Community Developments

Some new developments have altered my life in Rwanda. Don't get too excited, my house doesn't have electricity yet! But some parts of my town do. The hospital, church, government offices and some schools have power. It works most of the time, better than none of the time. Residential electricity hasn't been achieved yet. Barely any houses have it so far. The rest of us that want it have a few steps to follow. First, is our house even wired for electricity? Mine is, which seems strange, except that most rich people who live here pay for generators. Every room has outlets and light switches and even light bulbs. It's like they are mocking me! There is even a convenient light switch in my bedroom right next to where they knew I would put the bed so I don't even have to get out of bed to turn out the light at night. Some day…

Back to the point, we might have to pay for a pole to be put in near our house. Plus pay for the wire going directly to the house. I'll have to talk to my landlord to see if power is in my future.

I also finally have furniture! My three months of sleeping on the floor is over…good thing because there is definitely a mouse in my house. About a month ago I went to the carpenter, Daniel. Made a list of what I wanted - kitchen table, two chairs, nightstand, bed frame, three bookshelves - a contract was written up and signed, deposit was put down, deadline date was given. Then Daniel decided to be a pain in the butt. He tried to jack up the price around the time the furniture was supposed to be done. He forced me to pay to deliver the furniture to my house even though free delivery was supposed to be included. It involved a few conversations through a Rwandan translator aka Jeanne the mental health nurse, a walk down to his store and a lot of frustrating comments under my breath. But sure enough one day after five there was furniture on my porch. It was being delivered slowly since the two guys were carrying it by hand to my house from the carpenter shop. The delivery fee - $2…split between the two of them. Newest discovery - putting together a bed frame by yourself is difficult. But it up and I moved into my new bedroom. It is about three times the size of my other one. I love it. I can neatly surround myself with my books and pictures. Finally starting to feel like a home.