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.
Pictures are: first dinner in new house, weaver bird nests behind house, view behind house, sitting -room and the front of the house from the road (it is set somewhat below the road on a steep slope).
And so here I am in my new house. Pictures are included so I don’t need to say too much. It is positively palatial compared to what many volunteers have had to and are enduring. It does need some work, though mostly in various domestic items that are needed (a desk, bin, basin, more jerrycans, kerosene and petrol containers (presuming the generator does arrive) cafetière and so forth. I arrived here Saturday afternoon and Alexandré and I spent about two hours putting stuff away – he had very definite ideas on where some things should go so I just went with the flow for the time being ; there will be plenty of time to sort things around later. Then I sat down to my first meal of bananas, bread, peanut butter and Jus de Fraises!
Today was a rather different day to most I have spent so far. I woke at 0500 as Alexandre had his radio on full blast outside my window (have sorted that out with him). Was up at six, had breakfast of bread, bananas and water (still no fuel for boiling water) and then settled down for a morning of reading and studying Kinyarwandan. Alexandrè went off to church at around ten so I had two blissful hours on my own on the verandah, listening to music from Mali and writing my first poem!!! I had always said I would write some poetry out here and Tracey, Naomi and Chris gave me a special book to write them in so it’s nice to have got off to a start (I originally wrote ‘good start’ but that’s hardly for me to say!).
Living without electricity is definitely the biggest challenge: even when and if the generator arrives, it is expensive to run so I won’t be able to have it on all the time. However, all my electrical gadgets are either flat or nearly so and I can’t rely on the office having electricity so careful planning is called for.
To fill in from the last post, motorcycle training continued Wednesday and Thursday and was fine, difficult on Wednesday and better Thursday. On Thursday they told us of a whole new part of the test for the first time: starting in neutral with the right foot on the brake, then changing into first with your left foot and setting off without putting either foot on the ground! Not easy (at least not for us). Anyway, VSO have decided to give us one day’s additional training next Wednesday the day before the exam, so that may help. That means I will go to work Monday and then promptly vanish off on Tuesday morning to Kigali and not return until Thursday evening! Francois must think I have disappeared altogether!
On Wednesday I heard from Tina Hewing in England – the doctor thinks she has a disease she caught from a rat in Rwanda! Not so pleasant! Anyway, hopefully now that they know what it is she will be cured and back with us soon. I hear the weather is miserable in England so that will be an incentive for her to hurry back!
On Thursday a big crows of us went to Sole Luna, an Italian restaurant in Kigali. The food was so-so (well, I rodered an indifferent pizza but some of the others were pretty impressive-looking) and I also tried Rwandan Guinness for the first time! It’s a bit like one of those specialist dark Belgian bottled beers, 7.5% and very strong-tasting. It was fine for about half the bottle and then it got really heavy going. No wonder the Rwandans mix it with Coke or orange!
One other interesting thing: while speeds are slow on the Internet, some things seem to download faster than expected, YouTube for example. Managed to download Sarah Palin’s greatest hits on Friday!! Going to keep that until 2012 in case we need it.
OK – the battery on my laptop is a bit low and it will take a while to upload the pictures so that’s it for now. The poem is a bit rough so feel free to criticise and suggest amendments! (Hovering between ‘dirt’ which rhymes better and ‘earth’ which seems to work better in the context).
Rwandan Sonnet
A lake appears and so I dive straight in –
I who cannot swim and fear the strange!
The fish, some small and plump, some long and thin,
Swim all around and wonder at the change.
Into their world of water, calm and mild,
(Though far below lie bones and blood-red earth)
This unfamiliar creature has arrived,
A plump Ophelia in a Chelsea shirt.
And so I drift, not sure of where I go
And sometimes wondering why the hell I’m here.
The water’s warm, the fish seem friendly, so
I’ll just keep floating for the next two years.
And rather than obey the current’s whim,
Maybe its time I found out how to swim!
Today was a rather different day to most I have spent so far. I woke at 0500 as Alexandre had his radio on full blast outside my window (have sorted that out with him). Was up at six, had breakfast of bread, bananas and water (still no fuel for boiling water) and then settled down for a morning of reading and studying Kinyarwandan. Alexandrè went off to church at around ten so I had two blissful hours on my own on the verandah, listening to music from Mali and writing my first poem!!! I had always said I would write some poetry out here and Tracey, Naomi and Chris gave me a special book to write them in so it’s nice to have got off to a start (I originally wrote ‘good start’ but that’s hardly for me to say!).
Living without electricity is definitely the biggest challenge: even when and if the generator arrives, it is expensive to run so I won’t be able to have it on all the time. However, all my electrical gadgets are either flat or nearly so and I can’t rely on the office having electricity so careful planning is called for.
To fill in from the last post, motorcycle training continued Wednesday and Thursday and was fine, difficult on Wednesday and better Thursday. On Thursday they told us of a whole new part of the test for the first time: starting in neutral with the right foot on the brake, then changing into first with your left foot and setting off without putting either foot on the ground! Not easy (at least not for us). Anyway, VSO have decided to give us one day’s additional training next Wednesday the day before the exam, so that may help. That means I will go to work Monday and then promptly vanish off on Tuesday morning to Kigali and not return until Thursday evening! Francois must think I have disappeared altogether!
On Wednesday I heard from Tina Hewing in England – the doctor thinks she has a disease she caught from a rat in Rwanda! Not so pleasant! Anyway, hopefully now that they know what it is she will be cured and back with us soon. I hear the weather is miserable in England so that will be an incentive for her to hurry back!
On Thursday a big crows of us went to Sole Luna, an Italian restaurant in Kigali. The food was so-so (well, I rodered an indifferent pizza but some of the others were pretty impressive-looking) and I also tried Rwandan Guinness for the first time! It’s a bit like one of those specialist dark Belgian bottled beers, 7.5% and very strong-tasting. It was fine for about half the bottle and then it got really heavy going. No wonder the Rwandans mix it with Coke or orange!
One other interesting thing: while speeds are slow on the Internet, some things seem to download faster than expected, YouTube for example. Managed to download Sarah Palin’s greatest hits on Friday!! Going to keep that until 2012 in case we need it.
OK – the battery on my laptop is a bit low and it will take a while to upload the pictures so that’s it for now. The poem is a bit rough so feel free to criticise and suggest amendments! (Hovering between ‘dirt’ which rhymes better and ‘earth’ which seems to work better in the context).
Rwandan Sonnet
A lake appears and so I dive straight in –
I who cannot swim and fear the strange!
The fish, some small and plump, some long and thin,
Swim all around and wonder at the change.
Into their world of water, calm and mild,
(Though far below lie bones and blood-red earth)
This unfamiliar creature has arrived,
A plump Ophelia in a Chelsea shirt.
And so I drift, not sure of where I go
And sometimes wondering why the hell I’m here.
The water’s warm, the fish seem friendly, so
I’ll just keep floating for the next two years.
And rather than obey the current’s whim,
Maybe its time I found out how to swim!
I have now closed my fundraising account for VSO. Thanks again to everyone who helped me break my target of €10,000 - your support really meant a lot to me.
1 comment:
Hope you will get to use the 'doggy' book I gave you... or is it in use already.... or lost.....or forgotten..? Well house looks lovely... from the outside anyway... 'welcome to your new home' X Jennifer
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