(Some final reflections on Rwanda).
Tom (pictured here) was my Assistant teacher and helped me greatly in the daily English lessons, I gave to Rwandan teachers. A good and wise man, Tom's story epitomised the old and new Rwanda.
In 1994 Tom was just 12 years old. When the genocide began, he and his family fled from the North to a kind of refugee camp in Kigali, thinking it would be safer. One day as the Interahamwe (extremist Hutu Militia) closed in on the camp, Tom ran, and ran, and ran.
He ran so far that he eventually reached the Rwandan border, crossing over to the Congo, where he stayed until the genocide was stopped in July 1994. To get to the Congo from Kigali, is at least 4-5 hours by car, so Tom's marathon run was truly heroic. No doubt hiding from the Interahamwe on the way, and passing through scenes of the utmost tragedy, Tom fed himself on the odd piece of fruit or from food given by a passer by.
Incredibly, after the genocide, Tom was re-united with his mother and a brother who also had managed to survive. He never saw his father again and to this day has not found out what had happened to him.
Meeting Tom, now 27 years of age, you would have never known about his early childhood. His countenance was as cheery as it was determined. He was training to be an English Teacher and had been appointed to help me guide my class to better English. He left the training course a day early in order to attend his own wedding. He told me that our Class had been regularly punctuated by calls from his anxious bride to-be and family asking when he was coming home to help prepare for the wedding!
Tom was a true hero, as were many of the Rwandans I met and taught. Given that the genocide happened just fourteen years ago, it was incredible to see how forward-looking and progressive, so many Rwandans are. Rwanda has a vision that by 2020 it will be more-developed and have a free market flourishing economy underpinned by the rule of law. Given the way things are going, they might actually achieve these aims.
I was more sure of this after one afternoon, when we had a debate (following relevant homework) entitled 'Never Again' - how to stop the genocide from ever happening in Rwanda again. I was nervous about having such a discussion and concerned as to whether it would have a traumatic effect on some of the students. I asked Tom to speak to the class when I was out of the room to check whether they would be happy to debate and work on such a topic. To my surprise, all were up for it.
This discussion, even in broken English, proved to be a fascinating one. The student teachers reached a number of conclusions, such as urging that Commemorative and Memorial Sites, were frequently visited, a respect for human rights and the rule of law, and an outlawing of genocidalist ideology (this is already banned in Rwanda - in the same way Germany makes Holocaust denial illegal).
One student, whose English was quite weak, capped the discussion by stating in almost perfect English that the genocide would never happen again because "where there was love, there was no hate", and where there was a will, there was a way".
All in all, the students showed a huge desire to move positively away from the past. Occasionally, however, there were flashes of the trauma. On my last day, we were having a light hearted debate on whether it was better to be single or married. As the class were joking and laughing. Suddenly, one student got up and said with utmost seriousness that it was better to be single because husbands killed their wives and wives killed their husbands. At this the class went quiet for a brief moment. It gave me a tough reminder that the past is not so easy to forget.
One real highlight came when as a surprise for Tom, the class learnt the Beatles 'I want to hold your hand'. The lyrics had kindly been supplied to me by Steve, a volunteer, and the class sang the song to Tom in order that he would sing it to his fiancee when he returned home. It was a moving occasion!
*******
Some people have said, what on earth can one do in just two weeks in
Rwanda? Well, they have a point. Perhaps what we did was just a drop
in the Ocean. But a drop is a drop nonetheless and is better than
nothing at all.
Moreover as Andrew Mitchell, who organised the whole of Project Umubano said much more powerfully: "it is true it was only two weeks, but in those two weeks we did the maximum possible".
The 100 plus Conservatives worked incredibly hard in their respective fields to try and help in a small way in justice, business, education and constructing the community centre. It was a strange sight to see not just all of us volunteers at work but also senior MPs genuinely mucking in, whether it be marking Rwandan exercise books, or building the community centre. We were all lucky to have the assistance of the Shadow DFID Staff, particularly Richard Parr, Jessical Lever, Ben and Ed Condon. Ed in particular had a ready supply of dry wit and good humour at the most trying of moments.
All of the volunteers had incredible camaraderie and everyone looked out for one another. I will not forget the evening we all saw the moving film 'One Time in April (about the genocide), watching it inside a Church Hall, not yet completed. Before the film we had all been jolly drinking beer and eating kebabs in the outdoors. After the film there was barely a murmur, as everyone was shocked and stunned by what they had seen.
So, all in all, a remarkable two weeks - both illuminating and tragic too as we learnt of the true nature of the genocide.
But there is something about Rwanda that gets into your system and the warm smiles and optimism of the people are infectious. I hope that I helped my English teachers speak the language better, even if only a little. I know that I will return to Rwanda sometime soon - if only to see Tom teach his own school children perfect English.
Robert's previous reports from Rwanda:
- 'It was as if Bergen Belsen had come to the hills of Rwanda'
- Education, education, education
- Umuganda
ConservativeHome has also published reports from Tobias Ellwood MP and Andrew Mitchell MP. Reports from Timothy Barnes and Fiona Hodgson will be published in the next few days.
