3rd April

I’ve been wanting to skype with Corinne for a while now but our internet connection has been really bad. Today I decided to go into town so that I could speak with her. I chose to go by bike because I really don't have the patience for bus travel when I’m on my own. I tell the bike guy that I want to go to BNR, in Kiyovu, town. No problem, he says, 1500 rwf. Fine. But halfway there the bike breaks down and another bike is beckoned over. I hear the original guy say BNR, and I assumed that he gave sufficient explanation to get me to the right place. The new guy takes a different road, but I guess he's just taking a short cut. So we drive and drive and I’m looking around me thinking, 'where am I? But I confirm that we're going to BNR and I trust him. That is until we turn onto a dirt road into a forest. Flipping heck, I think. This certainly has the potential to turn bad. I’m thinking news headlines.

So I stop the bike and demand that he tell me where we're going. 'To the houses of the BNR workers' he replies. 'But I want to go to BNR itself.' 'And I’ll be happy to take you there for the small sum of 2000 rwf' he says. I was so cross. But what was I supposed to do? Stay in the forest told my whole life? So I agreed to pay him 1500rwf and he took me into town. It cost me 2500rwf to get into town, which is 10 times what I would have paid on the bus, and the probably would have been quicker too. How ironic. Needless to say, by the time I arrived at Shokola I was feeling fairly tightly wound.
“I am calm and happy” I said to the waitresses. “I am calm and happy”, I told my friends. “I am calm and happy”, I told myself. No one believed me, myself least of all.

I go online to speak to Corinne and she's not there.
SMS:
Nic -Where are you?
Corinne -Sorry Nic, I can't make it. My plans have changed.
Nic-Get your butt over here right now.

I am calm and happy.