Another Day in Kigali

Today Mark and Bruce went to visit another architect. They talked to him about helping out with the construction. They didn't actually make a contract with him yet but just discussed the possibility. He also said he would look over the plans that another architect is drawing up to make sure they are appropriate before they take them to the planning director. They also encouraged him to encourage his church to get involved in FATER more by sending students and financial support.

While Mark was out, I walked over to FATER (my first time venturing out on my own!) to talk with Elias. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that I am helping out with the bookkeeping of FATER and he is my contact person there. He pretty much handles the day-to-day business and keeps track of what he has spent. He also receives the fees from the students. Then we get together and make sure his records are accurate and I receive the money he has taken in and give him spending money for the week. We’re still working on getting organized, which is why I went over there. Fortunately for me, he usually understands my English and I usually can understand his French.

As I was walking I noticed a couple of things of interest. One was a bicyclist. The college is up the hill a little ways from us and is on a nicely paved road. As I was walking up the hill, a bicyclist came zipping past me down the hill – I tell you he was going incredibly fast – of course without a helmet – but strapped on the back of the bike was a very large silver milk canister – I forget what the proper name for it is but I think you know what I mean. If that thing was full, I have no idea how he kept his balance. And I sure hope his brakes were working!! If they weren’t or if he were to run into a car, he would be dead on the spot, I’m sure. We all know that I’m a chicken at heart and would not go fast down a hill but this guy was just plain crazy in my viewpoint! I told Mark about him and he said, “yeah…” like he sees it all the time or like – “So? Some guys like to go fast.” I’m not quite sure which….

I also noticed a LOT of men digging a very large ditch along the side of the road. I was thinking they were just digging a ditch because all roads have ditches and because it had rained so much the day before, maybe they needed to fix the ditch in that spot. A lot of places had runoff and erosion where is wasn’t supposed to be so there are a lot of new piles of dirt around where people are digging ditches. I guess I'll find out later why they were digging. What is amazing from a western viewpoint, is that the work is being done by hand. LOTS of men with hoes, digging and digging. No machinery to eat up fuel or break down. Just men getting paid to do an honest day’s labor. I certainly hope they are getting a living wage but I imagine it’s not much. Kids flipping burgers at Ronny Mac’s are getting more per hour than these hard working men probably get for a day.

This afternoon we had another language session with Charlotte. Talk about mind exhausting. Trying to go over and over the words and remember the fine differences between “umwigisha” –oo mwee gee shah (teacher) and “umwigishwa” – oo mwee gee shkah (pupil) and other such words! And then trying to get the tongue in the right place at the right time to say the words! We also found out the difference between the words for “old man” and “fool” is one vowel… we need to be very careful.

After our lesson we went over to Rossington’s so Mark could have a look at their washing machine. It turned out to be an easy fix – a dirty filter. After dinner, I made an apple pie, with Mark’s help, because there is a possibility we will be having guests for lunch tomorrow.