Answers for grandpa!

So after I posted my last blog Shira and I went home to get some dinner from Kado and he wasn't there. He quit! Before Amos could fire him! and he took ALL my stuff!!!.....just kidding but you totally believed me didn't you? Well he did quit but he didn't steal anything just that hat, but I want him to have it. So we went to dinner at Bismillah which is where I get my Chapati every morning which is like a torilla with a little more fluffiness to it. The croissant equivalent of a bagel, kind of. Anyway, in response to your questions Grandpa and Shirley I was served a plate of Mutoki(plantains), white rice, plain spaghetti, and french fries. A gourmet selection of starch! And this is what we get for every meal. I'm starting to regard the food situation as a form of torture. My stomach will no longer accept plantains, instant gag reflex I'm not even kidding. At school we get beans and maize bread which started out alright until I bit into pebbles three times in a row one day! So I am slowly trying to work back up to stomaching the food at school. Basically the food situation is poor, and I have been having intense Spaghetti bolognese cravings for some reason so Shira and I might go in to Kigali next weekend just to get some variety. And before anyone asks they do not have ground beef here so I can not make it myself. Currently the Rwandan government has decreed that all poorly built buildings must be torn down so in terms of the landscape I see there are a lot of torn down buildings that have not yet been rebuilt. Also the 'downtown' area is almost impossible to walk through because the ground is covered with building material but there is barely any building going on. If you want to find me on a map I am about an hour north of Kayonza on the road heading north to the Kagitumba border crossing with Uganda. The town is called Kabarore. We are very near Akagera National Park so the terrain is more resembling plains you would see on safari as opposed to the lush green vegetation around Kigali and south towards Butare. It is still very green here though and even though it is dry season it usually rains in the afternoon, which has swollen the wooden latrine door so thick that now it doesn't close. Very concerning. Many people here blame the rain during the dry season on the tree planting. The Clinton foundation pays for every tree you plant so many people have planted thick forests around their homes. I'm not really sure about the science behind that reasoning but its seems to be the predominant theory. Nature plays a much bigger part in everyone's life here. Instead of just taking medicine for a cold everyone told me that my flu was due to the rain and cold weather and that I needed to rest and stay warm. Same thing my mom would have said, but interesting how much more prevalent the weather is in everyday life. Also, when the sky is gray I will often say O I think it is going to rain and then without fail a Rwandan will say No not yet, probably not for about thirty minutes and will only last a few minutes. Or some variation of that, and also without fail it is always exactly correct. My teaching situation has changed YET AGAIN. So now I will be teaching history and helping Shira with English since they scheduled 320 Senior 4's all at the same time. Needless to say the Director of Studies is not the brightest bulb. Also we thought the Senior 4's would not get here until we moved to the new school but apparently they are all coming on Tuesday which is troubling considering we have three classrooms for over five hundred students and only two dormitories. Again, the planning skills are exemplary. So stay tuned to see how that works out! Last night our headmaster found out that our house boy had quit and offered to take us out to dinner. As we walked in to the restaurant and through to the garden in the back he picked out two chickens to roast and then sitting sipping our Fantas we heard them being killed. So appetizing. Thankfully it was pitch black by the time the chicken came to the table so I just felt around with my fingers and prayed I wasn't eating the head. Regardless, it was SO great to eat some protein. I literally dream of chicken but it is three times the price of beef here and the beef has to be cooked super well otherwise there is strong likelihood of worms so its just not that great to eat at all. Ok I think that's it. Still doing great and loving it here. I found out there is oxfam and care international in the nearby bigger town so I'm going to see about volunteering with all my free time. For anyone who offered charitable donations(in the form of entertainment) my address is TTC Matimba c/o Claire O'Connor P/O box 150 Nyagatare, Rwanda. And yes I believe it is very safe just as basically everything is here. O yes, the DRC situation. Really not a situation at all in respect to how it affects me. I am on the other side of the country even though it is only about 100 km across. No one is talking about it or up in arms or anything so I'm not that worried. Also something to note, most of the people who live where I live are returned refugees from the 1959 genocide. So they were mostly born in Uganda and didn't come back until after 1994 when the government campaigned for all Rwandans to return. Therefore, I am not sure there is as strong a divide, however any mention of either party to the genocide is VERY taboo. So that really is it, miss you all.