A new bedroom, a new set of plusses and minuses.
The plusses: an electric socket in the bedroom and another in the bathroom, both working (except during power cuts), so I can charge both laptop and camera batteries; a light strong enough to read by (and they moved me from the room down the corridor where the light only stayed on if you kept pulling the switch cord); two pillows (I brought the second one from the abandoned room); a couple of hours to myself before it's time to sleep. The big minus: the water tub is empty, the tap is dry and it's raining far too heavily to negotiate the steps and courtyards btween here and reception. I have drinking water so I can clean my teeth – washing and flushing must wait.
Most of today has been spent on the bus between Kigali and Cyangugu, in the south west corner of the country, with DRC on the other side of the river outlet from Lake Kivu. Antoine, who is now superintendent of the 4 Friends Schools, has brought me and made the introductions. We shall breakfast and sup together but otherwise go our separate ways. I have met my two organisers – one from the church to accompany me and translate for the two women's groups in the mornings – Tues-Weds and Thurs-Fri – and the head from the school who is drafting 8 teachers – preferably of science subjects – for afternoon sessions on Tues and Weds. Photocopies have been made of Anne's sheet on childhood diarrhoea, which was very well reeived last time at CGFK. Tertullian, my translator, has taken the bag garden diagramme overnight to make sure he can assemble all the materials I shall need.
And we've done the budget – quite an achievement. Josephine, the Freinds Peace House accountant, has given Antoine a bundle of cash but it turns out to be less than we need. It will be the middle of next week before I can see J to sort out the discrepancy. Meanwhile we make the best of what we have. Arrangements for mid morning snacks and lunches have not been made. We consider using the services of the restaurant at the hotel but by the time we've added in extra for transporting the food and considered the mediocre quality of our supper it's decided to use the school kitchen, with the added benefit that there will be fruit with lunch. That's all for Tues and Weds; on Thurs and Friday the women's group is at an outlying church and they will provide the lunch themselves (so the cash will have to be got to them to buy ingredients).
I have fetched pen and paper. Writing and counting in a mixture of French and English, handling input from 5 voluble men, and still getting confused over the number of zeros on everything (1,000 Rwandan francs is just over £1), I do a less than perfect job, though the discrepancy that needs sorting out is under £5. Antoine's bundle contributes 145,000 rwf; I add 23,000 from my personal money, to be squared with Josephine later. My hotel room is ridiculously cheap by Kigali standards, at 5,000 rwf per night. The programme budget is not going to be over-stretched.
It's still raining. I shall clean my teeth, spread the mosquito net, and relax with a book of short stories by Uwem Akpan, a Nigerian Jesuit priest the blurb tells me, borrowed from Ruth and Krystan, the Canadians to whom I bequeath my spare books.
The view over Lake Kivu to DRC from outside our lodging
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