I’m going to make use of a brief good internet connection to show you some frankly amazing photos Sean took of the small boys doing capoeria. Eight of them have formed their own capoeira team and I spent days making them a customised t-shirt each as a team kit. More to come on this later, but in the meantime here are some photos of them practising their moves.
(I saved the best for last)
Rwanda is lacking in two important things at the moment: cheese and internet.
The internet has been working sporadically/terribly for the last few weeks, apparently because a ship outside Mombasa dropped its anchor on the cable that delivers internet to the whole of East Africa.
To make matters worse, there is officially a cheese drought in Kigali. Apparently the government shut down all cheese factories in the country after finding a nasty bacteria in the cheese they were producing. It will take months for cheese production to get back to the way it was. It wasn’t much good anyway – orange, rubbery and tasteless – but at least it was there. The huge brie wheel I bought back from the UK in January didn’t last long. It’s making my attempt at being vegetarian more tricky, and more lentil-ey.
In other news, I got bitten by a dog last week (that looked just like Kilio). It was all friendly and nice, then when I went to pet it, it became all snarly and bitey. After scaring myself by Googling rabies for a while, I decided it would be safe to get a jab. After waiting for hours at the local hospital without much luck, I decided to go to the expensive Belgian embassy doctor. I felt a bit stupid and over-anxious but then the doctor told me that the headteacher of a nearby prestigious school had died of rabies a few years ago. Then I felt like getting the jab was the sensible thing to do. It cost me about £100 for two jabs, which, when added to my visa fees and fines this month, means I’m pretty broke. Lentils are a luxury that will have to wait til April.
How could I forget to mention that today is INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY. If you can believe it, it’s actually a national holiday here, not just a day where Guardian commentators write a load of old tripe, kids have a special assembly at school, or where the local library holds some events gently related to women. No, here everyone has the day off school and work. I’ve been asked by the female staff members to wear a dress (my slight annoyance at this request is dwarfed by not wanting to let them down) so I will have to brave the rain in bare legs. I suggested some kind of tournament between male and female staff members, testing things like intellect, strength, knowledge of good music, agility and problem solving, but I think a debate about gender equality might be more likely. It will be interesting to see if some of the boys’ views on women have changed from the last (mildly depressing) debate on the topic.
Here’s Kilio watching the rain from our guard’s house
He looks just like a little puppy! But is obviously a small goat. The boys are, unfortunately, not usually this loving towards their little goat-ey brothers.
