Practicalities

There are many things I had not really thought through before moving to Rwanda and some of the realities have made me think that I will view life quite differently upon return to the UK (we’ll see how long that lasts!).

At the start of each day I have a shower.  Well...I say shower.  I was using the shower as it was for the first few weeks – this meant subjecting my body to an icy chute of water that tumbled full pelt out of the shower head (no spray cap to soften it!).  My asthma soon began to object to this, so for the sake of avoiding illness, I now get up and boil a kettle of water.  I fill a jug three quarters of the way from the shower, top up with hot water and then wash in the shower tray.  I use about four jugs of water max (Mum and Dad - imagine the units I save!).  Nothing like the amount I would have used at home!  If the water is not working (as it wasn’t this morning) I make use of the water I have stored around the house.  I keep two large buckets of water in the bathroom, one in the kitchen, and I also have two jerry cans of water and a huge plastic bin full.  I have to remember to top these up once the water comes back on if I have taken water from them, otherwise I could find myself without water.

This task complete, I get dressed and then wander to the kitchen.  I switch on the hotplate and hope that I have electricity (it quite often goes off if it rains!).  I am normally in luck, so I make some porridge.  A couple of spoons of Quaker oats and either “real” (UHT) milk, or some milk powder and water.  I also chop in a few bananas and maybe some nuts, raisins and honey.  I also make a cup of tea.  This all takes a lot more time than my usual bowl of cereal and glass of juice back home.

At this point I am usually about ready to go to work, so I tend to be out for the whole day.  Upon return, I again hope there will be electricity.  It frequently goes off at about 5:30-6 as I suppose there must be a surge in demand.  If I am home early, I try to cook my dinner before this happens.  Without an oven, dinner is always something cooked on the hotplate – pasta and sauce, chilli, curry or some such delight.  I am becoming quite creative with the cooking though, so do not go hungry.  Once I have cooked my dinner, I fill up two large saucepans with water (unless there is no water, in which case I cannot do this).  I then set the pans of water on the hotplate and wait for it to boil.  It can take about an hour.  The water needs to be at a rolling boil for about three minutes.  I lift the pans off once they are done and set them on the floor.  They will cool by the morning and then I can pour them into my water filter.

The water filter is a huge stainless steel contraption with two sections.  Water is poured into the top half and inside there are 5 chalk “candles” (pillars).  The water filters through these and into the bottom half.  The bottom half has a tap so you can get the water out.  Because the candles filter out all the impurities – seems to be a lot of rust! – they have to be cleaned every so often.  This involves taking the filter apart and carefully unscrewing the candles.  I have to boil a pan of water before I do this.  I then plunge the candles in one at a time and scrub them with a brush reserved for this task.  Soap cannot be used.  Then the whole thing is put back together again.  Usually the first batch of water through the candles has to be discarded as it tastes too chalky.  On the whole I am not bothered by the taste of the water – I drink it quite happily.

Usually I am lucky and have electricity in the evenings, but this is not always so.  I make sure I keep my laptop charged so that if there is no electricity I can at least watch a film.  I also keep my headtorch handy after 6pm (when it goes dark) just in case there is a sudden loss of electricity.  There are no streetlights here anyway, but once all of the surrounding houses are plunged into darkness, it becomes REALLY dark.  If I go out after 6pm, I take my headtorch, although my eyes are becoming quite used to the dark!  If electricity is gone all evening, I make use of my back up – I have a kerosene stove.  This requires filling with kerosene and then I have to light the wicks and put the guard on it before I begin cooking.  It is quite efficient, but the fumes can be a bit over-powering, so I prefer to cook outside if it is not raining, or with the backdoor open if it is raining – although this means the mosquitoes come in.  I also have a charcoal stove, but I am hopeless at lighting this...

As I cook, I separate out my rubbish.  I thought I was quite good at this in the UK – I always sorted everything for recycling.  There is no refuse collection service here – you arrange your own disposal.  I have a collection of buckets with lids in my kitchen and bedroom.  I put food waste in one for the compost.  Things that will burn go in a separate bucket to be burnt by my night guard.  The ash is then put on the compost heap.  Empty tins (I don’t really have many of these as most of my food is fresh from the market), I collect and take to a man on the market (along with glass bottles).  He makes small kerosene lamps out of the cans and glass bottles are sold as rolling pins.  If I buy a bottle of fanta or beer from the shop, I have to return the bottles as they are re-used.  There is a deposit charged for this purpose.  Anything else – plastic, foil etc – I put into a paper bag and save up for a trip to Kigali where I put it in a bin (they collect refuse there).  Some of it I cut up into small strips to make shiny things to scare the birds away from the vegetable patch!

Having to dispose of your own rubbish really makes you think about what you use.  There are no plastic bags in Rwanda, so I do not amass a cupboard of them like at home.  My vegetables do not come in plastic, polystyrene or tin trays.  They are purchased in piles which have been carefully counted out by the market sellers.  I take my own bags to put my produce in...a special bag reserved for the potatoes as they are very dirty...several bags for everything else.  And I buy things in order from the heaviest to lightest so that my tomatoes are not all squashed.  I always reserve the end section of my bag for the pineapple I buy as it is both heavy and awkward!   I always carry a small paper bag so that I can stop at the local shop on my walk back from town to buy some eggs.  And – if I am very lucky – they might have a bar of Cadbury’s chocolate.  No such luck today.

Asthma – as mentioned earlier – is another thing I have to think about.  With the exception of the irritation of the cold shower – I have mostly been well.  I have tried running and it is hard work as I am at altitude, but I am staying in good health on the whole.  The VSO Medical Unit had to agree to me coming out with a medical condition.  I came with a stash of inhalers to keep me going.  I thought I would be able to buy replacements here.  I can’t believe I cannot.  My inhalers have to be sent from the UK.  This is not as easy as putting them in the post.  Because of the containers they are in, they cannot go in the hold so they have to be brought in person.  This means I need to be ultra-organised and make sure I order them well in advance so that any staff travelling back and forth can bring them.  Other medication appears to be readily available and you can buy most things in the local pharmacy.  I came with a good supply of vitamins, so I make sure I take them as my diet, although healthy, is lacking in many things – notably meat and dairy products.

I’m sure there are other quirks and peculiarities that I could tell you about, but these are the ones I can think of for now.