Saturday 10th

Church in the morning. 8 am on a Sunday is starting to feel criminally early.

At two I went to Ubuzima to paint the beads. We actually had to spend a couple of hours stringing them first before we could paint or varnish them, which was a little bit frustrating. Jen had invited me to go and celebrate thanksgiving with her and a group of Canadian friends, which I was really looking forward too, not least because of the turkey. But having been at every stage of the bead making process so far, I really didn't feel that I could miss out on the painting. So my plan was to stay till 4.30 then join them for thanksgiving. But obviously at that time we were still stringing the beads, and by the time we were ready to start painting, a massive storm had amassed on the horizon.



And when it rains in Rwanda, it chucks it down. And when its wet, everything shuts down. So even if you're feeling mad enough to brave the rain, you can't get anywhere because all the taxi guys are hiding indoors. So I had little choice but to stay at church and wait it out. At about six o clock there was a power cut, I think across the whole of Kigali, as everyone I spoke to had been affected. Everyone that is, except us, as the Ubuzima workrooms don't have any electricity anyway! Because of the storm and the night time, it was pitch black and we had no choice but to work by the light of our mobile phones! This is the same photo, with and without flash. It gives you an idea of our working conditions.








With some of the Ubuzima ladies









This is how dark it was where we were working!



The rain stopped at 7, so by the time we had cleaned up it was about half past. By this time thanksgiving was well and truly over, so I resigned myself to another night in. I hailed a bike and was on my way.

Ok, so picture the scene. I live on a very long, bumpy dirt road, it has been raining heavily for over three hours and there are no street lights. Credit to the driver, we made it more than half way without incident. But the mud was just too thick, the puddles too deep and the potholes too bumpy for the bike to pass. So we skidded on the mud and crashed into a ditch. To make matters worse, we had to drag the bike back onto the road, and of course I slipped over, landed on my butt and got covered in mud. One foot in front of the other people! No serious injuries to report, just a bruised leg where the bike landed and a dent in the road where my butt landed.