Thought it was about time for some photos - been a while. This is me, Cathryn and the two Dans at Jeff's house in Kibungo last weekend.
Monday night was fun. Jeff & Addison were flying out of Kigali on the 4am Tuesday flight. Jeff stayed at Chez Lando over the road Sunday and Monday night, but I was way too whacked to hang out Sunday after the King Faisal adventure and being on antibiotics, meaning no booze. Cathryn and I caught up with him Sunday daytime though and checked out his room - very swanky. Nice place to stay if you have the cash.
Monday, I just zoned-out. Cathryn helped me to pack some of my stuff into boxes but I wasn't really with it. In the evening Addison didn't turn up until late and Jeff arrived soon after with a couple of friends, Kivu Writers in fact. Including Felix, who I trained in funding! Pretty cool, huh? Turns out he knew Jeff from a friend in Kibungo. Small world.
Then Jeff was off to round up some of the new Peace Corps volunteers who just landed. We met them at Stella. Jeff and Addison helped me to hop over there. I ordered a Primus (beer) out of force of habit and had to do a slow-motion 'noooooooo!' just before they opened it, remembering that I couldn't drink, so swapped it for a Fanta Citron instead - joy.
The Peace Corps were nice, on the whole. Fresh off the boat and brimming with enthusiasm... give them time. A lovely couple moving in to Jeff & Addison's old place. They were originally going to be working with Jeff before he quit.
They invited me for pizza anytime. Looking forward to that. Also Becky, Logan and Ahmed, who are absolutely lovely. Hope to see more of them.
I feel a bit sorry for them though, as PC isn't at all like VSO in the sensibility stakes. They force all of their volunteers to take Larium (this is the malaria prophylactic that lists 'suicide' as a side effect) and they test them to make sure they've been taking it! If they don't take it they get shipped home. Absolutely nuts! That stuff is seriously awful, I tried it for a week and vowed never to go near it again. Out of five other vols I know who took it, three had such bad hallucinations, depression and sleep disturbance that they swapped for something else, one persisted, and only one of the five had no problem with it at all. One of the girls freaked out so badly she thought she had little black worms swimming in her veins and went to the Polyclinique to get blood tests!
Given the extreme stress of moving to a new country, the ups and downs of daily life here, and the rocky adjustment period we all go through, bouncing off the walls on that stuff isn't going to do anybody any favours. Apparently, you could swap to another prophylactic if you asked, but two people had tried and been refused! I find that amazing negligence on the side of mental health. Jeff later explained it to me as the 'litigation culture' of America. Apparently people sue for anything in America and that's why PC babies people. Surely if you're going to sue for not taking your drugs and getting malaria, you're just as likely to sue for long-term mental health damage from taking it? I just find it astounding that you'd test adults to check if they were taking Larium. Weeeeird.
There were a few odd things like that. They also have curfew times by which they have to be indoors (good for integrating with the local community!) and they aren't allowed to access any funds from home or receive money from home. They have to live 100% off the allowance and it's less than we get! I can see a lot of people running for the hills before too long. There's getting people to integrate and focus on going loco, then there's torturing people in cruel and unusual ways. Bizarre. We'll see what happens. If nothing else, it's an interesting social experiment.
On the up-side they do get intensive language training in Kinyarwanda, so hopefully they'll do better than most of us did. At least when they're hallucinating like mad from the Larium, starving from the lack of money, and claustrophobic from being locked inside of an evening with no electricity, everyone in the street will understand what they're screaming as they run down it ;)
So, anyway, Jeff and Addison have gone and will be sorely missed. Just as we got to know them, they quit. I stayed up talking to Addison on the porch until 2am when he left to check-in. Cathryn's booked home around April 1st. Hirut's off to the States too, possibly for good. Brad's heading home for a break. Antonia's leaving soon, as is Giudi... There's going to be me sitting in a new house in a remote part of town with no friends left. Woopie.
Still, there is some good news. In a stunning turn of events my colleagues have gone into hyper-work mode! Drawing up action plans, organising conferences - all of their own accord! I've been mighty impressed. Just as I was blathering on to Cathryn about nothing much ever getting done, I blinked and it was all done! As she said "people can really surprise you sometimes." I'm feeling dead positive about work now. Seems like it's becoming that team I said I wanted to be part of.
The trip back to the doctor on Tuesday wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected. Thought they'd do the whole scraping the wound out thing again and I was braced for it. Cathryn came with me. Only, when they took the dressing off, it was completely dry and looked healthy. The antibiotics have taken the red down a lot and there's no more gunk. I'm still under orders not to get it wet or put any cream on it. It has to stay dry, but at least it's healing now. It does look gruesome though, sunken right up into my foot. Grim.
To cheer myself up a little, I decided to treat myself to a ticket to the St. Paddy's Day Ball after all. Hope I can dance by then. At FRW 35,000 (about GBP 40) a ticket I wasn't going to go because it's so expensive, but at the weekend I met Penny and we agreed to do it. Only problem being that neither of us own any formal dresses. She's coming to Kigali tomorrow afternoon and I'm going to grit my teeth and hobble around the shops with her. I'm a bit sceptical as buying clothes off-the-rack here is almost impossible. They're all second-hand, so you have to hope they fit, and there's so few available. You really have to hunt. Plus, they're extremely expensive. You pay more here for second-hand clothes than you do new back home. Usually people get things made, but we've left it a bit late now, the ball is next Friday (same day as the RNAD AGM). By the time you've bought the material, had it made, and had it adjusted seven times, it'll just never get done.
I'll also then need to trawl around for shoes that match and fit. I can see this taking me all of next week's spare time, in between preparing for the RNAD Annual General Meeting. It's going to be chaotic.
As a last sentiment, I'm starting to wonder which gods I've p!ssed off as, in the past couple of weeks, I've managed to burn my leg on a moto, lacerate my foot, and drop a coffee mug on my toe. I mean, really...!? I'm a health hazard to myself.
Anyway, enough self-pity. Here's some more photos - click to enlarge. I've been trying to upload them for ages but MTN has been unprecedentedly crap. So much so, they even issued a public apology the other day! Note they gave no time frame for the fix. Typical.
Monday night was fun. Jeff & Addison were flying out of Kigali on the 4am Tuesday flight. Jeff stayed at Chez Lando over the road Sunday and Monday night, but I was way too whacked to hang out Sunday after the King Faisal adventure and being on antibiotics, meaning no booze. Cathryn and I caught up with him Sunday daytime though and checked out his room - very swanky. Nice place to stay if you have the cash.
Monday, I just zoned-out. Cathryn helped me to pack some of my stuff into boxes but I wasn't really with it. In the evening Addison didn't turn up until late and Jeff arrived soon after with a couple of friends, Kivu Writers in fact. Including Felix, who I trained in funding! Pretty cool, huh? Turns out he knew Jeff from a friend in Kibungo. Small world.
Then Jeff was off to round up some of the new Peace Corps volunteers who just landed. We met them at Stella. Jeff and Addison helped me to hop over there. I ordered a Primus (beer) out of force of habit and had to do a slow-motion 'noooooooo!' just before they opened it, remembering that I couldn't drink, so swapped it for a Fanta Citron instead - joy.
The Peace Corps were nice, on the whole. Fresh off the boat and brimming with enthusiasm... give them time. A lovely couple moving in to Jeff & Addison's old place. They were originally going to be working with Jeff before he quit.
They invited me for pizza anytime. Looking forward to that. Also Becky, Logan and Ahmed, who are absolutely lovely. Hope to see more of them.
I feel a bit sorry for them though, as PC isn't at all like VSO in the sensibility stakes. They force all of their volunteers to take Larium (this is the malaria prophylactic that lists 'suicide' as a side effect) and they test them to make sure they've been taking it! If they don't take it they get shipped home. Absolutely nuts! That stuff is seriously awful, I tried it for a week and vowed never to go near it again. Out of five other vols I know who took it, three had such bad hallucinations, depression and sleep disturbance that they swapped for something else, one persisted, and only one of the five had no problem with it at all. One of the girls freaked out so badly she thought she had little black worms swimming in her veins and went to the Polyclinique to get blood tests!
Given the extreme stress of moving to a new country, the ups and downs of daily life here, and the rocky adjustment period we all go through, bouncing off the walls on that stuff isn't going to do anybody any favours. Apparently, you could swap to another prophylactic if you asked, but two people had tried and been refused! I find that amazing negligence on the side of mental health. Jeff later explained it to me as the 'litigation culture' of America. Apparently people sue for anything in America and that's why PC babies people. Surely if you're going to sue for not taking your drugs and getting malaria, you're just as likely to sue for long-term mental health damage from taking it? I just find it astounding that you'd test adults to check if they were taking Larium. Weeeeird.
There were a few odd things like that. They also have curfew times by which they have to be indoors (good for integrating with the local community!) and they aren't allowed to access any funds from home or receive money from home. They have to live 100% off the allowance and it's less than we get! I can see a lot of people running for the hills before too long. There's getting people to integrate and focus on going loco, then there's torturing people in cruel and unusual ways. Bizarre. We'll see what happens. If nothing else, it's an interesting social experiment.
On the up-side they do get intensive language training in Kinyarwanda, so hopefully they'll do better than most of us did. At least when they're hallucinating like mad from the Larium, starving from the lack of money, and claustrophobic from being locked inside of an evening with no electricity, everyone in the street will understand what they're screaming as they run down it ;)
So, anyway, Jeff and Addison have gone and will be sorely missed. Just as we got to know them, they quit. I stayed up talking to Addison on the porch until 2am when he left to check-in. Cathryn's booked home around April 1st. Hirut's off to the States too, possibly for good. Brad's heading home for a break. Antonia's leaving soon, as is Giudi... There's going to be me sitting in a new house in a remote part of town with no friends left. Woopie.
Still, there is some good news. In a stunning turn of events my colleagues have gone into hyper-work mode! Drawing up action plans, organising conferences - all of their own accord! I've been mighty impressed. Just as I was blathering on to Cathryn about nothing much ever getting done, I blinked and it was all done! As she said "people can really surprise you sometimes." I'm feeling dead positive about work now. Seems like it's becoming that team I said I wanted to be part of.
The trip back to the doctor on Tuesday wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected. Thought they'd do the whole scraping the wound out thing again and I was braced for it. Cathryn came with me. Only, when they took the dressing off, it was completely dry and looked healthy. The antibiotics have taken the red down a lot and there's no more gunk. I'm still under orders not to get it wet or put any cream on it. It has to stay dry, but at least it's healing now. It does look gruesome though, sunken right up into my foot. Grim.
To cheer myself up a little, I decided to treat myself to a ticket to the St. Paddy's Day Ball after all. Hope I can dance by then. At FRW 35,000 (about GBP 40) a ticket I wasn't going to go because it's so expensive, but at the weekend I met Penny and we agreed to do it. Only problem being that neither of us own any formal dresses. She's coming to Kigali tomorrow afternoon and I'm going to grit my teeth and hobble around the shops with her. I'm a bit sceptical as buying clothes off-the-rack here is almost impossible. They're all second-hand, so you have to hope they fit, and there's so few available. You really have to hunt. Plus, they're extremely expensive. You pay more here for second-hand clothes than you do new back home. Usually people get things made, but we've left it a bit late now, the ball is next Friday (same day as the RNAD AGM). By the time you've bought the material, had it made, and had it adjusted seven times, it'll just never get done.
I'll also then need to trawl around for shoes that match and fit. I can see this taking me all of next week's spare time, in between preparing for the RNAD Annual General Meeting. It's going to be chaotic.
As a last sentiment, I'm starting to wonder which gods I've p!ssed off as, in the past couple of weeks, I've managed to burn my leg on a moto, lacerate my foot, and drop a coffee mug on my toe. I mean, really...!? I'm a health hazard to myself.
Anyway, enough self-pity. Here's some more photos - click to enlarge. I've been trying to upload them for ages but MTN has been unprecedentedly crap. So much so, they even issued a public apology the other day! Note they gave no time frame for the fix. Typical.
RNAD staff at the old office. L-R: Nadia, Bob, Gerard, Goreth, Michelline, me, Claire, Leon, Father Murenzi (visitor), John (visitor), Betty; Bottom: Apollo & Parfait. 2008
Just to prove that I do actually do some work sometimes! Strategic Planning Workshop at RNAD. L-R: Me, Parfait, Claire, Nadia & Blandine. 2008
Strategic Planning Workshop at RNAD: L-R: Gerard, Blandine, Claire & Nadia. 2008
RNAD - making the dictionary. L-R: Philbert, Michelline & Emmanuel. 2008
RNAD - illustrating the dictionary. L-R: Butare student & Goreth. 2008
RNAD - making the dictionary. L-R: Goreth, Betty & Emmanuel. 2008
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