Postcards from Rwanda

Well how are you all?  I'm doing alright here, busy teaching, preparing a workshop and trekking back and forth to Butare non-stop it would seem.  The big news right now is that Geert (housemate, colleague and friend) has left the building!  Yes he has decided to go home to Belgium.... to return later? ... That is yet to be seen.  So for now it's just me and Sylvester in the house.  The house feels eerily empty even with the radio turned on full blast (just as Sylvester likes it), children knocking on the gate asking for notebooks and pens, and my marking piling up ominously all over the main room. 

This weekend I'm back in Butare and am going to try to get some work done.  I have some preparations to do for next week's English Teachers workshop in Nyagatare.  I also have an obscene amount of corrections to do and they've been sitting (Cristal Moon style) on my coffee table for a couple of weeks.  With 9 x 45 students, 1 paragraph each, oh God I don't think I'll finish until next January.  I have good intentions to buckle down this weekend but so far I've been distracted by the COPABU, shop in Butare that sells local crafts, and the market where I like to wander looking at all the fabric, dreaming up the perfect new dress, or skirt, or shirt, or pants, or well you get the picture. I must get work done on the weekend though because I teach 27 hours in 4 days and I don't seem to be able to do much else.  Antonia and I are also hoping to get going on our big theatrical project.  We're waiting for the response to our grant application, but it looks hopeful. This week I've invited some friends/colleagues over for dinner (Elson, Emmanuel, and Evariste) and I'm going to prepare a nice italian meal.  Yes I've figured out how to make bruschetta on the kerosene stove and for dessert, bananas dipped in chocolate!  That's all for now.

Hi Geert if you're reading out there!