Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
on Blog From Beyond (Rwanda), 03/Jun/2009 19:54, 34 days ago
Such trials in life. I ran out of mixed spice the other day. Very disheartening - but in true VSO spirit I worked out an alternative :opI always have a cup of African tea, minus the tea, before bed and used to use mixed spice that dad sent out but realised at the back of my cupboard I have ginger powder and cardamom pods - tastes more like the stuff you get in the restaurants now. Warm milk with a generous helping of honey and spices. Heavenly.But that's been about the extent of my trauma.Well, no, not really.Was in danger of having a down. Everyone's leaving again - Jo&Pierre have left, Brad's gone, Simon's in Kampala... got my leaving workshop on the 12th. How fast time goes.Had a lovely day Sunday - met up with Razi, an American guy over here for two months, met him in Bourbon the other day so called up Cathryn, Jovial, Giudi, Maxime, Simon, Aaron, Shakur (Brad's mates) and had a lovely early drink at High Noon. Really was nice. Boudouin popped by briefly but was working. I've just realised that dating a taxi driver perhaps isn't a strategic move when you like to drink.D.'s been texting/calling - I still haven't replied. That makes me a bad person, but I'm building up to it.Monday was an extremely long day. Had the end of term DFID funding review at Hill Top Hotel. Ran from about 8:30 - 5. Lot of talking, lot of drawing things on flip-charts etc. Was a huge deal as it's the end of three years of funding for the disability project. Got through it though and my friend Anselm was interpreting so it was nice to see him again. It was an incredibly hot day again - dry season has well and truly arrived - which added to the fatigue. Went home and crashed with a DVD.Tuesday was strange. I ended up going for a job interview for a potential position teaching English when I finish. Cathryn was interviewing me. It was at a very posh school in Nyarutarama where the President sends his kids. I get a bit nervous about schools - like hospitals - something to do with the smell of them and the order/discipline thing. It was just bizarre to see Cathryn in her natural environment - she's an extremely competent teacher and I felt rather nervous about the whole thing.I think partly it's also because this is my back-up plan. I'm still desperately job hunting but haven't had a single offer yet which is unnerving. I'd rather be on a low income here than on the dole back home though so it's nice to have a plan B but it really isn't what I envisioned doing with my life. Hopefully it'll just be a stop-gap, and the money seriously isn't bad at all for what's involved. See how it goes. I have a training day tomorrow to attend for it.But leaving the school is when I got the down sort of feeling. I tried a couple of the new vols but none were free for a drink - others away. It's a horrible feeling when you really want to go for a drink and suddenly realise you've got absolutely no-one to call. Felt bad disturbing Martine as she's been playing hostess a lot recently and I thought she might want some space but I desperately didn't feel like going straight home. She was brilliant. I went straight over to hers and we sat on the porch chatting for a while. She's been in the field a lot recently and had some really interesting stories to tell. Then we went to Panorama for beer and brochettes. Put the world to rights.There's a story I've been writing the past few months. My umpteenth attempt at a novel and this time it's going pretty well. I let her read it the other week and she gave me some amazing feedback. She's wonderfully honest and very into writing, I trust her opinion hugely which is why I let her look - so when she gave me the feedback I was extremely happy; she really liked it and saw things in it that surprised me. I haven't written for a while as I was starting to feel unsure about it but now I'm going to press ahead, it's rejuvenated my creative spirit.So that was a lovely night and since then I've been feeling good again. These things always go in cycles. I remember a time living in Kisi where I'd hole myself up for days by myself - totally anti-social, no intention of going out. Then there's times like the past couple of weeks where you have to nail me down to stop me racing out the door. I just need to find my balance again - get back into the writing.I've had a very productive day today though. I mentioned I secured some funding for a sign language curriculum consultant? Well, I held a staff meeting this afternoon to go through it all with everyone and that was good. No electricity and then no ink in the printer so couldn't physically show them much but I did draw some rather artistic interpretations on flip-chart paper.Got to sort out how we transfer the money from the UK though so off to Fina Bank with Gerard and Betty on Friday to ask about their new 'free' NGO account which is supposed to make international transfers a whole lot less painful.Also a guy in the UK setting-up an NGO specifically to assist the Burundian and Rwandan Deaf Associations so was able to slot in a bit at the end to gather some information for him. That was good. Left the office feeling extremely content and bumped into a lovely lady who used to work in Ndolies and remembered me so we chatted whilst we walked. It was another scorcher of a day though - getting used to the smell of my own sweat.Lot of really excellent stuff seems to be lining up for RNUD at the moment, just have to see how much of it I'll be involved in before I leave. Sad thought. The people I work with really have been so great and made me feel so welcome.Sadly Jasmine's not in a good way at all. Her ex-husband turned up at the house whilst she was at work to see the kids, got into a row with the house girl and ended up hospitalising her. He hit her pretty hard and the police told J. that because it happened in her house she had to take her to the hospital and pay for it! The house girl quit. J. was in tears when she left High Noon as she's also got to go to Kampala to re-bury her mother (she's there now), leaving the kids here with her other house girl. She's having a terrible time of it but if he wants to see the kids again he has to call the police to tell them he's going and apparently he's on his final warning.Simon's a really nice guy and I think he's going to help look out for her when he gets back. Just makes you feel a bit helpless - all I can do is help a little with money, but I can't make the problems go away. It's a tough situation and all the more important thatTabaraworks.So, ups and downs.Anyway, tired now. To bed. Night all.Disclaimer: all views written on this blog are my own and are not necessarily representative of VSO.