Monday 15th: Day Nine in Rwanda

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

Well, about bloody time too! Alfred here! On Day Nine and this is the first time I’ve got even a look in! I don’t think Ruairí has even mentioned me once so far (apart from sticking my photo on his blog and then forgetting all about me). It was Day Five before he even took me out of his suitcase!! Is that gratitude for all those wonderful girls in Rathdown who went to all the trouble to find me and kit me out and send me away to look after him?? (Note to girls – the boots are wicked!).

Anyway, today he has the day off and is not around at the moment so I have the chance to make a few of MY observations on what has been going on so far. Flipping through what he has written so far, some of it is fairly accurate but other bits ........ well, let’s start with this motorcycle business. Do remember, as he himself admitted, this is the guy who thought he could learn how to swim by reading a book. Now, just because he has attended a maintenance session (which no-one, by the way, could understand) and watched Amy, Andy, Heloise and Tom ride in slow circles around a field for an hour (he also – fatally – read the entire manual that comes with the Yamaha 125), suddenly he sees himself as Evel Kineval (how do you spell that?). As all of you who know him know, this is the guy that four-year olds laughed at on the ski slope in Kilternan, who once managed to stay up on his ice-skates for a whole nine seconds without falling and never even TRIED to use roller skates as a kid! I won’t even mention the time he went quad-biking .....

And as for this flute (I think I look quite natural with it, sort of a James Galway look, who I have been told I resemble quite strongly) – breath control is the least of his problems. Granted he can still play the tin whistle reasonably accurately (it would help his breath control if he was a bit fitter): so far he has shown great aptitude for assembling and oiling the flute. As for getting it to actually produce any music, well maybe time will tell. We do have two years after all. It is a nice flute and oiling it with almond oil makes it smell nice so if all else fails it will make a nice ornament.

What else was he whinging about? Oh yes, Kinyarwandan! Mbega! It’s not that hard. The verb to be in the present tense is Ndi, Uri, Ni, Turi, Muri, Ni (Táim, tá tú etc), the verb ‘to have’ is Mfite, Ufite, Afite, Dufite, Mufite, Bafite. Ho0w hard it that? And he goes on and on and on about how hard it is and bores everyone to death by either explaining how it differs from Indo-European languages or – even more annoyingly – how some bits that other people find hard are really easy for him because they are (and I quote) ‘just the same as in Irish’. Does he not realise he has to be friends with these people for the next year or two? At least he is resisting the temptation (to a certain extent) of actually lecturing the people who have been here six months to a year of what Rwanda is really like (we did have an unfortunate incident a few days ago when he decided to explain to everyone how the Upper House of the Rwandan parliament is organised and its surprising resemblance to the Irish Seanad – some of these volunteers are INCREDIBLY patient).

However, the good news is that he seems to be quite happy. I was a bit worried a few nights ago when he didn’t really seem to sleep at all – nervous about meeting his employer the next day (though it could have been his deciding to have the goat stew AND the fried fish for dinner) but that seems to have gone well because he has been in great form since then. He has even had a stab at writing poetry but hey, we all make mistakes (if you have to choose, I’d stick to the flute-playing if I were you, Ruairí).

Mind you, he could be a little more adventurous. Others of the volunteers are heading out to night clubs and walking for an hour and a half in and out of town. Today is a free day, there is a general election on, some people invited him to go swimming with them (like THAT’S ever going to happen!) others were going shopping, sightseeing or just wandering around town. What is HE doing? LAUNDRY! yes, I kid you not: he spent a big chunk of the first really free time we have had DOING LAUNDRY. Now, not that Joe and I, who are sharing his room, want him to run out of clean underwear (not in this climate, anyway) but COME ON! I know he wouldn’t have brought ME but at least he would have brought back some photos. Mind you, photographing polling stations surrounded by police and soldiers probably isn’t a great idea, now that I come to think of it. His excuse was that it needed to be done (granted), we wanted to see if his linen stuff would actually dry properly and not be too wrinkled (that worked out OK) and how to wash an entire load of laundry in a sink with no plug and only a limited supply of cold water.

OMG , I almost forgot – the Chelsea shirt!! Did you see the photo from the cow dance night? He is still operating under the illusion that Chelsea are actually popular here. He seems to think that ‘more popular than in Ireland’ is the same thing as ‘popular’! Chelsea are more popular EVERYWHERE than in Ireland but what does that mean? Anyway, I’m not sure I know him well enough yet to admit my own personal allegiance to Manchester United so we’ll keep that under wraps for the moment (and no emailing him to tell or adding comments to this blog!!!).

Anyway, I’m not sure I’m going to get the opportunity to write an entire blog entry of my own again but I’ll try and sneak in a few comments of my own into the entries after he has written them – someone has to try and maintain a sense of proportion. After all, isn’t that why you sent me, girls?

PS: If Isabelle Duff is reading this, thanks for calling me Alfred (a noble distinguished name of royal ancestry). I can’t bear to tell you what he was thinking of calling me!

Thank you very much to all those who have supported my ongoing fundraising effort. I will be continuing my fundraising for VSO for a few more months so, if you would like to contribute, please go to www.mycharity.ie/event/ruairi.