I'm gonna get myself connected
on Rose Hardman (Rwanda), 08/Sep/2010 10:58, 34 days ago
One topic of conversation that is quite common between us volunteers is text messages. When we arrived we were given a sim card and most of us sent a text home. Hours later we were still waiting for even one reply. We deduced that rather than us all being immensely unpopular, it must be that there is a problem with the network. The following day we spoke to the Country Director about our unpopularity and he explained that there are some networks in the UK which will receive texts from Rwanda but cannot send them back, there are others which can send texts but cannot receive them, some which can do both and some which can do neither. We have been trying to work out which ones which but I am getting muddled already!Those text messages that do make it through the airwaves can take a while. Pete’s took 5 hours to reach me. At least they’re getting through though- my one to him failed to ever reach him. That’s O2 by the way for those who are keeping check.I got a dongle today so internet is much more accessible. The ironic thing is that the power is still off so I have internet but no electricity. One day I will have both! I am desperately trying to charge my laptop every time the generator comes on but this laptop only has a couple of hours battery when full- I have emailed Pete to get him on the case! Getting a dongle took some time so we nearly didn’t get back in time for lunch. And then there was a massive traffic jam so the matatu (bus) took us the wrong way and dropped us off in a place that we thought we knew. It turned out we didn’t. 20 minutes or so later a Rwandan school girl took pity on us and led the silly muzungus back to the hotel. Luckily we managed to eat before joining the others (who had not got lost) for our work discussions.Alphonse took us for our Kinyarwanda lesson today as Emmanuelle did not arrive. Alphonse normally takes the French/Kinyarwanda class so the lesson was conducted in a mixture of the three languages. He has a unique style and not everyone took to it but I thought it was great and am planning to change classes tomorrow. One funny moment in the class was when Alphonse wrote down his surname- which caused a Mexican wave effect around the class as one after the other we asked‘what does that mean?’ Poor Alphonse had to keep explaining that it was just his name and was not a Kinyarwanda word for us to learn!As I was meeting my employer tomorrow I spent the evening preparing. It is very important to make a good first impression so I spent ages picking out my smartest clothes and then hung them up in the bathroom to try and steam out the creases. I also showered and washed my hair ready for the big meeting the next day. Once I was ready I sat out in the living room with Mark doing some typing. So... I am in my scruffy‘relaxing’ clothes, hair is wet and piled messily on the top of my head, mascara is still smeared down my cheeks from the shower, and my face is shimmering from the mosquito repellent. An extremely smart woman comes in and Mark and I grunt a hello which is all we can manage after an exhausting day. The woman then asks where Rose Hardman is and, you guessed it, introduces herself as my employer! Luckily she is extremely nice and didn’t seem to mind that not only did I look awful but also we then had to sit in the dark to have our meeting as the power had gone! To be honest I think the dark helped as then she couldn’t see just how bad I looked!The generator came on just after she had left, having invited me to her house for dinner on Sunday. This was good as we had light, but bad as it meant that I couldn’t hear any of the talk we had with the British High Commissioner as the generator drowned him out. I was told it was very interesting though. The noise of the generator continued throughout dinner so we decided to escape to the bar afterwards so we could hear ourselves think!Highlight: A really great day all round but I would have to say meeting my employer even though it didn't turn out as planned. I had a lot less time to feel nervous and she was really welcoming.