The 2009-2010 Rwandan Newsletters

Dear all,

After being one week in Rwanda now, I think it is time to give a summary of my activities, my impressions and some events - I will keep the details for when I am back illustrated with pics and movies.

The flight was long and with some delays, I arrived 19 hours after my departure in Brussels two hours late in Kigali.

I have to tell you that I didn´t left Delft without concerns and thoughts, the eminent legal battle with LDA, the continuous uncertainty about the situation of the IT Group at UNESCO-IHE, the health of one of my best friends and my tiredness after a year that started horrible with the mental lost of a best friend. At the positive part, there are some achievements that I´m quite proud of although some may think it is their performance. It was also a year of new friendships and great moments as there are the wedding of Liesbeth, daughter of my oldest friends where I was able to dance during the celebration all those years after doing the same at her parents wedding; my birthday celebration in Naples with beloved friends, although I missed important ones, the dance performances with Catherine in Amsterdam...

At my arrival I was not only shocked by the temperature difference but also by the fact that none of my suitcases came with me. Several of my fellow travelers were in the same situation and after being at home, for one hour we all receive a call that our belongings were at the airport...somebody had stored them in the Cargo building instead of putting them on the conveyor belt... Ethiopian should stop their alliance with Lufthansa... our luggage was stored in a wrong container in Frankfurt and caused us there a 3 hour stop instead of 1 hour.

As I said...I was Home! Egide's family was there to collect me at the airport and it felt immediately familiar as if the two years we were separated had never existed.  For sure, the children have grown; there was the surprise of their moving to a new house but sitting together at the table with all the family members was giving me already the rest that I was looking and hoping for since so many months.

After the presents being unpacked and the arrival of the big chief himself, I went to bed for my first night under Rwandan skies after two years...and I slept as a rose.

The following days I was sleeping and resting a lot, for those who know me well, not one of my favorite activities but in this case a necessary one. I was exhausted and still at this time I am taking it very easy. As you all know, I like to read a lot during my vacations so in spite of my siestas I had read already two books before the end of the week. One Flemish thriller and a first genocide book ´Left to tell' that learned me a lot about inequality between Rwandans before the genocide and describes how the author survived the horror through her ardent faith in god. At this moment I am reading a book about the technical origins of the Rwandan genocide, called the 'guerre révolutionaire' a strategy deployed by the French to control eventual incidents in France, in their oversee colonies and adopted by the governments of their former colonies.

Saturday was bloke's day. We went with a bunch of Egide's friends for a 20 km walking tour in the surroundings of Kigali. Start at 06.00 A.M. arrival at the lake at 10.30 a.m. after a very interesting walk with 'uncle Innocent, a cow kettle holder and MSC from Maastricht University; Charles, Doctor, an army officer who did field surgery during the liberation campaign. Now he is heading the Military Hospital in Kigali and is appointed as new president of the Rwandan Olympic Committee. Last but not least: Guilaume (working at the local Yankee bunker) who, later that day, made me drink a lot of beers and gin while drinking milk himself the whole time. As I said all the chaps came together, also the none so sportive ones, to celebrate Charles appointment at the R.O.C.  for a huge, pick nick with the famous brochettes and other delicacy's in an almost heavenly environment. After my arrival at home that night I slept for more than twelve hours.

The next day I was introduced to several members of Egide's family and again I was confronted with the fact that everyone in this country that counts almost ten million citizens is in one way or another victim of the genocide. Sometimes I am reflecting if I can ask questions about relatives and friends but after having read many books by survivors and had talks with a lot of them, I am convinced that speaking is a part of the mourning and the handling.

In the afternoon, we were visiting two genocide memorials Ntarama & Nyamata. In the latest, I was able to talk to one of the eight survivors of a mass killing in the beginning of the genocide, as a child he had witnessed the killing of his parents and family among 6000 others, men women and children in the church of Nyamata. After having killed thousands of defenseless people in the most atrocious ways, the killers have thrown grenades in the church to 'finish the job'...

We have end the day in a pleasant way in a restaurant in Bugesera. During dance demonstrations, I have seen exceptional good young dancers, some coming from Uganda. At a certain moment, I was targeted by a lady singer dancer and guess....

Monday...day of rest and encounters. Jovanie, a young woman that Catherine and I met in Gisenyi two years ago came to visit me at the house; she is now studying accounting and bookkeeping at the Advent University in Kigali. I will probably see her again in Gisenyi next week. In the evening visiting friends for the first time since two years, their baby son is now almost three years old and is quit a bloke. Hey, folks in Holland, daddy T. is working for the local Heineken Brewery and here they produce at least a beer worth that name: Turbo King!

What is left for me now is to wish you all a Merry Christmas. For the romantics amongst you the chance to have it White in Europe is bigger than ever. I will decorate the Christmas tree with the children tomorrow and spend a sunny + 27 degree Celsius 24th, 25th & 26th December... O, I almost forgot, this afternoon we go to the swimming pool and tomorrow I start negotiating the dance rehearsal program for January.

Ciao ciao,

Love you all. 

Newsletter 2

Gisenyi, December 30 2009

Dear all,

Sitting in my room in the Stipp hotel in Gisenyi with a beautiful view on the Kivu Lake I send you this second newsletter from Rwanda.

This second week was less tiring because my energy came back after the first holiday week.  Nevertheless, I was very active.

On the 24th. of December, I experienced the Christmas shopping Kigali manner. First to the market...and as always markets in Africa are very impressive. Together with Egide's wife Francoise and a porter, we loaded huge amounts of vegetables and fruits. THE moment of the day was when apparently after one week without music the sound of the radio came back to the market place...hundreds of people applauding and singing as result...wooow. Another funny moment was when at least 12 men where surrounding Francoise when she wanted to buy a Christmas tree... I was watching the whole scene from a distance because there was no place anymore...the same happened for the lights, the balls and other decorations...

We were shopping for hours in a city that is always alive and I could not feel the difference with a normal Kigali life day except for some vendors walking around with a decorated Christmas tree and try to sell them as they are.

Note: Real Christmas trees are forbidden in Rwanda because of the environment.

Christmas Eve was rather calm and I did not care after an 8-hour shopping experience, something I hardly did in Europe.

The next day Francoise prepared a fantastic dinner and we went to celebrate a baptism of the first child of a family's friend. I met all the blokes from the previous week and we spend a great night.

On the second Christmas day, we had to go to three parties, one baptism in a very beautiful environment where I met different UN people, one wedding that we never reached and one 25-year wedding celebration of Innocent, an uncle from Egide. More than 200 people were attending among family members from Belgium and even Flemish teachers coming from Congo and teaching in Lubumbashi.

December 27 started very early because Innocent asked me to give the kick-off of a football match...

See the pictures on http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33549&id=1587455072&l=c302efb0a8

Wearing the Presidents party RPF shirt, I gave the kick-off of a friendly match of the Inozamubano Sport (INOS) club. This amateur club is also the club of the Rwandan Ambassador in the Netherlands, Jean Pierre BIZIMANA.

Those guys are quite impressive, playing two times 60' and then the whole company moves to a local pub playing the third-, fourth- and this time even the fifth half...if you know what I mean. The day ended even with a sixth half in a restaurant situated high in the hills surrounding Kigali and with a breathtaking view on the city.

All movies and pictures will be available at my return.

On Monday, I moved for a few days to Gisenyi, a city on the Kivu Lake and close to Goma in Congo.

Here I am staying in a hotel meeting among others, Jovanie, a young woman that Catherine and I met in Gisenyi two years ago; she is now studying accounting and bookkeeping at the Advent University in Kigali. Yesterday we had a dinner with her brother, father and Egide & friends... in open air on a 29 Th. of December ;-)...

Tomorrow I am going back to Kigali to celebrate the New Year and then I am preparing for a party with a bunch of UNESCO-IHE alumni on January 2.

There is still a chance that I can work with dancers next week thanks to the efforts of Sylvie.

Well folks, that's it for now...I am running outside now to take a swim in the lake and to finish a book.

Should I wish you a Happy New Year already? No let me wait until my next letter but I wish you a fantastic end of the year and please take care because I care about you all.

Yours,

Guy.

Newsletter 3

Kigali January 6 2010

The New Year has started. Happy New year to all the readers of my weekly newsletter! Wishes for health, fortune, fun etc. and not necessarily in that order are included.

After  my return from Gisenyi on the last day of December and in a considerable heat I celebrated the old to new with the family, as I'm told I'm now being part of.

The next day, January 1, I had a meeting with the manager of the Kanombe Museum at Kigali to discuss the terms of the dance rehearsals for the first week of the year.

Well my dears, we in Europe can learn from that! Instead of negotiating for months or years, filling huge amounts of papers and then anxiously waiting for a response from a distance administration we managed to create the framework of the whole project in exactly 1/2 hour!

The choice of the Kanombe Museum is rather opportunistic but at the same time, it is a fantastic idea to create a choreography about tolerance at the place that hosted once one of the most intolerant men of this country.

Most of the dancers I am working with now are from the area and are rehearsing regularly at the Museum. The former house of Habyarimana is an incredible example of megalomania copied from the former president of Zaire (now DRC), Mubutu.

Habyarimana's former residence is located in Kanombe, a few kilometers from central Kigali. The eight-bedroom presidential palace has been left much as it was in 1994, with big leather couches, gold-plated French-style chandeliers and carpets still in place.

Part of the wreckage of Habyarimana's plane, that was shoot down on April 6 1994 nearby the house are still in place. The body of Habyarimana felt down in the garden, the body of his physician came down on the roof of one of the stables and the body of  Burundi's President, Cyprien Ntaryamira, felt outside the premises 

After the genocide, the next president of Rwanda, Pasteur Bizimungu, also resided in that place until his dismissal.

On Sunday, we went with the whole family and friends on a trip to the Rwanda Akagera National Park. A mini safari with gorgeous views, wild and not so wild animals, and a family pick nick as in the good old days. Paradise on earth!

Only one small problem... I start to show some flu signs.

Monday of this week. Preparing for a first rehearsal with the dancers at the Kanombe Museum! Some tension...who and how many will be there...how will they react. I agreed with John Butoto, who is overseeing the museum conversion project, to work with 20 dancers. At my arrival, he tells me there are 24 so we will send four away. I do not agree to eliminate them and at the end, there are even 30 dancers...12 men, 18 women.

They are all very young, and subsequently very flexible. First, they start to show me some of their traditional dances...and from there we start to work. It is great, they want to learn, and they are very serious and concentrated. At the end after 3 hours of work, everybody is satisfied and I leave the place tired and exhausted because I feel sick.

A terrible night...acute diarrhea and no sleep...

Pills, pills, pills, no food and leaving for the second day of rehearsals. I cannot let them down.

It is hot at the site and we decide to work under a stable roof. Suddenly I have a lot of energy as my dancers show the eagerness to work.

We are progressing... also thanks to excellent translations of Espé, Francoise's sister, also living In Egide's house with her little son Alvin. Some of the dancers speak a bit of French, others a bit of English and some only Kinyarwanda. Lucky me...dance language is universal.

After a hard working afternoon, we go back home, buying other and more pills.

Sleeping.

This morning I woke up in a much better condition! Almost ready to go for another afternoon of 'work'...as far this whole project can be considered work.

My last week starts tomorrow and many events will occur...I keep you informed.

Now running for a shower... ooh shit... no water...a cat wash and dance, dance, dance....

Yours,

Guy.

Newsletter 4

Kigali, January 13 2010.

Dear all,

This is the last newsletter before I leave Rwanda tomorrow.

What a week is behind me. After one week of rehearsals with the dancers of the Kanombe Museum, Saturday was really sabbatical. Each afternoon was a fantastic experience with youngsters eager and avid for learning new things. The best moment for me was when Yvette, one of the leading dancers, told me a movement was not interesting, just because she thought so...and she was probably right... It proved that we had done the right thing during those rehearsals.

Sunday.

At 12.00 to the museum, supervising the build of the sound system. Rehearsing my 'Libertango' solo, in the heat of the day, wondering if I will be able to dance in such temperature. The dancers arrive one by one; some are still attending church services while I am doing a general rehearsal. Suddenly a woman close to the group decides to decorate the place. I am not convinced because I like the emptiness of the parking- dance floor, but I decide to let it go. 

Meanwhile the sky starts to be rather cloudy announcing a thunderstorm. In addition, the audience comes in very slowly and John Butoto, the museum's manager tells me there will be an official delegation with the Education Director of the Kicukiro District. Most of the friends are there. The show can start.

After two traditional dances, the big moment is there... John starts to explain how the whole project was initiated and I gave a short explanation about the meaning of the dance.

Thirty Dancers are invading the space...the music starts and for 12 minutes, they perform as real professionals. During the second part, without music, you can hardly hear something else than the sound of the movements the dancers are making. People are applauding even before the end.

Please find the first pictures in the 'TOLERANCE' album in my Facebook pages:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34519&id=1587455072&l=da6cbca753

After a few speeches by the officials, I will perform the solo. The dancers are sitting around the space. My dance will be for them in the first place. The sky gets darker and darker and after a few false starts of the soundman I am dancing...a few raindrops but I can finish what some people are calling a big sports performance. I am breathless but the reaction of 'my' dancers keeps me alive.

Last part of the show is the distribution of the Certificates of Attendance by the officials and me. Thirty young people are proud, I am proud of them and so is the audience.

The dancers decide to treat us with more traditional dances. It is really a party... and still no rain.

 After the traditional photo sessions we decide to have an after-party with some friends and the evening ends with brochettes, beer and... rain.

Monday. The day after. A big gap. Everyone probably knows know the feeling. I find out that the movie is not good. Too many interruptions by people running in front of the camera. John agrees to assemble all the dancers for the next day for a remake. Egide is at home so we can spend a day in town together. The person is so popular that we have to stop on every street corner. He should run for Kigali's Mayor Office, I am sure he would be elected. Meanwhile I have the impression that half of the city also knows me now.

In the evening, we have a last dinner with the whole family + some very close friends. From now on all my noon's and evenings are filled with goodbye lunches and dinners.

Tuesday.

The remake of the 'Tolerance' movie ends in a very emotional gathering. The dancers are loading me with presents and very nice words and asking me to come back a.s.a.p. to really teach them. More pictures and goodbyes... Some of the dancers are so good that they should come to Europe for a number of dance courses, afterwards being able to transmit to their colleagues. I will examine the possibilities.

Next is an interview for the monthly e-zine of the museum. After a last walk in the now almost empty museum gardens, I leave with mixed feelings.

I wish to thank Espérance, who was there the whole last week and who appeared to be a fantastic dance translator and showed us her talents as anchor woman during the show on Sunday... and Rolande, Egide's and Françoise's daughter, only 9 years old who was my perfect camera woman all those days. She made friends amongst the dancers and will probably join the group.

Egide announces that he has a new job and that he will start the next day as the new director of a new Rwandan-French project to cultivate plants for patchouli essences extraction.

Great that he will be able to be at home with his family now every day.

Unfortunately, this also changes my plans to go to Butare on Wednesday. I planned to visit Valentine, a close friend and a UNESCO-IHE PHD participant. With my back problems, I cannot take the risk to spend hours in a bus the day before traveling back to Europe.

In the evening I have another dinner with Charles, the President of the Rwandan Olympic Committee, Innocent the President of the Inozamubano Sport (INOS) club (see my newsletter 2) and Egide.

Wednesday.

My last full day in Rwanda.

Planning to have lunch with Sylvie and family. In the evening dinner with close friends at Liliane's place. Both, Sylvie and Lili are UNESCO-IHE alumni but for me they are close friends with whom I share fantastic memories.  And Sylvie despite the problems with her dad's health made it possible for me to work with the dancers.

Got a mail from Erica,  Pei Pei, Gaetano e.g. that reminds me that in a few days, I will see other great friends again in Belgium and Holland, but I am sure the departure tomorrow will be tooooo emotional and everyone who knows me well also knows how much I hate departures and farewells.

I wish I could go to bed in Rwanda tonight and wake up in Europe Friday morning without having to say goodbye.

After arriving in Brussels my first thing will be visiting one of my oldest friends who had surgery this Monday and then traveling to Delft.

Will see a lot of you next week.

Will miss a lot of you next week, the week after, and the week after... until I go back to my Rwanda.

Yours,

Guy.

Newsletter 5- AMAKURU 5

LAST ...for now.

Dear all,

Meanwhile I am back in Nl for almost a week now. Climate shock.

I am privileged to work in an international institute what softens the Culture shock. The reactions of both colleagues and participants at UNESCO-IHE were heart-warming and I cannot enough say thanks for that.

Exactly one day after landing in Brussels, my throat started to scratch and my nose was itching, the price to pay for a month of mental- and physical wellness.

The one-day stop in Belgium is to acclimatize and when I am finally traveling to NL I have a first night sleep in what I can describe as a freezer. The next morning it is disenchanting to see a grey cloudy sky instead of bright sunshine and what is even more disabusing is that I do not hear birds and no cackling Rwandese mothers.

In the evening, I am traveling to Noordwijk for a two-day seminar on the functioning of the Works Council at UNESCO-IHE.

Wednesday morning, sneezing and coughing back to work.

Thanks to friends and colleagues, I can reflect on my Rwanda experience. Dancers from the Kanombe dance group are calling me; people I met are sending me mails and sms messages. All are asking me when I will come back.

With writing down their names, I wish to thank all those who made my Rwandan Experience possible:

Egide, Françoise, Espérance, Vestine, Rolande, Loris, Alvin, Charles, Innocent, Tharcisse, Adeline,  Guillaume, Serge, Donat, Sylvie, Liliane, Richard, Valentine, Jovanie...

...The players of the Inozamubano Sport (INOS) club...

...The participants of the hike and picnic to celebrate Charles nomination as President of the Rwandan Olympic Committee...

...John Butoto, from the Kanombe Museum...

...The dancers from the Kanombe Museum...

I met so many people that I am sure I forgot some of them, but they were not less important.

On the home front I wish to thank Kees who took care of my house and the dance teachers to continue the classes.

And the friends I was missing a lot but fortunately they are here now to listen to my stories and making my live enjoyable here at this moment, Chris, Ronny & co, Nadine, Hubert & co, Catherine, Maria Laura, Erica, Peipei, Angela & Gaetano, Luigia & Giuliano, Dianna & Gianluca.

Special thoughts for those I met quickly on face book and trough sms, e.g. Abraham, Aki, Amaury, Anita, Ciro & Patrizia, Cristina, Sanne, Lotte, Martijn, Irma, Sarah, Marieke, Ilona, Jaap, Jan L., Wim, Willem, Joke, Jouke, Lakshmi, Maarten,  Navarine, Régine, Raquel, Sixtana, Stefano, Stephania, Teddy, Tesfu, Valeria, Vladimir, Adri, Assiyeh, Petra, Tarek, Vanessa, Terry, Tamara, Ruzica...

I hope those few newsletters pleased you. For me it was a unique way of communication with the people I care.

To all of you:

MURAKOZE!