{"id":209585,"date":"2018-01-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?p=209585"},"modified":"2024-08-05T14:58:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T14:58:08","slug":"rwanda-diary-jan-thirteenth-fifteenth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?p=209585","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda Diary – January thirteenth – fifteenth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, January thirteenth. \u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

As I write I have a 40-year-old-man with a six-foot tree branch wiping out the spiders and cobwebs off the ceilings and walls. \u00a0Works perfectly. \u00a0I took a shower this morning, no hot water although the house is plumbed for it. \u00a0It will take stoking up a wood burning boiler. \u00a0As I stepped out of the shower I noticed the water was turning brown, then darker, and finally it looked like coffee. \u00a0I let it run. \u00a0Twenty minutes later it cleared up. \u00a0I will give it a couple of days and then take a drink. \u00a0Hopefully, I will be home before Montezuma\u2019s revenge hits.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am itching to be in the villages and getting my hands on some real work. \u00a0I am hanging around home until the phone service is hooked up. \u00a0The house is wired but not had service for three years. \u00a0I drove to RwandTel to pick up the technician. \u00a0In less than twenty minutes I had service until I discovered that it will not get me out of the areas. \u00a0For long distance, why else would I want a phone, I had to write an official letter, hand deliver it to the Telcom office for an endorsement, then with 10,000 Rwandan Francs \u00a0to the local bank for a deposit. \u00a0Sounds like a lot of money but RF310 is equal to one USA dollar. \u00a0After all that, we had phone service except it sounds like hens scratching the ground. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

OSHDA would be shocked. \u00a0The local blacksmith does not have any protective eye gear nor even a pair of working pliers. \u00a0The power is hot-wired illegally off a neighbor\u2019s power box. \u00a0The wire is stripped so other bare wires can be attached to run other power tools. \u00a0Fascinating, creative, and innovative. \u00a0The poverty within town is appalling. \u00a0Children are playing soccer with rolled up plastic bags tied with twine for a soccer ball. \u00a0Still, I saw no overt hunger but no one is overweight. \u00a0And this is Gitarama, one of the larger, more prosperous towns. \u00a0Wait until next week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rwanda \"Rwanda<\/p>\n

\"Rwanda<\/p>\n

Tuesday, January fourteenth. \u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Another attempt at phoning home. \u00a0The line was clear but no one picked up. \u00a0Not sure why. \u00a0I am sure they were home because it was 2:00 A.M. their time. \u00a0Tonight, the line was dead. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Five minutes after leaving Gitarama the diesel engine started to clatter. \u00a0Sounds like a lifter went bad. \u00a0I tried to limp into Kigali, 48 kilometers away. \u00a0Fifteen miles later, going up a steep incline, it gave out. \u00a0I locked, parked, and left it. \u00a0I walked a couple hundred yards to an open market and caught public transport in a jam packed sweaty filled mini-van. \u00a0It is pedal to the metal, alternately, the accelerator then the brake, and full on prayer as we entered on particularly sharp curve. \u00a0Thirty minutes later at the cost of sixty-five cents, I was in town. \u00a0Later in the afternoon, Keith and I went out with the Land Cruiser and pulled it in.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rwanda \"Rwanda \"Rwanda \"Rwanda<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wednesday, January fifteenth.<\/h2>\n

Today was the first day we went to villages and started networking with local government officials as to the real need of returning refugees and displaced persons. Then we drove over to Kibuye where we worked two years previously. The Chinese have taken the hotel over and have the contract for a new road which the World Bank is financing. I met Ruche. Her English name is Ruth but it comes out Ruche. She is a widow. Her husband was killed. She has four children. She will do the house cleaning and maybe some food preparation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, January thirteenth. \u00a0 As I write I have a 40-year-old-man with a six-foot tree branch wiping out the spiders and cobwebs off the ceilings and walls. \u00a0Works perfectly. \u00a0I took a shower this morning, no hot water although the house is plumbed for it. \u00a0It will take stoking up a wood burning boiler. \u00a0As …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":209586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_block_theme_hide_title":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19],"class_list":{"0":"post-209585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-founders-corner","8":"tag-rwanda-journal","10":"with-featured-image"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/a29-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/a29-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Lou Haveman","author_link":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?author=5"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/209586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}