I’ve been absolutely negligent when it comes to updating the blog. I can’t figure out why. It seems that there’s been nothing tow rite about. Now, I know that’s not true. The things that used to make me want to write before are less interesting and more, well, just life.

Sunday I travelled to Nyamugali to visit Christine and Elise. The intent was to do some walking around her town but, since they’d been to a wedding the night before in “the Nyak” and didn’t get a good night’s sleep, we just sat, visited and made a great salad with vegetables and herbs from Christine’s garden.

Back at work I visited schools and went to a workshop held by Jeremy. On Wednesday we decided to head out the Teacher Training College in Zaza to meet with Damien. We’ll have a workshop out there in June and thought we’d see the venue. Plus, Suzanne has been out there for the last month and I threatened to visit her while she was teaching. She quickly told me that her lesson would be in Kinyarwanda. Plus, it was FOUR HOURS LONG. Honestly! They scheduled her to teach a four hour lesson. That’s worse than a night class at university. Before we even left Kibungo, Patrick called at 6:30 concerned about the rain and condition of the roads. Our meeting was not for another few hours and so I told him we’d decide at 8:30. By then the rain had stopped so we ventured out. But we hit the muddy patch just before Zaza. Mutoni, Jeremy’s driver, expertly navigated his way through and when Patrick hesitated, just laughed and breezed passed him saying “Nte bazo! Gache gache” (No problem! Little by little). Patrick continued but in the end, I got off and walked a bit to make it easier. Of course, when we arrived he pointed to his tire and said “Tire is finished.” I was worried that he meant it was flat but it turned out that it was only bald. That would have explained our lack of control.

When arrived we visited with Suzanne before she taught and decided on our venue with Damien. Before we hopped back on the bikes, Patrick treated me to another “Patrickism.” A group of girls was passing by and he said, “Anna. Big girl. No good,” referring to the larger girl in the middle. He puffed his cheeks and gestured as if he had a large pair of hips. “Big girl. No good. My Vision 2020,” he said referring to the name of Rwanda’s plan of economic development “is small girl.” He continued gesturing a slimmer version of his ideal girl. His Vision 2020.

Salad from Christine's garden - minus the tuna, of course