Stormborn

The past two days have been an absolute blast.

I headed back to Serena yesterday evening to give the grand one last pre-performance check up, because they'd moved it across the lobby. I needed to make sure the move hadn't knocked anything out of alignment. 

I've tuned a lot of private pianos, but this was the first time I'd ever done it for a professional performance. The pianist is Keiko Nishizu from Japan. I was SO nervous. She gave it a sound check before the performance, but I was convinced I must have missed a bum note and halfway through the performance it would reveal itself with a clunk. I was on the edge of my seat unable to relax for the first 20 minutes. But then I gradually accepted it was going to be okay. The complimentary wine helped a lot.

I really felt extremely emotional. People always ask me if I play the piano. I don't. Not well enough to want anyone to hear me trying. But I can fix them and I can tune them. For me, it's an incredible feeling to listen to a pianist like Keiko playing, and to know that I helped to make that possible. To make the instrument sound the best it could be. 

Usually, after a tuning, the most I hear is chopsticks, so this was an immense sense of job satisfaction.

 

 

 

   

There's a possibility I might also tune the Mille Collines piano at some stage, because both hotels pool together to pay for a tuner to come from Kenya. That's a lot of money and time invested just to tune a piano. I also hope to train some tuners so that the city always has them. But that's stuff for the future.

It was also nice as a couple of people came up to me to say 'hello'. I help run an online community forum for the city, and there's a lot of people I know on there but haven't actually met in person. They recognised me (being the one with a tuning hammer in her hand), and it was really nice to finally meet them. One is Flo, who runs a farmers' market at Serena once a month, and the other is a guy who's been here with his family for a while.

I had a visit today from a lovely lady called Janet. She's here training anaesthetists, but she plays the piano in her spare time. She was desperate to find a real, acoustic instrument to play so I offered up my Young Chang. It was a real pleasure to listen to her play - making my piano do all the things I can't.

At the very end of that, you hear her saying that the piano is in good tune. That's a matter of pride for a piano tuner, though it's actually very slightly on the sharp side, but not so's the ear should notice. I spend so long tuning other people's pianos that my own is lucky if it gets a look in.

She made a very generous contribution to the Kigali Keys project and I hope that when she returns in October, she'll actually be able to try out the new piano we're building.

Yesterday was Heroes' Day in Rwanda. As it fell on a Saturday, that means tomorrow - Monday - is a public holiday. I spent a wonderful evening with my friend Solvejg, getting tipsy on red wine and Virunga Gold.

The thing at the moment is that the weather is absolutely shocking. We've had official government weather warnings about floods and high winds. It feels like it's been raining for months. Usually we get a dry break between the wet seasons, but it just didn't come this year. 

Eventually, I decided to walk home. Driving rain and lightning - it was totally exhilarating. Felt so alive. Best decision ever. As I was leaving her compound, a guy was walking the other way. It was pitch-dark, on a mud road which had become a river, late at night. Anywhere else in the world you might feel apprehensive. Here - no:

"Mwiriwe," I said.

"Mwiriwe!" He replied. "Amakuru?"

"Ni meze."

"Ni meza!"

We both laughed and went on our way.

At the end of the road, I bumped into my friend Seth, who had just finished work. He had an umbrella and offered to walk me home, but I was already soaked to the bone, so thanked him but told him to go his way.

Um... so that mascara wasn't waterproof then?

Got in, stripped down, got dry, and made myself a cup of Ovaltine in the mug my friend Harris left me. It had been a night of friendship and I'm very grateful for all the lovely people in my life. 

 

It's been a lovely couple of days. Achieved something I never thought I'd do in life - tuning a concert piano - and spent time talking life, love and all things important with a fantastic friend. Very glad she's back in the country. Looking forward to another lazy day tomorrow before work starts. And looking forward to work starting as there's lots to do and it's all very interesting.