Camp Kalka

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

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

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

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

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

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

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