4-5 Means You're Lying

Had a brilliant day today :)

Had a nice lazy morning chilling out in the office with Gerard, Betty (the interpreter), and another lady who I only know by sign-name, which is how I know most people now.  It was lovely and really relaxed. Larned some interesting new signs including ‘4-5’ which is the four and then five (closed-fist) which is a bible reference meaning ‘you’re lying’, used when you don’t think someone’s telling you the truth. There’s a non-bible way of signing it too, but I thought it was quite clever.

 

Again, Gerard is so patient with me, making sure (even if it takes several efforts to explain) that I understand everything. I also learned a multi-channel sign (MCS) for: ‘someone who, when you ask them to tell somebody something, will go to them and completely change the meaning of what you said for their own benefit.’ G handshape, pointing up, tapping from right to left across forehead.

Betty is amazing. She trained in Uganda, which is really advanced for interpreting. Later, at our meeting with Amanda, she was translating between AKR, Kinyarwanda and French! Seriously talented lady.

The lovely Rastaman (whose name I’ve shamefully forgotten, even though he remembers mine!) was fixed to his telly today as Rwanda joined the Commonwealth and the Queen appeared. He called me in to watch lol

Then we were supposed to meet with Augustin at quarter-to four at the VSO office. I received a text saying ‘be punctual’, so I was panicking like hell when we were just leaving the office at five, then waiting for a bus for ages. I was terrified – my first meeting and I was going to be late! We arrived about quarter-past... and Augustin wasn’t even there yet! lol He meant 4:45 African time!

Fun meeting. Augustin spoke in Kinyerwanda and French, Amanda spoke in French, Gerard just kind of watched it all, and I followed the bits that were translated into sign. I felt like a fully-fledged Deaf lass, relying on the AKR interpreter lol Was fun though.

After that, I started walking back to my place when I got a call from Alexis, who was already waiting for me at the gate. He took me over to his office at Exfod, the language school, and introduced me to some of the teachers and the boss. It’s an impressive establishment with a computer learning suite, loads of classrooms etc. Very nice indeed. I even received a brief personal Kinyarwanda lesson in between him making a few phone calls. Then we headed back over to mine and went for beer and brochettes. I was ravenous as, again, I hadn’t eaten all day – just a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast at about 8am. Going to have to work this out somehow.

Had a really nice chat. Alexis even translated for me with Damascène, so I sorted out a couple of house things I wasn’t sure about – like rubbish collection.

Dead tired now, though. Off to bed very soon. Got an AIDS meeting in town at 8am and meeting Gerard and Betty at 7:30! Days really do start early here. Was a nice day though, feeling much better.