Foot 'n' Mouth

Sad news as more than 100 cows in Eastern Province have been affected by foot and mouth. I still remember the huge outbreak of this we had in the UK back in 2001. The air stank from the smoke of burning cow pyres. Truly awful. It's bad news here. Rwanda is a country that worships cows. It's joked that one of the few rules in the highway code is: should a car and a cow reach a narrow bridge at the same time, the cow has right of way.

Even female intore dancing is nicknamed 'cow dancing' as they raise their arms to mimic the shape of the cows' horns.

It's a rather balmy 32c in Kigali today. Just been into town to post some stuff and treat myself to a Karibu buffet (perhaps the only place in the whole of Rwanda you find crispy cauliflower cheese). Damascene is here cleaning the house after a couple of week' absence to sort out his own house. So nice to come home to everything so clean.

I've been sneezing solidly for days now. Bunged up, sniffly and absolutely exhausted. I'm waiting for him to leave so that I can take a nap on the couch.

In a fit of suspicion, I decided to wash my mosquito nets yesterday. They came with the house and one of them was a strange shade of yellow. Turned the water brown when I washed it. Don't think it'd been washed in years. I've been wheezing like a tomcat the past few days, surviving off steroid spray and VitC (probably better used to plug up my nose...). Lying there awake at stupid o'clock, I began to wonder whether I had dusty mosquito nets and that's what's causing the problem? So I cut them down and cleaned them.

Re-attaching the one in the spare room involved standing on top of a chair, on top of a thick foam mattress, on top of a rickety wooden bed, looking like a circus performer and trying to fight the notion that if I fell, there was a very hard concrete floor beneath me.

The nets definitely smell better now, but I was still sneezing last night.

Perhaps Damascene's efforts will help. He's certainly helped to evict the mass ant population. I had an entire train of ants running across my table last night. They were very considerate to go around my laptop rather than over it.

I was so lucky in the old house, we hardly had any insects. There are loads of ants and baby millipedes here. Which I will admit, I completely adore. I don't know why. I've always felt a strange affinity with millipedes. Think they're such cute little things the way they curl up when they're frightened or sleeping. Harmless wee things. Don't like centipedes though. Move a bit too quick for my liking.

I've even developed a silly song I sing when I see one.

Which is fairly regularly.

Hey millipedey, little millipedey. Hey millipedey - yay!

Ugh. I am so tired.