AND KIGALI AGAIN

Can't believe I made a last minute decision to come to Kigali again this weekend.  That makes it 3 out of the last 4 weekends that I have been here.  An expensive and time consuming trip, but I just couldn't face not knowing when or if we would get anymore water.   Our last bucket we bribed a bicycle boy to get  from a local restaurant that has a water tank.  But we don't think the owners were happy about that.  Some of our fellow teachers have tanks but are hesitant to give any water away because the tanks are not getting refilled.  Tanks at Afriline, where we live, are absolutely empty.  The situation will apparently right itself when they resolve the pump situation and the rainy season comes to fill the tanks.  Worldteach has offered to let us move to alternate housing if it is within the budget, but there really is nowhere to go. They are giving us an extra allowance due to the escalating cost of water.  It is normally 500 shillings a bucket, but we paid 2500 for the last one.  Even with conservative use, a bucket lasts only a couple of days.

I felt absolutely decadent this morning here in Kigali when I took a bubble bath!  I haven't washed my hair since last week when I was here.  I am saving that for Sunday before I head home.  But I did scrub my body and put on lotion.  I had multiple layers of dirt, I am sure.

It took about a week, but Breana is better.  The hospital never figured out what was wrong with her, except that she didn't have malaria.  She is still waiting to see the Australian doctor, who was in Australia of all places for a quick vacation.  One of the other volunteers in Mbeya region is in the hospital with typhoid.  She apparently wasn't boiling her water because she had a fancy filter.  Bad move.

I turned in my questions for final examinations.  The kids and I are just starting to feel comfortable with each other and make some progress.  I lost about 20% of my classes due to nonpayment of school fees.  We had a three hour parents meeting and a lot of them said we should punish the parents, not the kids, but there were apparently some kids in the past who went through all four years without paying anything, so they have cracked down.  I will miss these kids when I go, but the living here is too hard.