In With the New

Fish Brochette

Had a brilliant day yesterday.

Got up early and went into town to meet Martine and Cathryn (an Irish volunteer who's been here a year now). Five new volunteers arrived on 8th January and are undergoing ICT1 at Amani guest house.

We met them at the Chinese Shop, which is the closest thing to a department store, and helped them buy lots of stuff for their new homes. The look of flustered confusion brought back a wash of nostalgia ;)

Bruce, my friend from Harborne, was amongst them.

We shopped for a couple of hours, then got a lift back to Amani for free food. They do great melange, again it brought back memories. Makes me realise how settled I am here now. I had a good chat to the new ones: Tiga-Rose, Marisa, Soraya, Bruce & Epiphanie (who is half-Rwandese). They're doing well, feeling a little overwhelmed but fine.

Cathryn, Martine and myself sat around chatting for ages afterwards, which was lovely. I managed to buy some bedding for my new bed, and bought a really cool bit of foam on the end of a stick which will make washing my floors a breeze! (It's the little things.)

After that, I walked with Martine to the bus stop, then up the hill to my house, and chilled out for the afternoon. Paula was down from Gahini visiting Martine, so I took a couple of bisis across town to Nyamirambo, which is absolutely pumping at night time! Very cool place, must go exploring.

We went to Panorama, a bar up from Martine's house that does amazing fish brochettes. There's a gorgeous view of Kigali, bit like at SoleLuna.

It was a most excellent night. We sat and chatted for ages, then I got a moto all the way back across town, which was seriously exhilarating - about 25 minutes of Easy Rider ;)

Got home to find a massive cockroach in my bathroom. I jumped, he jumped - and fell into my toilet! Shit, thought I, I really need to pee bad! There was no water in the cistern, so I couldn't flush it out. Then it crawled up under the rim. I tried DEETing it and throwing water up there, but no joy. There was no way I was going to sit on the toilet with that thing in there, so I took an empty water bottle from the kitchen, used a knife to make a sort of P-Mate, and went like a bloke. Did the job. No idea what happened to the cockroach, but I'm back to sitting on the loo now - thankfully. The bottle design is a good one - would come in handy for squat-holes. Might make some and leave them on the shelf at VSO.

[NB 2013: This is the final special post, in which I really met Cathryn for the first time. Although, she claims she remembers seeing me at my in-country training. Apparently I was walking round in circles like a nutter and she thought to herself 'that one's okay.' Which gives you an insight into the company I keep. Martine, Cathryn and Jo are the people I've remained closest to since returning. They are three of the strongest, most supportive and generous women I've ever met. Rwanda was worth every second to come away with friendships like that.]