Monday 27 August 2018

Panic Sets In


Sad post.

So many friends have been leaving lately. This was goodbye to Harris for the time being. He'll be back next year to continue working on his PhD. The week before he left, he spent a lot of time at my place with his volunteers, recording videos for the app they're developing to help people in rural areas diagnose and manage diabetes. My house is nice and quiet now that my roomies have moved on, so a good place for recordings.


Medical Student, Alex, Making a Recording

The above picture was taken at our favourite club, Pacha (former Metallica), in Kimironko. Beautiful people!



Waved him off with a beer over brunch the next day, and a nod to the stress of doing a PhD.

 

And yet another farewell - err, hello and farewell - to Maia, who popped back for two short weeks to sort some things out at the restaurant and officially launch Victor's cocktail cart.

  

We also made it to pizza at Jo's, which we haven't done in a long time. Great to see old faces and new.
 
 
L-R: Lan, Maia and Me
My foot is still slowly on the mend after pulling the tendon up the back of my left leg. Before Harris left, I went over to use his bath and soaked myself in the hottest water I could stand. Apparently this is the wrong thing to do, but it felt soooo good. Although, then I had a meltdown over how frustrating it was not being able to walk anywhere and passed out for an hour (not in the bath - thankfully). The next day, a nice big bruise appeared all the way around my foot and even now, a couple of weeks later, it's still significantly more swollen than the right ankle. 

 

It no longer hurts, but I'm still noticeably limping because I haven't quite got full flexibility back and when I push my feet against things, the left one feels a lot weaker than the right. Only, the right leg now hurts because it does so much more work than the left. I assume it'll all return to normal soon enough, otherwise I might end up walking in circles for the rest of my life.

In part, the slow recovery might be due to my insistence on limping home from a restaurant one night with Chris and Harris. Harris did try to put me on a moto, but I was enjoying the night air and the conversation - and had a couple of cocktails. But it was worth it for the pudding. It was a thing of beauty.


 

Slightly more a thing of beauty than what my cat chowed down on the other day. Tiny Akantu raced into the kitchen carrying a mouse the size of his head and proceeded to eat the entire thing right in front of me... hmm. 


My neighbour loves him, and even leave her shop open at night so the cats can go in and catch the rats. But I think I'd rather go take my dinner with the rabbits at CasaKeza.


Things with the piano are going okay, but still looking for leather... long story. Discovered this guy, Honore, who owns a shop next to the workshop where we're making the piano. He treated me to a performance on his keyboard, which he has been teaching himself to play.



There's also been a bit of motoing around town with piano parts...


And Gizmo has been helping me prepare the piano for stringing.


Also had a lovely evening on Friday at my friends Maja and Vincent's housewarming. They've found a really nice house over in Remera and I went along with new friend Keriin who contacted me a year ago looking for an internship. Through our old GYC connections I was able to help her out and she arrived a couple of weeks ago for a three-month stint.

 
L-R: Keriin, Me and Keza
 

Also had a visit from my cousin-in-laws, Malcolm and Marian. Marian is the sister of my cousin's wife. They booked their holiday to Rwanda (and East Africa) before they knew that I lived here. It was really nice to catch up with them. We had lunch at Mille Collines before they went off to see the gorillas, then dinner - and lots of sangria - at Casakeza when they got back. They had an absolutely wonderful time and hope to return to Rwanda. They also went off to Serengeti and Zanzibar. Sadly, we forgot to take any family pictures whilst they were here, but they did send me a snapshot from the beach in Zanzibar. 



So, there have been plenty of lovely parties and good times as we enter the short rainy season. That's supposed to start early September, but arrived this year with absolute a vengeance a few weeks early. I was woken in the early hours by the most incredible storm. Thunder, lightning - the rain was coming down so hard I thought the roof might cave in. It's continued to be wet since then.


My cats didn't do that.
Little damp in the main bedroom.

Unfortunately, it's likely we're in for a lot more. Back in the long wet season in May, I posted about the severe flooding we had. Really hoping it doesn't come to that again, but my friend Sameer has already sent me a picture from Gisenyi of the river by his house busting its banks.


So, why is the panic setting in?

Well, I could say it's because Dés and me are doing an interview with BBC World Service tomorrow morning about the piano, but actually, I'm not too worried about that. It's pre-recorded and then edited, so we can't mess up too badly.

No, it's more the TEDx talk I've agreed to give in Luxembourg in October. Harris talked me into it when I was on a slightly inebriated rant, and by the time I'd sobered up, it was all booked. Got my plane tickets yesterday. No backing out now. 

I don't mind talking in front of people, but it's the fact it's recorded for posterity which terrifies me. And TED talks are so good. They're of such a high standard. Yeash. If there was ever a reason to remain sober... 

I'm talking about formal education versus informal learning. How the way formal education teaches today isn't really in line with how (I think) we learn. How we need to stop valuing education by how much you paid for it and look more closely at what you can do with the knowledge you've gained.

Anyway. That's the idea. 

Now all I have to do is remember to breathe...

Oh, and lines.

Must remember my lines.

Oh gods, pass the paper bag...

Saturday 11 August 2018

Legless


I'm home! 

No cats to greet me at the gate, but within moments Howl and Sophie came to find me and many cuddles were had. In my absence, Akantu (Little Thing - top right) had doubled in size. For ages we thought he was some sort of dwarf cat, but turns out he's just a late starter. Unfortunately, first day back and had to take him to the vet because he had a nasty open wound. He's been perfect about it, though. Had to treat with iodine twice a day, and even though he knew it would really sting, he still sat still for me. It's pretty much healed now.

Next up was Sen (AKA Harold). She's the one with asthma. She managed to pop a giant hernia a week after I left. My housemate took her to the vet and she underwent surgery. Got back to find her very fit and healthy - with a large chunk of fur missing where she'd been shaved. Relieved she's okay, though.



Took in some housemates to help cover rent over the past few months, but decided to stop now and move back into the main house. It was interesting, and they were all nice people, but I miss the space and privacy. 

Shed apartment I was living in.
Reclaimed old room.

Spent the first couple of days moving everything out of the shed apartment back into the house. Then called Claudine, my cleaner, and Emmanuel, my gardener, as the place had fallen into a little disrepair.



Had a fun night out with Chris and Harris the other week. Popped to the German Butchery for their hog roast. Befriended a German guy there, bumped into friends Claudia and Antonio, and convinced them all to come with us to Metallica, which is now called Pacha Club.

At the German Butchery, the decorations are made from weiss beer cans.


Harris took some more great photos of Viva Band and we danced the night away until the very early hours. They truly are the best live band in the whole of Kigali. This time the saxophonist changed his saxophone for a clarinet and delivered Camila Cabello's Havana (ooh na na).

Finally crawled home via the bottle shop at the end of Claudia & Antonio's road, where we sat outside supping a last beer and scoffing samosas.


One nice thing about having housemates is that they leave a whole heap of stuff behind when they go - mostly food. Had a bag of cashew nuts, a bit of chocolate and a bowl of pineapple jelly.


Headed over to the workshop to see how the piano was getting on. Désiré and his team have managed to put in all the tuning pins, so the next day they lifted it onto the back of a truck and brought it to my house, where I'm going to work on stringing it up.






L-R: Paulin, Samuel and Désiré







There's a few things I need to do before I start, but it's been fun playing with real string to figure out the string direction.




It's been all go, and then it stopped. Was dancing with Chris and Harris when I put my foot down and - ouch! Seriously pulled my tendon. 

Been up on ice, in wraps, lying in bed watching Star Trek for the past three days.



Luckily Maia's back for a visit and was staying with me Thursday night, so took care of me, and Harris dropped by with a huge tub of very delicious ice-cream. Feeling extremely spoilt, but totally gutted. Harris, Chris and Maia are all leaving in a week and I wanted to party until that point. Now looks like I'll have to chair dance from the sidelines.



One of the upsides to living here is that just about anything is available over the counter. Been on a diet of tramadol, whisky and codine. Hit a particular low yesterday, the pain was just getting to me, so I went over to submerge myself in Harris's bathtub. Sat in the hottest water I could stand - which apparently, I shouldn't have done. Ice for a tendon, not heat. But it felt good. Then fell asleep for an hour. Was not in a happy place, and when Harris arrived he noticed the hot water had caused my ankle to swell up. One of the benefits of being friends with a doctor is you get spacial treatment. He had some strong anti-inflammatory medication. After handing me some tablets, he explained it would start working much quicker with an injection. 'Sure,' I said, rolling up my jeans to expose my ankle. 'Err... no,' he replied. 

It doesn't matter how close you are to your friends, getting jabbed in the butt is never a happy occasion. Still - it worked. Feeling so much better this morning and can just about walk again.



Sunrise