A down day

September 4th

Today is a good example of a “down day” when I can’t get any proper work done. And it’s not my fault. I go in to the office with Soraya; I need to contact the primary at Cukiro to see if they are expecting me. I get Innocent to ring them since he can talk to them in Kinyarwanda and get far more sense than me out of them in a couple of minutes. But the telephone system isn’t working, and by eight o’clock it means I’ve missed the time slot to be able to arrange a visit.

So Soraya goes off to Butare for the day; she’s fed up with the District and VSO between them because she’s still being messed about left, right and centre over her accommodation. She’s going to Butare and Gikongoro to meet some of the South” people and get away from Gitarama.

I potter around in the office all morning and enter up another mass of statistics on last year’s exam results so that I can tell schools where they’re succeeding and failing in terms of individual subjects. It’s not difficult work but you need to be accurate and it’s painstaking stuff.

By lunchtime I’ve had enough and go into town to buy samosas and bread for lunch. On the way I call in at the post office and find there’s a paper for me and that Christi and Karen have detached the postcard of Bridport from a box of fudge and sent the thing to me as a thank-you letter!

In the afternoon I don’t really get much done at all. I manage to post some blogs and pictures and catch up on emails, but that’s about all. I’m feeling tired (does this mean I’ve got a gut full of amoebas?) and have a nap, then watch a video until tea time. Of course, I should be getting myself out to Shyogwe and taking more photos of the building project but somehow I can’t be bothered.

Katrina’s back in town for a day to collect all her stuff before she returns to America, so we all agree to eat out at Nectar. Katrina’s full of how lovely Uganda is – all the strengths of Rwanda (lack of corruption, for example), are weaknesses in Uganda, and vice versa. When you drive to Fort George on the ordinary matata bus you pass through the Queen Elizabeth National Park, and the regular bus service has to dodge elephants on the road! I really must get myself to Uganda next year.

Best thing about today – nothing really – a wasted day.