'The Boy'

My Avacado Tree

I never made it back to Immigration yesterday. We had torrential downpours all morning. Things just don't happen her when it's wet. So, I started work on my PRESENTATION (in capital letters because it's big and scary ;) ).

It's for the In-Country Training (ICT) 2 that I arrived during last November. It happens twice a year. When volunteers first arrive (except me, because I was late) they have an intensive week's training. Then, three months in, they do another week - ICT2 - once they've found their feet.

An appeal went out - and I put my hand up - to run the Capacity Building workshop in the now absent Jo's place. It's a one hour forty-five minute presentation on all aspects of organisational capacity building, and I'm bricking it lol Jo, as I've mentioned before, is so damn efficient and comes from a Business Management background. She gave me her previous presentation, which I received last November, but I’m not a business manager so I ain't presenting from quite the same angle :op I've taken it back down to basics and based it on a lot of what we do and discuss in our monthly Capacity Building meetings. I'm having a lot of fun playing with funky PowerPoint graphics. I have just under a week to pull it together.

I did that most of yesterday, and ventured out about mid-day for food. Bumped into my neighbour, who is a nice man - a doctor - off to Kampala to visit their radiology ward. He specialises in neck tumours, but they can't afford to pursue that treatment here, you have to go to Uganda or Kenya. He keeps inviting me for a drink, so I will have to go some time. I'm not entirely sure of his motives, so I keep delaying. But it's nice to know my neighbours and they've helped me out with working out the rubbish collection and things.

Anyway, Kisi was a ghost city - not a shop open, no food. Pretty frustrating.

The young lad that D brought back to do our garden left early to get the cup-cup sharpened for chopping the grass. He came back today with choppers for the hedge. The guy in the shop said it wasn't customary to sell them during this week of the year; how many people must have been killed by something just like that?

He did manage to buy them. Then, after doing my entire garden, he did my floors, spontaneously cleaned the kitty litter box (I was stunned) and then my entire kitchen! My house was gleaming. I felt horribly guilty - kept going up to D and saying "I think he's worked enough now!" but D just carried on reading his book and told me to let him get on with it. The other thing that impressed me was that the cats seem to love him. He's really good with them. I paid him well - 5,000 for the day and 2,000 the day before. D had originally said 2,000 (£2) would be enough, but he's a young lad and he worked his socks off! He earned it.

I told D that we have to hire him, so we've negotiated 2-3 days a week for 20,000 a month. That leaves an extra 5,000 from Fabian's guard wage to give him for cat sitting occasionally. I'd happily trust him to live-in when D and I go to Kampala or something. D refers to him as 'the boy', but I think his name is Kisenya. I'll have to check again, it's hard to remember. It's strange, though. For over five months I've done all my own housework, but now I'm a convert!

Actually, Kampala is proving a problem. D really wants to go for the Film Festival beginning on 1st May, but I just can't. He may go with Drew instead, and I'll go another time. Work is manic at the moment. One of my babies is just about to come to fruition: a free 5-week IT training course for up to seven volunteers, covering the basics of Word Processing and Excel. It's all coming together really nicely, I'm going to pay for the room today. Fingers-crossed. It'll be a major achievement to get the room, the teacher, the interpreter and seven volunteers all in the same place at the same time :) It starts on 21st April and I really want to be there for the first week, to make sure everything's running smoothly.

I've also been invited to Léon's wedding on 10th May, so even if I did go to Kampala (which I can't), I'd need to get back fast. It's a very long way to go (12 hour bus trip) to come straight back. Plus, I need time to go shopping with Martine for a mushanana to wear - traditional wedding attire.

I've also rescheduled Giterama YWCA for 22nd, and the American volunteer signing lady for around then. It's so difficult. After 10th May, I'm taking a fortnight off or something. I desperately need a holiday sooo badly, but every time I think about it something else comes up.

---

Just got back from Immigration. All went smoothly, and just met an intriguing gentleman. Dutch, called Roald, 'as in Dahl'. All the forms were in French. He was standing next to me at the desk and offered to help me fill them in. Rather handsome and full of life. He's here on a two month contract, but he's been before. I offered to buy him a drink to say thank you. Perhaps I'll invite him to our dinner club next week - we're going for Ethiopian. I've become a patroness of short-stayers looking for a social life lol

They reckon the green card will be ready by Monday! Rather fast.

D invited Drew over last night. We chilled here and then went to see if reggae night was on at the Black & White club behind Alpha Palace Hotel. It Wasn't. Everything is shut up tight. No singing or dancing for a week, so we ended up having beer and brochettes at Hoteltec up the road and watching a hideously depressing documentary about Romeo Dallaire, which the entire nation must have been watching as there's only one channel. We all left completely low. Tourists forewarned - give Rwanda a miss over April.

[NB 2013: I believe the venue in Remera that I referred to as Hoteltec, was in fact Hotel Tech. Three years later it would hit the headlines as they exhumed more genocide remains there.]