New addition to the household

In all the activity of the start of term there has been one other very exciting happening – a fridge has arrived!  Now, that makes it sound a little bit like it was a surprise, it wasn’t of course.  I thought long and hard about the decision to purchase a fridge.  It is a lot of money and it will also significantly bump up my electricity usage, and I have survived for over four months without one, so maybe I could live without it for two years...

I discussed the idea with other volunteers and weighed up the pros and cons.  It seems slightly at odds with what would happen at home.  If I lived without a fridge in the UK, surely I would be in the minority – everyone has a fridge, don’t they?  Here, it is the other way around.  Mine is probably one of only a tiny number of domestic fridges in the town.  I suspect that not even every bar or restaurant will have one, but people survive.

With all these ideas in mind and a check of the savings I made before I came away, I decided that it would make a significant improvement to my living conditions and that if I am going to be here for two years, it will be a huge benefit.  So, I went off to Kigali one weekend to make my purchase.  I had perused the aisles of Nakumatt several times and decided that their cheapest fridge would do for me.  On arrival, I found that an even cheaper version existed, so I decided to go for that.  It was slightly smaller and had only a very small ice box – but this should not matter too much.  I can’t buy any frozen goods and I am unlikely to want to freeze much.

With the money I had saved on the purchase, I decided I would look into the price of home delivery.  Upon a discussion of the cost of transporting my fridge to Kibungo, I, a) realised I did not know what my address was, or how to explain it to someone who did not know the town and b) that it was going to cost a small fortune to have it delivered.  I decided to pay to have it delivered to the VSO Office, as I had already discussed this option with my Programme Manager.  This was arranged and, at the end of November the fridge was delivered.  I then had to wait until the VSO vehicle was coming in my direction.  I thought this was easy, as I was moving house so I knew they would be coming to collect furniture.  Unfortunately the timings did not work out like this and so I did not get my fridge until last week when VSO were in the area.



Frida the fridge

It now sits proudly in my kitchen and I am very pleased to have it there.  In the space of only one week I have already noticed a difference.  I can keep food for more than one night without worrying about it making me ill if I eat it.  Previously, I would put the left-over food in a Tupperware box and put a small amount of cold water in a basin and then sit the Tupperware in that to keep it cool.  I’ve survived so far, but I have not been keen to stretch the food to three days, which means sometimes food is wasted.  Something I feel guilty enough about at home, but even more so here.  Also, I often end up buying too much at the market and the food does not keep.  Or, if I am away at the weekend I miss the Saturday market and so food I buy on the Wednesday does not last for a week and I have to throw food away.  This week, I was able to go to the market once and store everything in the fridge and it is still in good condition.  I was also able to chop all my fruit up to make a fruit salad that I can tuck into when I get peckish.  This has cheered me up no end!  And my UHT milk, which would previously spoil quite quickly in the warm weather, now lasts forever in the fridge.

So, all in all it has been a great purchase.  I am thinking of the items I may be able to get in Kigali and then keep in it – cheese for one.  And butter!  And maybe even...white wine!  I am still to work out where I can get fresh milk from – that would be an enormous bonus as I miss a nice cold glass of milk.