A morning off

Morning off, Sat 14 Feb, and schedule

I am not wearing my watch yet. I'm breakfasting alone, in summer-weight pyjamas and dressing gown. Jeanette and her husband of five months, Bosco, are not yet up. It's past eight o'clock – a welcome change after three days of rising at 6 and leaving at 7 to catch the 7.30 bus from Kigali centre.

I looked for my watch to check the length of a radio item on the coming changes in the British legal system involving supermarket and online competition with solicitors' firms. Unusually the servant (I must get J to write his name for me!) has not switched his little radio, outside the dining room window and near the kitchen, away from English language. The item has the quality of one of my beloved BBC Radio 4 documentary programmes and it has lasted at least 15 minutes. Not Voice of America, like most of the Eng lang broadcasts I've caught, but Deutsche Welle.

The supply of cold water in the bathroom is being replenished so the loo can be flushed. (Water comes into the house in two stages – carried from the tap near the front gate to the indoor store room, then to the 30-40 litre container in the bathroom. I asked J why they don't have indoor plumbing and she said the permit and the labour are too expensive, but at least they have their own tap.) I could ask for hot water, heated on the small open charcoal stove, for my morning wash but I don't need it, having washed everything including my hair yesterday evening, ready for the wedding this afternoon . Solange, a FPH employee and an orphaned genocide survivor, is one of David Bucura's protegees and a friend of Laura S C, my London contact and adviser for all things AGLI, who worked here for 2 years. She is marrying a soldier, a recently joined member of the Friends Church.

The church ceremony begins at 1pm. J and I have cried off the dowry ceremony this morning because I need some down time and she needs to go for her weekly visit to her hairdresser. (There seems to be a hierarchy of hair management for women – the most citified and prosperous have hair extensions; the next choice is a wig, some with light streaks or wonderfully complex plaiting; others choose according to the occasion between leaving their natural hair exposed or wearing a turban or simple cloth.)

Before leaving home one of my chief anxieties was how to manage the expanses of empty time I expected to be a feature of a first trip. Actually it's hard to fit in sleeping - let alone resting - what with workshops etc, blogging (which I'm really enjoying), keeping myself, my kit for each activity and my bedroom (with most of my belongings filed on the floor in the absence of cupboard or hanging facilities beyond a single nail) in a reasonable state of order and cleanliness, and engaging in the ever-present struggle to get enough internet time. I thought the long dark evenings would be hard to fill. True, I need to be home by 6.40 at the latest in order to see the ground beneath my feet – the other evening J and I were trapped in the internet café by a downpour at dusk: we slithered home by the light of occasional house lights and passing motor bikes, and I wouldn't want to do that on my own. Actually each evening is filled with washing, eating, a little blog composition or reading, and I'm ready for bed.

This seems the right moment to share my calendar with you.

30 Jan – 1 Feb
A slow start, with little to do except review my teaching material (most useful) and go to morning service (10-12.15) at the Friends' Church where David B is pastor.
2 Feb, Monday
Morning and afternoon meetings at Friends Peace House. Outline programme agreed. Downtown for money and phone card. Go through and apportion gifts with Francine, who works with the orphans as well as running the guest house, in the evening
3 Feb, Tues
Visit to organic farm training centre at Gako in morning. Brief and inconclusive discussion about workshop costings with Josephine, the FPH treasurer, then workshop planning with Musafiri in afternoon. Move from guest house to stay with Jeanette.
4-6 Feb, Weds – Fri
Workshop at Shyorongi for 30 young people. (Actually I missed the first day after a night of d&v.)
7 Feb, Sat
(Weekend of severe power cuts.) Outing with Antoine Samvura and 6-yr-old daughter to his 2 hectares of land an hour's drive from Kigali.
8 Feb, Sunday
Quiet day, with long conversations, sotto voce although there's nobody within earshot who speaks French, about religion and politics, with Bosco.
9 Feb, Monday
Visit Mwana Nshuti, training school run by FPH where I am to give workshop later. Attempt with Gaston to sort out sound system. Uninterrupted couple of hours in afternoon with office modem – almost catch up on emails despite v slow connection.
10 Feb, Tues
Day at George Fox College, the school where Antoine is head teacher. Observe English classes in morning, teach adult class in afternoon, after restaurant lunch with Rwanda Yearly Meeting Executive Committee (8 men) and shopping for seeds. (People are feverishly learning English to keep their jobs as the official European language changes from French.)
11-13 Feb, Weds to Fri
Workshop at Gitarama Friends Church for women's group with Jeanette.
14 Feb, Sat (today)
Morning off. Wedding this afternoon and probably into evening.
15 Feb, Sunday
David B's church for morning service.
Afternoon as yet unscheduled. I might manage to borrow Antoine's laptop and modem – much the most efficient.
16 & 17 Feb, Mon and Tues
Committed to David B for garden demonstration projects and presentation of donated clothes to the church orphanage and poor women. Maybe something to do as well with his involvement in Church Mobilisation for Poverty Reduction, whose project description (in English) he gave me at first opportunity.
18-20 Feb, Weds-Fri
Workshop with Cecile N for a local Women in Dialogue group, to be held at FPH, I think.
21, 22 Feb, Sat & Sun
As yet unscheduled, apart from taking Cecile, Jeanette and Bosco out for a meal at local Resto/Bar on Sunday evening.
23-24 Feb, Mon-Tues
Workshop with Gaston for Mwana Nshuti.
24 Feb, Tues, late afternoon
Farewell and planning meeting at FPH.
25 Feb, Weds
Fly out at 13.45.
26 Feb, Thurs
Due into Heathrow at 5.45, Kenya Airlines permitting.

Not a lot to occupy me, then.