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.
Spider bite? You have to be kidding me! I presumed it was a mosquito during the night but more experienced VSOers tell me it doesn’t look like a mosquito bite (true, no redness or itchiness) and a spider is more likely! Spiders crawling on my face at night is not an image I am very comfortable with .......
Tidied the house, had tea and buns, chatted for a few hours in a really nice, relaxed manner on the porch (see pic), watched Nidhi and Hayley deticking the dog (as Steve said, it’s amazing what you’ll watch when there is no TV available!) and brought the empty bottles and unused stuff back to the bar to collect deposits etc. Oh yes, and we had some CHEESE! Cheese is not common here and this was a really nice local cheese with a slightly sour taste! Then Beatta and Tina and I headed back to Butare on the bus. Met Andy to watch football but there isn’t any because it is international weekend. He had had a fall from his bike on Friday – some bruises and scrapes but nothing too serious. Then Taiga turned up – I had met her briefly at the party – an amazing character with a family history and background that truely beggars belief (think of a Jewish-Indian-Honduran-Irish-American Frenchwoman and you are just getting there). She is hoping to extend her placement so I look forward to her continuing to be around. We had a long chat about our various vicissitudes at the hands of VSO and Rwanda – very enlightening!
Now off to cybercafe and then maybe a bite to eat out somewhere. Tomorrow is crunch day – either Gisagara comes up with the goods or it doesn’t. Even if it does, I’m not sure they are going to convince Tina, who has a number of other ideas as to how she can best pursue her placement here in Rwanda. I will probably stick with Gisagara but whether living there or commuting from Butare I’ll have to wait and see.
OBSERVATION
Lots of talk about the situation in eastern Congo – we don’t have any volunteers near that region luckily but the Congolese government seems to be getting quite shrill in its attacks on the Rwandan government! Basically they have accused the Rwandan government of sending troops across the border to assist antigovernment rebels in the area. The Rwandan government in its turn has accused the Congolese government of formally signing an agreement with the FDLR (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda, I think), the remnants of the Interahamwe and others involved in the genocide. Messy doesn’t even begin to describe it – the Economist article in the September 26th issue clarifies some details but it is a real quagmire over there.
Spider bite? You have to be kidding me! I presumed it was a mosquito during the night but more experienced VSOers tell me it doesn’t look like a mosquito bite (true, no redness or itchiness) and a spider is more likely! Spiders crawling on my face at night is not an image I am very comfortable with .......Tidied the house, had tea and buns, chatted for a few hours in a really nice, relaxed manner on the porch (see pic), watched Nidhi and Hayley deticking the dog (as Steve said, it’s amazing what you’ll watch when there is no TV available!) and brought the empty bottles and unused stuff back to the bar to collect deposits etc. Oh yes, and we had some CHEESE! Cheese is not common here and this was a really nice local cheese with a slightly sour taste! Then Beatta and Tina and I headed back to Butare on the bus. Met Andy to watch football but there isn’t any because it is international weekend. He had had a fall from his bike on Friday – some bruises and scrapes but nothing too serious. Then Taiga turned up – I had met her briefly at the party – an amazing character with a family history and background that truely beggars belief (think of a Jewish-Indian-Honduran-Irish-American Frenchwoman and you are just getting there). She is hoping to extend her placement so I look forward to her continuing to be around. We had a long chat about our various vicissitudes at the hands of VSO and Rwanda – very enlightening!
Now off to cybercafe and then maybe a bite to eat out somewhere. Tomorrow is crunch day – either Gisagara comes up with the goods or it doesn’t. Even if it does, I’m not sure they are going to convince Tina, who has a number of other ideas as to how she can best pursue her placement here in Rwanda. I will probably stick with Gisagara but whether living there or commuting from Butare I’ll have to wait and see.
OBSERVATION
Lots of talk about the situation in eastern Congo – we don’t have any volunteers near that region luckily but the Congolese government seems to be getting quite shrill in its attacks on the Rwandan government! Basically they have accused the Rwandan government of sending troops across the border to assist antigovernment rebels in the area. The Rwandan government in its turn has accused the Congolese government of formally signing an agreement with the FDLR (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda, I think), the remnants of the Interahamwe and others involved in the genocide. Messy doesn’t even begin to describe it – the Economist article in the September 26th issue clarifies some details but it is a real quagmire over there.
PICTURES! Various bits of Rwandan countryside (I tried to find any piece of land that wasn’t cultivated but no chance!) – thunder clouds, terraces, irrigation trenches, trellis shades to protect some plants from the sun, a banana tree, the lake, a blurred pig (sorry – I had the movie camera instead of the regular one and it just doesn’t take as good still shots) and two very wet lambs. At the party you have the scramble for food (look at the naked hunger on those faces, tells you what some volunteers usually live on!), a blurred picture (sorry again) of Taiga (pink jumper), Mans (really tall guy from Utrecht that I am going to visit Tuesday) and Jane the hiking-lover. Also puppy pictures and the famous cheese (that’s Nidhi’s hand pointing at the cheese while she restrains the dog – I’m not allowed to have pictures of Nidhi but I think her hand is OK!).
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. 
1 comment:
Great photo!! Nasty spider... where was Afred when you needed him!!
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