Hell No!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: water.

Commonly known as amazi and unbridled joy.

It came too late in the evening to be bothered taking a shower, but it allowed me to fill up my water butt. This came after an entire day of rain.

Nothing gets done in Kigali when it rains. Most people - myself included - don't have a car, so we rely on public motorbikes. Even if you can find one willing to drive in the rain, most people - myself included - live down mud roads. It adds an extra level of excitement when those roads turn all slippery and wet. So, mostly, when it rains people stay home.

I used to love this as a VSO. If I woke up and heard the rain, I'd just roll over and go back to sleep. There's a particular type of rain (the weather in Rwanda is fairly predictable once you know what you're looking at) that starts in the early morning and does not stop all day. Not so good when you're actually employed. Sod's law it would set in on the one day I needed to be at a morning meeting.

I only have the number of one taxi driver (poor planning on my part), and he was unavailable. The airport is up the road, there are taxis there, but they charge a fortune and, as mentioned, it's a mud road. I would have been soaked by the time I got there.

Thankfully my friend Pierre was in the neighbourhood driving a big shiny 4x4, so he kindly agreed to give me a lift across town. 

Which was great. Until I finished for the day, left the office, and realised it was still raining. By that point I was fairly exhausted and decided just to walk down the road (by this time a river), where I managed to get one moto willing to drive me home in the rain. By the time I reached my door I was soggy and my shoes had disintegrated.

Never mind. It is the start of the rainy season now. These things are to be expected.

The garden project is going well, though there have already been a couple of disasters, which I'll blog about on there. The first casualty were the edible beansprouts. I was really looking forward to a decent salad, and everything started out so well.

But you're supposed to rinse them every day, and after sticking them in a draw I forgot to do this yesterday. When I pulled them out today they had started to rot. It's wet here, but it's also relatively warm, even if it doesn't feel it to me anymore. It's in the mid-20s during the day and doesn't really dip below about 17/18c at night. So they're horribly pongy, and I don't think they can be salvaged. I'm wondering what happens if you plant them? Really annoyed at myself.

Stinky Mess

I've also been experimenting with cabbage, as I'm lacking greens and cabbages are, well... big and green. But there's not a lot you can do with a cabbage to make it not taste like cabbage. I did a spicy stir-fry, but it wasn't all that appetising. It's better if you put the stir-fry in a cheese toastie.

Still, there have been some successes. Growing some sunflowers. They looked like this in the morning.

And this in the afternoon.

Growing at quite some speed.

Had a lovely working lunch at Brioche with a colleague today. Treated ourselves to their glorious cakes. So yummy! Strawberry and vanilla mousse thingies. Highly recommended.

I suggest you close your eyes for the next bit if you're a little squeamish. It's not such a pretty sight.

Just getting ready to head to bed, when I walked into the office and found this intruder.

It asked whether it could stay.

My reply? - Hell no.

I think it's related to the one that used to live in my bathroom. I'm about to throw it in the garden, and it's pooed in the tub. Cockroaches make quite big poos considering their size. Too much information?

Anyway, there won't be room for it shortly. I'm busy getting the house in shape for my colleague who's coming down from Uganda at the weekend, staying for a week to help out with this contract.

After he leaves, I've offered the spare room to a lady who's moving here for a few months. Not likely to be hosting her the full duration of her stay, but she needs somewhere to base herself whilst she looks for a house. I'm quite looking forward to having people stay. And, once this contract is finished at the end of the month, I'm also planning to throw a housewarming party, if I can get myself organised.

Roast bug, anyone?