Rainy Days and Mondays

Rain bucket

I briefly met some more neighbours. These women seemed nice and have all worked with VSO in some capacity (while practically no one in Canada has heard of VSO). One day, it poured, so I ran out with a bucket (a fluorescent green one, no less) to measure precipitation.

Shortly after, one neighbour knocked on my door to tell me that we had a water tank in the back. I knew that, and she laughed quite hard when I explained my science fair experiment.

But it’s no laughing matter now. I’ve not had running water since February 3rd. Water is heavy - isn’t that the statement of the century? So I can only fill half a jerry can, bring it back, pour it into a bucket, and go for another half.

A change of habits

At home, I eat (what others consider to be very) little, but I eat all day long. So it has been very challenging to stuff myself with a HUGE lunch everyday. I’ve tried a range of lunch venues around work, but they are always full of KIE students and staff. Imagine yourself standing with a tray full of rice, pasta, potatoes, plantane and beans, with (on average) 35 Rwandans gawking at you, laughing in Kinyarwanda about how the muzungu has no place to sit and eat. So, I decided to eat at VSO. The paid cook prepares fruits, vegetables and VARIETY!!! A happy surprise in my tummy everyday :) What a life-saving treat it has been. I hadn’t realized how much I enjoy having lunch with people.

Dinner is non-existent because I’m too tired to cook. Or it involves some tuna and cheese. No fridge + equatorial Africa = mould. I have made friends with all kinds of shades, textures and unfortunately taste of mould. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

To Domestique or not to Domestique?

Most, if not all, Rwandans have domestiques, a person who cooks and cleans. Most VSOs have hired domestiques, who live with them, work 9 to 5, or come by once a week. The general feeling is that this practice generates a legitimate job for locals, who use this money to support their children or continue their studies. But it all seems rather colonial to me…

CONS:
A domestique will cook typical Rwandan diet of rice, pasta, potatoes, plantane and beans. Yum, I know. Easier to cook myself than to show her what to cook. Don’t want a stranger hanging around my house all day. No problems washing my clothes by hand. Don’t mind cleaning the house. Heard stories of domestiques sleeping on VSO’s beds, trying on their products, stealing sugar or money, etc.

PROS: Pierre, the VSO weekend guard, asked me for a job. He studies at night, so he can help out during the day. Received great references from Laetitia and Sue about Pierre. He can get a better price for groceries at the market and speaks Kinyarwanda.

Squeeky clean

So I gave Pierre a try. On his first Monday, he arrived 45min late. No big deal, since time is but a suggestion here. And it was raining. Rwandans stop ALL activity when it rains. So if one makes it to work in the rain, no one else would be there. You wonder how a nation that receives heavy rains twice a year hasn’t found a better way to cope…

Pierre did a fantastic job. My house was spotless. My sneakers, which were caked in mud and which he had mocked, were scrubbed so white that they hurt my eyes. Rwandans highly value clean attire, but unfortunately completely neglect BO! Go figure. Men wear pants with pleats that join up at the coccyx, LOL! Pleats should be parallel, not convergent! But I digress.

I felt silly for paying Pierre only 1600RWF ($3.30) for the day. But I’ve been told that it was very generous since the going rate is 900RWF ($1.85).

Emotional outburst, his not mine

It is so important to treat myself here. The littlest things count: chocolate spread instead of jam, two extra spoonfuls of milk powder in my tea, looking forward to Pierre filling my jerry cans and taking out my rubbish, etc.

On the following Monday, I came home. No Pierre. No work done. Instead, a two page essay about shame of the way I live. I left him 3000RWF the first week for groceries, and only 300RWF the second week because I didn’t need groceries. So he wrote 2 huge paragraphs about how I should trust him with more money. I left a “to-do” list so he added 2 more paragraphs about how he may be poor but not stupid. I asked, word for word, “No need to make my bed.” He went off about “le lit” and how we are all educated and shouldn’t be ashamed of these “things.” Like, wtf are you talking about?

I had been warned that his talks a lot. And I could sense that he was a guy with high and mighty principles. But what an emotional outburst! After discussing with fellow VSOs, we concluded a case of lost-in-translation. He might have assumed that I didn’t want him to make my bed because I thought he was dirty. But I just didn’t want to have to re-tuck my mozie net afterwards.

So I let him go. I DO NOT need such emotional baggage, especially when I was doing him a favour by giving him a job. Besides, his salary will compensate for muzungu prices at the market. And the best part, I won’t need to suffer through 2 hrs of Kinyarwanda lessons every Monday (Pierre knows that VSO pays for language lessons. So he was very adamant about giving me 2 full hours every Monday).

Price comparison

Just a glimpse into my spending.

100RWF - taxibus ride ($0.20)
120RWF - dozen small bananas ($0.25)
106RWF - 2 text messages ($0.21)
500RWF - Twix Bar ($1)
4000RWF - pizza ($8)

So, do you walk to work, skip breakfast, ignore phone messages, or not treat yourself?