Walk the Line

Ah, I'm smitten. Went over to Martine's for brochettes and beer at Panorama last Wednesday night. I was totally shattered after the Marine House capers of the previous post, but needed someone to go and giggle about it with.

Martine's guard Eric currently has a chicken, which Martine has dubbed Erica. She's a cute little hen that takes every opportunity to come into the house and poop on the table :op

Martine lent me some DVDs, one of which being Walk the Line. Knowing absolutely nothing about the life of Johnny Cash, I started off a bit passive. I have a real penchant for 1930s-1950s American guitar-slinging films, it's a genre I do actually rather enjoy, but all I kept thinking was 'country singer, country singer, country singer' so wasn't expecting much.

I was absolutely smitten. What a disgustingly happy ending. And "no darling," with a voice like that, it's enough to make any woman weak at the knees Mr. Phoenix. Watched it about three times now and unwilling to give it back ;)

Also just watched The Visitor which wasn't bad, though it took me at least half the movie before I sat up and shouted "The Brøken" which is where I last saw Richard Jenkins. I hate that, when you spend an entire film trying to work out who that person is and what they were in before. He is very good, though.

Wednesday daytime I went to Nakumatt, our supermarket, and spoke to the manager, who is going to help us sell our sign language dictionaries in the store, which is fantastic news. Treated myself to a meal at Simba to celebrate, but their food has gone distinctly downhill. You order anything with 'bacon' and all you get is a mass of white gelatinous fat. It's inedible.

Whilst I was sitting there, a guy came up and said "Hello Maria!" I thought I must know him as I get called Maria a lot, or Malio ('l' and 'r' are completely interchangeable here). But, no, turns out he's an Egyptian guy who was absolutely convinced I was his friend, an Egyptian woman living in Kigali called Maria. Apparently we have exactly the same hair and eyes, with similar features and name. Spooky. There's another me walking around out there!

Thursday was a long day. Had a working group on the disability census being carried out by African Decade. Was a chance for all the NGOs to give their input on how the process should be undertaken.

Was a good day, but I was interpreting for almost eight hours solid. Pelage, the Deaf representative for FENAPH (National Federation of People with Disabilities) was also there with her interpreter Judith. Because there's never been a standardised sign language before, people have always relied on their friends to interpret, so it's what people are used to. Gerard prefers me to interpret, whereas Pelage, who I don't work with, prefers Judith - so there's both of us interpreting, me from English and her from Kinyarwanda. Was useful a couple of times when I missed the English translation, and she adopted our sign for 'research'. Certainly an experience. Doing the same this coming Wednesday for a workshop on Rwanda becoming an ambassador nation for disability rights.

I still hadn't fully recovered from Tuesday, and by Wednesday night I was just about ready to drop. The guys from NPC gave Sarah and I a lift to Kisi so that I could get a moto. I popped over to see the meow meows. Ishuheri was also there this time, and they'd just been fed so they were far more interested in licking their paws than cuddling me. Got a pouncing eventually though, rough-and-tumble with Shue. Nothing like beating up a cat to end the day on a high. Was fun.

Friday night I was extremely good and lazed in watching trashy 80s stuff like Holleywood Wives: The New Generation, which I still class as 80s even though it was made in 2003 - because, let's face it, it was made dated. It included the recently departed Farrah Fawcett. Also Sins, which despite having my favourite James Bond, Timothy Dalton, is unadulterated trash to the point I haven't made it past the first episode. It's amazing what you'll watch when you have nothing else. Free-with-the-newspaper torture, both of which are like looking through a porthole into an alternative universe: jet-set lifestyle meets Central Africa.

Saturday was a mixture of pleasure and pain. My landlady woke me up shouting my name at 8am. She'd brought a plumber to look at the guard's outhouse. When I finally dragged myself to the front door she said he didn't need access to the house. So I slumped back into my bed wondering why she'd woken me. About an hour later he did need access to the house and spent ages fiddling with water pipes.

It was all a little embarrassing. I have a toilet I haven't been able to flush properly in three months, and at one point he apparently had to put his hand down there *shudder* plus everywhere’s a complete tip as I haven't been able to clean anything with no water - and, as everyone who knows me knows, I'm not exactly the neatest person anyway. Floor filing works for me.

So, when they finally left I took a squidgy mop to the bathrooms and piled all of the clothes I hadn't worn in more than three months into bags. I literally cleared two rooms of crap, phoned my taxi man friend, and took it to Rose's. What I don't wear she can sell. A friend Nidhi also gave me all her clothes she didn't want before leaving the country. I did a little rummage and took a couple of Nidhi's tops. It's a luxury getting new clothes, even new second-hand. But I put plenty of my own in as replacements.

Now the house is much cleaners and I only have clothes that I wear, which is good as it means less to pack when I leave. I've put in my request for flights between 24th-30th October. My visa expires on 4th November, so it has to be before then.

Was totally shattered all Saturday. Could hardly keep my eyes open, which was a total bummer as Holy Jah Doves were playing at BCK in town. Everybody was there as it was Steve's last gig, he left today. He plays the traditional drum with them. Ruairí, Cathryn, Anja, Coco, Programme Amanda, Giudi, Maxime, David, Sandra, Amalia, Charlotte, Kirsty, Nic, Bruce, Sarah, Hugh, Ebbe, Jacob, Martine, Lies - I reckon I knew about 90% of the people there.

Lies, Kirsty, Nic, Cathryn and myself met up at Republika beforehand for drinks. Was a really good night and everyone went mental for their hit Maguru, which they played at the end. It's their signature song and it totally rocks. When they finished, Ebbe and I wandered up the road and got motos home. I was shattered but very happy, danced my li'le heart out.

Recuperating today. Plan on doing as little as possible, watching more trashy films and waiting for my water filter to hurry up and filter some water. I got a duff batch of chalk candles and they take aaaages. It sucks big-time when you're fighting drink-related dehydration.

Still, since the plumber came I have water again! I can't tell you how much this means. Running water is a most amazing luxury and because of the dry season and the fact I showered late today, it was pretty much warm. Double luxury: warm running water. So far, a good day :)

However, I do need to drink less, smoke less, sleep more and eat better. The past week or so has been a heavy burn on the body. Think I might watch Walk the Line again.

[NB 2013: Pictures of the Holy Jah Doves gig here.]