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.
A number of chats with Charlotte today which were helpful to the extent that she told us to go ahead and find a house and that VSO would help out with any rent the District couldn’t cover and also that if we incurred additional transport costs that would be OK also. We went to see the house the cybercafe people were mentioning but it was locked up and we couldn’t even get through the gate to see the outside. Francois agreed to see us that evening so Tina and I spent a while over a beer in the Hotel Faucon making a long list of questions. The meeting with Francois went well: we will have our offices in the same building as him, we went through a list of activities that we can get started quite quickly, he outlined a variety of issues that he feels are the priority to address and so on. We feel a lot happier about the work side of things, it’s just the house that’s a problem. He is coming around again tomorrow evening to discuss the Friday morning meeting.
So here is October and we still haven’t really done anything. It also appears that the motorcycle exam here is really difficult so the whole process may not be as easy as I imagined. On the other hand:
a) I now have nails again for the first time in my adult life
b) I haven’t drunk coffee for two weeks and am not missing it in the slightest
c) I am down to one meal a day plus tea and water and have already had to buy a belt in the market to keep my pants up
d) I am learning to sit around for hours on end not doing anything much (yes, this is a plus – ask my colleagues and family!)
e) My French has improved vastly (though not enough to quite risk writing my blog entries in it yet – that day will come!)
f) I have started to learn Kinyarwandan
Actually, d) still needs working on a little bit but it’s all a work in progress anyway! I also got some surprise donations out of the blue to my VSO fundraising – the girls in Rathdown Junior School raised €450 in a cake sale (thanks girls!!) and two other people made contributions but didn’t give me any contact details so here’s a big ‘Thank You’ to them!!
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.
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