Well, D finally came home on Wednesday. I'd had enough by this point and laid down the law, asking him to start looking for somewhere else to live. Unhappy D didn't take it too well, but I was insistent.
It was a rather intense evening, which ended up in bed. Does that make me a bad person? In the words of Family Guy, "Yes Lois, yes it does." Not the best idea, I must admit. We agreed to give it a little longer and see how things go. He had been in Kampala so long because his travel papers were about to expire and he had to get them sorted out. Kampala's administration isn't so hot. I think he even ended up sleeping on the floor of one of the offices to get the stamp he needed in time. I said it wasn't about how long he took, it was about communication. Tell me what you're doing. Don't just disappear for a few days and expect me to be happy to see you when you finally get back.
Anyway, the day after he returned was my major six-month placement review. My Programme Manager at VSO came to visit my boss to see how things are progressing - i.e. whether I need a plane ticket back to the UK lol They say it's just a relaxed visit, but it feels like quite a big deal.
It was supposed to be me, my boss and my Programme Manager, but a few of my colleagues decided to come and see what was going on, so there was a panel of Léon, Francois and Gerard at the other end of the table. I had to interpret most of it for them. I didn't mind so much because it made me feel as though I was in a slightly more passive role and could just let it wash over me. I hate assessments, even friendly ones. Most of it was also in French.
Essentially, at the end of it, it transpired that my colleagues love me :op Not a bad word to say about me, although a few misunderstandings about how VSO works, which my Programme Manager had to clarify for them. But, all very good on the Western front :) I got a lift back with my PM afterwards and it was really nice to have the relaxed de-briefing time. It turns out VSO appreciate me too - I'm very 'self sufficient', and they like that. They're glad I've signed up for two years. So, all-round, I was glowing when I got back. :op
Martine was here when I walked in. She'd brought me a bottle of waragi to celebrate and she, me and D headed to Salsa at Gikondo. Salsa didn't really happen for some reason. We got really tipsy and had a fine meal, though. It was a good night.
Friday, I was supposed to be heading down to Gitarama. I've been trying to meet up with this woman at the YWCA for about three months now and something always gets in the way. It's honestly getting ridiculous. We were going to meet in Kigali, but her schedule changed so she asked if I'd make it to their offices. I said 'yego' and was all dressed and ready when it started to rain. In true British spirit I picked up my umbrella and headed for the door.
"You're not going out in this?" D asked.
Of course. I upped the brolly and strode out to the bus stop. 20 minutes later I returned in a puddle of water, soaked through to the bone. I drained my shoe in front of him. No buses, torrential rain. I phoned the lady. We'll rearrange again.
But it meant a nice lazy afternoon. D and I watched The Day After Tomorrow. Later, when it had stopped raining, I took the transport money over to Exfod to pay the IT students and Emmanuel, who was beaming at his first pay cheque. As I was heading there, I bumped into Martine, Paula and Ghislain. They were just about to phone me. They were on their way to Stella, the bar opposite my house, for food, then off to a dance display in town. I dropped off the money, popped in to tell D (who didn't fancy coming) then joined them for the most amazing tilapia with G&T and a beer.
After that, we headed to Prime Holdings, a big hall across town. When we arrived there were a lot of big shiny 4x4s in the parking lot. The tickets were FRW 5,000 (£5), which is extremely expensive in Rwanda. Even so, it looked a bit too posh. It turned out that the gig was cancelled because the RPF were having a meeting instead. Things happen like that here. No forward planning. So, in the absence of our taxi, we had to walk all the way back towards town.
I was relating my experiences with MINALOC recently. It's the Ministry responsible for Local Government, and they also register NGOs. I want to help set one up with Rose, so I visited their website. They said there were loads of international NGOs in Rwanda (about 20) but very few Rwandan NGOs. To find out how to set one up, it said, 'CLICK HERE'.... no hyperlink. Doh!
So, I went to the contact form and asked them how I could get hold of the information. A week later, nothing.
I e-mailed the webmaster to ask whether the contact form was definitely working. The reply: Oh no, it doesn't.
Well, just a suggestion, but maybe you should tell people that? I dunno, I mean, it's a lot of effort, but you might consider it some time when you have a spare day free...
Eeeejits.
So, no way to contact them or find out the information. I will probably have to go there instead. But it's representative of Rwanda’s general approach to customer services and admin... non-existent.
Blah.
Anyway, we arrived back in town. Ghislain went off to his guesthouse as he had to be up early, but Paula, Martin and I headed back to Martine's place in Nyamirambo. We went to the new nightclub at Sun City, next door. We had an outstanding night. We drank faaaar too much and danced our hearts out. There was one guy there, Justin, who was utterly mesmerising. He was the only one there when we arrived. He just danced and danced all night - real tribal influence - totally immersed in himself and not interested in dancing with other people. Later, I mimicked that and just did my own thing. He ended up coming over and we were challenging each other to dance different styles. It was a lot of fun and I picked up some of his tribal influence. Love it.
Also met a very nice guy called Dolphus - very cool hat. We all just had the best girls' night out. I ended up crashing at Martine's around 3am.
I arrived back the next morning after a wonderful breakfast, around 10am. Just as I was coming in D appeared in the doorway looking stunned. He'd slept in the spare room and assumed I'd come in really late, he hadn't realised I'd been gone and was tiptoeing around the house trying not to wake me up.
I got some more kip and, in the afternoon, feeling rather groggy, D and I headed to Immigration to hook up again with Martine and Paula. It was Joanne's birthday and we headed over to her and Morley's house together. The party started at 4pm with cheese and biscuits in the back garden. Rally relaxed, chatting. Then there was a massive spread of food which we all helped to prepare. By night time the front room was transformed into a dance hall with an excellent sound system. We danced the night away. Tons of Rwandese people from the Genocide Memorial Centre and other people they work with. The guy who gave the talk at Gisozi came. It was a brilliant night and I ended up just dancing until I dropped. We left in the wee hours to get motos home. D had danced a little, but mostly sat around looking a bit sulky and uncomfortable. Can't see this relationship lasting much longer at all. He just brings me down. I ignored it mostly. We girlis all agreed it was probably the best party we'd been to in Rwanda. Most excellent.
I got home and was just sorting the cats out when I accidentally kicked my own foot and split my toenail! Ooooouuuuuch. Really hurt, and it's broken halfway down. No idea what to do about it. I've disinfected it with iodine, but the doctors here are scary. I will just leave it for a while and see what happens. It may be the end of my dancing days for a bit :(
I didn't get a good night’s sleep either for some reason. Some git was playing really loud music at about five in the morning and D kept elbowing me. I'm grumpy this morning. I want my house back to myself.
I've got a little extra income at the moment. We're not supposed to do that, but it's earnings off capitalist greed and I want to use some of it to help Rose get her daughter into school. It's £15 per 600 words ghost writing financial articles on credit cards and loan options. As they say 'hardly spiritual,' but I'm not complaining. Doing better than Suite101 which, after almost a month, has made me a grand total of $2.60 - that's around 1c per article.
Also boiled my water filter candles for the first time in six months. Stuff was starting to grow in there lol
On the whole, ticking over okay, but do eventually need to sort the fella situation out. Pretty fed up with it.
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