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.