IT Training Begins :) *Cheer Goes Up*

Amandazi

Wharra Monday lol

Hugely productive! Started in VSO, where I set up a Capacity Building folder for all the vols to share presentations and files. There was one before apparently, but the computer crashed and it got wiped. Jo has back-ups, so I will re-do it all eventually. Updated the main 'file of all knowledge' and Terms of Reference to include missing slides and new volunteers, then e-mailed an inventory of everything we currently have to all the CB members.

Left a 'suggestion' in the box that VSO don't sit on parcel slips, after what happened the other week. I'd also sent a narked text to Heather, the wonderful lady who's here to sort out the admin problems. She saw me and we had a talk - she's great. Apparently they'd cleared out the store cupboard on Friday, hence I received all the parcel slips. They'd just been sitting there, or in someone else's pigeon hole. Seems the way to go may be to set up a PO Box of our own between a group of vols. She's going to try and find out how much it costs.

Anyway, did that and a heap of other small administrative things, including lodging my holiday form for Kampala! Huzah!

I came back and did some e-mailing and general work-related admin. Bought a stack of 10 notebooks for the IT training. Someone (thanks Miss E. King) had very, very kindly sent out a whole box of wonderful goodies, which arrived Friday - including 40 biros, which has saved us some cash :)

At 2pm Rose arrived. I'd told D that I needed to get a mushanana made for Léon's wedding. He said he knew someone who could do that. She's E's ex-wife, but he didn't tell me that part ;) She is totally lovely. We headed into town as I'd seen some fabric I really liked, but it turned out it wasn't suitable for mushananas. How glad am I that I had a personal shopper!? 

She showed me what I was looking for and we went down to the cloth street where all the shops are. We found a really lovely one - brown with satin flowers, really tastefully done. That cost me FRW 29,000. Then we bought the lining for the skirt next door - FRW 3,000 (1,000/£1 per metre). She said that because I'm a friend of D's she will make it for 5,000 (£5!) but I think I will add to that. I already have a little black vest top that you wear underneath. I need to get some kitten heels, too. You have to wear heels with mushananas, apparently.

I was running late for the IT workshop, so hopped a moto and agreed to meet her again later in the evening. Got to Exfod, the venue, opposite my house just in time. People weren’t too late. Alain, the teacher, was already there and everyone was in by twenty-past. Augustin came and delivered the money to me for volunteers' transport etc.

It was brilliant. Alain is such a lovely, patient man. With four languages (French, English, Kinyarwanda & AKR) flying about, it was slow going. We did have one member who wanted to argue about everything. He already knew a little about computers, and he's the kind of guy who wants to do everything yesterday. But there were some volunteers for whom it was their first time on a computer. It was great to see people nodding and learning. I learned something too: that you should always turn the computer screen on first before turning on the computer - it's better for it apparently :)

I have to admit to getting a real glow of pride just sitting there watching this whole thing that I made happen. Like I said before, I'm so used to seeing the paper side of funding, but to actually see the money being spent and something really happening from that... It gave me a really big boost of pride for project building. I was getting a bit cynical about development work, wondering whether it achieves all that much sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't, but this is the other side of the equation: small, local projects that give people skills they want to learn, that will benefit them in the future. I was dead happy :)

I was rather tired when I got home. I'd been on the go all day. Beeped Rose, who came over to collect the fabric. She asked me if I'd shown D, but I said that I wanted it to be a surprise once it's finished. I hadn't actually seen him since that morning, but Rose told me something incredibly sweet on the bus. She's known D for many years. He used to share a house with her and E. Apparently, when he found out I needed a dress making, he'd gone to her and said 'please, make her something really beautiful'. It had really mattered to him. 

He really did pick the right person, too. She's absolutely lovely. We were having a really good talk when D came back with Steve. He's trying to write some articles and reviews for a magazine that's trying to branch into Rwanda. (Thanks Dad, the voice recording MP3 player is worth its weight in postage!) D was off to review a very, very expensive new club that's just opened in Kigali (B Club). Everyone says it's novel, but not worth the money. No one reckons it's going to last long before everyone heads back to KBC.

Anyway, Steve and Rose aren't the best of buddies as she's his ex-sister-in-law, so me and she headed out for a drink at La Planet when they left for the club. It was just really nice to hang out and chat. She took my measurements before we left. I gave her the other fabric I'd bought ages back, and she's going to make me a skirt, dress, and a couple of tops. She has a diploma in Fashion Design, so I think I'm in safe hands. She reckons I'll look good in African designs/fabric but I'm nervous. I know other volunteers who have made the switch, but it's difficult the first time because all the colours and patterns are so bold, and the styles so different. I'm asking for simple, Western cuts. No puffy sleeves for this woman, I'm afraid :)

We did have a really good chat, actually. She's an interesting lady with a tough past. She knew D from way-back. She has two kids by E - one three and one three months. I gave her the books Aunty Patsy sent out, which are perfect for little readers. Sometimes people’s lives are very complicated here, and many people's upbringings can be really, really tough. She told me a lot of things that made me think. D's told me little bits about his life before, but not everything. She really helped me to understand some things that I'd never fully grasped before. I feel like I've glimpsed a little bit of his world now, and it is very different to mine. I get it just a little bit now; I'm a lucky lady for having met him.

D and Steve met up with us later, and Rose took her leave. I think Steve was a bit troubled that we knew each other, but I'm sure he'll get over it. Complicated family.

I was quite tipsy by this point. I had eaten one somosa and one spring roll for breakfast, then one amandazi before Rose arrived. Basically, nothing all day. The Mutzig went straight to my head. I wandered home. The water was on, so I spent a good half-hour scrubbing saucepans and cleaning up our disgusting kitchen, which was festering in the water-shortage. D walked Steve back and had another drink with him. He phoned to say 'wait up' and returned with brochettes and ibirayi again.

The cats ended up eating most of it - we got a little distracted ;)