I now have 22 school headmasters wrapped around my little finger.

Myself and Andrew, my Rwandan boss who runs the HIV prevention project from Kigali ran a meeting 2 weeks ago to outline the plan for 2007, get all headteachers on board, ask some controversial questions (such as whether you could talk about condoms in church schools), and basically get them to like us as much as possible so that they’ll help us out when required. Headmasters are the key to making things happen.

So we ran a workshop outlining the importance of the work we do (HIV prevalence in Rwanda being about 250,000 which was 31 times the number of secondary school students and teachers and headmasters in our district), and what activities we think are important. We then got them to discuss and prioritise them so that they have ownership of the project. This is not about us coming in and doing things – this is about them deciding what they want to happen and helping to enforce it. Though I received the mandatory smiles by introducing myself in Kinyarwanda, I spoke in French for the rest of it and Andrew – whose English is better than his French because he grew up in Uganda, spoke in Kinyarwanda. We carried out a bunch of activities and group work, ran some games to waken them up and facilitated some discussions and presentations. On one activity, I tried to make them think about all the problems we would face such as cultural values (eg, polygamy, the reticence to talk openly, the practice of a widow being married off to her brother-in-law) religious problems, or logistical problems (size of the district, the rainy season etc). To show them what I meant I drew a chart on some paper and stuck it on the wall of the room. An arrow-head whose stem started with ‘current situation’ and whose head ended with ‘ideal situation’. On top we would draw the challenges and on the bottom we would mark in what we already had in our favour. But to lighten the mood a little, I chose a different sort of project; “Le Projet Maggie Marriage” which had them all immediately giggling, marriage being more than a hot topic here. I started with outlining how the current situation was that I was 23 and without a husband (shocking indeed). I asked them what the ideal situation would be and drew their suggestions; “You need a husband!”, “And children!” – ok, a boy or a girl? “Both!” (in unison). Then I asked what challenges I faced – “You have no money!”, “You are far from your home culture!” “You do not speak kinyarwanda!” – and Andrew chirps up from the side with a smile on his face “Maybe you’re not beautiful...” I had to hold them back, jokingly saying “ok, ok, you are finding way too many challenges for me!”. They made up for it though by finding a few things that I had to my advantage – being “dynamique” was one, having been to school was another.

Since then, I’ve spent two weeks going over all the feedback from the session, the plans for 2007 we made, and constructing a breakdown of all the info to write up in French for them. Today and yesterday I’m acting as a courier and biking around some of the schools to hand over the letters. It has been really really nice however going into the schools – which are shut at the moment for the long holidays – and having the headmasters leap to their feet; “Maggie! How are you! What news have you of your family... etc etc”. It was great to be active and run my own sessions, making them as lighthearted and interesting as possible, with games and group work, especially since here, meetings are very much the same as in a classroom. You sit, you listen and when you are asked you may perhaps respond to the question, effectively you listen to what’s decided without deciding for yourself. This will often last 4 hours. Having said that, I see much improvement from the old days 5 years ago in Tanzania where it was even worse. Rwanda are making some fantastically huge steps. All credit to them.

Here I am with my wonderful 'powerpoint' presentation...Rwanda-style.