Saturday 26th

It's raining avocados!

We're at Shokolat but there is no power, which subsequently means no food. We've been here since 12.30 and are rather hungry, as we only had biscuits for breakfast. It's now just after two.

Well the gardens at Shokolat are full of avo trees, and I guess it's that time of year, because they've been falling off the trees all afternoon.

Well, we decided to eat one to stave off the hunger pains.


Eat your heart out Costa Coffee!

Thursday 24th

School was classic tonight! We were in the middle of the lesson when all of a sudden my students jumped to their feet and ran to the back of the room screaming. Grown men and women. Well I figured it must have been pretty bad to cause such a commotion, so I joined my students at the back of the room. “What is it?” I demanded in trepidation. My students fearfully pointed to the front desk, and, brave leader that I am, I walked over to it.

Based on the pitch and frequency of the screams, I was expecting to find a tarantula or poisonous snake.

It was a gecko. A gecko! Grown men standing on their chairs shrieking like little girls.
Seriously.

I scooped it up in my hands and set it free outside. “Honestly guys. Based on your screaming I thought it was something really scary, like a spider or something.”

I used a red board marker that night, and by the end of the lesson we were left with a pink board in place of a white board. I don't think the resident teacher will be too impressed.


Don't worry, I stayed behind to clean it.

Wednesday 23rd

Today was busy. I got to Ubuzima at 9 to get the paper ready for the guys to make beads. I’ve got these little purple bruises on my fingers from all the cutting I’ve been doing.

Then we had three home visits to do. The first two were in Kimihurura by the church. Myself, Mama D and Alice walked up together, and as we passed Patrick's house, all the little kids came running down the hill to greet me and give my hugs. Mama D looked pretty surprised.

Sadly, 10 minutes into the first visit, Mama D got some bad news and had to leave. And Alice had to go back to church and pick some things up, so I was left alone with a lady called Bernadette and her family. Fortunately my Kinyarwanda is now good enough to sustain half an hour of broken conversation, and we were able to pass the time quite comfortably. I held her granddaughter for a while and went and met her neighbours.

At the end when Alice came back, we prayed together, took some photos and left.

Kimihurura, like the whole of Kigali, is set on a series of hills. The next lady we went to visit, Primitive, lives at the top of the hill. We were carrying a massive bag and the weather was cooking, so the journey up arduous but fun. Thankfully she gave us both a cold fanta to welcome us into her home.

(Alice halfway up the hill).

On the way up we bumped into one of the Ubuzima ladies sewing on the roadside.

The last visit was in Nyamirambo. Alice and I walked for about forty minutes in the mid day sun to get the bus, still uphill, still carrying the bag. As we were changing buses in town, two guys came towards me. One held my arm and blocked my path, the other reached into my pocket and stole my phone. Fortunately it was just a cheap one, but it's still an inconvenience.

(The last house we visited. The lady was called Denise and she also gave us a fanta while we looked through her photo albumns).

I got home at half past two just in time for my Kinyarwanda lesson. After half an hour I felt so knackered I had to reschedule the rest of the lesson to the next day.
I was a bit of a zombie at school that night.

Tuesday 22nd

We visited with Mama Judith this morning. We arranged to meet at Giporoso at 8.50, but Mike arrived at 9.15, Jean Claude at close to ten. Karen and I, tired of standing, sat in the dust while we waited, bored. Mike brought blueberry peace muffins, and I was appeased until a hungry face came and took my one from me.

When we finally arrived at Mama Judith's house, we had a really special time together. She gave us fanta, bananas and bread, as well as a red flower each. Jean Claude and I translated for Karyn and Mike and it worked really well.

I really love Mama Judith and it's a privilege to be teaching her English. She has such a generous heart and is really very sweet.

In the afternoon we had Ubuzima. It was Mike's first time there and it was funny watching him trying to remember the greetings I had quickly coached him in before pushing into the throng of women. They'd say 'How are you?' and he'd say 'Amen!'. They'd say 'Praise Jesus!' and he'd say 'I’m fine'. It was funny.

Monday 21st

I found out today that my Grandmother is really sick and might die this week. It's quite stressful being so far away when something like this is looming overhead.

At school tonight I asked about the progress of my visa application and they told me it would take six weeks! That's ridiculous. I got my first visa from the embassy in 36 hours. I need my passport. I’m leaving in 13 weeks, so I cant afford to lose my passport for such a long time. I want to visit Uganda and Burundi. What if I need to go home for a funeral? I’m finding this quite stressful.


Karyn and I sat in the garden this morning marking my mock exams from school. It turns out I’m quite a generous marker. All this sunshine must be getting to me.

In the afternoon I met up with Jean Paul at church. He just started university and I’m tutoring him to make sure he understands all his assignments. The English in his text books is ridiculously hard, and it's my job to simplify comp

licated business terms into language he can understand. It's harder than it sounds. What the heck does 'salient' mean?



Anyway, today we looked at the scarcity of resources and opportunity cost, micro and macro economics, as well as capitalism vs. socialism. 'Are you qualified to talk about such things?' you may well ask. Interestingly enough, yes I am. I learnt about opportunity cost in Germany during a research scholarship, capitalism and socialism in my politics lectures and micro/macro economics by helping a uni friend revise. Boo yah.

In the evening we went to Jen and Serge's for dinner. Today was a national voting holiday so I didn't have school, which was actually a really nice break. Dinner was really good. You how last week I mentioned that they have lots of cute pet rabbits? Well they have less now.

Man, rabbit is good.

Sunday 20th

The clouds loomed as we approached the church on foot. Would we get there before the heavens opened? Well I honestly didn't care as I had my umbrella, but everyone else looked pretty worried.
As it is we didn't make it, and we sat through the service cold and wet. As the storm raged it took out the power, leaving us with no mics and no projector. They tried shouting from the front but nothing could be heard over the noise of the rain on the tin roof. I took the opportunity to 'rest my eyes'. Starting the service at eight o' clock is savage, especially if you live an hours bus ride away and have to fetch water and shower in a bucket.

Jen invited us out for lunch, but it was so cold the decision was unanimous - we all just wanted to go home ad snuggle up under blankets. And that it what we did.

In the afternoon it warmed up. The sun came out and the birds sang. It was beautiful. You can be jealous.

In the evening we went out for pizza to Sole Luna. Our original plan was to get pizza and 2 scoops of ice cream each, but after the pizza we were stuffed! I guess the pizzas were pretty big.

Sat 19th PM

After the doughnut convention we went back to visit Patrick. He's leaving for school tomorrow so we won't see him again until April.

As a parting gift we gave him a Kinyarwanda Bible, and he was thrilled. It's such a privillege to be able to share the Word of God with people in their own language.

These kids are Patrick's neighbours. They always come round to see us when we visit. And I have to admit that I quite like them.

(Photos: Karyn Makins)

Saturday 19th

You probably won't believe me but we went to a doughnut convention today. I had a cinnamon raisin bagel and a maple syrup doughnut, both of which I enjoyed very much.




What I didn't like so much was being in a totally white environment. It was the strangest thing ever. You're walking down a dirt road in the middle of Rwanda, go through this unmarked gate and BAM! you're in Narnia. The place was packed with bazungu and it made me feel very uncomfortable. Fortunately Exeter is very multi-ethnic so I shouldn't have any trouble settling back in in September. In case you're wondering, that was my dry sense of humour at work. In Exeter you're considered exotic if you come from as far away as neighbouring Cornwall. I’m not looking forward to coming back.


(Photos: Karyn Makins)


Tonight at Shokola I had chicken curry.

Friday 18th

Well, Mama Brigitte wasn't at church today, so the normal cooking hierarchy was totally abandoned. It was every man for himself. I’m usually relegated to sorting rice, the skill set for which could easily be satisfied by a gorilla. But today was my chance for the big time.
Today I was playing with the big boys, namely carrots and cabbages.

On my first day Mama B tried me out on the carrots, but soon took them away from me when she realised I was incapable of chopping them without them flying all over the place. That's when the rice sorting began.

You see, it's one thing cutting vegetables at home on a board with a sharp knife. It's another thing all together chopping them onto your hands with a blunt knife.

But today the carrots weren't the problem. It was the cabbages. I’ve never chopped cabbages before in my life, except for a nightmarish cabbage pie incident on Year of Training that I’d rather forget. For questions, ask Jacobeth.

Fortunately, a few minutes later one of the Ubuzima ladies came over and enlisted me to help with the beads. Phew! And hopefully Mama B will never find out that I overstepped my metron.
Our newest intern arrived last night, and I met him for the first time today. He's a farm boy from Canada. Enough said.

After serving up for the street kids, we took Mike into town for a quick lunch and tour of Kigali.He had no phone, no money and certainly no clue, so I wrote the name of the church on his arm and gave him five quid in case he got lost.

Then we went to visit Patrick at his home.

Karyn had her camera with her, and within minutes we were surrounded by kids.

(Photos: Karyn Makins)

In the evening we watched Die Hard. Can't believe that the sequel is called Die Harder.

Thursday 17th

I just survived a mosquito attack!

I was awoken at 2 am by that ominous buzzing sound we all know to be something that is going to bite you. Now I’ve learnt my lesson. This is not a noise you can just ignore. Nor should you think that DEET can save you. No, your only defence is offence. You have to get the little bugger before it gets you. So it was at 2 am that I unrolled my 3 point plan to DESTROY ALL MOSQUITOES. Well, not all mosquitoes, just the one in my room last night. And not so much destroy them as to neutralise their threat.

Step 1: Open the door and turn on the lights in the lounge and hall to lure it out.
Step 2: DEET up, just in case it decides to work this time.
Step 3: Run round the round room furiously swatting the air in the hope that you'll get lucky and kill it.

And when all of these steps fail, which they ultimately will when implemented by me in the middle of the night, you simply retreat back into your mosquito net, pull your blankets over your head and hope that you don't run out of oxygen.


And you'll be relieved to know that I survived this horrific ordeal, and continue, as best I can, with my everyday life.

We have in our house a conflict of the strangest sort. We have a fridge in the kitchen in which we store water, cabbages, etc. Now most people accept that fridges are supposed to be cold; that is after all, the premise on which we argue their usefulness. But it appears that no one has told this to our house girl, Angelique. She prefers to use the fridge as a cupboard. This would be fine. Warm water never hurt anyone. Except that our new intern keeps yoghurt and fanta in there, and she likes them cold. But whenever she opens the fridge, a blast of warm air wafts out. So she turns the fridge up to full volume. And whenever Angelique opens the fridge, the cabbages are frozen solid, so she turns the power off completely. Well, it looks like the intern is winning because when I went to have breakfast this morning, my milk was frozen into a block. So I’m sitting in the lounge waiting for it to defrost so I can have my breakfast. I’m watching Aljazeera while I wait, not the BBC because it's 'too biased' and not CNN because 'they just make things up'.

Wednesday 16th

I had to fill out all my visa forms at school today, but by the time I got there I was a little bit knackered and not altogether with it. It had been a long and busy day and honestly I wasn't at my best. Anyway, every other question involved me writing the word 'volunteer', but I couldn't remember how to spell it. The school administrator was standing over my shoulder and I couldn't spell 'volunteer'!

I’ve never been very good a forms. And I know exactly why.

When Princess Di passed away, we, like so many others, went to sign one of the many books of condolence that filled the country. When we were waiting in the queue, my mum prepped me to make sure that I wrote a nice message in my best handwriting. But the pressure proved to be too much for me, and I spelt my name wrong. I wrote 'Niola' by mistake, and in a desperate attempt to hide my shame, I took the black biro in my hand and scribbled over the error with all my might. For some reason my mum didn't seem too pleased with this, and after chastising me the appropriate amount, she dragged me home in tears. (I’m not sure who was crying more, me or her). Thus the fear was born...


Then during my A Levels I decided to apply to Cambridge University. My teachers told me I wouldn't get in, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. And so the lengthy and complicated application process began. That it took me 14 attempts to fill out the application form was probably an indication that I wasn't Cambridge material. Needless to say, the interview and my grades confirmed it!

So forms have never been my strong point.

Tuesday 15th

We've started up the beading business again at Ubuzima after a two month break. Drawing, cutting, rolling – it's good to be back. The only problem is, we only had one glue stick to use between thirty men, women and children. Work was slower than usual, although only marginally I’ll admit. They've always had a pretty laid back approach to work.

It was so good to be doing familiar things with familiar people.

(photos: Karyn Makins)

Monday 14th

I withheld biscuits from my students today. They're really nice and everything, but they aren't half demanding. 'We want biscuits!' is not the best way to get your teacher to part with her diminishing stash of junk food. Maybe tomorrow...

Saturday 12th

The rains have come.

I’m at Shokola with Karyn and it's raining. The whole restaurant is outside, and although we're sitting under canvas, it's freezing cold. I’m wearing two long sleeved shirts over my vest top and I have wrapped my pashmina over my feet to stay off
frostbite. It's cold. And while it never drops much below 17 degrees in Kigali, it feels like it's -40. It's cold in Africa.




In case you're interested, I had beef tagine with chapattis for lunch. The plan is to work my way down the menu, until I get to the tripe dish, at which point I abandon ship and find another restaurant. Or start again from the top.




In the evening we went to Heaven to watch a film. If I’m honest, the film wasn't that good, but, being set in England, it reminded me of all the things I’m missing out on back home: William Hills, Scotch before lunch and chavs. Oh how I long for you sweet England!



(Photos: Karyn Makins)

Friday 11th

There is a foul wind over Kigali. I’ve been here five months now and the weather has been exceptionally good. I would have to guess that it's been hot and sunny about 80% of the time. Considering my time here has included a wet season, that's really not bad going.

But the winds have changed.

Clouds hang ominously over the hills, threatening rain, threatening sadness.

The rains are coming.

Thursday 10th

I’ve finally thought of an appropriate name for the goat, but I wouldn't like to say it in polite company (I’ll tell Corinne in private). While I still like the idea of having a goat, the reality has me less than enthused. Let's just say that goat kebab is starting to sound really good to me. And to Karyn, Dora, our neighbours and the whole of Kabeza.

Ihene is really noisy. He starts bleeting at 6am when Angelique lets him out his house, and stops only at 7pm when he goes to bed. Not even does a mouthful of grass or porridge still his vocal chords. Perhaps if we put arsenic in it...?

And that's not it. Now that he's a bit bigger, he's gotten really smelly. And he just wants to eat everything; your hair, your clothes, your limbs. It's really annoying.

Or maybe goat curry...

Wednesday 9th

Apparently my blog has become boring to you. Well excuse me. Excuse me for thinking it is a way for me to record what I’m doing here and reflect on my experiences at the end of every day. I apologise for forgetting that actually it's all about you, for your entertainment. It won't happen again.

Let me again focus on the most important incidents of everyday life in Rwanda, those funny anecdotes that make you laugh, skipping over the substance of what I’m actually doing here.

To business:

A bug flew down my top while I was teaching tonight, but I think I handled it quite well. I calmly delegated authority to a student, then ran out of the class room screaming. They couldn't wish for a more professional teacher.

I’m back.

Monday 7th Feb

I stayed at home and did some Persian today. I swear it's like I have to start from scratch every time I pick up my books. I know I should study it more often, but it's hard to make it a priority. There aren't exactly many Persian speakers here...

Sunday 6th Feb

Church was good this morning and I enjoyed the preach. We went home, had lunch, and I settled down for a Sunday afternoon nap. 10 minutes later the phone rang. And that was the end of my nap. We spent the afternoon babysitting for Jen and Serge. The kids were really good, but the films they chose weren't. Seriously, horse movies? Please.


(Photo: Karyn Makins)

On the plus side, Jen and Serge keep rabbits, and they have just had babies. Very cute, fluffy rabbit babies.

Saturday 5th

I took Karyn to Shokola today. She wanted to get the bus in to practice the route but it took forever because we went via Remera. And we stayed there the whole day. I used the time to catch up on my blog. I’m now only two weeks behind. Score.

(Photo: Kayn Makins)

I had goat curry and chapattis for lunch, followed by a tropical smoothie. So yummy.

(Photo: Karyn Makins)

Friday 4th February

I had cooking this morning, but it's an early start so I left Karyn at home in bed. I know I say it every week, but I love sorting rice. At ten Karyn called to say that she wanted to join us, so I got a bike home quickly and picked her up. The kids still haven't bought their health insurance yet, so we're not letting them in to eat. Cooking for 15 is much quicker than cooking for 50. Yvette was there today to help us, and I really enjoyed spending some more time with her.

(Photo: Karyn Makins)

Then we went into town for the 'best places to eat' tour. I took her to La Fine Bouche for a glass of fresh passion fruit juice, 35p, then to La Sierra, one of Jen's favourite haunts. I knew we were getting the bus home during rush hour, so we each bought a bar of dairy milk to make the journey more bearable. We also popped into Mille Collines to make a reservation for my parents. They're coming in a month, but it's a popular hotel so it's good to get the booking over and done with.

That night Jen and Serge took us out for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Sola Luna. I couldn't believe how nice it was. I’ve driven past it quite a lot, but I’ve never been inside before. It is gorgeous. And they have over 50 different types of pizza. I doubt even Italy could top that.

(photo: Karyn Makins)

Thursday 3rd

Karyn must have been pretty tired because she slept all morning. I tried waking her up several times, and was a bit worried that she had run away in the night. But at around 11 am she emerged and we set about the day.
I took her into town for the grand tour, showing her the bus stops, key shops and different areas. And we had lunch together at Bourbon. We didn't want to have lunch there as it's really expensive for what you get, but we were trapped by heavy rain. I ordered a ham, cheese and roasted vegetable sandwich, thinking they meant pepper, onion, tomato etc. But my sandwich, my £5 sandwich, was full of carrots and sugar snap peas. It was unusual to say the least.

And I didn't have time for my Kinyarwanda lesson.

Wednesday 2nd Feb

Kinyarwanda is fun, which is why I’m cutting my lessons from four hours a week to three.

It's going well at the school, except I’m not sure how much they're progressing. My new strategy is to set lots of homework to try and gage it. But the problem with setting lots of homework is that you have to mark it. So after work tonight I went and sat in Bourbon for an hour or so to do some marking.

At Bourbon, I ordered banana bread, but it tasted really bad. As I was leaving, I advised the manager to take it off the shelves, but she explained that they had given me zucchini bread by mistake. I guess I wasn't prepared for all the healthiness, which explains why it tasted so bad to me. It caught me unawares.




Our new intern arrived tonight and I went to meet her at the airport with Jen and Dora. Her name is Karyn and she's from Hamilton Canada. She's very nice.

Tuesday 1st Feb

Today Ubuzima held it's first official meeting of 2011! When I got to the church, Alice and Marita came over to greet me and they walked me over to the others. As we were waiting for more people to arrive, they noticed a bruise on my leg and pulled up my trouser legs to investigate. My legs, although nicely tanned, are looking a bit worse for wear at the moment. They are covered with burns, bruises, bites and cuts. I rarely have any war wounds in England, but life is a little bit rougher here in Africa, so it just comes with the territory.


After Ubuzima I went into town to pick up some last few bits for our new intern who arrives tomorrow. Obviously we've never met before, but she's going to be living with us, and Dora says I have to be nice to her. And I will be.

Monday 31st January

When I went to bed last night I was very tired. I knew there was a mosquito inside my net, but I couldn't be bothered to look for it. I covered my face in 95% DEET and slept soundly. Until five am, that is, when the damn thing bit me. In the middle of my forehead. I look like an idiot.

I’m doing some shopping today. We've got 2 new interns arriving in the next few weeks, and I want to pick up some things that will make their first few days easier.

Shopping list: plastic cup for showering, drinking water, washing powder (for pants), hanging peg rack (for pants), sim card, airtime, chocolate (for sad days), gum, sweets, tissues (for use as loo roll in squat toilets), hand sanitiser (for use after squat toilets) and a peace basket ( as a gentle introduction to Rwandese culture).

Thursday 27th, Friday 28th,, Saturday 29th, Sunday 30th

I’m not sure what I did on these four days, but I can tell you that there's something special about sitting outside in the evening, baby goat on your lap, watching the sun set over the hills, bats flying overhead, crickets singing, banana trees gently swaying in the tropically warm wind.

There's nowhere else I'd rather be.

Wednesday 26th Jan

Today was a very busy day. I found out on Monday that my CRB check, although only 4 months old, is now invalid to use in a visa application. And it's not like I can fly back to the UK to get another one. So the school wants me to go and get a Rwandan police clarance today. We went to the Supreme Court or something, but by the time we'd done all the paperwork, the office had closed so I’ll have to go back tomorrow (This might have happened last week but my memory of it is a bit sketchy).

I went back to Patrick's this morning as he had agreed to interpret for me and the goat lady, but he had forgotten about our meeting. I waited outside his house for half an hour, which I didn't mind doing, except that everyone in his neighbourhood was utterly perplexed by my presence there. Fortunately my Kinyarwanda was good enough for me to explain what was going on, but I still drew quite a crowd. The kids in particular were interested.

When Patrick arrived, we walked down to the goat lady's house. But it was so hot, about 32 degrees, that we had to stop for a Fanta on the way. When we finally got to her house, we found her very unready to go, so waited at her house for another thirty minutes. To save money, we got the bus home. It took us an hour to get to Remera. Instead of g

etting another bus to Kabeza, we got taximotos. I’m getting quite impatient with the buses. They're so much cheaper but it takes FOREVER to get anywhere.

When we got home, we had lunch together and worked some more on the house. Then I did my lesson plan outside in the sunshine before having my first Kinyarwanda lesson of the New Year with Silas.

I’m making progress with my Kinyarwanda, but it's very slow and I’m not enjoying the process. It's definitely coming in handy though, even at Green Hills when I’m trying to explain things to the students.

Tuesday 25th Jan

In the morning I went to visit Yvette. I took her to Bourbon, and it was my privilege to introduce her to ice cream for the very first time. She looked very nervous when I ordered it for her and kept asking if it would be cold.



It was cold, and she really didn't like it very much, despite me repeatedly assuring her that ice cream is delicious and she really ought to try harder to enjoy it. Some people just can't appreciate true art.

I picked the wood today and we started building the goat house. It's coming along nicely.

Monday 24th Jan

My blog entry for today was going to read : Had lunch with [insert high profile name] today
But then I remembered what I actually did. I went to Patrick's house. I’ve asked him to build a goat house (they have to sleep indoors), and he called me to say that he's found us some wood to use. When I got to the house to pick up the wood, we soon realised that transportation would be a problem, as the wood was too big to fit into a car. I asked Patrick to saw it all in half, and I’d come pick it tomorrow.

In case you're interested, school is still going well. It's taking less and less time to prepare the lessons and I’m enjoying it.

Sunday 23rd January

I have a goat! And we've decided to let him go free range. Angelique isn't thrilled about this because he followers her around everywhere. Doesn't follow me around. But he's still very cute.





I really needed to pee today at church, but I wanted to wait till the end before I went. But the time the service had finished, I was desperately in the truest sense of the word. The loo at church is of the hole in the ground persuasion, and I have only a 75% success rate with toilets of this kind. Sometimes I just can't go, no matter how much I need to. Today was one of those times. I went in, nothing happened and I went out again. But I really needed to pee! Dora was waiting for me in the car park, but I ran past her and yelled, 'I need the loo', and grabbed a taximoto up to town. Really wish the road from church was tarmacked. Today my prayer was, 'Lord please don't let me pee on this guy's bike'.

Can I just say, thank you Jesus for proper toilets. Amen. After relieving myself, I rejoined Dora at church and we got the bus home.

Dora's friend preached today and he came round to see the new house after church. We had lunch together, and I chilled out on my own in the afternoon.

Saturday 22nd January

I called Patrick today and asked him to get me a goat from his neighbourhood. Any goat. I didn't care anymore. He came a few hours later by bike. He brought the goat on a taximoto. The poor thing was so scared that it literally pooed itself.

We tied a rope around its ankle and let it go in the garden. I thought that would be that, after all, a goat pretty much looks after itself right? How hard can it be?

But it bleated at full volume for the rest of the day, barely stopping for breath. This thing is loud. You can hear him all the way down on the main road.

But he's my goat, and I’m very happy to have him. The intention is that we'll eat him at my leaving party in May, but I’m not convinced I’ll be able to go through with it.

Friday 21st Jan

I got a lift into town with Dora today at about six am. That's gruelling. It was freezing cold and I had to wear a jumper and shirt over my usual vest top. We went to a little market and bought breakfast for her office, samoosas and bread rolls.
Well, I promptly dropped my samoosa on the floor, spilling spiced beef everywhere, all over the pristine white floor. I saw that as my cue to leave, and headed down to the church.

This morning I was cooking for the street kids. I forgot all about it last week, so it was my first time seeing everyone again after Christmas. I also forgot how much I love sorting rice. I love it very much. It's my favourite thing to do at half past seven in the morning.




(photo: Karyn Makins)

After my lunch of rice and beans, I went to Bourbon for a drink. I also had some banana bread. This was a bad idea, as I was still very full from lunch. But I pushed through and finished it. If I learnt anything from Year of Training it's perseverance.

Then this afternoon we went on an adventure. Dora and I have decided that to have such a big garden and no animals would be a waste, so we're going to buy a puppy and a baby goat (I know they're called kids but I didn't have to give anyone the wrong idea!) I asked my friend Patrick to come with me, because I didn't think it would be a good idea for a muzungu to go animal shopping on her own. Dora doesn't even let me buy fruit on my own. We went to Nyabugogo market, shopping central of Kigali, the most stressful place on earth.

First for the puppy. We'd been assured that we could get a mongrel for about £40, but when we got there, they said the cheapest dogs they had were £120. I know that in the UK it's much more expensive, but I still don't have that sort of money. I think they put the price up when I asked if their monkeys were for sale. But they were very cute monkeys, and I think it was worth the risk. Opportunity cost.

Then for the goat. But the time we arrived, the goat market was closed for the day, but the shepherd boys ran off to get a goat that matched my description. Small, black and white, cute. Even with Patrick in the car, I felt very uncomfortable in Nyabugogo. People surrounded the car, children pressed their faces against the windows, and put their hands in asking for money and sweets. Then the shepherds arrived demanding money for the goats they brought us. Well, honestly, I felt that their customer service was very bad, so I refused the sale. This did not go down well. Things got a bit dicey towards the end, until the driver came and rescued us. Still people crowded around the car, and he had no choice but to drive into them.

Hopes fading, I had a thought – maybe I could buy a goat from the goat family. They have goats for sure, but I didn't know if they would have any baby goats left. When we arrived at the house, all the kids ran over to us shouting 'Nicoley, Nicoley' and gave me big hugs and high fives. Then we saw the goats. They were of a monstrous proportion, the size of small horses. And I want a baby goat. One that is cute and fluffy and light enough to hold. So we dropped Patrick off and I went back into town to wait for Dora. Deflated, I went back to Bourbon and bought a chocolatey drink. That night I went home with no puppy and no goat, and wept myself to sleep.

I didn't, but I want you to fully comprehend the sadness that was in my heart.

Thursday 20th Jan

I popped in to see Jen and Serge today. We've not seen each other since October, so we had a lot to catch up about.

After Jen's, I went back to the court to drop off my application and they told me to return at 3pm.
When I went back, I waited for 30 minutes and they gave me a police clearance. Now I can apply for another visa!

Can't remember what I did in the afternoon, but I'd like you to assume that it was very exciting and adventurous, so please be suitably jealous.

Wednesday 19th Jan

Today was uneventful. I honestly can't remember what I did. (Clue, at the start of each blog entry you'll see two dates. The first is the date I’ve written and published the entry, the second is the date I’m writing about. You'll often see a considerable gap between the two, which could affect the accuracy of my stories!)


I think I went to the Supreme Court to try and get a Rwandese police clearance for my visa application. But by the time we'd completed all the paper work, it had closed, so I’ll have to go back tomorrow.

Tuesday 18th Jan

My lesson plan only took 6 hours today. Victory!

Jen and Serge got back this evening, so I’ll be seeing them at some point this week.

Monday 17th Jan

Today was my first day at Green Hills. Just to be sure, I spent a couple more hours reviewing my lesson plan.

The lesson itself went really well. My students are great and I really enjoyed it.

Sunday 16th Jan

I felt really sick today. Really, really sick. The praise and worship was challenging, considering that at the end of every line I vomitted a little bit into my mouth. When it finally came time for the preach, Dora announced that we would instead be praying in small groups. My prayer was, 'Lord, help me not vomit onto these peoples' feet.

Saturday 15th Jan

I spent a large part of the day on the immigration website doing some research into my immigration status here. It wasn't the most fun of activities, nor was it particularly enlightening, but I felt compelled to try and figure out the situation.

I also prepared my lesson plan for Monday. I know I’ve been teaching English for a few months now, but I’ve never taught adults before, let alone Rwanda's finest. We have government ministers, bankers, heads of NGOs etc, so I think it's right that I feel at least a little nervous. So, my first lesson plan took me 8 hours to complete. No wonder teachers feel overworked and underpaid.

Friday 14th Jan

I went to Green Hills Academy today. It's part of the Cambridge University Group and is one of, if not the most prestigious school in Rwanda. President Kagame's kids go there. Inside the school is an independent language centre that runs language courses for adults and they've asked me to teach there. I went in today to talk about getting a visa and sort out all the paperwork then I'll start work on Monday. It's two hours a night, four nights a week, so it won't interfere with my schedule with ITeams. Now I don't want to go into details, but there were a few startling revelations and unwelcome hiccups that I just wasn't expecting. So please be praying in the visa/immigration genre.

When I had finished at Green Hills, I went looking for a bus stop so I could get home. I walked for half an hour before I found one. And the bus took me into town and not to Remera, which is where I would have got a connection to Kabeza. I wandered the back streets of Kigali for thirty minutes looking for a Kabeza bus, in which time my phone ran out of battery.

It's also worth mentioning that I had no food, water or Rwandese currency. I was feeling a tad pathetic and was seriously considering checking into a hotel for the night with my credit card and trying to find a bus again tomorrow. (At the hotel I would have borrowed someone’s laptop and facebooked Dora to let her know I was essentially alright, if not completely broken by the horrors of public transport. She worries about me, and I’m certain that she would have called a nation-wide search party by nine pm).

In my distress, I allowed a single tear to fall, then slapped myself across the face, reminding myself that I am in fact not a four year old girl, but an intrepid explorer and future presidential candidate.

After much debate in my head, I decided to get a bike up to Dora's office and wait for her to finish work so she could take me home. On the way up to the office, we drove past the bus I wanted and consequently found the bus stop I had been looking for. With this new hope, I went to the forex bureax and changed up a twenty I had in my purse. I used the money to buy essential supplies like water and chocolate, and then headed back down to the bus stop.

We waited half an hour for the bus to fill, then were on our way. Of course, on a day like this, that couldn't be the end of the story. There was this crazy old guy on the bus who did this call and response thing at the top of his lungs the entire duration of the journey. Kind of like Avril's 1 2 3 4 5 6 come on thing but in Kinyarwanda, for two and a half hours, with no means of escape, short of suicide, which for the first time in my Christian life I considered as a viable option. Furthermore, the conductor was determined that the bus be filled to capacity the whole way home, so every time someone got off, a new passenger had to get on. Joy to the world.

Long story short, I got home at 7pm, three and a half hours after leaving Green Hills. There must be a better way.

Thursday 13th Jan

Still unpacking. Think I will be for a while yet.

I got the bus into town today to meet up with Desire, one of the boys I was teaching last term. He put the meeting back an hour, so I bought a book at Nakamatt called 'Falling off the Edge: Globalisation, World Peace and Other Lies', and sat and read it at Bourbon. There was no banana bread so I had zuchinni bread instead. It was actually rather tastey. I love vegetables, and I’m a great believer in cake being the best way to eat them.

When he arrived, he told me about his old life on the street, how he got saved and how happy he is to be going back to school this year. Then we played uno for a while over Fanta. I also got a phone call from a language centre asking me to start teaching with them which should be good.

That evening Dora and I went out for a meal with the worship team. Most of the them I don't know very well, so it was a good opportunity to spend some time with them. We got a buffet and drink for £2.50, so it was very reasonably priced.

Wednesday 12th Jan

I woke up this morning with 11 mosquito bites, including four on my jawline. Horror! I look like quasimodo. But I’m very, very grateful that I don't have any on my face. Thank you Jesus.

For the last two days I’ve been unpacking. I’m not sure how it's possible but I have two large boxes and a large suitcase worth of stuff here. But I now have a massive wardrobe so it's OK.

I also got some photos printed in SA and I’ve put them up all over my room, so it's looking rather nice in here.

Tuesday 11th Jan

Mama Deborah invited me for lunch today, so I spent the morning fretting about how to get there. I’m going to have to use the buses because the bikes will be too expensive from here, but I’m really not that sure how they work. I walked round the neighbourhood for forty minutes, exploring and nosing and looking for a bus stop, but I couldn't find one anywhere. In the end I just got a bike.

We made lunch together outside and then went in to eat with her family. It was really good to see Mama Deborah again. She is a very special lady and a real blessing to me. After lunch we prayed together and she showed me round her vegetable garden. She grows vegetables for the people at Ubuzima.

After saying goodbye to Mama Deborah I went into town to wait for Dora to finish work.

At six o' clock I walked down to Mille Collines to meet Dora. At twenty past seven she arrived. But I didn't get cross or indignant because the new Nicola, who lives in Africa, is very flexible. And the waitress brought me a plate of free snacks while I waited so it was all OK. We had dinner together and enjoyed the live band.

When I went to bed I forgot about the Tabbard.