape, clutching my ukulele and feeling like a complete idiot. I pride myself on being ultra-conscious of my surroundings but this time I was taken so completely off-guard. I think that's what surprised me the most and made me feel the most stupid. I just stood there.
Some 5 or 7 minutes later coming down the street from the opposite direction were the two men followed by 4 policemen in their dark pink uniforms dragging this kid by the scruff of his shirt. I couldn't believe they had caught the guy. By this time I was surrounded by a bunch of people. The group of police approached and then proceeded to search the pockets of the young man. They dug out the crumpled 5000 Franc note and handed it to me. The police then proceeded to drag the kid across the street and started hitting him. The kid yelped repeatedly. Thieves apparently are not regarded kindly here. But I felt horribly for we're talking about the equivalent of $10 here and after some rough calculations I figured this was also the equivalent to a week's salary for many people here. I suddenly felt extremely badly and extremely rich. I paid the man for the gorillas that I really hadn't wanted in the first place and headed sullenly back to the hotel to have a beer and think about what had just happened.
All I could think was that I was a stupid muzungu. Perhaps I would have done the same as the kid who saw
this muzungu whip out 5000 Francs to buy some silly carved gorillas.
All in all it's been a very interesting, inspiring and thought provoking week. How I love doing what I'm
doing!
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