Apprehension in Butare

So not only was I apprehensive about returning to work with the fledgling university radio station, Radio Salus, which went on the air last November, but it seemed my fears were confirmed upon my arrival. The first thing I saw on the interim station director’s desk was a copy of a newspaper from the precise week of the station’s launch – no current newspaper either daily or weekly – just a paper dated November 2005. Yikes, I thought, this can’t be happening. Surely they realize some four months have passed.

I tried to ignore the paper, but couldn’t, I mean it was right there -- one of the few things on his desk. It wouldn’t escape my peripheral vision no matter how hard I tried.

With the old newspaper as our audience, the interim director began to fill me in on the happenings of the past four months. It didn’t start well. The previous director had left almost two months previously (which I had been aware of) and Aldo was the interim director. What I didn’t know was that Aldo had already taken another job and would likely already be gone by the time a new director was hired. I was mortified. There would be no continuity, no historical memory.

Our chat continued and despite my abhorrence of the word ‘problem’ it was used a lot…and not just by Aldo. I was just as guilty. There had been several technical problems many of which were solved by our French savior, Vincent, who worked for the university’s computer department. The second transmitter was still being held hostage by Rwandan customs and there seemed to be no idea when it would be released, nor when it could then be installed. This second transmitter will allow the station to reach Kigali and will mean Radio Salus will reach almost 100% of the country’s population. It also means there is greater potential for future regional radio partnerships.

Currently, the signal reaches the southern half of Rwanda extending into northern Burundi. And while we don’t get all the way up north, depending on whether you’re on a hill or in a valley, you can get the signal all the way in the northeastern part of Rwanda. The station often receives call from Ruhengeri, famous as the starting point for visits to the mountain gorillas.

Three days have passed and after numerous meetings and chats I realize how far the station has come. Yes, of course, there are issues, or problems (I still prefer challenges) but I’ve been completely impressed with the initiative of the students and the journalists. They believe in what they are doing and that is something that I’ve always found encouraging – the fact that the journalists I’ve worked with in Rwanda want to make a difference. And that is clearly the case here at Radio Salus. Somehow, despite the absence of solid leadership (or, dare I say, any leadership at all) they’ve organized themselves, their programming and the station as a whole.

They’re archiving their material, maintaining program logs and basically doing the best they can with what they’ve got and while we still have a lot of work to do, at least for the moment I’m impressed.

But I have yet to find out why last November’s newspaper was sitting on Aldo’s desk.