A couple of years ago I started to write a diary recounting some of my journeys in Africa – mainly so I didn't have to repeat my stories countless times when I got back to Ireland. Now I see the diary more as a reflective journal and a way for me to learn from my experiences – an essential requirement when working in Africa. For those who have read my earlier entries welcome back, and for those new to the diary forgive my self-indulgence. As always if this is all too much for you please just ask to be unsubscribed. Thanks
Sunday February 14th
Johannesburg – Maseru
Jekyll & Hyde in Lesotho
I had last been in Lesotho in June 2009 to find the Hub in complete disarray. Frustratingly it has taken us this long to get rid of the old management and stabilise operations. I had planned to meet Trisha Olsson (Head Africa HQ) and Farid Ali (Africa HQ Technical Director) here to see whether the Hub had a future and how much commitment there was from our local partner to make this work. Without that commitment we would start a process of winding things up and concentrating on other countries.
Landed in Lesotho's capital Maseru, a short 40 minute flight from Johannesburg, and traveled to my B&B 'Boikhutsong' just outside the city centre. Lesotho is one of the most expensive countries in Africa due to its proximity to South Africa and the B&B, despite being one of the cheapest in town still cost Malotti 250 (€25) per night. Met Trisha and Farid before traveling to the National University of Lesotho which is situated around 40kms south of Maseru in a town called Roma. The campus is spread out over lush green acres, and with low rise buildings of bright limestone and warm sunshine it reminded me very much of Stanford's campus in Northern California. We wanted to see if this could be the site for our new Hub – but it being Sunday there was no one around to talk to so not this time Roma!
This was the first time I had been in Lesotho during the summer months (Ireland's winter) and the term 'Jekyll & Hyde' only begins to hint at the difference in character of the country between these seasons. February is Dr Jekyll, warm breezes, green landscape dotted with pretty-coloured flowers and people smiling. July is Mr Hyde, barren bleak landscape, people huddled in blankets and temperatures dropping to -10C at night. Despite my crude characterisation of Lesotho, the team of Camara volunteers who always visit in winter, come home captivated by the country – its stark beauty at this time of year.
Monday February 15th
Maseru – TY
Enterprising People - both Good and Bad
Myself and Trisha (who also chairs the local Board) were meeting with the Hub's Directors this morning to establish their commitment to making the Hub work. We know from hard won experience that there is very little impact we can make, or sustain, from Ireland without their support, and to use the colloquial term we are not interested in just 'p*&sing in the wind'.
Both local Directors are from SchoolNet Lesotho (SNL), Nelson is the headmaster of a large secondary school and Malefetsane has just retired from being Head of the National Curriculum Development Unit in the Department of Education. I genuinely like both men and find them competent and hugely committed to the ideals of Camara. However to make anything work in Africa, you need 'blood, sweat and tears' - the blood and tears we have had but now we wanted to find out about the sweat. The meeting went well, skillfully led by Trisha and we left with a renewed sense of hope. Next stop was a visit to the Hub in TY, a place which I described in detail in my diary entry last year (excerpt below):
'Thursday July 2nd 2009
Maseru - TY
A Horrible Day
Some days are bad days. This one was very bad. ............ I went to visit the Lesotho Hub for the first time since August 2008 when I had last saw it as just a shell that our volunteers had helped paint. The good news – there were lots of computers there. The bad news – there were lots of computers there, about 800 Camara machines in total (with revenue potential to the Hub of some €40,000) waiting to get sent out to schools. There were other problems: lack of volunteers, poor technical capacity; lack of documentation; no training programs; and limited marketing or follow-up with the schools. The Hub was also quite messy with stuff scattered everywhere (also not a good sign) and no obvious systems in place. I was not happy.'
One of our volunteers subsequently reported finding a rat inside one of the computers - both the rat and the computer were dead!
The first thing I noticed this time was that there were far fewer computers lying around the Hub. Many had been sold but unfortunately much of the money received from the schools had not reached our bank account. We also heard about one enterprising volunteer who had set up a side business in selling cheap computers to students in the National Health Training Centre. He would take the computers outside the front of the workshop to clean with an air-blower and had arranged for a taxi to periodically drive buy and pick them up. Unfortunately for the Hub he had neglected to let them know he was doing this! A short chat with the local police stopped this little enterprise but no money or computers were recovered.
For every negative there is a positive, and when we arrived at the Hub there was a real buzz about place. Despite all the chaos and bad management, a local women called Mary had set up a teaching centre and was training over 50 local people in basic computer skills. They had each paid the Hub 120 Malotti (€12), and they would come during Hub opening times (8am to 7pm) to receive instruction and practice their skills. One women, who was getting paid a small fraction of what our last CEO had received, had done this and had demonstrated to me again that every time you despair in Africa you meet people who fill you with hope for the future.
Tuesday February 16th
Maseru
Ireland and Lesotho
Trisha left early this morning to fly to a Board meeting at our Zambian operations and Farid traveled back up to TY to start reorganising the Hub. This is where Farid excels, setting up operational procedures, training local staff and most importantly evangelising the Camara message among everyone he meets. He has done this in Kenya and Zambia, and his commitment to Camara and skill in communicating with the local people is a huge asset for our organisation.
I stayed in Maseru and went to the Irish Embassy were I met Thomas Geoghegan (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/thomas-geoghegan/11/448/b67), a ex-classmate of mind from University College Dublin (UCD), who is working in the Irish Aid Section of the embassy. I also met with Paddy Fay the Irish Ambassador who exemplifies the high quality of Ambassadors that Ireland has in Africa. Approachable, helpful and with a huge local knowledge he and others like him are the cornerstones of Ireland's foreign affairs policy in the region. Paddy's next assignment I understand is as Ambassador to Nigeria – lets wish him Good Luck on that one!
I don't fully understand why, but the connection between Ireland and Lesotho is very strong. Lesotho is Ireland's longest running Aid program (started in 1975) and Ireland is the country's largest bi-lateral donor. Also surprisingly, Ireland is the only European country to have an embassy in the country (along with China, The US, Libya and South Africa).
In the evening myself and Farid went out to dinner to the only Indian restaurant in Lesotho – The Regal (http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Africa/Lesotho/Maseru-2226831/Restaurants-Maseru-BR-1.html) – located in a building known at the Basotho Hut. Think of a mini sky scraper with a thatched roof. At the restaurant we met up with Thomas again and four 4 UN Volunteers (UNVs), two of whom were Irish – Fiona and Steven. The UNVs are staying in the unheated UN Compound on the outskirts of Maseru and all are very excited to be in the country. I didn't have the heart to tell them about the joys of a Lesotho winter!
Wednesday February 17th
Maseru – JoBurg – Addis Ababa
Oscar Wilde
The flights were on time, the airports forgettable and the airline food nutritious but not 'haute cuisine'. On leaving Lesotho I was relatively happy with the outcome of the trip, but Ethiopia I suspect will be more problematic.
The origin of Camara was in Ethiopia. During a research trip in 2005, I made an idle promise to a number of teacher training colleges that I would get them second hand computers from Ireland, and from that promise Camara was born. One of those institutions was Harambee College in Adama and from that initial contact, developed a relationship that eventually became a partnership known as the Hamara Digital Hub (officially opened by Minister Trevor Sargent in November 2008).
The purpose of my short trip to Ethiopia was to meet Ato (Mr) Feyissa Ararassa, our local partner and owner of Harambee College and tell him we were now withdrawing from that partnership. Feyissa is a very competent business man, who has created a number of successful and sustainable educational businesses in the country but unfortunately we could not reconcile Camara's social mission with his profit-orientation. He had established a top class Technology Hub and heavily promoted Camara's name throughout the Oromia region, but our monitoring and evaluation system had showed us that not all our computers were been sent to schools, and those that were, were being sold at a much higher price than we wanted. Despite strengthening our governance of the Hub and putting additional M&E procedures in place, our partner remained an 'entrepreneur' more than a 'social entrepreneur' and this we ultimately could not live with. This is the second partnership that Camara has had to terminated, the first being in Kenya in September 2008 and while Camara does occasionally(!) make mistakes, I hope we recognise them early on, rectify those mistakes quickly and learn from them. Having said all that, I am reminded of the famous quote by one of Ireland's most famous writers, Oscar Wilde
To lose one Hub, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
Thursday February 18th
Addis Ababa
The EU in Africa
I started the day with a much needed haircut in the barbers of the Desssalegn Hotel opposite the EU compound (where I had scheduled a meeting for later in the morning). At 25 Ethiopian Birr (€1.5) all-in, it seemed like a good deal at the time but 45 minutes later, as he continued to cut each hair individually, I had to rip of the cloak, throw money on the counter and race for the door - exhibiting all the characteristics of the rude 'farangi' (foreigner) that I was. The EU seemed quite interested at first, but when they found out we were only looking for funding of a couple of hundred thousand euro they soon lost interest. It seems the EU (at least in Ethiopia) only deals in large scale projects (a minimum of €500,000) and everything below that is not on their radar. Note to Camara's Strategic Planning Department. We really need to scale up.
I next hooked up with Philip O'Dwyer (http://www.linkedin.com/in/philipjodwyer), Camara's representative in Ethiopia and together we went to meet with Marianne Byrne, the Country Director of Irish NGO, Concern (www.concern.ie). As usually we were trying to scrounge some small things (an office, space to drop a 40ft container, and help in bringing the container into the country) and as usual Concern delivered. They were positive, helpful and professional – a world class NGO in my opinion.
On then to meet Oliver Ryan the head of another Irish NGO called Vita (www.vita.ie - formerly Refugee International) to ask advice about getting Camara set up as an NGO in its own right. The Government has recently tightened legislation on NGO registration in Ethiopia as they do not want international organisations getting involved in advocacy or human rights in the country.
Travel Tip. Ended the day with dinner at The Juventus Club, which is a discrete Italian bar and restaurant behind Meskel Square. The club has a colourful history and has survived intact under a number of Ethiopian regimes. It is not referenced in any tourist guides and its very hard to find but, for adventurous travelers, the food is wonderful so I am happy to mention it here.
Friday February 19th
Addis Ababa
'The End' (apologies to The Doors)
I think our Ethiopian partner Feyissa knew the end was coming. Over coffee we told him we were (with regret) withdrawing from Hamara and he responded that he was also been considering this. He said that he was coming under increasing scrutiny from Ethiopian authorities to reconcile the 'social enterprise' model we were trying to promote and his own business interests.
Anyone who has worked in Ethiopia knows how frustrating it is to get things done – the red tape in the system and the culture of dependency built up over decades makes it difficult to be productive. And this was the main reason why I liked working with Feyissa - he got things done. Even when we had initial concerns over the prices he was charging schools for computers we tried hard to make the relationship work because the alternative, as a young organisation, of doing it ourselves was too frightening. In all honestly we should probably have pulled the plug six months ago, but we didn't and now the end when it came was a relief for me (and probably also for Feyissa). Alexander Graham Bell once said:
When one door closes another one opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
With that famous quote firmly in our minds we shook hands, and myself and Philip went of to meet our Ethiopian Lawyer, Mengesha to start opening the door to setting Camara Ethiopia up as a registered NGO.
Saturday February 20th
Addis Ababa – Kampala
An Englishman in Africa
Flew from Addis to Kampala (Entebbe Airport) this morning to meet up with John Brown (http://thefactory.moodboard.com/post/Interview-with-Mr-John-Brown.aspx), who was flying in from London later that evening. John is a successful English business man who is considering getting involved in Camara as Chair of our UK sister organisation, Camara Learning. We had agreed to spend the week together, traveling in Uganda and Rwanda looking more closely at our operations on the ground. I also wanted to find out if John truly bought into the Camara mission and in turn I'm sure he wanted to take a closer look at me.
I really wanted to make a good first impression on John and so had agreed to meet him off his plane this evening. Despite an upset stomach, I had an enjoyable dinner and a couple of beers with Karolanne (Head of the Uganda Hub) at Le Petit Bistro restaurant (some of the best Talapia from Lake Victoria) before setting out for Entebbe a little later than expected. However Steven, the Camara driver, used all his skills to ensure we arrived at the airport not long after John's plane had landed and as I waited expectantly at the Arrivals gate I felt confident everything was going to be OK. Big mistake! Remember that upset stomach? Be very careful in Africa that you don't pass wind when you are suffering from a severe case of diarrhea, and you are about to meet an important Englishman as he steps off his plane. That's all I am going to say on the matter.
Sunday February 21th
Kampala – Fort Portal
Ugandan Rolexes
I don't think John noticed anything last night. If he did, I'm sure he put it down to those unique African earthy smells not found anywhere else in the world. I had booked him into Camara's normal hotel in Kampala, the Olympic in the Kansanga district - a modern en suite room with balcony and fan for 40,000 Ugandan Schillings (€13 per night). The hotel was a 5 minute walk from a bar called 'Cuddles and Tickles' and in the morning we had the pleasure of meeting another European guest in the lobby, who insisted on sharing his bottle of vodka with us before breakfast. All-in-all I'm sure this hotel will have created the right impression of Camara for John!
The drive to Camara's Hub in Fort Portal takes around 6 hours and as there had been some recent robberies en route we wanted to set out early to arrive before night fall. What with John recovering from his shell shock and having to extricate ourselves from our new vodka-sharing friend it wasn't until 1pm before we set of to Mubende, a market town half way along the route. There, Karolanne introduced us to the joys of Ugandan Rolexes – an omelette, tomatoes, onions and other vegetables cooked fresh on the road side and rolled up in a chapati ('Rolled Eggs') to make a Rolex Ugandan style (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0pTTCdUY00). Washed down with ginger beer a meal deserving of the name.
Those who had read my diary of June 2009 will be wondering what has happened to my famous exercise regime this time out. It has not been neglected, but I am ashamed to say that yesterday was the first (and as it transpires the only day) that I managed to fit it into my busy schedule. Despite that, my press-up count (full press-ups) has risen to 330 and my sit-ups has increased to 350. I know some have questioned the authenticity of these numbers but I stand by them fully.
Monday February 22nd
Fort Portal
Changes
The day started with a visit to a local primary school in Fort Portal – The Green Circle School (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS4ftId559Q) – that has received a Learning Centre from Camara. This is the type of school we love – a progressive headmistress, engaged parents and committed teachers. The school raised the money to buy the computers themselves and all the teachers and the principal have participated in Camara's training course and are all now computer literate. The school however is private and the pupils come from Ugandan middle class families, albeit very poor families relative to Irish levels, who are better able to afford a technology-driven education program than some of their public school counterparts. One of our ongoing debates within Camara is whether to give computers to schools that need them the most (mainly government schools) or to schools that will use them the most, i.e. better funded private schools. We haven't yet reached a conclusion to that debate at present.
We then spent the rest of the day visiting vacant buildings around Fort Portal looking at possible new locations for the Camara Hub. We have been working in Mountains of the Moon University (MMU) since 2007 and have received tremendous support from the outgoing Vice Chancellor, Douglas Nisbet, a Scotsman who has been on assignment with Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM) for the last three years. He is now leaving, and the new local Vice Chancellor, probably with some input from certain departments in the University, does not seem as committed to our work. Disputes over money and ongoing harassment of our volunteers have forced us to look outside of MMU at alternatives sites for our workshop and training centre. Luckily there are several available and the prices are very good (around €150 per month for 2,000 square feet) so we moving from the University and having a more informal relationship with them may be a blessing in disguise.
Travel Tip. If you are traveling through Fort Portal and want to experience a bit of luxury, have a pre-dinner drink on the veranda of Mountains of the Moon Hotel (www.mountainsofthemoon.co.ug/) - no connection to the University. Then have one of the best dinners in Uganda at Rwenzori (this word also means Mountains of the Moon in the local language) View Guest House run by an Englishman, Maurice and his Dutch wife. Rumours are that Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman 'were roughing it' in both these establishments when completing their arduous journey through Africa in their epic TV program 'The Long Way Down'.
Tuesday February 23rd
Fort Portal – Kigali
The Long Way Down (in a van)
Got up at 6am ready for an early start. No one else around but myself and John, who decided to go looking for some breakfast before we started. He soon came back to inform me he had heard a rustling in the larder and went to investigate only to come upon a rather large rat scurrying across the shelves. What surprise me though was not the rat, but the fact that its appearance didn't appear to affect John's appetite as he wolfed down his rather ample breakfast 15 minutes later.
We had decided to take the 9 hour overland trip from Fort Portal to Kigali rather than traveling back to Kampala and flying direct. The towns we were to pass through – Kabale, Hima, Kasese, Ndeke, Ishaka, Mbarara, Rubaare, Kabale (another one) – only hints at the sense of adventure we felt as we left Fort Portal. The only downside of this trip was that we would be crossing the equator and passing through Queen Elizabeth National Park, Rwenzori National Park and Kibale Forest without stopping. These are some of the greatest wildlife reserves in the world and – in my wife's terms - its like going on holidays to Manhattan but not visiting the shops.
On the way down we did stop in Kasese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasese) to visit a couple of primary schools that had received a Camara Learning Centre. It was good to see the computers in operation but our timing could not have been more unfortunate as the Principal of one of the schools had just been informed that his son had been seriously injured in a road accident and he was racing to the hospital to see him. Somewhat subdued by this we continued our journey aware of how fragile life was in Africa and how petty Camara's problems really are.
We arrived at the Uganda-Rwanda border at around 4pm and crossed over uneventfully to meet Eddy (CEO of Camara's Rwandan Hub) on the other side. The town where we crossed, Gatuna/Katuna, appeared peaceful but this was not always so. In 1994, before, during and after the genocide large numbers of refugees fled north across the border while large numbers of predominantly Tutsi soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) moved south towards Kigali. Even today, the border crossing lies only 15kms from one of the most dangerous and violent regions of the world – the eastern DRC.
Every place in Rwanda has a story connected with the genocide. Eddy had booked us in to Chez Lando, not the top hotel in Kigali but after the Uganda hotels a real step up in quality. The founder of the hotel was Landoald 'Lando' Ndasingwa and for those interested in history, below is a short description of the man.
Ndasingwa was a former professor at the University of Rwanda, an ethnic Tutsi and leader of the moderate Parti libéral du Rwanda.. He was a Minister in the Habyarimana Government [Habyarimana was a moderate Hutu killed in a plane crash which triggered the genocide]. On April 7, following Habyarimana's death, Ndasingwa and his Canadian wife, Hélène, both graduates of Montréal's McGill University, were abducted from their house along with their two children by the government's Presidential Guard, despite being under UNAMIR protection. All were subsequently killed. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lando_Ndasingwa)
Today the hotel is run by his sister Anne-Marie Kantengwa.
Wednesday February 24th
Kigali – Nyatama
The New Hub
Camara's new Rwandan Hub is based in Kigali, close to the national football stadium and on a hill with spectacular views looking towards the city's international airport. The Hub is essentially a large house that has been converted into a Technology Centre with a sizable refurbishment workshop and several training rooms. This was my first visit since they had moved in and I was keen to spend some time speaking to the young volunteers who have quickly gravitated to our facilities once they were opened.
The majority of the volunteers are male, unemployed and had left school without the grades or the money to get into a third level college. They see Camara as a place to learn technical skills which they can then translate into a livelihood for themselves. Most had never used a computer before they came to the Hub but Marcos (our Technical Director who had come with us last July as a Camara Volunteer and decided to stay) has started a competition among them to see who could type the fastest using our typing training software. The winner, Nicholas - who could now type at 156 characters a minute- was a relatively new volunteer to Camara. Despite being shy and somewhat embarrassed about his new found fame you could see a real fire of ambition and determination burning in his eyes. I asked him where he had been in 1994, when the genocide took place, and he said Kigali and then he turned his face away struggling with emotion. I didn't ask him any more questions, although I desperately wanted to understand better what he had experienced.
In the afternoon we visited some Camara Learning Centres in Nyamata, a large town 30 kms south of the capital and then returned to Kigali to meet with the EU Commission. Last year we had been awarded a sizable grant from the EU to develop our program in the country, but before the final details had been put on the contract we were informed that the grant would not be paid The reason essentially came down to the fact that the EU had trouble reconciling our 'social enterprise' structure with their normal understanding of what a development NGO looks like. As a result of losing this grant, Camara had to make a number of staff redundant and postpone certain key initiatives. At the time we comforted ourselves by saying 'What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger'.
We came out of the meeting with a better understanding of how we needed to structure ourselves in order to qualify for EU but unfortunately not with the money.
Thursday February 25th
Kigali – Entebbe – London
I was flying back to London this evening and John back to Uganda but before leaving for the airport we decided to travel back down to Nyatama to meet with the government's District Education Officer. After the meeting, John asked if we could visit the local memorial to the genocide at Bugesera church. I had visited a smaller site in Kigali two years ago and found the experience very emotional and so had been reluctant to visit similar memorials since. Reluctantly I went and found, the church to be a very peaceful, quiet place of reflection – in contrast to the horrific scenes of murder and brutality I would have experienced if I visited only 16 years ago http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/despatches/82978.stm
Sitting in Entebbe Airport waiting for the flight to London and looking at a video of my daughter at her Holy Communion I know its time to head home. What have I learned on this trip?
Write up your diary at the end of each day, not two months after things have happened. Its much easier!
Take the tough decisions early. They may be hard but they'll get much harder the longer you leave them (Changing our Ethiopia partner should have been done 6 months ago)
Inside every failure and screw up there is some good news (The discovery of Mary our training coordinator in Lesotho)
The English are actually OK. Testament to John Brown – A successful business man and blue blood, with a strong sense of humanity who made a wonderful traveling companion and who charmed everyone he met.
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