Playing Chicken

I am a little tired.  I decided to finish a book in one evening.  It wasn’t even that great a book.  I really need to have my head examined! I have a busy day today, with the staff meeting and it is the morning all the staff cleans the store.  One a month every Rwandan is required to give a day of service.  They can clean the streets, clean public buildings, etc.  Our staff cleans the shop.  I decided to help because I am part of the community, when I am here.

Yesterday I decided to take a walk in the forest behind the college.  It was really beautiful.  I found out that the Belgians planted the forest as a future source of wood.  It is filled with Eucalyptus trees.  I am going to take another longer walk on Sunday.

Every day I have to walk around 10 to 15 minutes to the store.  It is a very interesting walk along the side of the road.  You have cars and motos who “own the road” and really do not care if they pull in front of you or run over you.  And then you have the other walkers.  They walk in groups or on a cell phone right in the middle of the path. 

They definitely do not feel they have to move.  They are either staring at me or ignoring me.  Either way I have been the one to stop on the side and let them go past.  You definitely do not want to step in the road to go around them… the motos, buses, and cars are waiting for you.

Today was going to be different.  I decided that I would play chicken and walk right into them and see if they finally move.  No more mister nice guy.  It was very interesting to see who gave in first.  I say it was 50/50.  To me, that is a win.

It was really an unproductive day at work.  We completed our February report in the morning.  A little late with all our financial issues, but it was emailed.  After that Louise lost focus and I was not able to get her to go over all the documents.  My time is definitely running out and I need to make sure she is self-sufficient when I leave.  I hope we get this done on Saturday.  We did get the ice cream machine fixed.  Very exciting and the ice cream is creamier than ever. 

I had Louise and her GU boyfriend join me for dinner.  We had a great time.  He is in to Buddhism and Tai Chi. He also talked about the government.  He believes that it was necessary for Rwanda to move to communism after the genocide.  He hopes that after the country is stable it will become democratic.  Not sure I believe that will happen. 

He also said that each neighborhood has a neighborhood patrol.  They check for abuse; that each person is using a net over their bed (they are trying to eradicate malaria); the kids go to school; etc.  The patrol will report you and you will be jailed or fined heavily.  He also told me that the guys in prison wearing the pink outfits are not the genocide guys…. I couldn’t figure out how they could be given their age… they are people that are jailed but not convicted yet.  Interesting system.

Well, off to work.  Have a good evening, Paula