Quilts

Some days you just shouldn't leave the house. What an expensive day it's been!

Dad tried to send my old projector from home. DHL assured him it wouldn't be a problem with customs. Turns out DHL were talking out their jacksie.

It cost me £200 new about five years ago. Customs charged £130 for storage, clearing, goodness knows what else. 

That was fairly shocking, but I thought it would just be a one-hour job. I left the house at 9am, got back at past 1:30pm!

The delivery papers had no instructions on them, not even an address. So I looked online for Customs and it was on the same website as RRA. I decided that RRA would be a good place to start. They sent me to RRA in Gikondo instead, who looked at me blankly, then sent me to the airport - which I live directly opposite. I could have walked to Customs in ten minutes if I had known where it was! There isn't a sign outside or anything.

We then went around five different departments getting security badges, checking the paperwork, finding the item, writing the receipt... went to pay.

Sorry, we're closed until 3pm.

- !!! -

It was midday by that point and I had so many other things to do. I met a really nice customs guy and paid him about £15 to sort it all out and deliver the item to my housekeeper. 

Grand total of almost £150. Hardly seems worth it at all.

Perhaps that's the point: buy local?

Unfortunately, it feels more like: do business elsewhere.

The delivery papers also came complete with a copy of someone else's birth certificate stapled to the back! I was a little worried my parcel might have been delivered by stork.

In a small - and only very small - consolation, I needed to get some passport photos taken to apply for my residency card. I went to a guy up the road who did me 12 for £2! In the UK it costs £5 for five! Some things are still easier to get here. Quite a nice one too, considering I was marching up the street, sweaty and flustered.

The other big expense was bedding. I've mentioned the problem of my super-sized bed before. Part of the work I've just taken on for my business requires one of my consultants to come down from Uganda. I'm going to be hosting him for a week, so I need the spare room to be comfortable - this involves bedding.

When my friend Sarah was here, she mentioned a place nearby which makes quilts. So I went to have a look.

The Tubahumurize Association helps vulnerable women escaping GBV (Gender Based Violence). They also provide counselling for HIV/AIDS, rape victims, and human rights advocacy. They have a workshop where women learn to sew, and that's where they make the quilts.

Bedding in Rwanda isn't cheap, but this costs the same as the mass-produced crap you get in the supermarkets, and the quality is much better - not to mention unique. So I splashed out on two quilts, both of which fit my big bed!

Now all I need are the sheets, which I will probably have to get made.

Quilt #1 - King Sized

Front

Back

Quilt #2 Queen Sized

Front

Back

Definitely a worthwhile purchase. Bedding and a water tank. Those are the two things I'm most in need of. Though since it rained quite hard a few days ago, all of my water butts are at full capacity again, thanks to Damascene.

Happy Sight
My kitchen supply for tea, coffee, porridge,
washing up and wiping counters

I am trying to be frugal in other ways. I mentioned my gardening project, where we're trying to grow some vegetables of our own. I've also started recycling old milk and juice cartons as seed trays.

Excited to see how it goes. Looking at the overcast sky at the moment and hoping the rain stays away until after my Kinya teacher gets here. It is 23c at the moment, according to Google, yet it's so grey outside that I'm sitting here with my slippers on, contemplating a jumper! I think that's what's known as 'acclimatisation.'