Random and Roger in Rwanda!

Top Man to the Pits

2011-12-13T15:58:00.000Z

Just posting this before I fly out - must go!

Time for Home

2011-12-13T13:20:00.001Z

So yesterday I visited the KLM offices and told them I wanted to go home. They said that would be ok. The weather is awful back home - are you sure you want to go? We have a much nicer climate.

I said that I did - my work is complete, my wife and family needs me, I have stones to push on ice, and Championships to win - let me out please!

They said ok! I will just have to cope with the weather.

So, tonight at 6.30pm I leave for Nairobi, and arrive in Glasgow at 7.30am, going via Schiphol. Its been a flying visit of only 8 days but all that I wanted to achieve has been completed, and that is very good.

I have just one thing to do, and that is to visit Jeff at the site, to take my last photos, and say my goodbyes - with a great sense of sadness.

Gary

Update on Building and Stuff

2011-12-13T12:18:00.002Z

You will all by now be convinced that all I do when I am here in Kigali, is to drink coffee, meet old friends, and watch football. So to put a few things right, and to give you encouragement, here is a summary of all things College:

The College building will be complete in the next 4 weeks - certainly by end of January - it is looking very good, and Jeff and his team are working solidly to meet this deadline
The Big Give brought in sufficient finance to complete the essential works that makes the building functional as a working establishment. So it will be completed!
The total cost of the building is £93,000 for a building of 500 sqm. (would cost £440k in UK!)
It has 9 classrooms - for joinery, IT, 2 classrooms, machine workshop, plumbing, electrics and metalwork. There is a spare room for canteen, plus admin offices and toilets.
The finance has been provided wholly by the enormous work of volunteers, Level 8 Projects, St Mungo's Church, and a very wide range of individuals - MANY MANY THANKS.
We have hopes also to build a workshop for £6.5k sometime later in the year. Equipment and furniture will cost £25k approximately -we are still assessing what we need!
The courses will start in January 2013.
We are in the last stages of arranging finance for 2 couples - the Fahls and the Schnurs - from Germany to come out and support the development of the College, working in Kigali for 3 years, who will ensure that courses are high standard and guarantee that the street children get into work
I have met with the person in charge of the national curriculum development, and this should be available to us at the end of January, for us to use to develop really beneficial courses.
A detailed financial plan is almost complete taking a cash flow projection into the first 3 months of the 2013.
Much work still remains to be done of course - equipment provision, a workshop area, employing tutors, creating the full business plan, developing life skills and business planning modules.
My next stages of work are - produce a detailed accountability framework - I am looking for a College person with a financial background to help with this - any offers will be greatly valued!

When ever you come to the end of a construction project like this there is a strong sense of honour and privilege to work with people who have put heart and soul into the work.

I would like to particularly to recognise these people for the amount of time they and energy they have spent on this. I am indebted to each of you. You are each BRILLIANT. God has richly blessed us with His Presence on this work, people's prayers have evidently supported a project which could have gone wrong in so many ways, and has not!

Roger, Jeff and Kayitare

Norbert

Emmanuel - God with Us

2011-12-12T06:43:00.001Z

I turned up at church late. I admit it was tactical. I wanted a slight lie in and church starts at 9.30. I arrived at just after 10 and by the look of it, a fair number of others had made a tactical decision also.

The reason for the tactic is simple. I am used to services being 1 hour long in Scotland, but in Gatenga, they start at 9.30 and finish around 1.15pm.

Most of the service is in Kinyarwandan, and so for the length of the service I am provided with a translator. He is Emmanuel. His name meaning God with Us.

He is very skilled at interpreting, at least as far as I can tell. Emmanuel has been my interpreter most times at have been at church, and we have become friends.

In addition, a new innovation at the service, is the Kinyarwandan song book, which I sang from, which of course means I can sing in Kinyarwandan now! Not got a clue what the words said but it was great to be able to sing to God.

In Scotland, hands are often shoved in pockets during services, but in Rwanda there is considerable use of them - to bury your head in your hands when praying, to greet and to say goodbye, to cuddle and welcome, to indicate fellowship and friendship, to challenge the audience during the message, and of course to praise God for his great goodness.

Scottish men do not raise hands to God. We are completely unable to do so - is that not right Fleming! 7 times I have been here, and 7 times I have kept my hands where they were supposed to be - by my side. So there is no reason to change a genetic pre - disposition to frozen arm syndrome - is there!

Just do not expect me to do it at Chryston Church - that would be too far!

Deep Deep Deepest Trouble Ever

2011-12-11T21:46:00.000Z

I write this blog in trepidation knowing that it is now almost impossible for me to return home!

I am sitting in the dark quietly munching an Italian Fish and Chips carry out, having walked a very very beautiful women home.

I mean I did not expect to get into trouble tonight. I mean sometimes a man goes out and hopes trouble might fall upon him, but tonight it came out of the blue!

I had arranged to meet Denise for drinks at 7pm at the local Italian restaurant. Some of you will remember that Denise worked at Solace when Roger and I arrived in Kigali 15 months ago, but then left for good reason

Well I had contacted her thinking we could have a coffee together and catch up on news. She suggested 7pm after church and mentioned she had a couple of gifts that it would be great if I could deliver to Callum, Dunbar, and Dumbarton - where her Scottish family live.

Well no problem there. Aye Right!

First I get a taximoto to the restaurant. I am just arriving when lying sprawled and motionless is a body - no movement at all. Sundays are always like this I find! Off duty and whether you are out in the fresh air in Kigali, or minding your own business in Church, there is always someone trying to play the dead person, and this one seemed pretty dead.

There was a car ahead and it looked like an accident. I went to check, blood from mouth, no breathing, no movement, but yes a pulse. Is the ambulance on its way - no coherent answer - they speak some foreign language here(!) and I speak only English.

Check him further for airway and he suddenly sits up. He is always doing this his friend responds - epilepsy, and the car was just stopping to help. Eventually the army arrive, and he is fine and I beetle off for my date (oops meeting).

So Denise arrives with a large parcel, and we have much chat about many things, including family, parents, work, and finally Christmas. She tells me about last Christmas when she was in Scotland, and how much she will miss not seeing her Scottish family this year, and how much she wanted to give them cards and presents!

So, because the presents were not wrapped and the cards were not written, I spent the evening helping her, in the Italian Restaurant, to get all these ready so that I could take them to Scotland with me.

So what's the deep deep trouble you ask. Well, before I left for Rwanda I absolutely promised Fiona that I would definitely get the labels done for our Christmas cards, and yes, you have guessed it, I did not do it.

To make matters worse yesterday Fiona texted me to say she had done nearly all our cards - just leave the labels and I will do them on Wednesday when I am back I txt. - the addresses are all done she replies - NO, NO, NO!!! Doomed!

I am in deep deep trouble. I have spent a great evening chatting with a beautiful women, helped her with her cards and presents, am delivering them to Scotland for her, and I have not done anything to help my wife.

I cannot come home. How could such a nice evening out have such a twist to it? What could I do - she asked me to help her!

Oh Deep Trouble.

Footie Kigalia

2011-12-10T19:49:00.001Z

I had been talking to John Mutesa on Wednesday about how the Friends of Jesus football team was doing. Oh we are winning he said! But then all Rwandans start with the positive - even if they are not. Its just a trait that you have to get used to.

Anyway I am a Scot, so I am used to aspiration being out of proportion to reality, and this morning I checked Google maps where the pitch was and directed my taximoto to the big match.

I arrived a bit late, and had fortunately missed the first goal, which was against us. The game was against another church team, who seemed to me to have more skill than ours. We were particularly good at getting the ball, and then losing it immediately trying to dribble instead of passing.

Where was the coach, what was he doing letting this continue. Immediately Macfarland was desperate for winning in his usual competitive style.

At half time it was 1 - 0 to the opposition, and John Mutesa, in the smart blue, had a word with the team - John is a pastor in the church, and generally known as Mutesa. The second half started the same as the first, and before long we had tried to dribble out of defence and given away another goal!

My attention deviated from the game to the volleyball behind me. Here is Betty (see yesterday's Blog) showing the boys how to play. No chance of the other team winning that game.

I would have stayed to the end, but I got a text from Dave Wald, to say that he had just arrived in Kigali, and he had an hour and would we like to meet for a chat. Actually I had presents from David McAdam for Dave. Unfortunately I did not have them with me, so it was back to Remera to collect them and then onto the Novotel for coffee.

What an interesting chat but more of that shortly

The result 3 - 2 for the baddies! But they tried hard and John tells me he is trying to get a coach for them, and with a bit of advice they may go far - but perhaps not as far as a game against the Chryston Church team.

The Street Children again

2011-12-09T19:15:00.000Z

The Expo for the Vocational Training Schools (see below) is just 800 yards from L'Eglise Vivante - the church that Comfort Rwanda partners with and whose vision it was to build the College. The Expo on the right overlooks the whole of Gatenga in the distance - a pleasant short walk - no requirement for the Taximoto.

Immediately one is reminded that life's roads are much rougher, and heavy burdens are carried by the individual. We have it easier in the West even if we think otherwise.

It would be wrong to think that all houses are like this but many are. Some are being replaced but all too slow for these people. Some help is being invested and here are plans for a new health centre right opposite the church building.

Should be interesting in a year or so.

The church (below) many of you will have seen from previous photos. No investment here, and I just wonder about how long it will hang on before the developers move in!

But I was not here to see the building. The last time I visited was a Friday and I knew there was a chance to meet the street children again and I just went on spec. Sure enough I heard singing from a small door and there they were dancing, singing and practicing for Sunday's service, under the expert guidance of Betty.

Betty is the administrator of the Street Childrens project, but she does much more than this. On this occasion her superb rhythm and gentle encouragement of the children had them performing 5 songs for me - a private concert and much more edifying than speeches - loved it!

Vocational Training Expo

2011-12-09T18:40:00.001Z

Here is one of my 'coincidences'.

I am only here for 9 days - a flying visit no less. The Rwandan authorities have decided to run the first every Expo for Vocational Training Colleges. It happens to be this weekend, and I happen to be here and free to visit.

A brief walk round brought me a discussion with the World Bank who are supporting Vocational Colleges like ours with their 'Skills Development Fund'. This fund was part of my discussions with Richard Arden of the Department of International Development. He encouraged me to make contact with the World Bank as the most likely support to our work. Now is the time to make an approach!

I also met with TEVSA, the organisation of Vocational Training schools. Unfortunately the person I wanted to speak to about curriculum, was not there, but tomorrow hopefully we meet.

There were many dignitaries there from various ministries. The opening was delayed because ... well Rwandans often delay their meetings!

They had a large brass band waiting to greet the Minister, but I could not be persuaded to join the opening - the tent was packed, the temperature was too much, and the plan was for a 2 hour presentation - not for me!

So off I went to a much more fantastic presentation - the Street Children of Gatenga.

Termites Fight Back

2011-12-09T18:19:00.000Z

I like this photo.

You will remember in February the Terminator, aka Kayitare, ripped the heart out of the termite field when we created the platform for the College. However, as this photo shows, the termites are a bit more robust, and are fighting back.

I am sitting beside Michael Marx, who advises me that termite soil is excellent for making brilliant bricks. Michael runs a very large micro finance project in Rwanda. Unfortunately this information has come too late.

I am very glad we spent £1800 on termite protection for the building.

The Terminator

Wait until I get hold of the Terminator and ask him for an explanation for why the termites are thriving!

Taximotos under control?

2011-12-09T09:02:00.001Z

Well here is the main change on the highways of Kigali - new since February. All the major junctions now have these traffic lights - must be some Chinese invention!

So when a Taximoto arrives at these you see how many seconds you have got before the green go sign changes to red. This of course means that if you are coming to a junction where the countdown is against you then you accelerate your Taximoto even faster, to get through, and if you fail then you have to grumpily watch how long you have to wait as the numbers trickle down to nothing.

Apparently these lights were instructed by the District authorities shortly after we left Rwandan in February, because two mad Scotsmen had been encouraging their Taximotos to race, speed, and jump lights.

Now, surprisingly they work pretty well, until rush hour when the police come out to run them otherwise chaos ensues.

Although the Taximotos are being controlled, don't presume that they are under the authorities thumb - after I took myself out for a curry and a beer last night, we did the usual speeding up the dual carriageway against the flow of traffic - so not everything changes

Early Start

2011-12-08T10:40:00.000Z

I hear from Fiona that since I have left Scotland the weather has, well basically fallen apart and 100 mile an hour winds. Seems to me that my timing for heading south to the sun is perfect.

So just to rub it in here are my photos from this morning at 8am. This one is looking north east - I think! - towards Tanzania which is about 2 hours away.

This photo is taken from the same place, though looking north west towards Congo. The road to Congo, winds its way just to the left of the hills shown, and in those hills are the gorillas that Rwanda is famous for.

The photo shows the centre of Kigali with its skyscraper and the buildings I showed you yesterday.

In the foreground is a yellow hotel which is were an occasional beer has been consumed. It was the Novotel when we came in Sept 2010, and then became the Leica, but now is the Umabango - or something like that! Certainly makes for confusing the taximotos who just look blankly until you say its the Novotel!

And the reason for being up so early is that we were meeting at 8am with Solar Panel people. They were quite knowledgeable, and we may well put panels on for hot water. In passing she tried to sell me a sewage treatment plant for £20,000 - I had to apologise for putting in biogas, which she says will not work, unless we have hundreds of students and lost of pooh! Need to put beans on the daily menu!

Our first disaster has happened I think. The amount of 3 phase electricity is too little for our plans and I have loads of phone calls and detailed work to do now to sort this! A phone call from Bad Boy Bennie (ex electrician) is awaited

All Change

2011-12-07T21:08:00.001Z

These photos are for Roger.

When we were last in Kigali, we noted several new buildings that were being built just round the corner from Inkuru Nziza Church

Those who read the blog may remember that the 2 of us got sidelined for 2 days helping the church look at the development opportunities of their site, and how they might improve their facilities through partner agreement with a developer.

Well here is what you can do when you have a good city centre site. This building was just being finished off in February, and now is open.

I love the way the architects (oops sorry Roger) provide loads of windows, but the only way the heat escapes is to open the window. Well at least in Kigali that is a pleasure.

Now this building next door was definitely not there when we left in February. Its the new City Council offices

and this was a hole in the ground - now no longer. So loads of changes and much evidence of development.

Rog - I think that I had better have another discussion with the church - perhaps they are sitting on a gold mine! But then, maybe not. The work that they presently do for orphans, the poor, and disadvantaged much outweighs pure financial gain. Shame - might have been able to project manage another build!

Wait for tomorrows blog, also showing a significant change - what cool traffic lights! - they so mesmerise the taximotos that they sit waiting for them to change - and much more sophisticated than ours.

Now it seems Real!

2011-12-06T13:48:00.003Z

I arrived in Kigali at 8pm on Monday. Seems very odd to be playing curling at Stranraer in the Double Rink Championships one day, and then next you are in the heart of Africa.

Today we met at the College site at 8am, with Jeff the builder, Norbert the supervising architect, and Emmanuel and Kazunga from the College Board.

This was quite a transformation since the last time I was here which in early February 2011. At that time, you may remember, that Roger and I were out to manage the laying out of the site, and to get the platform cut. 2 bulldozers moved a huge quantity of earth as you can see from this photo at that time.

Earthworkings Feb 2011

The building is 500 sq metres with 9 work areas, and will provide Vocational training for joinery, metalwork, plumbing, welding, and IT. We may also provide culinary and front of house skills, which are much needed in Rwanda.

Dec 5th 2011.

Tomorrow evening we meet up with the College Board to make some crucial decisions, and to plan the next 12 months. The completion of the construction requires careful thought because we must make sure that we spend the last of our construction income well. Some of these discussions started on site today with Emmanuel and Kazunga.

Jeff, Emmanuel and Kazunga

One decision already made, is that we are going ahead with our Biogas tank. This will produce gas for our cooking. We may also want to go ahead with solar panels for producing hot water, at a cost of £3000 - if we can afford them!

A key concern we had in the early stages of the build was the quality of the bricks that would be made on site. Here are a few that were left over and I can confirm that they are robust - so no worries about the life of the building

I always find the last stages of a building a bit disconcerting because there is always so much mess and loose ends. However today there must have been 12 - 15 people on site all working hard to get it finished and sorting all the snagging issues.

This room is one of the main areas for woodwork and preparing various things to sell, like tables, chairs, cupboards etc

and Jeff assures me that the painting will be finished within the week, but I am not quite sure about this! However, as Project Manager I am delighted with the work that Jeff and Norbert have done.

8th June 2011

2011-06-17T13:26:00.001+01:00

Here are some more photographs from Kigali which I received last week from Jeff the builder. Jeff and Norbert have clearly been working very well together.

They tell me that they have now started working on the electrics and the plumbing.

Decisions have now been made about sewage and we have gone very renewable with the plan to have a biogas tank. This allows us to create methane and to use that to generate electricity.

We probably also will have a some solar panels for lighting and IT

Callum and I were over in Germany last week visiting 2 German couples who are considering making themselves available to run the College along with our Rwandan team.

We had a brilliant time but more about this shortly.

10th May 2011

2011-05-17T00:05:00.000+01:00

Its only a week and now the roof is appearing. This photo was taken last week by Jeff the builder.

The Ihumure Vocational Training College with its 9 classrooms is looking good, and on schedule for completion end of July.

Here comes the roof!

Once the roof is on, the concrete floor will go down and then we are into electrics and plumbing. So we need to get down to negotiating with the planners about what type of septic tank we are allowed.

Progress Report May 3rd

2011-05-03T22:35:00.000+01:00

Its only 2 and a half weeks since the previous photos and it is very difficult to understand how they have managed to build all the walls in such a short time.

Not only did they have to make all the bricks on site, but these photos show that they are already well on with the ring beam that supports the roof

Sorry the hoto is a bit squint, but I can assure you that the building is on the level - I think!

The photo below shows the classrooms from the west end. The nearest rooms are the toilet blocks, so they are a bit small than the classrooms. The large central area is for the kitchen classroom, which reminds me I need to get on with finding some kitchens to kit it out! Perhaps a trip to Ikea tomorrow!

Progress Report April 17th

2011-04-17T21:45:00.002+01:00

I normally only blog when in Rwanda. However, today Jeff our builder has sent these photos and I thought you might like to see how the college is progressing.

The photo shows that the concrete has been poured for the columns on the front of the building, and the shuttering for the columns at the back. You can also see that the concrete blocks which are being made on the site, are well under way.

You can also see that the foundations for the classroom walls is in place.

Really is quite a big building! If the walls start in the next week or so, I had better start to think about getting back to Kigali so that we can talk with the builders about the final finishes!

Paul Takes Charge

2011-02-07T15:33:00.000Z

Pastor Paul, who heads up the Gatenga church we have been working for, has been in Congo for the last week.

Today was our first time to let him know what we have been doing and to take him to the site to see all our work.

One of my targets before I left for Rwanda was to get a photo shot of Paul driving a bulldozer, and today was just that opportunity - no quicker than I had suggested and he was up in the cab

In fact he was so keen I thought he was going to drive the machine, but common sense prevailed. I would quite like to have seen it.

There were of course a few last minute discussions - the MOU, tidying up the front of the site, and a site board

Most things seem in order though there will always be things to do. I meet Callum on Wednesday morning for a debrief. Must get my report done! Loads to say.

Off Home Tomorrow

2011-02-06T21:19:00.000Z

Tomorrow is going to be very busy - 6am - prepare final construction agreement, 7.30 breakfast, 8.30 meeting re Biogas septic tanks, 9.30 - pack bags, 10am with Paul and to site, 12pm meet Norbert and Builders, 1.30 lunch and email Inkuru Nziza our final report, 3pm taxi airport

Here is what the site looks like now - nearly ready for foundations being started this week

Winnie's School

2011-02-06T21:12:00.000Z

Some of you may remember that when things were bad in November during my last visit, Winnie was very encouraging and gave good advice about the planning department.

Well today we went to see her Primary School which is just 150 metres behind our College site. I expected a small couple of buildings - could not have been more wrong.

Many people had told us about how great a school it is. Here are some photos, but the real brilliance is that they have thought through very carefully how to educate young children, from nursery to primary 4.

I let the photos tell the story.

Primary One to Three are in these classrooms, with about 25 - 30 in each

The new assembly Hall is enormous and can be used for many things

It has a great outlook over the hills, and is just a short distance from our site

Children in the nursery sometimes get tired and require a snooze.

Children in Primary 3 are learning lots of information we did not know!

This must be a teachers worst nightmare!

Clear that he is learning nothing from the architect teacher.

No Comment!

Site ready for Foundations

2011-02-05T20:33:00.001Z

We have pretty well achieved our main target for our visit and that was to get the site ready for the builders to prepare the foundations.

Here are some photos of our two diggers and their helpers.

This digger is great for off site work - just sprints across anything to clear a tree. And what an opportunity the driver had here!

But he missed them - too slow!

Having 2 diggers was great, and got most of the job done today.

Almost finished - tomorrow we lay out the foundations

Rwandan Sights

2011-02-05T20:11:00.002Z

We were at the site all day today, and it was a great day for good photos. Here are a few. When we arrived at the site at 8am we were greeted with this view of our neighbours. They had organised about 60 workers to help build their wall

Many hands make light work

It was great to see just how much they achieved in a day, even though it was all by hand, and just hard wor - as you can see by the stone size they are carrying

Our bulldozer driver has returned, and we employed him most of the day. His machine continues to play up, as you can see by this photo. But he did a great job for us, and it was good to have him back on site. We also had another machine digging away which was great for getting most of the site finished.

Steam engine

And occasionally a person or car would pass with a long load!

Legal?

On the Edge

2011-02-04T21:12:00.001Z

Its fascinating working in construction, and great to be able to photo people at work. There are many decisions that are made that people do not see and are often quite crucial.

These were taken yesterday (Thursday). There was lots of hanging around as we made sure that the machine driver, Norbert, got as much work done as possible. All seemed to go ok, though these photos show expressions of concern or tiredness. Read on

Rog on Edge

Rog is on edge because he has been out in the sun all day. He has been making sure that pegs in the ground are not obliterated because Norbert the supervising architect has become quite upset at the builders for not making sure that they remain in situ.

Rog also feels that Norbert is being rather harsh on Jeff the young builder, and agrees that we should not be removing the earth but rather leaving it onsite. Norbert however wants it removed and it is left to Macfarlane to make the final decision.

Jeff is on Edge

Jeff on the other hand is also on edge because he has had to spend lots of extra cash on lorries he did not intend to hire. He wants the best for the project and is absolutely doing his best, but he and the architects have not carefully assessed the implications of such a large amount of earth having to be moved.

Although his project manager Macfarlane has reassured him that he will get additional money to cover the expense, he may be on edge in case he does not get it. Also he is on edge because he does not have the cash to pay all the workers sufficient until his father arrives, and he is having to manage a machine driver who is not easy to control

Pascal on Edge

Pascal is on the edge because he works with a bulldozer driver who is great at his job when working but is not happy at having to work so hard. The Scottish project manager and architect are hanging around and he has no place to escape - so he has to work harder for his money.

Norbert on the Edge

Norbert did brilliant job on Thursday and we were really pleased. When we left at 5.15pm he immediately stopped work, complained at the rate of work he was having to do, wanted more pay, and was instantly sacked. In a huff he left for Uganda, and we suspect a planned drinking binge

I am disappointed because he really did a good job.

Today we had no machine and tomorrow a replacement comes - perhaps Rog and I can get the previous one running and drive it ourselves since it is still on site!

I am always on edge because it is my nature, and I love it!

There is no photo of me on edge because I write the blog and I do not like photos of me on the edge!!!

The main reason for me being on edge is that I want to make the team work well when I am away from Rwanda, cannot bear when peoples personalities lead to friction, and when their bad decisions cause distress to themselves and others.

The Edge - its where life is!

The Platform

2011-02-03T21:09:00.003Z

These are just some of my photos as the platform starts to develop. We have 2 more days to get it level and to lay out the College position

Pascal

Onto lower level

Here the platform is well under way but with still a very big amount of earth to move. Hopefully tomorrow we will get the levelling done, and Saturday will be tidying up.

End of Day

Lorries we need Lorries!

2011-02-03T20:54:00.001Z

The day started with me having a anxiety attack. Apart from having a nightmare about Don having injured his knee just before the Scottish Seniors (which is true by the way), I woke with thoughts of various disasters about our College platform.

You see we had calculated that we had to shift 150 cubic metres of earth and create a 4 metre retaining wall. I was worried about the neighbours and the chaos we were about to unleash. We had decided that we had better try to remove the piles of earth by lorry.

You know the film 'Field of Dreams', where there is a large windy road in the distance, and he waits for lots of cars to come and see a baseball match, and the owner is told by his daughter - 'they will come'.

Well today I sat watching a long windy road across from our field, until the lorries came, and then they sure did come - 42 of them over 3 hours

Queuing to get in

Despite our best attempts we agreed to call off the lorries because of the cost - it looked like it would cost an additional £5000 to remove all the material. So we are keeping it on site. This afternoon teh machine driver worked tirelessly to get as much of the platform down to the correct level - not an easy task

Home from School in the Rain

2011-02-03T20:32:00.002Z

I spied these 4 coming up the Nonko Road beside the College site.

The children are (right to left) Justice, Mano, and Analees. I love their smart uniforms, their bright faces, and the big brollie.

Because we were on site all day, my office was a wall beside this road. I had to complete the construction agreement, while Roger made sure that the platform was made properly.

While I was sitting all the school children walked passed. There were muslim girls going dow, the hill, and primary school children going up hill. Great to see the College is positioned really central for them.

They would come past in a group of 3 or 4, and the less embarrassed would come across to shake my hand. You see in Rwanda they are still not used to someone in white skin, and there is much fun in touching someone who is so different from them.

So today I shook about 20 hands, and the rest just smiled, sniggered or waved, but all were friendly. The typical greeting is Good Morning, but when its 4pm some English language correction is encouraged.

Tomorrow is a public holiday so it will be much quieter, but the work on the platform for the College goes on.

Camera Reveals All

2011-02-02T20:25:00.000Z

Roger has decided that he quite likes this photo stuff, and has produced one of the incredibly small disks with incriminating evidence of my various facial expressions.

Lost each other

Negotiating 10p off our journey

Esther and Gary

Paul and Gary

Bob Cowan has unfortunately shown I am very prone to providing sorrowful shots. Plans for the Scottish Seniors is for a frownless weekend!

Bulldozer springs a leak

2011-02-01T20:42:00.000Z

We are not being very lucky with our bulldozers. The one hired yesterday did not even get to the site - big end in Remera!

This one worked very well for 2 hours until smoke started to come from an electrical box. I saw flames from a wire at one point. That was actually sorted quite quickly but then there was an hydraulic leak and that stopped us for 2 hours until the mechanic came along.

This photo shows the exasperation with everyone climbing on and trying to lend hand to get it going!

Look at Me

2011-02-01T20:29:00.001Z

We have really found Jeff a delight to work with. He loves joking and banter. On this occasion he is looking down at his shirt because Roger has made some comment. Probably about the fact that he did not like it being green!

Whats wrong with Green?

Of course having started the banter we then had to investigate the message, which in fact was about colour, and basically said that it does not matter whether you are blue or green, its just good to live together and enjoy each others fun and banter

Could not agree more - though others is actually brothers!

Shirts often have messages, sometimes to get you to show an interest in the wearer, and other times to get a message across. Mostly they let us know something about ourselves.

Today there were many other people on the site trying to get noticed, and all looking for employment, like these 4. One was a local that had already been given a job, and the others were just hoping.

Building companies do not have to advertise, and labourers do not apply for jobs her in Rwanda. You just see work and come. If you need a tradesman or technician then just go across the road and ask them if they want work.

Look at us - we need a job

Its eyeball interviewing, and assessment is made by Kayitare with a deep stare into the heart of the person to see if they are hard workers and worth paying. Laying off is just as quick - if you do not come up to the mark then there is no employment tomorrow!

A great system - no paperwork - just pay for hard work!

Termites Terminated by the Terminator

2011-02-01T19:59:00.001Z

There has been a wee accident on the site.

Having received a 52 page EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) report about all the leaves we might upset with our bulldozer, we have brutalised nature and in particular the termites and their homes. I for one am delighted - until of course they come seeking refuge in our College.

The terminator

The man responsible, Kayitare the builder, is to be known from now on as the terminator. Jeff his son seemed quite pleased with this nickname.

Here he is surveying his demolition works with the termite homes behind. Evidence of the demolition is here:

Well thats the price you have to pay for progress. For those insect lovers I can only apologise, and reassure you that we have personally provided a home for every one of the creatures we have made homeless.

College Progress

ACTION!

2011-02-01T14:31:00.000Z

At 6.45am this morning Jeff texted me that he had found a machine to clear the site and create the platform. He was on the way to get it.

Roger and I had a meeting at 8am with the people from Inkuru Nziza. All the way through I was waiting for contact that Jeff had got to the site, and around 11am finally he phoned. They were there and ready to start.

On Arrival

Go for it Jeff I said in my authoritative project managers voice - we will be over in an hour. These are the photos of the beginning of the work around 2 hours into the site preparation.

East to West view

No lover of termites!

There will be lots more photos, later today but for now I have work to do.

VSO

2011-01-31T19:40:00.003Z

As we were leaving the site this young lad passed us going up the hill to Nonko. One of the usual unusual sights we see daily. How he got it up on top of his head I have no idea!

On our way back from the site, we stopped off at VSO (voluntary service overseas). We had heard yesterday from Chrissie of Inkuru Nziza that VSO are involved in Secondary schools including technical schools. This brought the hope that they might want to be involved in our NGO joint project with the Scottish Colleges.

We dropped in to their headquarters at Remera and we have arranged to see Mark (or was it Mike) on Wednesday.

Since Inkuru Nziza have 5 or 6 skills centres as well it would be good if we could get some agreement to undertake some development work with the Colleges.

After we had visited there, it was a short taxi ride home, or it would have been had it not been for my helmet flying off when we were doing 40+ mph. As usual the straps are hopeless, and it landed 30 yards behind me, fractured the face vizor, and I had to run the traffic to get it back off the road.

I am now thinking of buying and carrying my own helmet - has to be safer than these useless ones.

Bulldozer Big End!

2011-01-31T19:28:00.000Z

Up early, cleaned and teeth brushed, packed my bag, sent me meeting organising emails, and then we were off.

The bulldozer was coming to the site at 8am, and we arranged to meet Norbert at 9.30am to see how they were doing with laying out the platform.

The taximotos took us quickly to the site, round the corner and yes there it isn't! No bulldozer, not a skip, no-one. Empty. Nothing.

Oh well they will be hear shortly. Nobert arrives, he has his sardonic German smile, well its Rwanda. But we were so confident of our builders - was this a terrible sign of what was to come - hopefully not.

Actually Jeff arrived a few minutes later. Dad had been having trouble getting hold of the machine - perhaps 12, but could be as late as 3pm. We arrange a few matters and agree that we go back to Solace and do some other work and Jeff will call.

Jeff

12md - no news, 1.30pm - its on its way - should arrive 3pm, 3pm - its broken down in Remera - poor Jeff, he really is trying his hardest. His last text tells it all - oh, why did I think being an occasional project manager was bad - imagine being a builder in Rwanda when you get this all the time

Here is the text - 'I'm going to search another machine, cause the first one, though it was powerful, has many problems, and this time it didn't happen to have it working properly! so I can't trust them anymore neither what they are saying! Then I will call you tomorrow morning before 7am to let you know what is going on.'

The poor lad (he is only 22) was at the site all day waiting in heat and rain - what a life!

In the mean time Fleming remains under the weather, off food and tired - I caught him in the middle of some intense design stuff this afternoon

Fleming Hard at Work

We will see what tomorrow brings - its a public holiday, so I am not holding my breath

Win Win Win

2011-01-30T22:34:00.002Z

Talking of Andy Murray reminds me that I received a threatening email from my doctor yesterday.

You will remember that Dr Bad Boy Bennie, see photo below, has become my personal psychological trainer. He awarded himself this position when I once again lost to Keith Prentice and team in the European Seniors semifinals.

Bad Boy Bennie

Well Bad Boy had given me a set of psychological exercises which Andy Murray should try, and which Dr BBB assures me will be highly effective in winning in the Scottish Championships shortly to start. It basically involves setting yourself thoughts challenges and then telling yourself - win, win, win. He believes I have been following his therapy to the letter (or word) and expects to be paid for it.

Anyway Bad Boys letter is printed below for all to see:

"Dear Garlic

I am delighted you have taken my advice and have Ginger with you once more. I understand that you are on holiday again and I am just writing this short note to bring to your attention the small matter of unpaid fees that are now long overdue.

In truth this letter has been triggered by photographs of you with wads of cash that I discovered recently on the blog site and my hope is that you would like to share some with me so that I can remove your account from my “send in the heavies file”

Please do not see this as a threatening letter (as they are typed in red ink) but look on it rather as a friendly appeal prior to violent action being taken.I have been using a new company for cash recovery recently as members of my last agency have been detained at her majestys pleasure for an unspecified period.My new man is known only by his tradename of old Vic but he comes highly recommended and my source tells me that he never disappoints.

On a lighter note I do hope that you enjoyed your holiday and that you are back fit and healthy (at least for the moment).

Indecently how is your condition coming along? I have had no further communication with you since I set before you a strict training regime entitled” trying to be a winner”.I trust that you have been strictly adhering to the exercises programme suggested and look forward to hearing about your successes however small they may have been.

Please pass on my warmest regards to Ginger I trust that his mood has lightened now that he teamed up with you again but can I remind you that you will have to be diligent in matters of hygine he can so easily slip back to his old ways.I still have dreadful memories of a holiday we spent together where he was only allowed back on the plane if I signed him over as cargo in order for him to be stowed in the hold such was the reaction of fellow holidaymakers at the airport check in.

To close just a short update on news from home , it is costing £200Million to break up the Nimrod aircraft that we do not need any more but I have written to David Cameron and suggested that he puts them on E Bay and assured him that someone somewhere will take them off his hands thus saving the country such a huge scrappage bill.

My other suggestion was that he just parks them on the outskirts of Coatbridge and that they will just disappear piece by piece again at no cost to the taxpayer .

I await my invitation to join the coalission gonerment ( no spelling mistake)quango that deals with such matters and have already started to put out feelers to see if anyone wants to buy an aircraft carrier I feel that there may be possibilities in converting it to some kind of floating theme park / hotel experience.

Anyhow must go as my phone line is probably bugged hope to hear from you soon

Yours impatiently

Dr BBB.

Now, when you are in Rwanda, for curling training, constantly practicing your inwicks, draws, takeouts, cross house doubles and tap ups, you would think that your doctor would understand that 4 months is not a long time to wait for a medical bill to be paid, especially when I am such a 'finally' tuned athlete.

These kind of threats cannot help, and anyway surely Bad Boy should understand that he is paid on results, and therefore he needs to wait a couple more weeks - roll on Hamilton and the Scottish

Garlic

Taximoto Training

2011-01-30T21:58:00.001Z

My training of Fleming as an expert taximoto passenger is nearly over. My days as the top Chryston taximotist are not quite at an end however. Although he usually leaves before me, he nearly always arrives after me. I have been unable to teach him all the quickest routes - shame.

I know that David McAdam may resent me taking the numero uno taximoto spot from him, but he could always send me some incriminating evidence of heroic feats if he wants to claim the crown.

Unfortunately Fleming is getting quite a taste for the bike as these photos show. I thought there was an air of calm relaxation, something of the Schumacher about him - perhaps Norbert is having a German influence on him. Worrying times, as we spead along at 45 miles an hour.

I expect that he will shortly be trying to pass me and to gain advantage by driving down the wrong side of the road to overtake.

Today we were going to church in Gatenga. This is an 85p bike ride of 15 minutes duration from Solace. We went together because Roger was not quite sure of the directions. In fact his driver was not either.

I have to admit to a bit of Scottish tactical planning, in going to church, which went sadly wrong. The church services at Gatenga start about 9.15am with singing and hand raising, the latter you will remember we are both allergic to. The services usually last 2 and a half to 3 hours until around 12 o'clock.

Being really good Presbyterians, who believe in a strict Scottish length of service (ah right!), we deliberately left late in order to arrive at 10 thereby reducing the dancing we had to do!

This would have shortened the service to a manageable 2 hours, except that it went onto 1.30pm in the afternoon! Thats a 4 hour 45 minute marathon for those who came at 9.15am., and a mere 3.5 hours for us. We were completely done in by the end and headed to the Leica hotel for a rather weak latte.

This afternoon was spent crying for Andy Murray, and in between the tears we worked on plans and a report for the Inkuru Nziza church who we meet on Tuesday.

Tomorrow morning we go to the site to see the digger commence work. Can't wait

The money is Gone Callum!

2011-01-29T19:27:00.001Z

Callum the director of Comfort Rwanda gave me £4000 in cash to start the project, and yesterday I became a millionaire for a day - except that it was a Rwandan Franc millionaire.

Today started with going through spreadsheets of action points and financial issues, just making sure that we had not missed much.

After that we did some scouting for a few hours around Kigali city centre, for a wee report the Inkuru Nziza church has asked to do.

At 3pm we met with the builders and Norbert the supervising architect and pretty well completed most of our business.

At the end of the meeting there was the little matter of shaking hands on our agreement and passing over to Sabine the £4000 I had brought. She is going to manage the financial monitoring of the project for us, and the first stage was giving around £3200 to the builders for the site preparation and excavation.

We meet on site at 9am Monday to see the the bulldozer roar into action - should be great fun.

So millionaire no more, but great anticipation to see the site transformed into a platform for the College. I must admit I remain pretty nervous, but so far everything is going well.

Thanks for continued prayers and support

Money, Money, Money!

2011-01-28T16:49:00.001Z

When you start construction you need money.

When you are building a College you need about £105,000.

When the money is in the UK bank, then you need to get it transferred physically and into cash that Rwandan's use - the Rwandan Franc RwF.

Millionaires

Today I have been in discussion with Norbert Kalka the supervising architect, about establishing an escrew account - the things I have had to learn for this project.

Norbert has a helpful German bank who can set up this account in a day! Makes me question further what is happening to UK banks.

Now that brought me to the subject of exchange rates, and this is perhaps a plea to some of you money movers out there to give me financial advice to help us get best use of our limited resources. If we are transferring largish(for us) amounts of cash from UK how do we get the best rate.

I asked this question of Norbert and he contacted his nice German bank and they gave me a rate of exchange of 939 RwF to £1. Was this a good deal - the internet aid 942 today.

So to check this out further I went down to the local Access bank. They offer 933.5 and absolutely no negotiation. I asked them if I got a better rate is it worth me coming back - sorry - no!! This was on the assumption I was seeking to exchange £4000 UK into RwF, so there was some incentive for them - well a bit!

There are some money exchange shops behind the Bank of Kigali where we have changed money before. By the way I do not use the Bank of Kigali since they offer at least 30 RwF below these shops. So I tried a couple of these money 'shops' and initially was offered 913 - ridiculous I pronounced - off he went to speak to his boss.

I decided to leave and went up the road. Now there is a very nice young Indian man in a Western Union who started negotiation at 930 and we finally agreed 936.5. Whether that was a good deal I do not know - perhaps David McAdam who is our local expert will let me know.

So I opened my bag, got out the money and the deal was done. You see I need the cash for the builder tomorrow for stage one of construction - excavation and site preparation!

What I did not expect was for it to come in the equivalent of £2 notes - and certainly could not count it in the shop. So the ton of notes was packed into my bag, and I scarpered up the road to a taximoto and fled to a secure location for counting the money.

Gleeful Garlic!

Roger and I are now millionaires for the night. We are off to meet Kirsty Mcarthur, Norbert and Sabina, and Denise - for an Italian - what a life - should be a good evening - do not worry Callum, Comfort Rwanda is not paying the bill!

Fleming Foot in First!

2011-01-27T19:54:00.001Z

We are such softies here, and at home for that matter.

You will of course already know that because of my previous descriptions of plumbing or lack of it here in Rwanda. However, our softiness is getting worse.

When we arrived at Solace that heavenly guest house here in Kigali, we were allocated to two rooms in the office building rather than our very favourite rooms with the superb view of Kigali.

We were both disappointed, and when Roger found out that his plumbing was sadly deficient (that is his room plumbing - not his personal plumbing - sorry Rog!) it was a perfect excuse for me to ask if there was room in the main building.

Callum would be mortified we thought - but we still asked and last night I was informed that there were two rooms available both with verandas.

In my room!

So first thing this morning Roger got the keys, reccied the rooms and gave me my key. The rest of the day has been spent having a go at him - the scoundrel got the better room, in fact the room I had in August!

Here he is showing me the fabulous view. As if I needed to know about the view - it even has a golf course.

Rule number one, always, always , always get your foot in the door first!

Other happenings today:

Roger got lost on his taximoto to Garlics great glee!
Met Kirsty McArthur, found out she likes Kigali Beer, and arranged to take her out for meal on Friday, with friends and perhaps Denise also.
Safari and Emmanuel chased us around Kigali, and finally found us at the site - that what happens if you are late for appointments with F and G!
Spoke to Callum back home about the costs of the Project - they have risen quite a bit - suspect we are going to have to make a strong appeal to all those interested in the College - watch this space!
tried to Skype Fiona for first time, with no success.

Tomorrow we gather our thoughts about all things construction - summarise costs, prepare construction agreement, meet Paul, and plan the key actions we need to take in the next few days.

Inkuru Nziza

2011-01-27T19:29:00.001Z

When Roger and I first came to Rwanda in August you may remember that we met up with Rwandan Pete (Peter Andrews) who works for Inkuru Nziza - the Good News church.

Recently Pete got in touch and asked me to spend a bit of time chatting over their church developments, to see if there was any advice that we could give their church leaders.

We met at 9am this morning and discovered what a superb range of community based works they do. We were both very impressed by the clarity of their thinking, their commitment to God, and their determination to make the most of their city centre position

Apart from their church services which have several hundreds of people at most services, they run:

an Aids and orphans programme for 350 children.
a disability project
a Vocational training facility
a bookshop and community
support to 170 churches throughout Rwanda
Emmaeus courses and a translation facility

Translation of Good News!

Oh, and they have a very good table tennis team! Time to get my bat out!

Yet, despite all this work and more, they are looking to the future and seeking to improve their support to their community, hence our discussions today.

Chrissie takes Rog back to class

After the meeting we escaped to chat at the Bourbon UTC, and Roger and I share how impressed we were with their team. We both wonder where these discussions are going to take us.

More Coffee than Sense

Part of Saturday has been set aside to consider our thoughts and recommendations to them. Sunday we meet Chrissie and her husband for supper, and then we meet their team on Tuesday to share our ideas - exciting times

Termite Armageddon

2011-01-27T18:58:00.001Z

You will remember from last nights blog that I fell asleep content with having delegated the termite prevention to Norbert. It was he that had suggested that we might have to make plans for keeping termites away from the College. I, of course, did not think that this was a problem, that is until we arrived on site today.

Time for Armageddon

There must have been at least 10 - 12 of these termite mounds scattered around the site, and these 2 were 4 feet high.

Now being a man believing in delegation, I turned to Norbert to see how he was planning to get rid of these insects, and caught this rather studious photo which I very much like. I wonder what form of armageddon Norbert has planned for our not so friendly termites

Studious German

We had come to the site to lay out the platform for the beginning of construction which starts on Saturday, and had arranged for Kayitare and his son Jeff to meet us there. They are confident that the bulldozer should take about 4 days to remove the soil and to level the area. We are not quite so confident because there is a lot of earth to move - watch this space!

Roger and the team set about the measurements - first the 9 metres across the Nonko Road, then 51 metres up from the middle of the main Tanzania highway - Norbert took that measurement rather speedily! Then directly west for 20 metres then the College length, then ten metres up to get the width and finally the last measurement back to the Nonko Road.

Best view of Rog!

Now with stakes marking each corner, the only matter was the level, and for that a thodelite and ruler - just a wee ruler. You may well wonder why Roger is measuring the sky, but this is a real attempt to measure the fall of the ground - 5 metres to be exact - hence my observation that there is a lot of earth to move!

So after 3 hours work in 30 degree heat we finished the laying out of the site ready for Monday.

Observant readers of this blog will note that I have given you nothing but good news. Well I know that is rather unusual, but then I am pretty upbeat. But for consistency I had better mention the wee matter that the construction certificate says we are building a GUTURAMO (residential house) and not a College - signed by the Mayor of Kigali and the Mayor of Kicukiro.

Well we do have signed drawings for a College, so we strongly suspect that this is a typo, but you can imagine what Garlic thought when he read this!!

On Saturday we are hoping that the local Mayor, Paul the pastor and the head of the local neighbourhood will come and dig the first sod, which will be very exciting. I think we may just be seeking a bit of reassurance about the typo, prior to the bulldozer arriving.

Nothing in Rwanda is simple, but then we did not expect it to be so!

Termities - just what I need

2011-01-26T20:42:00.002Z

Termites

I spend 3 and a half hours listening to 2 architects disagreeing about things they do not know anything about. Then I spend another 3 and a half hours trying to get some sense out of two architects and 2 builders.

Considering that I had only a small amount of sleep on the plan last night, I was thinking to myself that I was doing very well not screaming and banging on the table.

Then we are almost finished, nearly home for tea when Norbert pipes up - how do we protect the College from Terminites? You are joking? Not a bit of it - termites are a big problem, he says - you do not want them! We need to design the College so that it can defend against the nasty termites.

Time for a bit of delegation, - right Norbert - you asked the question - now please find me a sensible answer. I am off for tea and then bed

So, I am just lying in bed desperately trying to stay awake and block, but find myself scratching thinking about them.

Bet I dream of a line of them coming trudging over the end of the bed!

Actually nothing will rouse me - I need sleep!!

Cutting it Fine

2011-01-26T20:09:00.001Z

Roger and I were just going through the gate to join our flight to Kigali when Callum phoned to say that the Rwandan team at last had in their hands the construction certificate.

Rog at Schiphol

We knew a few days ago that the planning application had been accepted, but the piece of paper that allows us to actually build had been a bit elusive. Our trip this time is focussed on starting construction, and without the certificate the journey would have been a damp squib.

So by the time we were leaving Nairobi we were pretty positive, and so it has continued all day. We arrived at Kigali at 8am having flown overnight - slept not a lot! Filled with 2 continental breakfasts care of Kenya Airways we caught a taxi to Solace Guest house, and dropped off our bags.

Our first meeting was at 11.30am, so we lost no time in getting to Remera by taximoto - no racing this time! A quick walk down the dirt track and we were at Norbert's who is our architect for monitoring the project.

This was no quiet introduction to construction management - we had 3.5 hours going over everything about the College building and particularly prices. After that time I was sure that an additional £15,000 had been added to the cost of the building.

Then the builders arrived, and brought much clarity to the subject and now its only £10,000 over!

I do not think I will get any marks from Callum for keeping the costs down, but then we seem to be getting a pretty good deal - value wise.

So, tomorrow we mark out the platform for the College and on Monday the bulldozer is arriving. It should take 4 days to move the earth - and Rog and I are determined to get a go at some earth moving - expect lots of photos

Regards to all our supporters

Gary and Roger.

Life so Complex

2010-12-06T02:30:00.000Z

So did Gary find his elastic band and get the Lysander prop to turn?

Did Macfarland require to do a stuka dive to bump start the engine?

What was the final destination anyway?

Was the intention to come home and was he able to steer the correct course anyway?

The answer to all these questions is NO?!

What happened?

I thought I would spin a good story filled with lies and silliness, but the real story turned out to be so unbelievable, I thought I would give you the wholly true version.

I spent my last hours in Kigali at a church youth rally, then wished Paul, Emmanuel and John Mutesa well. The journey back to collect my bags was the best and most dangerous taximoto of the 2 weeks. Brilliant driving – on the wrong side of the road!

When I turned up at Kigali airport the Lysander was gone. Rumour had it that the Rwandan authorities thought it should not be tied onto the jumbo jet sitting on the tarmac, and dragged it off to be used to water the local crops.

There was a 5 minute panic when I truly thought I had lost my passport, only to find it in a pocket not usually used.

I was forced to take the KLM flight. It was planned for 10.30 but when I arrived they made some excuse about snow in Europe and 3 and a half hours later we left.

Now my maths ain’t good, but since my connection for Glasgow was only 2 hours I knew there was a problem. The KLM rep did not agree, saying that they would book me onto another flight. OK, I surmised, but I know other secret info that they would not have access to, and phoned home with urgency, telling Fi the possible the impending crisis.

The flight was great, I slept most of the way overnight, and woke up an hour before we landed. So far so good.

The Glasgow flight was due to leave Schipol at 10.15, and we arrived at 11am. So, I rushed round to the transfer machine – Glasgow flight left, you have been booked onto the 3pm flight which gets to Glasgow, at 3.40pm

Immediate problem. Fi and I were due to leave for London by Easyjet at 4.15pm. Phoned her. Its ok our flight to Gatwick is cancelled! She is on the case and is trying to get later flight. We discussed options, Gatwick sounded very risky due to weather and concluded Luton was better.

Then as I am meandering through Schipol and looking forward to a quiet few hours, I hear that the Glasgow flight is boarding, - hares round to departure gate, yes you can get on sir, but your baggage will come on 3pm flight.

So I arrive Glasgow, without all bags and am collected by Roger. Message from Fi, - cannot get easyjet to rebook flight to Luton on internet – goes to desk in Glasgow airport, no problem sir, can sort it in a minute – oh dear not allowing me to - but sure I can sort – will see you at 3.30pm when you return to collect baggage and will check then.

What about a flight to Gatwick where our hotel is – oh, I am not sure if that flight will be on, due to conditions at Gatwick.

Roger gets me home for 1pm. Bag packing would start in earnest for our holiday, but a bit difficult when most stuff is in Holland. Instead focus on all my mail and emails and other stuff.

You see it is our 30^th wedding anniversary and we are off to the Caribbean for a cruise – lucky sods I hear you say! Flying out of Gatwick at 8.45am on Saturday am. Why do I put myself under this pressure!

I go back to Glasgow Airport to collect my bags off the 3.30pm from Holland – there are long queues of unhappy people - the 3.30pm is cancelled – bags are not coming – no shoes, no wires, no tee shirts etc etc etc. Oh Fun! – ‘Garlic holidays in Caribbean in the nude’ I hear the Blog stories sound!

Anyway the wonderful person at the Easyjet counter gets us onto the 7pm flight to Luton, and the fabulous Roger, determined to get Macfarland out of the country as fast as he arrived, takes us to the airport and we head south – no problems left – wrong!

By the time the train gets into London Bridge its 10pm. No trains to Gatwick sir, try Victoria – no trains to Gatwick sir – try the bus station - 9 minute walk – no buses sir – how do we get to Gatwick – no idea sir!!!

Its now 12 mid night. There is a bus to Heathrow. Perhaps there may be a transfer bus to Gatwick from there. Worth a try, though no guarantee. So at 1am we are now in Heathrow, and get the bus from there to Gatwick, then a taxi for 4 miles and finally we are in our hotel, for 3 hours sleep, before we are up for the flight to Bridgetown, Barbados.

We get up on time, dressed and head for the transfer bus.

Where on earth is my wallet cries out Macfarland, and despite twenty looks through his bags there is no sign. Its fallen out of his pocket (Fleming and Bennie will love this he thinks), either in the taxi or bus the previous night.

So at the airport we not only have to buy black shoes for the formal evenings on ship, and wires a plenty to charge computers and phones, but also have to cancel all cards, that we need for the next two weeks holidays.

I conclude life in Rwanda was much easier and simpler. Please let me get back there soon!

Work on the commencement of the College is planned to start as soon as the planning application comes through. As yet, I have not decided whether I need to go back before New Year to conclude matters – we will see what we can do by email from the Caribbean over the next few days.

Thanks for all your support and prayers for the College and all the work going on to get it built.

Expect an update on Wednesday or Thursday.

Garlic – signing off for now – somewhere off Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles.

Roger will love this one!

You may or may not remember that in the last trip out to Rwanda we spent the good part of 3 weeks getting the deed plan legal. This involved numerous visits to the site from the local district surveyor with his GPS machine.

Finally we managed to get a legal document based on his readings which we agreed with. This in total took about 10 weeks!

Just to make sure these readings were set in stone, we hammered some pretty deep stakes into the ground, sawed them at road level , and knew that they were there forever.

So when Paul said that he thought they were gone I was really doubtful. No-one

could have dug hem up I surmised.

But, of course on my last day I had to go and see, just to make sure. Well I was right, no-one had dug them up, just covered them over - with bitmac!

Why do I get the sense that I will have to get the surveyor out another 3 times to set the exact boundaries?

And no I cannot ignore this one, because we need to ensure that the site boundaries are agreed and the water culvert is being dug to the correct position, or someone will require us to redo it.

And the big question is, why and who covered them over and for what reason.

Oh Joy!

Lost Post!

2010-12-06T01:03:00.001Z

Roger will love this one!

Finally we managed to get a legal document based on his readings which we agreed with. This in total took about 10 weeks!

Just to make sure these readings were set in stone, we hammered some pretty deep stakes into the ground, sawed them at road level , and knew that they were there forever.

So when Paul said that he thought they were gone I was really doubtful. No-one

could have dug hem up I surmised.

But, of course on my last day I had to go and see, just to make sure. Well I was right, no-one had dug them up, just covered them over - with bitmac!

Why do I get the sense that I will have to get the surveyor out another 3 times to set the exact boundaries?

And no I cannot ignore this one, because we need to ensure that the site boundaries are agreed and the water culvert is being dug to the correct position, or someone will require us to redo it.

And the big question is, why and who covered them over and for what reason.

Oh Joy!

Elastic Band Missing

2010-12-02T17:14:00.001Z

Right Flemingd, or whatever your name is. Where did you put the elastic band to start up this plane. Its ridiculous, I have searched all over Kigali airport, and not one of these large planes is willing to lend me their elastic band.

I have tried starting the prop myself. The only technique that gets anywhere close to a puttputt, is standing on the top blade, and jumping like a bungie jumper, head first onto a mattress while holding the edge of the prop. I have given this up for the obvious reason that the top of my head is now flat, and the taximoto helmet I was using has only stayed on once in 20 tries.

I knew the Ginger did not want me back in the country when I received his wireless earlier today.

However, I have solved the problem. I found a rope thats quite long enough, and am going to attach it to the tyre of one of these jumbo jet things. Hopefully when it takes off it will drag me along. When it gets to about ten thousand feet I am going to let go the slip knot - hope I did it right, been a long time since the scouts.

Anyway when I let go my tow, I will dive stuka like and with the speed of the descent the blade are bound to spin, and then I can put it into gear, and I am sure I can jump start the lysander, before I meet a Rwandan grave.

For those that do not think it will work, I am pretty sure Biggles did something similar, in his last episode - cannot quite remember how it finished though!

Anyway, having a quick carafe of white wine in the Novotel to get my courage up, and then I am off. Can smell the fish and chips and a pint of cider already - amazing how far smells travel.

Bad Boy, get that elastic band off ginger, we may need it to stop me if I skid on the snow - put it across Lanrig Road when you see me dip the wing, and I'll stick a hook out the back to catch it on the way past.

Gatenga

2010-12-02T14:34:00.000Z

Gatenga Lads

I was down in Gatenga this morning, just to do some more work on my report for Callum. I thought I would just provide you with some photos of the people that we are working with, and the place that they live.

These young men are the people who will benefit from the College building, and today I went to have a chat about what we are doing. Only one or two speak English, but we got by thankfully avoiding me having to speak French.

This photo shows the centre of Kigali not that far away. I suspect that as the city develops, then Gatenga will gradually disappear, though its people will not, and new housing will have to be found for them, or they will be driven to the outskirts in similar housing.

I had a good hour interrogating Betty and Emmanuel about they work which they do. Its really pretty well developed and includes sponsoring through school, running football games, feeding them three times a week – porridge no less, chasing poor school attendance, installing discipline and preventing fights, and a generally providing a place where they are loved.

I was asking them whether, as a generalization the children’s (many much younger_ are good at expressing love to their children. The view was that the parents are just so exhausted existing, trying to make a penny or two, and doing basic tasks – like dragging water a mile back home!

So the children do not tend to get much love at home, and the church based activities for the 3 times per week, give real opportunity to make them feel valued, and to give them fun and structure.

And talking of fun, this afternoon they are having a conference for young people. It last 3 days and these balloons are part of the fun.

For those of you who are interested in supporting this kind of work, Betty was telling me that they would like additional funds to help support additional school lessons for children who are struggling with their school work.

You can give through Comfort Rwanda

Rhum Holiday!

2010-12-02T07:30:00.003Z

I received this message from Bad Boy and Ginger. Came in on the wireless early this morning. Looks like the journey back may be more difficult than last time.

Garlic

ALERT ALERT!

Am receiving interrupted signal from our contact BBB. It seems to be coming from somewhere along the Chryston/Moodiesburn border! STOP insiders massing STOP along border STOP close to landing strip STOP ( if I could only keep this bin lid open would not need to stop every STOP so often.) Advise landing elsewhere STOP. Have passed landing STOP flares to our new STOP agent STOP Code name is GERTRUDE STOP Big Malky with insiders out to STOP nail you STOP advise you cut engines over Campsie Fells STOP and glide in (as per X1 Fliegerkorps Re Crete 1941) STOP

Ensure parachute and other sensitive information is buried in snow. Proceed to Ref S/T.A9Bles (stables) where BBB and self will be sitting disguised as C of S ministers. Bring GERTRUDE with you - we will greet you as Mr and Mrs Waggstaffe! Sit beside us but do not allow GERTRUDE to speak as her English is not good.

SECOND ALERT ALERT

Picking up transmission from strange location - cannot be right - CARRIBEAN Is this somewhere in Rwanda?

STOP cannot sail STOP this w/e STOP crew has been infiltrated STOP by insiders ( is there no end to the lengths these people will go to to stop you winning through to a well deserved holiday)

BBB has alerted self and GERTRUDE to the negativity effect this devastating news will have on you - hence your meeting with the three of us - your pals! We intend to keep you positive.

Accordingly we have arranged an alternative event for you - something which you will enjoy and be able to win at!

You leave SAT for a 5 day trip to the Scottish wonder island of RHUM where you will climb the 8 munros there.You will do each munro ( actually they are not munros at all but others do not need to know this and we your pals will not blurb on you.) on your own so you can claim to be the first to the top. Also you can boast that Ginger has only done 6 of them.

We have arranged attractive accommodation for you ( see attachment) with a fantastic cook thrown in by the name of Ronald de Gallo. His speciality is stag head eyeball soup. Its another first for you - however nobody has ever ordered seconds. By doing so it will be another first for you.

No need to advise wife of this change of plan - actually she advised 15 days but we thought that this would create too many firsts - a win win situation - which would not be good in terms of your mental state just now - lets do this slowly a bit at a time!

See you soon - pecker up!

BBB GINGER GERTRUDE

What kind of pals are these!

Shall need to develop a plan quickly to avoid a Rhum holiday - Fi is definitely wanting to go to Caribbean for our 30th anniversary. Wonder if Lysander can get over the Atlantic without refueling - could stop Madeira and Azores, but last bit is quite long.

Hope Fi does not mind lack of catering on the Lysander - make the sandwiches Fi, put on your scarf, remember your goggles, and pack the champers!

A plan is hatching. If only I could find that elastic band - Ginger have you got it?

Day with a Twist

2010-12-01T22:21:00.004Z

From Solace over Kigali

I had deliberately planned this day to be very busy. I needed to make sure that I had completed almost all my work today so that I could leave the last day for loose ends.

So I started the day at 8am with the builders, going through every fine detail of the construction. All went well and there appears to be full agreement between us. I have just to write up the detail tonight, and get the construction agreement done.

The REMA Environmental Report is through, and ok, and has been delivered to the Rwandan Development Board.

Then I had to take a taxi moto into town. I took the new masterplan of the site Roger had pdf'd for me yesterday, and it printed out perfectly to scale. Many thanks Roger. The planners now have the redesign of the toilets and site. This all went so well I had time for a coffee at the UTC.

I phoned Betty and arranged for me to go and meet her tomorrow, to ask my last few questions about the street children, for my report to Callum. Then the phone call came from Albert from the Workforce Development Agency, who are the lead agency that develop technical college training in Rwanda. He wanted to meet earlier and we did so at the Leica Hotel.

We chatted over our College's aspirations for helping the poor to achieve employable skills. He was very supportive, and I have to do a proposal focussed on helping the poor get into employable skills.

However, he expressed a really strong desire that he would like the Scottish Colleges network to support Rwandan TVET (Technical and Vocational Training), and that he would like to come to Scotland to spend a few days talking to people in Scotland in early January, with a view to getting practical Scottish College help.

Basically they would like to possibly adopt the Scottish model for training young students, with Rwandan adaptations.

So, I agreed that we (Scotland) needed to support Rwanda in this, took careful notes of what he wanted to achieve, and phoned Linda McTavish, Principle of Anniesland College, and convenor of all the Scottish Colleges.

Anniesland College

She and I had met (accidentally) at Anniesland College earlier in my sabbatical. One of those many coincidences I have mentioned to you. Linda as you will know from previous blogs is a great enthusiast, and has all the right contacts as well as being really down to earth and practical. So between us we are arranging for Albert to spend 3 days in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and to meet all the right people.

My aspiration for this is that we will together identify individuals and plans that really help Rwanda to take the key steps towards a great TVET system, jointly designed and supported by Scottish and Rwanda partners.

So the afternoon had taken a sudden twist and in a very positive way.

I love when these things happen. I had a sense some months ago that this conversation would happen, and when it did, it just confirmed to me at least, that there was a purpose about all of this, and that my skills were being used productively.

Its hard to explain walking with God, but I feel I should try and do so. Its something like:

He wants me and you to really enjoy being near to Him. We all struggle through the business and turbulence of life to feel close to God. So we are required to just trust and have faith that He is with us despite how are feelings are at anyone time. Emmanuel - God with us. Yes, with you and me - despite ourselves, and what we are like, and whether we are perfect (!) or not.

And when we have faith, and trust Him, and look for Him, our eyes are opened and we all, each, get glimpses of him. Those glimpses challenge us, and make us reflect our worth. If He values and cares about us, then we have value.

And if we have value in His eyes, then everyone is valued, whether king or street child, whether intellectual or mentally impaired, taximoto driver or director of a big organisation, preacher or prostitute.

Its preciousness of people that which has made Rwanda mean loads to me this last 2 weeks - Betty helping the street children; the kids that live in the dirt close to the guest house - that want to hold my hand and get a cuddle - they are brilliant - wish I could do more for them ; the rwandan team that need a project manager to build a College; the builders that need supported through a big project; the planners who get fed up with people moaning at them; even the taximotos who need to learn that 700 Rwf is less than 800 Rwf! - they really must stop negotiating me down!

People are precious - that is what God feels.

Its all part of it. I see him in all of it. God being near, means that you actually feel the reality of His Love for you and for others. It creates an imperative that requires a response. Something to grapple with, that demands and urges us on.

So the needs of others, and God's love for them, begs the strong question of what can be done, what gifts do you and I have that could help others needs, and could God use these gifts?

Even more remarkably, could God really make great use of these skills and let them freely flow.

You see sometimes, we put all sorts of limits on God, rules about what we don't want to happen, what we think he is like, fears that we have, what he demands of us. But if we just go for it, and trust, then He graces our lives with positive happenings, real friendships, brilliant outcomes, and a relationship with him that explains everything.

Not that it is not very difficult at times, like Rwanda has been for many families. But there is real strength in knowing Him, and in my experience, always real positive benefits for those I work with, for me, and I think for you too.

Anyway I just wanted to say its fun, a real privilege, and I would not trade this experience for anything - except maybe representing Scotland in the World's at curling - naw, not even that!!

Going home tomorrow for a wee while - if the snow will let me in!

Clear the landing zone Bennie. Get the flares out again. The Lysander is on the tarmac at Kigali airport. Ginger where is my elastic band.

Heads down I am coming in!

Heaven on Earth

2010-11-30T16:03:00.006Z

I rest my case.

I have always said that Shiskine Golf Course is the most beautiful place to play golf, and today in my email I find a great photo.

Shiskine 12th Hole

When you are far from home, it is great to get wee reminders of people and places that you long for.

Perhaps when this project is over there may be celebratory golf outing with you guys back home.

David McAdam - no more fitting golf in between meetings - this course deserves a day away.

Ginger - you will love the crow's nest hole - suits your climbing skills to a tee.

Bad Boy, the pod of whales going past the 5th green this summer were fabulous. Malcolm, the otter eating fish on the beach just on the rock pictured will surely put you off your game.

Anyone else want to come - be my guest!

A Building Update

2010-11-30T10:22:00.002Z

Some of you observant ones, will have noticed that we have not actually done any building. So what is happening?

Well it is looking good to start in the next 3 weeks – he says with a large amount of trepidation. Just to recap.

The deed plan that was wrong in August is sorted, and has been signed by the Prime Minister.

The church is now a registered organisation, again this needed a PM signature.

The land has now been defined accurately by GPS and we have an authorised piece of paper saying so.

The neighbourhood cell are happy with the project, and they have been keeping the land neat and tidy for us. (see photo)

The planners are happy with one storey - FANTASTIC!, after a detailed paper, and 4 meetings last week. They want more toilets, so over the weekend, Roger the architect in Glasgow, has done a plan for this. Sorted.

The planners also wanted a REMA certificate, so a full Environmental Impact Assessment was done by our consultants, and will be delivered to the Rwandan Development Board this afternoon. The certificate should be at the planners within a week.

The final piece of paperwork we need is the lease contract. This required a ministerial signature, which we have, and they have produced a legal document, which we also received yesterday. This we handed to the district council, and they have sent it with our papers to the land registration, for them to produce the Lease Contract, again promised within a week.

When we have the REMA certificate and the Lease Contract then the planners will give us the construction permit, which they have already started to work on, and we will then be able to start building.

Below are Kayitare and his son Jeff. These are real Rwandan small builders. A great delight to work with.

Kayitare

Kayitare does not speak English. He was recommended by our friend Pete Andrews as having a good track record of building Vocational Training Centres. We have put a lot of faith is this recommendation, but so far this is working out very well.

We could have gone for a tendering process but I was absolutely convinced that we would have run into all sorts of problems with this.

Jeff

Jeff speaks good english, which is just as well, and regular readers of the blog will know that he is an excellent musician. So far, he has completely failed to provide me with a CD of his music. Tomorrow he must or the contract is off!

Jeff is also very good with email, which helps loads when you want to work back and forth on various issues.

Apart from concluding costs, and a construction agreement which I am finalising today, we need to work out the practicalities of the construction plan, money transfer, site checking and resolution of issues.

I could really do with another week to resolve these matters, but my flight back is Thursday, and the architect, Norbert Kalka, who is going to check the site as construction develops, has escaped my attentions by being in Germany this week – unfortunately I did not know this until about 2 hours before he left!

Would really like to see them all the week before Christmas to resolve matters, and get the construction started, but the cost of flights back is considerable at that time of year. May be able to jump back for 5 days - we will see, or perhaps I can do it by email!! (he says - not at all convinced)

So, I think there will be photos of actual building in January, and certainly by end of January when Roger, Bad Boy (if he agrees) and I return.

Your prayers and thoughts about the project are much appreciated.

This afternoon, I prepare the following:

A paper on the street children and their needs, for my meeting tomorrow with Albert the Director of the Workforce Development Agency, and the budgetary plan for the construction.

It all seems a long way from being a GP. Heaven knows what it is going to be like to jump back into Scottish GP mode after the sabbatical is over in February. We will cope with that when it comes.

Kamikaze and Emmanuel

2010-11-29T06:46:00.003Z

This video - well it would have been if I could get it loaded - 12 hours trying! (will try again later) is for my church friends and particularly those who have been out to Kigali in July of the last 2 years. This morning Emmanuel Rubagumya, who is a pastor at L'Eglise Vivante, and his fiance were being introduced to the congregation

They are getting married on the 18th of December and this was like their banns being read out. Emmanuel's fiance is Kamikaze - pronounced kamkiz. When Emmanuel txt me the spelling of her name I had to double check. She is quite a shy person, and does not look like her name! However, in Rwandan her name means queen which is much more like she is.

She speaks only a little English, and mainly French, but when we chatted after the service we managed to communicate a bit, and I wished them both all the best for their wedding - from everyone at Chryston church.

The others in the video are Paul, the pastor who is reading the banns, and their friends John Mutesa who led some brilliant singing today, and Bette.

I do not know if you will recognise Bette. You will remember I was down at the Friends of Jesus on Friday and met Betty and her great kids. Well here she is with her new hairstyle - which is why I did not recognise her when I was walking through Remera on Saturday.

Rwandan women change their hairstyle all the time, and it is really a big thing here to be very smart with the latest clothes and styles.

I do not fit in well to this!

How is the Weather

2010-11-27T11:00:00.001Z

Always great to hear and see news of things back home.

Firstly the weather. I hear from my sis and wife that you have snow. I tried to explain this to our cook this morning and we had a very difficult converstaion for a couple of minutes.

Here the weather is, as always - 30 degrees and sunny. I would like to see your snow but I really quite like the warmth for now.

Although I had to walk a couple of miles in the heat this morning and could have done with it being a bit cooler. Today is community Saturday which they have once a month. So there are no taxis, and everything closes. Some people do community service – though more seem to just sit around and rest. Others play sports.

Here is the Rwandan under 15 cricket team, being coached by a young man from England. He coaches them for no salary, only expenses. They were playing on Friday at Kicukiro College when we met their Principle to get his advice on various matters. There present pitch is being redone, and so they were playing on baked earth instead. Good to see cricket is here.

Was talking to some Rwandans about the importance of sport, and that it is an essential component of youth development. Apparently the Rwandan Government is not prioritising this with significant finance. A real mistake, as Scotland found out when it dropped serious competitive sport from being central in Scottish schools in the 1980s.

Time for politicians to understand and action a change in our culture through sport. Unfortunately grass roots competitive sport is not supported by key elements of our society. What a loss!

Talking of sport, and home, I have been watching the results of the Edinburgh International, and delighted to see David Murdoch being beaten by Team Prentice. Shows that our loss to them in European semis was not too bad a result - even if we should have won!

Not sure I agree with Bob Cowan about them being old. I really think he needs to understand Macfarlanes Rule – under 65 young, 65 – 95 middle aged, over 95 old, unless you want to move the goal posts

Come on Bob, we are all young, its just that the really young ones think that we are old!

One Stop

2010-11-27T10:33:00.000Z

I have visited this One Stop centre 4 times this week and will be there at least twice next week!

Herein lies the planning department who wanted our College building to be two storeys, which was a real risk to the project.

Yesterday, we went in ready for a fight, armed with my photos of one storey buildings all along the road where we are to build, and lots of arguments I had rehearsed.

Final threat was to set Winnie on them.

The first thing Vincent murmured almost in audibly, so quickly passed over that I doubted he said it – ‘floors ok’, and then went on to say we needed more toilets – 8 for males and 10 for females.

Later in conversation I had to ask him to clarify about the one - two storey issue. Yes, we will support one storey. Fantastic!

I could not have cared less about toilets – would have given him a 100!!

So basically the planners are fine with our building, and are supportive. Major hurdle overcome.

Now we only need 2 more documents – REMA certificate, and Land lease contract – should have them within the week – perhaps by Thursday when I leave (overly hopeful!). Would really like everything sorted by then.

If cannot get that done to my satisfaction, it leaves me with a dilemma about a short trip out in late December/early January to complete things.

NEARLY THERE – I THINK!

Betty and the Kids

2010-11-26T19:05:00.000Z

This afternoon, I had made an arrangement to meet Betty Bazizani and the street children, in Gatenga which is about 4 miles from the centre of Kigali.

Betty looks after about 70+ street children, and does a great job organising them. In particular she makes sure that they are attending school, and doing well in their work. The children’s school fees are sponsored by various people in the UK.

To make sure that they are working Bette gets their school reports, which is also a double check that they are attending regularly.

My job today was to collate a few things about them, like age, how they are doing, what skills they have and for the older ones what work they want to get into.

43 of the 70 attended which was fabulous, and we saw them as a group and explained what we were doing, that we wanted to know what level of abilities we are likely to have, when they come to our college after 4^th year at school.

Now shame on you teenagers in Scotland. When I ask these guys what there skills were they included carrying water – which some enjoyed, cleaning, cooking, washing dishes, and then there was the 8 year old who was skilled at business. She sells sugar for her parents.

Then there was the 13 year old who wants to be a nurse, and at the moment works in a boutique.

Once we had been through the assessment, we had half an hour playing a couple of games, which seemed to go down well. I had brought a large number of tennis balls with me from Tony Yates He was clearing out his garage before he left for England and found a large bag of them.

They are now the property of the street children of Kigali Tony.

Losing with Garlic

2010-11-25T20:21:00.001Z

It is common knowledge that Garlic has developed a real brilliance at coming second.

This mainly relates to success at getting to finals and semifinals and then letting it slip.

Some curlers have become quite worried about me, Robin Aitken of particular note.

With this in mind I thought that I had better get some therapy, and Bad Boy Bennie seemed like the natural choice - though why I cannot image.

His advice to me is contained in his book and his first letter here.

Now I have every confidence that this therapy will work, and Robin A need worry no more - except about losing his titles.

Enjoy his blog. You may find it rather odd, but then Bad Boy is rather odd!

Winning with Winnie

2010-11-25T19:46:00.001Z

Its funny how things work isn't it

I am an SU camp leader 25 years ago. One of the campers there is a young lad - Stephen Bell.

25 years later I am going through the gate at Kigali airport and Stephen says hello - came off the same plane. - first time I have seen him in 25 years. (I am going to log all the coincidences!)

He is working with a Christian entrepreneurial group headed by Denis Overton, that I had had previous contact with, and with whom I had made arrangement to meet during my time here. They are trying to helps Rwandan develop their businesses.

So we met last night for a meal - I was feeling not great - tummy upset all day.

We chatted through the planning problem, and the planning departments desire that our building should have 2 storeys. A ruling that would immediately lead to serious risk to the whole project on financial grounds

Stephen said - Gary - you must go and see Winnie - she is running a spectacularly good Christian school, and has done lots of building development. She has the planners rapped around her little finger - he says!

Indeed I had heard from Callum, that I should see her at some point, but had not got round to it yet

So tonight I had a short 5 minute phone call with Winnie, and talked through the issue.

Oh Gary, - you do not need to worry about the one storey issue. Its just an idea they have - it will be no problem. But Winnie what happens if the planner refuses the application. Oh says Winnie - you just go and find another planner who will agree!!! Phone me if there is any problem and I will help you sort it.

Funny how things work - 5 minutes, with the right person and a light blinks back on.

Good to be looked after.

Suspect her nickname is going to be Winnie the Winner!!

Tomorrow I meet the Principle of Kicukiro College - the main college in Kigali, at 8am, then at 10am the planning department, and at 2pm a meeting with the street children - going to busy.

I suspect I will be speaking to Winnie later in the afternoon.

Taxi Moto Guidelines to Ginger

2010-11-25T16:06:00.001Z

Dear Ginger,

Now that I am a fully qualified taxi moto passenger, I felt I should provide you with guidance, since you are such a novice. These guidelines are from my extensive experience.

1. Make sure your driver has enough diesel in his bike or else he will have to stop at side of the road, and lean it in all sorts of directions to splash every last drop into the engine, and when that works he will mutter under his breath that the journey is too far, and what he means is that he is fearful that he will not get back to the petrol station.

2. Always haggle. As a general rule of thumb use the German severe facial technique, which always beats the British weaker mentality (like mine) and reduces the fare by 25%. Though I do remember that your willingness to haggle was non existent - so you may have to add another 30% for Irish awkwardness.

3. However, when you offer the taximoto 1200RwF for a journey, and he does not understand, and says 100, and you agree to 100 (which is clearly robbing the poor guy), take the opportunity to do some language tuition at the end of the ride, and give him 1000 RwF (which is what he meant) –you have made 200 profit, which is still more expensive than the German would have paid. Also make a mental note that you could have had the same journey for 800 - 1000 RwF. you will still give in and pay 1200, but I want you to know how weak you (and I) are.

3. Keep your knees in. You can lose them in the tight fit between cars at rush hour. In fact, thigh squeezing is recommended for the whole trip. It is part of the technique, and stops you shooting up in the air when he goes over a bump or 5 too fast

4. Note the taximotos often do not have speed counters that work. These are the fast ones who have clearly turned them off so that they can argue better with the police about why they were doing 70 in a 40 km/hr limit. They also regularly go through red lights, drive up the wrong side of dual carriageway into oncoming traffic, and take risks with your life. They are also the most fun!

5. Try not to overload the taximoto. You will see many strange sights, even Macfarlane carrying a slow cooker, someone with welding equipment, and others with TVs. These are all ok. A surf board might also be ok, but nothing bigger, and please do not go on a taximoto with your kayak, as you previously suggested - it really is asking for trouble! The paddle might fall out.

6. Remember you call a taximoto by going sssssssssssssss. Its accepted practice – they can hear you at 150 yards. Always check the helmet for any ability to tighten up the helmet strap. One in 10 helmets will not fall off in an accident, and it would be a shame for your skull to dent the bitmac, when the strap might just be able to hold the helmet on – rare I know, but worth checking

7. Closing your eyes means that you miss all the fun. Take your own advice and watch the scenery go by, even if you cannot quite focus because of the tears, and pain. Try letting go. Instead of holding onto the handles behind you, take both hands off and just relax! Excellent for the soul. It allows you to see the interesting sights and to ask yourself why a beauty of parlour is named after your Saviour. And no - do not go inside. There is nothing they can do to improve your attractiveness.

I hope that these pieces of advice will help you when you come out to Rwanda with me in January with you friend and mine, Bad Boy Bennie. Please pass on the advice secretly to him, and avoid the wives Rena and Mary. They must not know of our intended Taximoto race.

Planning Nightmare 3

2010-11-24T20:24:00.001Z

The vibes. The vibes!

I spent this morning doing a 5 page paper for the planning department, and good stuff it was too. I looked at Norbert and he just looked as if we had no chance of persuading the planners to allow a one storey College.

Anyway off I went to get Pastor Paul to sign the document. When I arrived he had a letter from the REMA office - the certificate - yes! NO, NO NO. A letter to say that we needed a full environmental report. But I knew that, we knew that a month ago - did the consultant we paid not do a report?Apparently not, just a letter asking REMA to advise us if we needed a full report.

Macfarlane self combusts at this point. Another 2 weeks delay, and off to the local printing company to change the document I had spent all morning on.

We went round to the one stop centre and dropped in the paper and chatted with the planner. He was nice enough, but the facial expression and vibes were not good!

This afternoon, we went to see a REMA consultant who is going to the report and will have it with me on Tuesday - pretty good considering the amount of work.

Tonight I had a meeting with Denis Overton and Stephen Bell, and others. Denis does a lot of work on helping entrepreneurs in Rwanda. You could tell he thought the planning application would fail, and his friend, who seemed to know quite a lot of important people, looked pretty glum too.

I am starting to think glum too. I do have a couple of possible helpers - including Winnie 'who wraps planners round her finger' - going to phone her first thing - more of her tomorrow.

So the next instalment is Friday - cannot wait

Planning Nightmare 2

2010-11-23T21:57:00.003Z

Those of you who have been reading the blog the last couple of days, will be wondering what the planners are saying. Well at lunch time today we were given the letter.

It was in Rwandan, so I had not a clue what it said. So Emmanual Rubagumya (sorry about the poor photo Emmanuel) came to translate it. Unfortunately some of it was pretty unclear, despite two people trying.

There was nothing else for it but to take another taxi moto to the one stop centre in Kigali City centre.

The last time we went there it was quiet ad we just walked in. This time it was empty apart that is from a full planning meeting with the Kigali Mayor and Vice Mayor.

I thought about joining them (aye right!) but decided I should just sit outside until the meeting finished. After an hour Vincent who has been helping assess our planning application, came out and explained the letter.

This was about 4pm. I immediately phoned Roger in Kirkie, to decide a plan including some redrawings, phoned Callum in Kilsyth, and Paul in Niboye, to agree the way forward. Nothing like having a planning meeting on the hoof!

In 20 minutes all was agreed, so I went and had lunch (well it was 4,30pm), did my emails and blog, and then headed for home.

Must say I was pretty puggled after a long day and just could not resist a beer at the Leica Hotel, and there I updated our basecamp website with all the curriculum and business planning information I had received from my earlier visit.

Then it was on to a local Chinese for tea, and by that time Roger had completed the pdf file, and had written the architect speel for the planners. Fantastic job!

All I have to do now is to write my letter on behalf of the church pulling it all together, and by late tomorrow morning it will be back on the planners desk – with me sitting outside looking for answers yet again.

The key question I must ask myself is what will the planners respond to, if anything? It would be nice to have a conversation where we had a bit of negotiation, but it does not work that way, or does it in Rwanda?

Patience folks - you will just have to wait for the next instalment of Planning Nightmare 3!

The BAD Proposal

2010-11-23T21:56:00.000Z

Part of my work here this time is to develop the Ihumure College business plan. This involves getting fairly accurate figures on income - what we can charge as fees, how many students can afford them etc, and what the main expenditure costs are – teachers and principles salaries, material costs, and control mechanisms.

For this I have arranged two visits. Today was the first to the SOS Kinderdorf technical school, and to visit John Gaga. John was excellent, and gave me an hour and a half. I now have most of the details that I need to make substantive financial plans for the actual running of the College.

These will need to be checked against the results of my second interrogation (oops sorry, should not mention that medical term) – I mean visit, on Friday to the Kicukiro Technical College.

John showed me round the school he runs. It is a German establishment, one of many that their charity runs. Its quite some operation and I was very impressed.

While I was with John, I raised the subject of apprenticeships in Kigali but learned that they are very informal and do not seem to have been developed much.

So its time for Bad Boy Bennie to stop writing his blog and get down to the hard work of developing the Bennie Apprenticeship Document. To be known from now on as the BAD proposal!

Anyway, by coincidence, (as if) - you must really be getting fed up with the frequency of these coincidences – anyway, by coincidence when I talked to John about apprenticeships, he said that he was just about to go down to a morning conference on work placements. Would I like to come and meet all the people from local colleges, business and the workforce development agency. Not an opportunity to be missed.

So I spent the morning helping to design the new Rwandan work placement system – even gave them some of my indepth knowledge and experience of Scottish work placements and apprenticeships – oh no, what experience I hear you cry – well thanks for that vote of confidence.

While I remember, while I was there Denis from WDA said he would arrange a meeting for me with Albert the director – must get that email off now.

Anyway the Rwandan plan now has a wee Scottish bit about Institute Learner Agreements and student learning plans in it! What have I done!

Fiona - Do Not Read

2010-11-23T15:58:00.001Z

The Taxi Moto

The last time Ginger and I were here it took us three weeks to get the courage up to try this mode of transport. This time I have been using it frequently - its quick, to the door, and immediate. I know that if I walk out of the coffeee shop where I am I can get a ride home within 20 seconds, and will be home 5 miles away within 10 minutes.

The only thing is that I will have ridden at high speed through very busy traffic, squeezing between spaces that do not seem to exist, and even taking red lights when necessary.

I suspect that Fiona would not approve, but it works well, and interestingly on watching the ability of these bike drivers, they are pretty careful, though Ginger should know that one did 70km/hour - so be warned Rog I have the number of my driver for the January race!

Taxi! I am off for a chinese and a beer, after very busy day. More in next blog.

Camp Kalka

2010-11-22T19:40:00.003Z

For the last 3 days I have been living with the Ndahigwa family. They have provided me with their usual excellent hospitality. However, I am a stubborn and fixed nature and I like my independence and freedom. I like to be able to go and come when I want, to make arrangements and meetings when I need them, and that is just not possible with them in Niboye, Kigali.

So as happened last time I have escaped, and this time to Norbert's place - Camp Kalka. Norbert is an German architect here in Kigali, and he is going to help us by checking the construction on set intervals.

What construction I hear you say after the last blog. Well I am an optimist, and have yet to bin the idea of establish a Vocational College for the poor.

This will be my base, and tomorrow at 8am, I am meeting John Gaga, Chair of the Association of Colleges. I wonder what he will think about all colleges having to be several storeys from now on. I am also hoping to meet the Director of Kicukiro Technical College at 12 midday.

These two people should be able to advise me of the key issues in college development, and matters regarding employing teachers, apprenticeship issues, and new contacts that I should make in trying to establish our college.

Today has been a busy one, and apart from visiting the planning department, I met Jeff and Kayitare our builders to go over issues regarding construction and cost. Which reminds me must stop blogging and write up my to do list. They were in good form, but once again I had to remind Jeff that he had forgaotten to bring me a CD of some of his great music - he promised that I would have it before I leave - I plan to hold him to that - or no building contract!

I also met Florence Mukakabano, who came to meet me in the UTC. She had driven the 2 hours from Butare, because I had brought some presents from her friend Billy Smith. These were very much appreciated and were worth the effort of transport - a laptop for her son, and a slow cooker, and some other gifts. The took up quite a lot of space but fortunately 2 bags are allowed to come to Rwanda. Great to be of assistance.

I see its 7.50pm in Glasgow - all the best Stuart, Mark, and Pistol Pete - expect you will win the Invershiel game at Brahead without me.

Regards to all

Planning Authorities - Garlic Grumbles

2010-11-22T19:21:00.000Z

I make no apology for my dislike of planning authorities. I have had to deal with several, and I always get the feeling that they have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the point where they agree to your planning proposals.

So I should not have been surprised, indeed I was not, when Paul announced that he had just heard that the planners were recommending that the College plans were refused! Having had a nice peace Sunday this news came out of the blue.

We were both seated on deck chairs looking at the moon at the time. The lights had been out in the whole district, and so the place with the most illumination was the front verandah. I nearly went up like a rocket!

So Paul, what is the reason they are recommending refusal. Oh they want the building to be 2 storeys, and not one. Why is that? Because the City plan says that all buildings in that area should be 2 storeys. But all the other schools and houses along there are one storey, and all the schools and colleges we have seen in the city are one storey. Yes - but the City Plan says that in the future - and that is now - that 2 storeys is it!.

But Paul, when we discussed this with the planners in July, they said one storey would be ok. Yes but they have changed this. So 4 months of plans appeared to be up the proverbial!! And we do not have the money for 2 storeys.

In true Macfarlane style, I ranted internally for a while, and then sent a text off to McAdam and Ginger - requesting an squadron of prayers. Txts came back that these had been actioned and the response was expected imminently.

Off I went to my room, preparing the powerpoint, and formulating a true Macfarlane robust response. I remember my last action with a planning authority, when they recommended refusal of our medical practice. As you can see I do not refusal well - and the centre was built against planning advice since the politicians saw common sense!

So off we went today and had a good chat with the planning team. Well at least we got to see them quickly. They were a nice enough bunch, and gave us a good ear. The problem is that they have set out a plan for the city which has very strict lines of demarcation and are inflexible. The only way you get anywhere is by giving them hard evidence well worked out and which their boss can use when his/or her hide is on the line.

So the problem is that they expect land to be a premium in the future, because they think they are going to have a city of skyscrapers, and therefore all future buildings should have a low footprint, and be tall.

I heard that one local embassy is still in dispute with them because they only built 2 storeys instead of 7! Does not give me grounds for optimism. But the prayer squadron are fast arriving so we shall see what happens when a higher power gets to work.

So tomorrow I have to form a very strong arguement to counter - will make for an interesting couple of hours, and then a long wait.

If the answer is no, then it could be an early flight back in the Lysander. More likely we will have to head upwards in the chain of command - President Kagame here we come?

Now where was the Rwandan High Commissioners email address that he gave me last month?

Commonwealth Games Badminton Prospects

2010-11-22T18:39:00.000Z

Sunday was a pretty quiet day. I found myself back at Paul's house for the afternoon and evening. Initially I did some computer work, but latterly I got out the badminton rackets and table tennis bats. These 3 are Paul's - he has 9 children in all! Esther in the middle is not very well co-ordinated and struggled with hitting anything!

She does not smile well when getting her photo taken - this was the best of 5, but she has a great smile when having fun, and we played table tennis for about an hour at least.

Her brothers are very much better at sports and within minutes were hitting the shuttle well. They may be a bit too young for the Rwandan Commonwealth team, but a few years after you never know!

Simple Dilemmas and Mighty Mouse

2010-11-20T21:15:00.001Z

Today brought a number of dilemmas that caused me to struggle with the answer.

Ask yourself what you would do with each of these.

1. I am lying on my bed, blogging away, and I think I just saw a mouse/rat scurry at high speed from the window in the corner of the room, right under my bed.

Now I am not sure, it was just a very slight and fast movement. I can hear nothing, no evidence and no certainty. Do I look under the bed or not? If I look, what will I do if there is one sitting there, and if I do not, will I get to sleep wondering?

2. Walking through Kigali today, and being one of the few white people tends to attract attention. Newspaper sellers, and taxi drivers constantly tout for business believing I have money to give. I tend to just keep my head down and avoid eye contact. But that makes me feel rotten and not true to myself. Then a beggar asks for money and I struggle to look them in the face too. I do not like it. How should I react, is there a way of being friendly without encouraging them.

3. A youngster walks past, smiles and holds out his hand to shake mine, I ignore him, first reaction was he probably wanted money (and I am probably right) but he might just have wanted to shake my hand and say hello. Double rotter! The next few youngsters get a brief nod and hello - but still pretty restrained

As I reflected on these things later, it occurred to me that they tell me much about my own inadequacies, fears and inability to communicate.

My curling team would probably tell you that its taken me far too long to realise this!

Anyway I have decided that tomorrow I will definitely feel much less self conscious, and will absolutely shed my fears and embarrassment - that is until I get to the church service and the dancing starts. Oh no - another dilemma just round the corner.

I wonder how Mighty Mouse is doing - suspect he is hiding under the bed having the same thoughts about whether he had seen a giant lying on top of the bed above - and whether he should risk a look and what he would do if there was a giant there!

Sleep well Mighty - I am not going to have a look - and I suggest you do the same.

3 Weddings, no Funeral

2010-11-20T19:03:00.002Z

A Day of Missed Weddings

Day 1 Kigali, 30 degrees - very pleasant.

Today was a day when I missed no less than 3 weddings!

If I had been in Glasgow this weekend we would have been celebrating our friends’ Paula and David’s wedding. It was not to be.

When I arrived in Kigali, Pastor Paul informed me that he was taking a wedding at the church. I thought this might be an opportunity to see at first hand a Rwandan wedding, which can be quite an occasion apparently, but Paul thought I should spend the time resting.

Rest not being a natural skill I have, instead I went into the city, bought my Tigo modem that allows me to blog, dropped in to see Pete Andrews before he left the country for a week, and changed my cash into Rwandan dollars.

On the way home I decided to avoid the £5 taxi, and got a bus for 20p – I was astonished, because the journey took at least 20 minutes. They dropped me off in Kicukiro, and I decided to walk back to Paul’s house, which was a delightful 2 mile walk on a warm beautiful day, in very pretty surroundings.

I passed a large Catholic church and was tempted to go in and listen to the singing – it was a wedding. But embarrassment caused me to miss my 3^rd wedding of the day.

When I got back we got out the badminton rackets and table tennis bats that I had brought, and Esther, Paul’s 3 year old daughter and I played for an hour – she is definitely better at ping pong than badminton.

The calender is starting fill, and time is short. Tomorrow and Monday I need to get my diary out and get meetings organised - and loads of them.

Lysander Lands

2010-11-20T12:02:00.003Z

Garlic reporting in.

3.45am Friday (1 hour after I got to bed!).

Ginger turned up on time and eventually got the Lysander prop to start the engine. He used a rather unusual method with a large elastic band attached to his car. He murmured something about his boyhood and model planes.

Any way the engine started, I taxied down Broom Gardens, eventually realising that the road was too short for take off. Actually this was discovered when I pinned Roger – sorry Ginger, to a tree as he desperately tried to get me to turn the corner into Boghead Road. Hope he is ok. I think he was, because he gave me a wave – or was it a fist (?), as I dipped the wing, just missing the N and S garage forecourt.

Then it was up, up, and away, as I headed south towards Paris. I do not really know what happened next, but I seemed to miss my target. It was a nice clear morning but I ended up in Amsterdam, - probably just a slight cross wind. I had circled it 5 times looking for the Eiffel tower, and eventually decided I need to put her down to refuel.

For some reason the authorities appeared to get slightly upset when I parked the Lysander on their runway. It is really quite wee and should not have caused much problem where I parked it. They have several runways they could have used!

I had to make a rather rapid escape from several police men, and as a result of impounding of the Lysander, I reckoned that I was better off in a large Blue plane with the letters KLM on it, which presumably is back to front code for Macfarlane Loves Kigali. (certainly more than Curly Cowan and Horny)

My companion on the plane was working for an environmental charity in Glasgow. He gave me a detailed breakdown of the various methods of producing compost, and how to rip generators out of Glasgow tenement blocks. Facinating stuff! He like me has been working with Linda McTavish of Anniesland College. She seems to be into everything - wonder if she will be out here shortly!

We arrived at Entebbe in Uganda at 8.15pm, and at Kigali at 9.20pm. A really pleasant flight – I think I have had 5 meals – completely lost count.

I was coming though customs at Kigali when this tall guy comes up to me - Hi Gary! I could only recognize him vaguely, and certainly could not name him. Steven Bell, he said, you were my SU camp leader 30 years ago! For goodness sake. Is there no end to the people I am going to bump into out here. So we are arranging to meet for coffee in the Bourbon Café, to catch up.

Odette greeted me with another meal, and we chatted for a while about what my offspring are up to. I decided to avoid trying to explain their curling adventures – really too hard for people to understand when you are on the equator.

So hear I am blogging in Kigali, when Thursday I was playing the rink championship at Braehead - quite odd!

Hope Ginger is not still stuck to the tree - let him know I am in the UTC, and avoiding the spaghetti. He will be delighted to know I have his 'ensuite' room. Kabuga's rule!

Grumpy Garlic Packs his Bags

2010-11-17T12:46:00.000Z

Thats it!!

I can take no more.

For years I have quietly put up with 'Curly' Cowan's awful photos of me, but now he is accusing me of being old. This is the last straw. The Camel's back is broken.

Too many defeats in semis and finals - the strain is too much. Robin Aitken was right to be worried about me. I have cracked and I am packing my bags. Grumpy Garlic is leaving.

Even the luggage is having a go at me. The slow cooker someone has asked me to deliver to a friend in Rwanda says 'Crock pot'. I have booked my Easyjet Lysander and I am off on Friday to the land of sun, song and happiness.

Mind you its 'Horney' thats put Curly up to it. I have had my suspicions about him for a long time! Secret messages have been suspected from the Braehead curling office. I think I will need to get Bad Boy Bennie involved in some phone tapping, to find out what they have been saying about me. I shall have to get my revenge on the two of them - perhaps tonight at the Mixed Doubles!

Anyway, only 2 more nights of curling and then I will get Ginger to turn the prop. Will need to refuel the plane in Paris, and Cairo on the way down. Hope I get across the desert in one piece, and then a right turn at Nairobi, out with the flares in Kigali, and by 9.30pm I should be greeted by Safari Fred and John Mutesa like a long lost friend.

Shame Ginger is not going to be with me, but he is on a separate special mission - more later.

John M, Safari F, and Ginger Rogers

Speaking of special missions. I wonder how Lt. Yummy Yates is getting on. I think it was an exceptionally good plan to feign his departure with a cover plot that he was leaving Cadder Curling Club, because he was moving down south - what a ploy - worked a treat. Must get Ginger to make sure the plan is working.

Yummy

Trust he has managed to find a second hand curling plant for the College. Hope the secret does not get out about what type of College it is. Cannot let the cat out of the bag that I am planning to try and play for Rwanda in the World Seniors. If I cannot defeat Prentice, Steele et al in the Scottish then perhaps I can get the Rwandans to allow me to represent them - worth a try!

Good Bye Curly, Horny and all - Round two of the Blog off and running!

GRUMPY GARLIC

Warning, Dangerous Blog appearing

2010-09-30T01:37:00.003+01:00

Word has reached me that a new and potentially dangerous blog is being produced.

Some character who lives in a wheelie bin, who for the present shall remain nameless, is planning to release a full volume of stories.

If I receive news of the Blog site I will post the warning here shortly.

I have seen the first few chapters of the epistle and according to my wife she thinks it is absolutely brilliant. She has not laughed so much for ages.

Watch this space you will not want to miss it.

Postscript

2010-09-12T00:00:00.008+01:00

Roger and I hope you have enjoyed our tales of Rwanda, and all the adventures we have had.

Both of us were thrilled by the time we spent in Kigali, particularly the people we met, and of course the challenges of trying to get the building project off the ground.

We are very hopeful that we have managed to get all the planning and other details in place, and fully expect the building to start construction in late October - more later.

Gary is going back in November to check on the building progress and rumour has it that Roger, Bad Boy Bennie, and a few others are trying to charter a Lancaster Bomber to get them back into Rwanda in early January - something about chasing some spy McAdam.

However, I know from my sources that the Rwandan authorities will be better prepared this time and fully expect to divert them to even deeper Africa!

We plan to resurrect the blog occasionally over the next few weeks, (probably weekly updates) just to keep you in touch with building developments and our attempts to escape the clutches of ordinary life.

We remind you that the young people of Rwanda need our College and hope that you will financially support the Build - please click here . Remember that all monies go to the College.

Blog Credits go to the following stars of the last 3 weeks - Pastor Paul, Manic Mosquito, Safari Fred, Denise Delicious, Cuddly Cuthbertson, Miracle Mutesa and of course Bad Boy Bennie.

From Garlic and Fleming - remember that you too could star in the next episodes of this farce - so keep your head down, because we are on the look out for more targets!

I suspect some of the rising stars in this continuing comedy will be Handy Annie, Pistol Pete, Feisty Fi, Bendy Barr, Wicked William and perhaps Naught McNaught, but be assured - none are out of our clutches, now that we have so much more time to develop our story line.

Thanks for your support and for the 2400 hits we have had in the last 5 weeks - we do not know who you are, but we are very grateful for your interest and the sharing in our fun.

If you want more information on the work that we are doing then email me at garymacfarlane1@me.com. Perhaps you know about running a college and would like to offer your expertise! - or just to keep me company!

God Bless

Manic - **** how did you get there??? **** Outch!

Lysander Lands in Lanrig

2010-09-11T23:29:00.004+01:00

Reports are coming in that a 1943 Lysander plane landed about 6pm last night in Lanrig Road, Chryston.

It is rumoured that 2 spies were secretly deposited, after flares were seen on the Moodiesburn to Chryston Road. Bad Boy Bennie apparently had a series of 5 alibies arranged - elderly women at the Chryston evening soiree, but many people remain suspicious that he was the covert informant that let these Rwandan infiltrators into the country.

There has been much conjecture about the event, after one of the spies invaded Chryston Church and attacked a helpless Chryston church cook by kissing and hugging her almost to death! The cook tried to escape by trying to clamber under the oven she was working at, but unfortunately failed to evade the onslaught.

The other spy tried to attack another women called Mary, but she had been pre-warned, and managed to evade a similar fate.

It was noticeable that both the Lysander pilot and his crew were able to be contained by the large gathering of 120 people at the Chryston Church 'fellowship' meal. They appeared to be unable to resist the high quality food that was put before them, of which they both had 3 helpings.

Late in the evening, they were repatriated to their homes, for a degree of interrogation and possible molly coddling - though your correspondent is somewhat less convinced that this latter technique is being used.

Reports are sparse but it appears that neither were treated to the post Rwandan bacon roll and pot of tea treatment, though one of the spies was taken out for a pub lunch of fish and chips and a pint of cider.

There are no depths of torture that some people will descend to get the full truth out of their captives - sorry Roger I told her everything!

Bennie Run! Hide the Lysander - we will need it for our escape - shame it only carries 2 people.

A Beer at the Embassy

2010-09-10T00:48:00.003+01:00

Today Roger and I went to the British High Commission. We were invited of course. You see we rotate in high circles. Suspect that is best word for what we have been doing the last few days. It certainly feels like a pretty dizzy experience.

Anyway we were very prompt, arriving at 3.50, and then were called through to our meeting. Then suddenly a commotion, and we were flung out. I suspected BBB had something to do with it.

Well not quite. Another person had arrived for the same appointment time, and we are such gentlemen that we offered to go down to the beer garden for an hour, in the grounds - for a pint at the Gorilla and Goat! Honest its true.

Mind you, we did not get a beer - no-one there to serve us, so we just sat in the sun, chatted about strategy and planning. The meeting was very helpful, and pointed us in a good direction in establishing a significant project - back to Scotland to discuss this with the Scottish Colleges.

Now, while I am on high circles, we also have to let you know that the Prime Minister, David Cameron, has had the privilege of staying on our floor in Solace - indeed has sat in our office, when he was here a couple of years ago. What a fortunate fellow - blessed by association with Garlic and Fleming.

Enough of this blog - we are just about to board the flight from Kigali to Nairobi, via Burundi.

Hoping to be home tomorrow evening - see you also soon.

Light the flares Bad Boy - the Lysander is coming in!

College Report

2010-09-08T22:53:00.004+01:00

Well, enough of Garlic's blurtings. Here is what you really want to know. The College Report - the:

ground is cleared, and laid out for the building
deed plan is now ok - to be registered on Monday
plans and engineering drawings are complete
reports are nearly all written - 2 to finish tomorrow
builder has been chosen and seems reliable and intent on doing a good job
initial price looks good and close to predicted budget
start date, depends on planning application, should be mid October
finish date early February
site checking arranged

The only thing outstanding is the Rema certificate - environmental impact report - we need to get someone to complete this - hopefully not too big an issue.

Tomorrow we hope to visit the director of the Workforce Development Agency about a joint curriculum development project, and then on to the UK Department of International Development to discuss whether they would support an developmental initiative to help all Colleges in Kigali.

It looks like it is all coming together - he says very warily.

Then its home on the 3am Flight to Nairobi, and sad fairwells to Rwanda until mid November.

PS RAIN IS OFF and MANIC IS BACK! God love him!!!!

Brilliant Office, Manic Retreats

2010-09-08T21:44:00.006+01:00

3rd Blog of the evening, none rational, and why should they be.

I had so much to say tonight, that I decided to change my pattern. You see I usually get back to my room at 10pm and then lie on my bed under my net hiding from Manic Mosquito. Now, having been bitten quite a lot in our time here, I took to avoiding Manic. But this has had the detrimental effect that I toss and turn on one elbow then the other as I blog way. Eventually I get fed up with the discomfort and give up, and nod off.

Anyway tonight I am in my office - actually out in my office. I have a balcony which is great in the morning, because you get a great view - (see photo), sunshine and warmth, great sounds of children playing and singing, and for two or three hours can do my business planning, and organising meetings, before it becomes too hot.

So tonight I decided that I should fight back against manic, and came out onto the veranda, with the mosquito spray, squirted it everywhere, and for the last hour I have been able to work very happily listening to my usual music, while watching the lightning and thunder storm.

This is probably the best time to make a formal complaint against my fellow colleague about my work. I used to be doctor of some standing (many would dispute this I know), but at least I thought I had some position. Then I took a voluntary step down to be a Project Manager of a one man team (Roger). Not much of a position I hear you say, but at least I was in charge.

However, he has very ably turned the tables, and I am now merely an architect's secretary. For the last three days I have been typing out all the details for his plans, headings, and outline specifications. From GP to secretary - what a come down. Is this really my calling.

Anyway, we have pretty well finished all our work - see report in 'College Report'

I, however must more seriously put on record how tremendously hard Roger has worked to get everything done, and it has been a great privilege to share this time with him. He has been fabulous in every way - except his sense of direction which remains awful - he says its because he is too busy trying to cope with the work I am putting on him.

Mary, you can be very proud of your husband - thank you for lending him to me and the project for these three weeks - a great friend, a tireless worker, valued advisor, and most importantly providing me with loads of fun and many laughs.

By the way, I am now inside, on my bed - and manic has been drowned by the flood outside - YES!

Confidential Message to Bad Boy Bennie

2010-09-08T21:36:00.003+01:00

This message should not be read by anyone other than BBB - encryption code needed to decipher.

Transmission - Bad Boy Bennie - your position noted - presume you are still holding your post - stop - will attempt Lysander landing this Friday evening - stop - ensure road between Chryston and Moodiesburn is cut at 1800 hours - stop - insiders must be held at junction at all costs - stop - insiders Malcolm and Brown suspect - stop - may be outsiders - stop - identification two frog croaks - stop - good luck - stop

Transmission ends

Fleming and Garlic Lose it Completely

2010-09-08T20:56:00.005+01:00

I have decided to do a number of short blogs in the next 24 hours. This may or may not work, but I wanted to give you a flavour of how it feels to be finishing this stage of the project, and for tomorrow to be our last day.

Firstly, I should explain about the mental state of your two intrepid bloggers. We have been out all day finishing off business - more of which later. We came back by coach from the centre of Kigali, which is one of the cheapest forms of transport hear - pretty crowded, but definitely good fun.

We were dumped off - I think that is the best description, and going past the Novotel (real name Leica - but no-one calls it that here), and we decided to see how much an evening meal would cost, on the way down to Solace Guest house.

Since we had asked to look at the menus we decided to get a beer, and then Dave Wald appeared and we persuaded him to chat for about an hour.

This was pretty productive. We made a semi booking with him for Kayaking in October up the west coast of Scotland, also to come to our church, and sorted the Rwanda need for an art and music festival. We also talked through his love for music and what he would like to achieve here in the next few years with his work on orphans - building a house for them, and doing his music lessons, which just allows him to just survive.

Anyway, Dave, delayed us so much that we stayed for a meal - that's actually a bad lie - (learning too fast from Bad Boy Bennie) because we had already decided that it was not worth going down to Solace.

Finally about 9pm (3 hours after expected) we walked in the dark down the dirt track towards Solace, when we suddenly saw this very small animal running along the road. It was quite strange, and when it saw us it stopped several times then again rolled on, and after chasing it for 20 yards, we nastily pinned it down behind a tree.

In the darkness Rog thought it was a small bat, I had not a clue - perhaps a mouse or weasle, but was intrigued to identify it. Quickly out with the camera and this fantastic action shot revealed that we had just chased a flower up the path, blown by the wind.

The two clowns - Fleming and Garlic quickly looked round to check that we were not spotted being so ridiculous. No problem - just an armed soldier giving us a strange look!

Time to go home - we have lost it completely!

Finally Work on Site

2010-09-07T15:59:00.009+01:00

When you do lots of preparation for any project, you always look forward to the day you see the 'real' work starts. Today we were up at 7am for breakfast, and had a half hour meeting with Callum, the director of Comfort Rwanda. Callum arrived with a party of 18 people from Edinburgh at 2am this morning.

Then we met the District surveyor on site at 9am, and agreed the final position of our ownership. Hopefully tomorrow we get the correct deed plan, and put it straight for registration. That means that in 4 - 6 weeks the actual build can start, assuming the planning application goes through ok. (actually it arrived at 8pm tonight and looks correct - at last!)

At 9.30am we met Kayitare and his son Jeff, and their squad of 12 who immediately descended on the site where the College is to go, and with an hour and a half they had really swept aside the long grass allowing us to see what the area really looks like.

Then at 11am, Callum arrived with Mark and Emma Galloway who are part of our fundraising team - we are still looking for another £30,000 - so it was really important that they were able to get photos of the site and us laying out the position of the building on the plot, so that everyone can see that we are serious about this College starting construction soon. If you want to support the College Build and its work then there is a giving page. Thanks for considering this.

At 2pm we met Norbert and Robert who we are thinking will check the costs and the building stages for us, and tonight we have a meeting again with the Vice Mayor - so still very busy right up to the end - but we are getting there!

2 days to go and we are on our way home - so much to do before we leave!

Pastor Paul

2010-09-06T20:58:00.006+01:00

I thought it would be good before we return home to do a blog on Pastor Paul Ndahigwa. Paul and his wife Odette live fairly close to the church in Gatenga in Kigali. He is a man with many facets. At heart a pastor, he will often stop his car just to have a chat to someone he knows, and he knows many people. I get the sense that there is often some spiritual content to the conversation - would love to know what he is saying.

He is always on the move, on the phone, going to meetings, and organising more. I sense there is much more going on in his life than I know - I sense a business man, and a bit of a politician. Today for example I am sure he had an invite to the presidential inauguration of Paul Kagame, and I am sure he was there in Remera Stadium.

As you will remember, he is also a farmer, with I think 3 farms. He is very proud of his cattle and we passed one of his larger farms on the way to Akigera National Park the other day, and shot his long horned cows from a distance.

He is pastor of a church which frankly is pretty run down, but gets often 400 - 500 people there on a Sunday morning. I have not heard him preach but suspect that he is pretty frank, because that is his way. He is a leader and expects much of his congregation. As a result they have projects in a number of areas with street children and schools.

I have been disappointed that our business with many many planning drawings and papers has meant that Roger and I have not really learnt what Paul and his church have been doing and what they aspire to do in the future. We have invited John Mutesa to spend a couple of hours with us in the next couple of days in the hope that we learn more, and I trust I will experience more on my next visit.

Wee Irritations cause Great Hilarity

2010-09-06T08:55:00.005+01:00

Sometimes its the small things in life that cause the most irritation, and the most fun.

As a side line to our main project we are undertaking a careful review and analysis of Rwandan table legs. In particular we are hoping soon to find a table where we can sit down and have a meal without the imbalanced table leg causing coffee to be spilt all over the table cloth.

Roger has a really good system which involves sticking his bedroom door key under the short leg. Unfortunately, we live three flights up from breakfast, and it is a regular occurrence for him to get to the top of the stairs, and then realise that the key is under the table - back he runs.

So far he has forgotten 3 times and I have forgotten it once, and it is starting to become a wee frustration, that provides a lot of fun to the other person!

For those wanting to know whether we danced at church service, I have to convey to your great disappointment that we did not. In fact I have to admit that we dogged off church in the morning. Instead we spent 4 hours planning the College with our proposed builder. I know its not biblical and not what we should be doing, but Pete Andrews, who was interpreting for us, was leaving on a plane to Wales last night and this was the only time we could meet.

So instead we left the windows open and listened to the solace church singing only 30 yards away. I love the Solace Gospel Choir music which I have purchased off iTunes, and its great to work too, though often brings a tear to my eye.

As I look forward to going home on Friday, its praise music is one of my fondest parts of Rwanda. Just as well I am coming back in November, or else I would be very unhappy to leave.

Why not have a listen (click here) to their music.

Oops got sidelined.

Anyway we had our building meeting, which went well, and we await prices for Tuesday nights meeting - a key time for decision. Having, missed church in the morning, we took a taxi across town to L'Eglise Vivante church, and joined a small group for an hour and a half.

Miracle Mutesa was preaching on Christian reward. If we are seeking out God, and put our trust in Him, we are rewarded (don't absolutely like that word) with being able to walk in God's presence, feel the effect of His love in our lives, and to enjoy His company (and fun).

I added that (fun) bit because I think we can have fun with God. Might get into trouble for adding it - but that will be fun to debate anyway!

Oh, and the last piece was an absolute requirement to share this love with others also - Praise God. Hope I shortened your 45 minute sermon appropriately MM?

For the very disappointed (about the lack of dancing) you should be made aware that Fleming raised both hands (above his head even), and Macfarlane could only manage one (well he is Irish and I am Scottish)

When we came out of church we realised that we were in the middle of a shanty town type village, pretty dark, and a very long way from home. We walked for half an hour. There was absolutely no sense of risk, with many people coming out of coming out of the Expo exhibition. Eventually we managed to get a taxi, and finished up spending our last Rwandan francs on a chinese we are getting to frequent.

Now pretty broke, the banks are closed because today is the presidential inauguration, so we are working and eating at home in the Solace Guest house, and will try and get some cash later in the afternoon.

Irish Scottish Matchplay Championship

2010-09-04T20:24:00.009+01:00

We have been stuck inside all day - I know, a bit sad really on another beautiful day in Rwanda.

We have been preparing plans for meeting Callum and Paul on Tuesday, and we have some good news for both of them and that good news goes with lots of work. Anyway, thats why we have been in all day.

If you wait until Tuesday I hope to be able to share it with you.

Anyway, by the time we got to 5pm tonight we were stir crazy, and decided to go for a walk. You see at the bottom of our road there is actually a golf course. Now I need to speak to David McAdam about this, because there was no mention of a golf course in Kigali, and certainly not one 300 yards from Solace. If I had known a small bag of clubs might have come along - perhaps next time.

So Roger and I went for a walk, and very interesting it was. The golf course has 18 holes, and I have included a few shots of great golfers playing a championship round (bit suspicious you cannot see their clubs), but anyway the Irishman won.

Then we found the local lake where the kids go swimming and fishing - quite an art the fishing - but the fisherman was pretty successful as you can see.

The local village that is just below where we stay, is really poverty stricken, but you should have heard the fun the kids were singing in one of the houses - all afternoon the laughter and singing and drums rang out. We felt like going in and joining them, but just walked on past, tapping our toes and stubbornly refusing to dance - nothing changes.

Roll on Sunday services tomorrow - you never know, you might get a picture of Macfarlane dancing - heaven forbid!

6 days to home - but the really important memories will be the small villages we walked through tonight, loads of kids, seeking money, mums struggling to keep thinks clean, small mud houses in the middle of the city, just under expensive flats and private homes. Frustration that we cannot communicate, just have to smile and say hello, and be gentle and humble - knowing that we are privileged, can go home in a few days, but their lives live on here.

The key question - how do we provide help to support in their determination to rise above the enormous efforts of their just existing? What practical help can we provide? Will the College make a real difference to these youngsters?

Too many questions, and not nearly enough answers.

Frustrating that I do not have the answers, and that the problem seems so big. At least in Kigali there is a real sense of Government seeking to do something significant to make a difference, and there are loads of organisations working hard and achieving valuable improvements.

On Monday, the president is sworn in, its a public holiday, and a big party begins - should be very interesting.

Next time I will bring my clubs - saves us having to pretend to play, and should be able to beat Rog with real golf sticks, mind you the fairways were pretty tough!

Feart of Feet Fleming

2010-09-04T14:22:00.008+01:00

This blog is not for the faint hearted. Beware. Recommend that all those who get squeamish at the least sight of blood should definitely stop here.

Chryston adventurers, including Bad Boy Bennie, Cuddly Cuthbertson and (yet to be nicknamed ) Paton and well know the serious problems we have had over the years with Roger's feet. In fact everytime we go away he presents us with another therapeutic challenge. So, it was hardly surprising to me that once again he required medical attention here in Rwanda.

An operation was needed, and undertaken earlier today. Dr Macfarlane once again undertook very careful and quite major surgery. The patient required a prolonged convalescence. We thought you would love to see the videos - the operation. There was also a post mortem and that video will be available on our return home

I would like to personally make several apologies:

To Roger for not using anaesthetic when I had some in my case!

To Ian Brown because I had to do the pathology without his expertise present,

To the Chryston football team, because Roger will never play again - Rick please note and

To you bloggers and particularly to anyone who ruptures a muscle through uncontrollable laughter

Enjoy the video - Oh Joy!

Bonnie Banks of Akagera

2010-09-02T22:31:00.007+01:00

We left Kigali about 8.30 in the morning. We were passing the College site yet again, so we decided to do some more measuring before we meet the district surveyor tomorrow, for the final decision re the exact area of the site.

The particular issue is the road to Nonko which runs beside the land. This has to be 9 metres wide. At the top it is 8 metres, and we will have to give one metre away, but at the bottom we should gain quite a lot

Anyway, after 2 hours drive we turned off the main road, and bumped for another half hour until we came to the lodge. Cost of entrance was £20 - so not bad really. We were both pretty concerned because we were the only car there. You see most of the animals go further north because it is pretty dry where we were.

The first half hour we saw some eagles, and buffalo and baboons, but it was pretty quiet generally. When we came over the crest of a hill there was a tremendous view towards Tanzania, and as soon as we hit the lakeside we started to see lots of interesting animals.

We were able to get out a couple of times to take pictures, and walk along the lake side. The temperature locally is really pretty comfortable, about 30 degrees which is because Kigali and the surrounding area is about 4500 feet up, and although it is close to the equator the height reduces the heat.

We drove for about 80 Kms around a very small part of the park. There is really quite a large number of lakes around here, and for those who like bird life it has loads to see. It would have been nice to see large herds of elephants and giraffes, but we were very pleased to have seen what we did.

The trip back was in the dark, pretty wild with lots of people on bikes and walking at the side of the road. Had to stop because the car overheated, but passers by helped find some and we were soon sorted - the people here are so friendly - always a smile and a hand shake - have not seen a scowl since leaving Europe, except the one on my own face when I heard of the land deed problems

Anyway I am much less grumpy today, and eager for the work tomorrow, when it is back to work for the next 7 days. There will be little spare time as we complete our meetings with the district surveyor, a builder, an architect and a quantity surveyor, Pete Andrews again, the Vice Mayor, Albert director of WDA, Rosemary in charge of careers, Abraham from KIST, representatives from business, Callum and Emma who arrive Tuesday, final meetings with Paul and his team, and John Mutesa.

Apart from all that, we have to get the final plans submitted, the engineering drawings completed, add in the College costings and print the 3D plans.

Sorry about the list - my brain was just going over all that we have to do - oh, and there is a possibility that Paul wants us to preach on Sunday, and neither Rog or I have done anything to prepare for that - though in Paul's usual way, it is difficult to know whether we are expected to preach or not - something was said about us doing that last Sunday but then it got dropped.

Well we will just have to see what happens, and its better than having to dance. I have warned Rog to prepare something, as will I.

Its good to be busy - (must not forget to buy some presents)

Hope you enjoyed some of our many photos from safari. Love to you all. God bless.

Feart of Croc Fleming!

2010-09-02T21:56:00.003+01:00

Now, everyone knows that Roger and Garlic have spent enormous amounts of money on this Chryston Adventurers expedition, and that I promised him the kayaking adventure of a lifetime.

Not only that, but I have brought him to a specialist Rwandan kayaking builders yard to get his own specially design kayak. Then when I tell him that across this lake is Tanzania, I expect him to push me aside and tear down to the lake to get paddling.

But no, not a flicker of an interest. Not a molecule of enthusiasm. And as a fisherman I thought he would dive at the opportunity to get in the boat and catch a few catfish. Not a chance

What could be the reason? - perhaps the hippos put him off, or the maybe the croc who was eyeing him up for tea - I suspect the latter. Maybe we should be calling him 'Feart of Croc' Fleming.

For those more interested in where we are, rather than our usual juvenile banter, we are on safari in the Akagera National Park, about 2.5 hours from Kigali. Today was our self appointed day off.

The lake is Lake Ihema, and Tanzania is easily seen just the width of Loch Lomond away. The hippos did not look particularly fearsome, though we did keep our distance, and the croc just seemed to circle the kayak expecting a juicy fleming meal.

I personally could not see what the croc saw in him - there is hardly any meat on him!

Music saves my Day

2010-09-01T22:18:00.007+01:00

Today was not a good day! I lost the land again - more later.

It started well enough with a half hour chat with Dave Wald. Dave came out to Kigali in July last year, having qualified in a masters in music and psychology at Leeds University. Roger also qualified at Leeds, so was interested to know if he knew anyone - unfortunately Rog qualified 40 years earlier - so not much chance!

Dave has been doing some really interesting and practical work helping genocide victims through using music to help them express their emotions. He is finding that through this people are being helped to cope, and coping helps them to live.

He has a variety of projects going for individuals and groups, is working with establishing a music curriculum, and we had a pretty broad and interesting discussion on developing arts and musical festivals.

He tells a rather unusual story of David McAdam suffering some form of hallucinations when he was out last year - we are suspicious that he might have been eating the same kind of bananas as we had, though Dave thought it was some form of heat stroke.

He informs me that the Solace Gospel Choir are doing a Christmas Album, which is really good news since I very much enjoyed their last album which I downloaded from itunes.

Then some bad news came, that Christian Aid did not include Technical Training Colleges and their work supporting the poor, as part of their strategy in Rwanda. Apparently they are much more involved in the Aids programme. This was a bit of a blow because we had hoped to develop a joint project with them. However we did get a lead to the Ministry of Education out of it, and so another paper is being prepared, and perhaps this lead might go somewhere.

Straight from the Christian Aid discussion, Paul phoned and we were met by this man, Safari Fred. (no need for another nickname here then!)

Fred is the main driver for us these three weeks. In fact tomorrow he is actually taking us on safari to one of Rwanda's national parks - so lots of photos on the blog tomorrow night. There will be headings about Roger and the water buffalo - might even manage to find an appropriate nickname for Roger from the trip.

Anyway Fred took us to lunch. The main reason was because the local legal department were refusing the deed plan. They were strenuously opposing the area, because they wanted to ensure that their main road, and the side road required quite a lot of our land. We argued hard and long but it looks like we have lost 20% of it. Apparently the district can stipulate a distance of 15 yards from the centre of a main road, and also demand that we create a wider road for the local community. All this without any apparent payment to us.

It does not seem right to me - I move into very cynical grumpy GP mode during these sessions. Miracle Mutesa gets quite alarmed and must have asked me 6 times whether I am ok. It looks like he has not experienced a grumpy GP before.

Well if you had lost 20% of land that had cost you £67,000 you would be pretty non plussed! Thanks to Vic McLaughlin, (well done) we do have someone working on the eastings and northings - hopefully he will reassure me that the land is actually in Kigali, and not in Congo where it was the last time I worked it out. If its in Congo, then I am definitely coming home early.

The district surveyor is going to meet us on site on Friday, to see whether this is correct. This will be our 5th time looking at the site, and still no bulldozer.

Fortunately we know that we can still get the buildings on the site, with a bit of adjustment, but we have now lost a month of building time, despite best endeavours.

So when I returned from the meeting, it was straight on with the music therapy and a fair bit of banging on the key board - I think I know a psychologist I need to see!!

Tonight thankfully, we had a very good meeting of the planning group. Good delegation of responsibilities, and more insights into how Rwandans do their business.

However, I really must do a session on diet with them - it was chips, lamb kebab, more chips, tomato sauce and coke for tea. Not healthy - designed for instant indigestion and an early exit, but then maybe it was comfort food, to treat Grumpy Garlics mean mood.

Bad Boy Bennie Bites Back

2010-08-31T22:23:00.004+01:00

I received this email today from Bad Boy. Sorry about photo - but I think Bad Boy is on the left, then Roger, Gus and Mark (our minister)

The email speaks for itself and I have copied it to you with his permission. I phoned him tonight and apparently he is working on another epistle. In the meantime here is the Word of Bad Boy Bennie Chapter 1.

'Hi Garlic. Bad boy here , great to follow your holiday exploits whilst relaxing is sunny Chryston.

I was not in the least surprised that you and Roger were having difficulty with exact locations, as past experience has given plenty examples of this in various hill walking expeditions that I have been involved in. Good to hear that all has been resolved and that you know exactly where you are once again.

After an emergency meeting of the Session it has been decided that on your return, you and Roger must spend a period of three weeks quarantined at Gartcosh parish church, before being allowed to rejoin the caring sharing church family at Chryston. This decision was taken over concerns that personal hygiene issues brought to light in a recent blog i.e. lack of showering facilities ,could put the session in breach of certain health & safety regulations when you return.

I tried to argue against the decision stating that this was actually normal for Roger and that we have not had any recorded instances of footrot within the congregation for several years now, but I was shouted down by a group of outsiders led by Malcolm who insisted that rules are rules and that furthermore he could recommend a security company to enforce said decision.

After some consideration of the costs involved the session refused this suggestion, and instead have set up a committee to look into ways that the congregation could be encouraged to take part in providing resources for this very important task.

The only concession I could win on your behalf is that you will be allowed to drive past the church on your way to Gartcosh in order for the congregation to wave to you from an appropriate distance still to be specified.

Be assured that I will continue to defend vigorously any attempts by the outsiders to impose further sanctions against you and will keep you updated on developments.

I must go now as I believe my internet transmissions are being monitored by someone hiding in the graveyard, these are dangerous time’s we are living in .

Give my regards to all.

Bad Boy Bennie.'

So Bad Boy tries to make things better, but just manages to ensure that our return to the fellowship next week, will be marked by concerns about our cleanliness and huggability - yes folks, we have learned how to hug - you too are in danger!, And we hug good. Perhaps Sunday week we will dance in Chryston too.

Bad Boy will undoubtedly raise the matter of dancing at the next session meeting on Tuesday - are we allowed to dance to the beat (sorry hymns) or not - Roger needs to know!

Could I apologise to all those not from our church for the direction this blog has taken. I will try and regain control - must stop eating those bananas!

Miracle Mutesa

2010-08-31T21:09:00.009+01:00

Now John is the next person to be blighted by Garlic's obsession to get revenge by giving people nicknames.

This is Miracle John Mutesa.

John is our can do/will do guy. He greets you with a wild swing of the arm, which seeks out your hand to give it a firm welcoming shake, and then either slaps you on the back, or gives you a big hug.

It was he who came to collect us at Kigali Airport; he who delivers a printer to my room when I desperately need one; he who plays the piano, guitar and leads the singing at church, fantastically well; he who is our material negotiator and sorter of deed plans; he who stands beside the Ugandan preacher on Sunday and interprets a twenty minute sermon with brilliant vitality.

John does things, does them very well, he anticipates your needs, and wants to make sure that everything is ok for you. He will even phone you up while you are in a taxi and advise us of what fare to pay - so that we do not get done.

But there is more to John. He has very little family - no-one close. I suspect the genocide is the cause of this. I think about asking why no parents or brothers and sisters, as we walk along the road, but I bottled it - probably to protect both of us from the answer I suspected.

Instead he tells me of hard work at school, scholarships to Bible Training College in South Africa, and when I ask him his plans he says he is content to just continue the work that God has given him here in Kigali.

John is a pastor in L'Eglise Vivante Church. His main role, is to support the work with the orphans, street children, and homeless. He spends lots of time with individuals teaching about the Gospel. This week he is deep in translation and organising a course for an invasion of Rwandan and international ministers.

He is so busy that we have not really had long enough to find out what he is thinking, except I know that he likes preachers who teach from the bible verses, and make Christ relevant to ordinary people like you and me. Rog and I were just saying today that we need to sit down for a couple of hours with this 24 year old, and get to know him even better.

John Mutesa, we hope, is coming to Scotland next June. Roger and I are going to take him sailing and kayaking at Arisaig. He is going to 'love it'(!) and we are going to love having him over, as are all his many friends in Scotland.

So given all of the above - its Miracle Mutesa from now on. I would like to say that he is one in a million, but I am increasingly finding here that there are loads of great people to meet and chat to out here. But John is really fantastic and a great blessing to his church, and all the visitors who come out here

Interesting - me and you are learning more from them, than they from us!

Stats, CADs, KIST, and BBB

2010-08-30T22:14:00.003+01:00

Hi to all you watchers, and bloggers.

I finally found the stats tab on the blog - it had gone walkies. Various emails and texts were telling me there were a few sad (like us) people out there with nothing better to do than watch our progress, and other things.

Well the stats are showing 98 hits yesterday, and 1124 over the last month. Great to have people's support and interest. We have had hits from USA (about 45 - who are all you guys?). Then there is someone in Singapore, a few in Germany. Would be great to know who is watching.

Nice to know from Fiona that the Braehead office is enjoying the occasional laugh re the blog. I hope Chris has got that ice just perfect for my first curling practice when I get back. Pamela - has David McAdam booked practice ice for Mon 13th at lunch time - for him and me - he is a bit silent about it - let me know, but do not tell him I was checking up(!!).

What I particularly liked about the stats was that the top post so far is the one of Roger on his knees. I shall let him know in the morning - he's gone to bed. He's an early bedder - I'm the owl!.

The second biggest number of hits was Roger and the cow - he is obviously becoming quite a celebrity - I mean Roger - not the cow.

Today we were worried about the land deed and eastings and northings. Thanks for those trying to get us information about this - please relax. Having had 3 different readings from land surveyors, some in Congo and others a mile west of the site, we finally managed to get the matter settled, and the land deed has gone off to be registered.

Another problem was the extent of work being requested for the planning application which included an engineering report on all 4 buildings in the site masterplan. We had to visit another architect with much experience of working in Kigali, and have clarified what remains to be done. So we are back on track with deadline of planning application going in on Monday, which we should achieve, though Rog is once again going to be very busy.

This afternoon Paul the Pastor, Roger and I spent about an hour and a half talking about what we need to do to set up the College. This will require some transitional staff, and a gradual growth of courses, probably starting with construction. It is very early days but we need to make sure the staffing and financial plans are in place as soon as possible. Good to get the discussion started and particularly regarding the people with skills that might have a heart for this work.

Tomorrow I have to try and do some CAD drawings and see if I can produce a polished 3D front and back image of the College. Failing this I may have to phone up Gordon Yeaman and ask him to some work again - hopefully not Gordon.

I also want to make appointments with the Rector for the Kigali Institute for Science and Technology - Abraham Atta Ogwo. Abraham has close links with Glasgow, and I met him in Whiteinch in July, and we agreed that we would would spend a bit longer talking about lots of stuff! More of this when I have seen him.

I have to relate that I am pretty grumpy regarding my new nickname. When Norman Cathcart sends me copies of emails marked to Garlic M I know that my concerns re this nickname sticking are coming all too true.

So from Garlic and Roger to all of you - God bless

PS - We are thinking up lots of nicknames for each of you - How about Bad Boy Bennie!