Drought

Mumuji by marcovanhout

Just got some water back after four days. As you know from my post on water cuts it's a bit dire at times. Going to buy another reserve bucket at some point. Philip left a 1.5ltr water bottle behind, so I've used that too. It's not too bad, you just wash a lot less and drink fewer cups of tea and coffee. It's never got to crisis point, and I can buy drinking water from Ndoli's if I need it. Still, plenty of fresh water now so I'd better go and make the most of it.

Had a bit of stomach upset this morning. Woke up with sudden cramp and a hot flush. Thought I was going to be sick. Went to the bathroom and sat there for a while feeling a bit weak. It passed quickly, then I went for a lie down. Was absolutely fine after that. Think it was the samosas I bought yesterday. They didn't feel very well heated, and you know when you feel sick and something flashed through your mind and makes you feel worse? All I saw were those :op

For the duration of feeling yucky I vowed (as you do in desperate states) to be a good girl - to be careful about what I eat and to start taking my anti-malarials again, which I've been a bit complacent over the past few weeks. Still, now I'm feeling better and there's one samosa left in the bag... seems a shame to waste it ;)

I've sniffed it a couple of times and I don't think I'll risk it lol But I did pop a pill, which should also help ward off tummy upsets. Taking it a bit easy today, one of my 'resource days'. My friend Andy was a superstar and has set up a website for us. There's nothing up yet, but hopefully it'll grow in time. Working on some content for it at the moment and putting together a sponsorship pack that Dad suggested. It's a bit of information about us, a sort of Christian Aid-type catalogue of what donations could buy for our organisation. Instead of trying to get things shipped out, I'm starting to ask for people to send us the money so that we can try and buy some things here. You can't get everything you want here, but some things are cheaper than shipping from the UK.

My mate Graeme called last night and we had a good chat. I managed to get a clear signal, unlike when Cassie tried to call :( Was most excellent. Should be getting my new bed tonight. Fabian is coming early to help me fetch it from Alexis' house. I'll be glad when that's in place.

After my safari post I had a glance through Flickr for some more pics. Seems quite sensible to link to other people's photos as there seem to be photos of everything on there, many better than I could have taken. It's also very difficult to take photos here. We got into trouble at Philip & Craig's leaving do when someone took photos of our table. A group of Rwandan men at a table behind kicked up a fuss until we explained that we weren't photographing them (don't flatter yourselves!). A lot of people don't like being photographed at all, which makes it difficult around town. So, here's one or two I selected from other people's meanderings. I've tried to pick things that I've seen, and that capture the essence of Kigali:

• Open and mass graves at the Genocide Memorial Centre.
• Kigali town centre: main bus station and bisis (buses), fruit ladies, town centre (round the corner from Atraco bus station), town centre (looking up towards BCR), Nyamirambo (oldest part of the city & Muslim quarter), people carrying stuff.

Just finished Life of Pi - was good but I need to go lie down and have a think about it for a while! 8*S