Magic Lever

The offending water tank.

I have found a magic lever in my garden…Well, I didn’t entirely find it on my own. My water tank is on a high stand and sometimes it overflows, cascading water onto the grass. Philip discovered a while ago that if you pull the lever up, the water stops. So, I reasoned that when the water stops, if I push it down, the water might start. This is indeed the case sometimes. During water cuts I can pull the lever and, miraculously, I get a little water back. This doesn’t seem to work every time, but it’s worth knowing and trying. I'm feeling quite proud of this new discovery, although the water is currently irrevocably off again for the past 24 hours.

Typing this entry at work with the brand new keyboard Dad sent us. It’s making my life sooooo much better. Before, we had a keyboard with some strange kind of kanji on it. The Q was where the A should have been, the M was a semi-colon, and all sorts of weird things. We had to relabel the keys. This one is just a lovely, straightforward British keyboard made from yummy brushed metal. Very cool, very impressed Léon. It works like a dream.

It was my first day back on Friday, a really relaxed day. Léon and I finished the financial report for our project, took it to VSO, then went into town to the Post Office. Two letters from home had arrived with a couple of parcel slips – took about six weeks for them to arrive! Last time I went to the Post Office, I came back fuming because the guy behind the desk charged me FRW 2,000 (£2) to pick up a small parcel. This time Léon was standing next to me. I collected one huge parcel (with the keyboard in it) and another the same size as the small one last time – FRW 200 (20p)!

So, it helps to take a big, beautiful Rwandese friend with you.

The weekend was nice and quiet. I met up with Alexis on Saturday, and saw his town house which he lives in whilst here. His family live out in a rural area. He showed me pictures of his family, his graduation and wedding. He explained to me a bit of the history behind the troubles kicking off in Kenya at the moment. I didn’t even know anything had happened ‘til I picked up a copy of The Times here. It said we’d run out of petrol in Kigali because of it. I tend not to see newspapers or read the news much, and I don’t have a television or radio. I like it that way because, when somebody does tell me something, it’s exciting :)

After that, we went to a lovely local bar near his office, which was all outside and partitioned by woven walls into cubbies. There was a major power cut, so everywhere was lit by candles, which was lovely. I wasn’t eating much because of my tooth, though. I’ve had crazy bad wisdom tooth problems the past week. Cutting two on the same side. They had a sudden growth spurt which caused my neck gland to swell up and I got earache for a couple of days. It’s all settled down again now though – back to normal.

We also had an interesting discussion about famine and malnutrition. Alexis was saying there’s a lot of it here. I was explaining that Western outsiders wouldn’t realise that because the country is so green. We’re used to associating starvation in Africa with desert scenes like Ethiopia and Sudan. Everywhere you go here, you see people tilling the land and growing things. He told me that people don’t grow enough – it’s only in small quantities. They have no idea about irrigation or farming methods, so there isn’t enough for the huge population. On the road to Akagera Park there’s a lay-by with four shiny new red tractors in it. He’d noticed them, and so had other volunteers I talked to later, but apparently the tractors weren’t for farming, they’re for laying roads. People here are very hungry, he said. From my experience in Nyanza, I can well believe it.

On the Sunday evening I went to Stella 2, a bar across from my house, to meet Philip, Craig, Martine, Joanne & Morley, their daughter, and Mel and her sister. Craig and Philip are leaving on the eighth. They’re both short-term volunteers and their placements are up. This will be really sad as Philip has been a good companion, going out for meals and to the swimming pool. I will really miss him. Unfortunately, his wife couldn’t come out that night as she’s come down quite unwell. She is staying on for another week after Philip goes, due to difficulties with travel arrangements, so I'm going to keep her company and make sure she’s okay. I've given her some rehydration salts, so hopefully it’ll pass.

Getting excited about the new volunteers coming out on the 8th, as I know a couple of them from training back at Harborne. Bruce always knew he was coming to Rwanda, but another guy, Chris, just found out and is arriving in February. Both are stationed quite a way away, Bruce in Butare in the South, and Chris over in Nyagatare in the East – but at least that’s places I can go and visit :)

Today, I’m hanging out in the office, reading Life of Pi, which is what I exchanged Tipping the Velvet for. It’s very different, but I’m really enjoying it. Waiting to meet Augustin at about four to plan our next quarterly budget for VSO.

In the meantime, I’m working on my own little project which is to set up IT/Word/Excel training for some of our volunteers. I found a guy at the recording studio next door who’s a competent teacher. He’s just given me a course and budget outline. I’m going to go and see Alexis tomorrow, as he has a big computer suite at his office. I can discuss this with him then, once I’ve got it all planned out in my mind. I can put it to VSO and hopefully get the money. It would require a huge commitment from the volunteers but, if they actually turn up and it works, perhaps this will be the first of many such ventures! Feeling quite proud of myself for getting this far and collecting so much coherent information.

Also feeling proud about my Kinyarwanda progress. The guy downstairs in the shop is really cool. He keeps making me use Kinya if I want to buy anything, so now I can order four samosas and a bottle of cold coke with a straw. He finds it amusing that I like swimming so much. Alexis has also firmly rooted in my mind the complete sentence: ‘My name is not muzungu, that’s rude. I have a name, my name is this.’ But he told me to be gentle with people because they won’t realise it’s wrong to shout muzungu at me. I’m thinking of hiring Eric, Sue’s fiancé, to teach me more.

Philip’s calling around again later and we’re going for another last meal, bit quieter this time. Hopefully Fiona will be well enough to join us.