Day 17 - 18

Oh my, time flies and as with every form of ‘organisation’, things never work out the way you planned them. Monday was definitely a day of reconsideration. I must even admit I acted like a spoiled little brat who didn’t get what she wanted, but then (believe it or not) in a more mature way.

Dirty & dusty
On Sunday evening, I returned to my room in Gitarama all dirty, dusty and with a bad cold. I was still not feeling too good despite the comforting afternoon nap in the car. Before I left, I had asked for a thermos of hot water so I could bathe. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any and I was forced to sneeze my way through a cold water rubbing. The next morning, the cold was even worse as I coughed the whole night, making even the locals wonder whether or not I was okay and in need of any medicine. For me, paracetamol is quite enough, but a cup of tea would’ve made my day. Even during the day, any hot water was available.

It not being available, is merely a matter of taking a bucket, getting water from the huge tank outside my door, pooring it into a kettle and put it on the stove for about half an hour to have it cooked. It has nothing to do with extra costs, or collecting water from a water hole some 100 miles away. It’s all there. But ok, no tea, back to work then, trying to recapitulate the adventures of the past week.

On purpose?
While I was working on my story, I heard some movement outside, and people peeking into my room. Since I’ve got the odd feeling of going blind the last couple of months, I need lots of light to be able to read or see. So for that reason I always keep my door open, to get some extra sunlight into my room. Of course people can see me doing stuff on my laptop, but I don’t mind. The boys are often very curious and they love seeing their pictures.

When I was in the middle of my story, I saw some people on the courtyard and heard a clicking sound. At that point, electricity was gone. Strange thing, the lights always still work, but the plugs are dead. Was this done on purpose because I use a computer? I do pay for it, ain’t I? My laptop battery was at the end of its reserves and I had to pack everything up and go to a local bar to finish up. They had things up and running for a council meeting around noon, but as soon as lunch was finished, even they switched everything off. I was so frustrated! I wanted to finish my story, had to look up lots of information online, send emails, contact people and couldn’t do a bloody thing. At the same time I was cold, sneezing, coughing, got overly strong coffee instead of tea… You get my point.

Isolated
The weather was starting to turn and I decided to go back to the room and put on warm clothes. Sometimes I had the impression people were making fun of my shorts. I admit they were a bit too tight and too short, LOL, but I think they made more fun out of my milky white legs. After exchanging my t-shirt and shorts for a long trousers and a sweater, I headed back one last time for dinner. Had some delicious soup and went home to get some sleep.

When I got back, I checked with Brigitte, the housekeeper, if electricity was back up and running again. ‘Oui oui,’ she said, but reality taught me once again that she probably didn’t understand what I was saying and that nothing had been switched on again. No laptop, no cellphone, no hot water, this stupid cold…. I felt so isolated for a moment.

In the room, I sort of lost it, went to see her again and told her quite firmly I wasn’t going to stick around if things would continue this way. Especially because this was all included in the rate I’m paying. Food was extra, but this was all included. My friend once came around to explain this in Kinyarwanda, but even after that I had to beg for it.

Of course, ‘all of a sudden’ they understood perfect French and the next day, Tuesday morning, everyone was knocking on my door, asking if things were ok, if I was happy and comfortable. They even called my friend to come over and ask me about this. They were wondering if I really wanted to leave. I got all the hot water in the world, electricity was back up… as in ‘HUH’.

At that point I felt a bit bad and guilty, wondering whether I acted like spoiled little white brat. But my friend assured me I did the right thing and he would’ve acted in the exact same way. He knew already what the story was before he even got to ask me about it. It does prove that a smiling face does not always work and they still look at you as a ‘muzungu’ they need putting to the test.

Kigali
Despite their gentle efforts on Tuesday, I have decided to move out and go to Kigali. Most of the organisations I need to talk to are located there and the city is much more convenient for travel to the various parks and cities around the country. Although Gitarama is more central, you still need to travel through Kigali to get a bus and organise your travel.

This means I’ll move away from the rural area and I’ll be more surrounded by foreigners, tourists, expats and urban Rwandese. I only just realised that it doesn’t really affect my work here. I wanted to approach my magazine in ‘the eyes of future young tourists,’ and get real experiences, but to get the information I need, I can no longer sit around here.

What bothers me is that the rate for this room was discussed at 80000RWF per month, something around 100EUR. So I recalculated the whole thing and I would only have to pay 54000RWF for the short period of time in this room. But that’s not an option. Normally, the rooms are around 5000RWF per day (6,5EUR). In Kigali – which is supposed to be more expensive – there are places that offer a similar room with breakfast for even less! So I’m quite disturbed I still have to pay the whole amount of money, while I’m leaving one week earlier. It’s not as if they had to send new guests away. I’ve been the only one around here most of the time and half of the rooms are empty.

Availability or not, on Thursday, Lydie is picking me up with all my stuff to head for Kigali. We’ll go shopping and I hope we can have lunch in La Galette again. If things don’t work out, she urged me to stay in Jangwe Lodge for a couple of days, till we’ve found something decent. I hope to be able to stay in Kigali already, but I surely wouldn’t mind a couple of days in an exquisite place with a swimmingpool!

Monday 14th-Tuesday 15th of March – Gitarama 24 degrees