Thursday 27th November - Day Eighty-Two 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.

Generators - spawn of the devil. I have never had a lot of luck with electrixity before now and it's nice to see that I am at least being consistent in this regard. Generator arrived Tuesday (see previous blog). I had to be at work early - 0700 at the latest - so I decied to not turn on the generator this morning. Arrived home with a gleaming image of a steaming cup of coffee made with my own hands. Obstacle One: Alexandré wasn't there and he had the key to the outhouse with the generator. When he finally arrived we found out the plug on the lead was gone.

About half an hour later the electrician Antoine turned up with all the stuff. Meanwhile Alexandré had disappeared with the key. We hung around as I tried to decipher Antoine's French (interspersed with English technical terms). Eventually Alexandré arrived (he had gone for water to be fair). Antoine fitted the plug and tested the generator - everything worked. Then I plugged in my kettle and everything stopped working! Apparently I need a 13-amp fuse for the kettle and hot-plate to work (Alfred: parts for one generator: RWF 15,000; payment for labour RWF10,000; watching Ruairí's face while he pretends to understand what he is being told about electric-related things in broken Rwandan French, stuff he hasn't a clue about even in English - priceless!). So, more waiting, probably until Saturday. Still, it was nice to actually see the interior of the house lit up for once as even in daylight it is very dim.

Had my first visitor tonight - Jean-Claude a primary school teacher here in Gisagara. He didn't stay too long (apparently Rwandan visitors are known to stay for ages!), made sure I wasn't serving him alcohol and gently enquired whether I would be interested in joining him at the Pentacostalist Church on Sunday. I gently declined and there was no problem! I walked him home (you should always walk a visitor at least part of the way home) and he asked whether I could help him with any English grammar and vocabulary books for his work (ah-ha, there is usually something!) so I said I would look into it for him.

Work was a lot more interesting than normal. Usual start - there at seven to meet Enoch and Charis (who turned up at 0830), gave Francois the English class outline (Alfred: Oy! You were supposed to email that to Jane, weren't you? Hello? ........). Then I worked away on statistics for a bit. Then the fun started. Apparently some government bigwig is coming tomorrow and all the school principals will be ther so Francois said was there any chance I could have a complete list of all the problems with the statistical returns for each school! Cool - three hours solid work and it was done. Then they freaked out because the guy coming said he wanted to see their preparations for the new adult literacy campaign, so I got that to turn into a one-page Excel summary.

Most interesting of all, I met the guy who is the official statistician for the District - Jules. We only had a few minutes but we both immediately realised we need a quiet private little chat sometime next week. I was also ralking to the chargé d'education later, Alexis, when I gave him the stuff Francois asked me to do. Three things were immediately apparent: he was a bit pissed off that I had been asked to do this as educational statistics are his area, he thought the Excel document was actually a Word document (not great if you are a statistician) and (though this is not exactly definite) I think he is worried that my being here will make it easier for the District to relocate him. Have to keep an eye on that.

Anyway, big day tomorrow. It is some kind of performance review - don't start, Alfred! Everyone was working late and they want me to be there to meet Mr Important. Francois has also promised a meeting at 1400 - I can't wait!!!

Saturday is umuganda - voluntary communal work day. Everyone seems to be really surprised that I want to do it - apparently it would be perfectly OK if I skipped it. However a) it might be fun b) it will allow more people to see me and get used to me and c) I live here, I'm not a tourist, so I should. I gather we will be building houses with mud bricks for widows - sounds good. My new friend Jean-Claude has offered to call by Saturday morning and collect me at 0700!!

Sunday is funday - Butare, lunch in Matar, and Arsenal-Chelsea in the Faucon, Butare's resident angel, Jane Keenan, has offered to put me up for the night as it kicks off 1800 our time (I did help her with a computer problem the other night but the debts are piling up) - must wash my Joe Cole shirt tomorrow!

BANK TIP: If you are opening an account almost anywhere in Africa, go to ECOBANK - after being told how bad banks here were, these guys are as good as anything back at home.

MARKET TIP: when bargaining in the market, no price is too low to start off with.

PIT LATRINE TIP: well, maybe not. I'll wait until I am really desperate for interesting stuff!

There's a gecko living in my bedroom now.

Candles burn a lot faster than you expect.

Fruit flies are the most annoying lifeform I have so far encountered here.

Peanut butter and banana sandwich - bad idea.

Saudi Arabian pilchards in a tomato and chili sauce for only RWF400 - surprisingly nice.