Wild magical gesticulations of a topless levitating women in an isosceles triangle of shame.

Last week I popped into a Senior 6 class to reschedule a missed period and happened to read some General Paper notes left on the chalkboard. The notes were bizarre but highlighted perfectly the ridiculous incongruities I experience daily in Nyagatare.

General Paper is an all-purpose (supposedly) discussion-driven class on a wide range of topics: Rwandan politics, public health (i.e. AIDS), East African integration, global warming, genocide, gender, etc. I guess it’s an attempt to impart some worldly knowledge to a bunch of students who are utterly disconnected from the world around them. Unfortunately, it really is a rather feeble attempt, and often the notes either lack prioritization or are patently wrong.

These particular notes concerned “Moral Decay” in Rwanda. First of all, seventy percent of my Senior 6 students cannot define the word decay, nor can they define what is moral (obviously, people much smarter than me or my students disagree, but one can make an attempt). That notwithstanding, I was intrigued to see what exactly was rotting Rwanda’s morals. One culprit caught my eye in particular.

Among the half dozen or so reasons for the decay are Rwandese who adopt or imitate European and American culture, thereby undermining Rwandan culture. Listed prominently near this ‘factoid’ was the dissemination of pornography. So, apparently, globalization and the adoption of western culture has increased the viewing of pornography in Rwanda, and consequently Rwandan morals are being attacked from outside. Okay, fair enough.

Later in the day I happened to be in the staff room finishing some lessons. I was alone save for Sawa, the Rwandese school driver, and two Ugandan teachers. The driver and teachers were clustered closely around a laptop and were intently watching something. Well, occasionally the volume would kick up and it sounded suspiciously like the teachers were watching pornography…in the staff room…in the middle of the day! I was dumbfounded and not the least embarrassed. What the hell were they thinking!? What if a student had walked by!?

Here’s the crazy thing. The two teachers are best friends with the same teacher who put those GP notes on the board. They’re all from Uganda, one is preaching about pornography undermining Rwanda, and his two buddies are busy watching pornography in the middle of the afternoon at school. The scenario is so incredible, wacky, and unprofessional it can only be true. And sadly, I see this kind of stupid, totally incongruous behavior daily. One sometimes wonders if a single moment’s thought passes through some people’s minds. I suspect that if I did raise issue with something like this, most Rwandese people would just shrug as if being absolutely insane is a normal state of mind.

I resolved to write a post about this little anecdote late one night last week as Evan and I unwound to some Squire brothers stand-up comedy. They have a hilarious skit about a horribly inappropriate magic show involving a topless levitating woman, and the timing could not have been better. For all I know, those teachers could have been watching the wild gesticulations of a topless levitating woman. Ugggh.