(Alfred: health warning – this blog entry is unnecessarily detailed, usually about things that no sane person would have any interest in. I suggest just reading every third word or every second sentence – you won’t really miss anything!)
Well, well, well – it’s been an interesting few days. Thursday passed pretty uneventfully (at least, I don’t remember anything too specific). After work Enock said we’d meet for a drink because as of next week he will be teaching 1800-2000 every day bar Wednesday (English to his colleagues) so we won’t be able to meet up as often. So I went home and chopped up loads of peppers, tomatoes and onions so I could cook them quickly for a pasta sauce when I got home and then went off to meet him. We had one beer, then a second. Then Enock said he had ordered – and paid for – brochettes and chips! So I could hardly say no and waited for the brochettes. And, oh dear – it was zingalo, goat intestines (Alfred: hence Ruairí’s now having learned the phrase Sindashaka zingalo – ní theastaíonn putóga uaim!) . I managed to get through one brochette by swallowing each one whole and washing it down with beer but the last portion was too big and I tried chewing it ... well, it was one of these remove-it-from-your-mouth-while-pretending-to-cough-and-drop it -on-the-ground moments. Then I had to pretend I was full so Enock would eat the last one!
Anyway, Enock is off to Kampala Saturday so we agreed to meet up in Kigali Sunday and come back on the bus together. Off home to be confronted by the pile of tomatoes, onions and peppers. I had already cancelled my class for Friday afternoon so I could head up early to Kigali so I was planning on leaving before lunch. It was now 2030 and there was no way I was going to start cooking – so instant salad it was. Not a great idea but I hate wasting food at the best of times and certainly not here.
Off to Kigali Friday at 1200. My boss looked less than gruntled when I told him I was heading off early – he said he had wanted to sit down with me that afternoon and plan our school visits for next week. I forbore to point out that I had been asking him all week to do this (!) and said we could sort it out Monday morning. Moto to Butare, Déo parked in front of the bus so it couldn’t leave until I ran in and bought a ticket (Alfred: it wasn’t Déo – he wasn’t free and he sent someone else. Remember how you kept telling the guy you didn’t need a moto and he was trying to explain that he had been specifically sent to collect you? Remember? Sure you didn’t crack your head when you fell into the ditch ... oops, sorry, getting ahead of the story!). Got to Kigali, went to the Program Office and saw various people and .......... (hold your breath ..........) COLLECTED MY VISA!!!!!!!!!!!! I am now legally entitled to live and work in Rwanda!! Yippeee!
By now I was faint with hunger so, even though we were all meeting at Sole Luna at 1900 for Andrea’s going-away dinner I had to go grab an omelette. Steve was in the office (I was staying with him and Nidhi for the two nights) but he was heading out with some Korean guys; however Nidhi was on her way back from Byumba and said she’s meet up with me. So off to Stella 2 (opposite Stella VIP) for an omelette. Then Nidhi turned up, then Sonya suddenly appeared, then Amanda, Polly and Mike – it being Mike and Sonya’s birthdays (and Charlotte’s0 that we were to celebrate tomorrow. Mike had only been back from England for a few days. His girlfriend is pregnant with twins and was admitted to Chelsea & Westminster hospital suffering from pre-eclampsia while he was actually on the plane coming back, so he has been having a tough time.
So, off to Sole Luna for pizza and say goodbye to Andrea. I mentioned her before – she is with VSO Canada and arranges all the education placements so she knows all of us quite well even though she has never met any of us!! She is an absolutely charming person and has an equally charming boyfriend, Don, who works in construction (specialises in making banister and other such curved objects!). A really nice night and then back to Nidhi and Steve’s for the night.
Saturday morning I headed to the bank to collect a Western Union money transfer (a long and boring procedure involving two separate banks that I won’t bore you with)(Alfred: Gee, thanks). I had decided to visit the Ivuka gallery with Steve and Tina but Tina was a bit late coming into town so I decided to wander into the superstore Nakumat. This was a seriously bad idea. I had just taken out a load of cash and there is nothing I like more when bored than shop! Now, some of the things I bought were actually useful and needed; the problem is I bought so much!! Pasta, jars of garlic & chilli sauce, batteries for my guard’s radio, rice, a vegetable peeler, two soup bowls, plastic storage jars for my opened spices and herbs ... and two big sacks of green lentils and yellow split peas. Then I met Tina and Steve in the Bourbon Cafe and had an omelette for breakfast. I dropped my bag back to the house before we headed off to the gallery. And that was a great visit. Some of you will have seen the Ivuka stuff on my Facebook page or website (some examples below). Their stuff is really great – if anyone is even vaguely interested in buying any of it, just drop me an email (roheithir@gmail.com).
So, Tina went off to Novotel and Steve and I eventually got back home. I went for a beer and a read in a bar nearby, Nidhi turned up later and then we went off with Tina for a bite to eat before the party. This is when we heard that Tamsin had gone into labour back in England and Mike was en route back to England. Fingers crossed all round.
So off to the party. Tina and I stopped off to buy booze in Ndoli’s and walked the rest of the way but took a wrong turn. I rang Sonya and she explained the way but as I was walking and talking to Sonya I wasn’t really paying attention and stepped off the edge of the road into a deep ditch! Ouch!! Luckily it was just cuts bruises and I didn’t hit my head or spill the booze!! Still, it looked pretty gruesome!! When I got to the house I just washed it off but Charlotte absolutely insisted on TCP and proper plasters and boy, am I glad she did when I looked at it the following day. (Alfred: this is getting tedious, get a move on. Thank God you left out the ‘hat on the chair in the Bourbon Café' story or we’d be here forever!). OK – it was a great party, met lots of the new intake of volunteers who are a really really nice bunch of people (Amalia is an even worse Nakumat shopper than me) and also quite a few of the World Teach volunteers we met in St Paul’s (see post from way back). It was especially nice to see Andy again (Canadian from South Dakota), have time for a proper chat with Amanda, see Martine (although briefly) and so on and so forth! Then most people went off dancing but neither Steve nor I were in the mood so we walked for a bit and then flagged down a taxi. Bed at 0230 – not too bad.
Woke up at 0630 to the sound of Nidhi arriving home!! Got up at 0700, brushed my teeth and then went back to bed and read Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe which was enjoyable enough without ever quite grabbing me (which is pretty true for all his books as far as they work for me). Coffee, shower and then Steve and I decided to cut our hair with my shaver – crew cuts all round (Alfred: Aww, it was so cute, trimming each other’s fringes and necks, ask Nidhi – she’ll tell you!).
My pack was now heavier than I ever remember it being, largely because I had forgotten all the books I had taken from the resource office as well as my shopping – I was really hoping my reinforced stitching would hold out!! So Bourbon again for a drink and then off to Nidhi’s fish restaurant. I had bought two tickets for the 1830 bus figuring that would work for Enock but he texted me afterwards to say he wouldn’t be there until 2100, so that was a wasted ticket. Had a really nice fish lunch (with Steve, Nidhi, David and Jacob) and then went off to change my ticket to an earlier bus – that at least meant I would be in early enough to get a moto instead of a taxi so I saved money overall. I slept on the bus with my enormous rucksack in my lap and then Déo collected me in Butare. We set off gingerly as it was darkish, I was VERY heavy and Déo had plonked a suitcase in the handlebars as well! We got to my house and – just as I got off the bike - the straps broke on the rucksack!! Talk about good timing.
And who was standing outside my house but Enock! He had mistyped the text and had actually been in Kigali before me! He had brought me a present from Uganda – a loaf of proper Ugandan bread, which I promised to sample for breakfast. We had a quick beer (I have some Mutzig in the house, probably not a great idea) and then he headed off. Glad to get to bed that night!!
(Alfred: and that’s it for tonight. Tune in tomorrow for the young-boy-carrying-the-model-brain-to-school story, and his description of the really nice dinner he cooked for himself Monday night!!)
See http://www.ivukaarts.com/ for more details though the pictures were posted last March. See my Facebook page for two albums of pictures. Email me if you want details of how to order pictures: roheithir@gmail.com
1 comment:
CONGRATULATIONS!! on becoming legal, Ruairi ... what took them so long I wonder?!
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