Postcards from Rwanda

I remember as a small child sitting in church with my mother, turning around in the pew, legs tucked up under me and having a good long stare at the woman behind me with the high hair.  I also distinctly remember my mother poking me in the ribs, telling me in a clipped whisper to turn around because it was rude to stare at people.  Disappointed, I turned around to continue the colouring job I was doing on the church program.  It was disappointing because, truth be told, I enjoyed staring.  Another difficult lesson learned in church was that, even though the nice old ladies brought candies in their purses for the express purpose of giving it to children like me, I was not allowed to ask for it.  The years went by and I learned that not only was it rude to stare and ask for candy, it was also rude to belch (another disappointing one for me), ask strangers personal questions, scratch certain parts of the body in public, tell someone they look fat, ask them why they don't have any children or how much money they make.  I became a fully-functioning member of Canadian society.  Then I moved to Rwanda.  I learned that it was rude to whistle, eat in public and speak to someone without greeting them first.  I also learned that it was fine to stare, ask for candy, belch, ask strangers personal questions, scratch certain parts of the body in public, tell someone they look fat, ask them why they don't have any children and how much money they make.  So there mom!  I stopped whistling (I wasn't very good at it anyway), became very discrete about eating wherever I was, greeted everyone I met.  That was easy.  Learning that it's ok to do something that you've been told not to do your whole life takes more time... but I can say today that I freely belch, stare, tell people they look fat and ask why they don't have any children.  The scratching is still disconcerting to me and I won't ask people how much money they make for fear they ask the same question in return but I'm well on my way to becoming a fully-functioning member of Rwandan society.  But guess what?  I'm going back to Canada soon.  So please, my friends and family , try to be patient with the belching and staring and I promise not to say you look fat!

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This is my life these days.  Following by click click password click job search click nothing.  

It seems to be an endless wait for Elson's immigration and an equally frustrating wait for jobs to be posted on the Peel website.  It was better when I only had internet connection once every two weeks, then I could forget about it.  Now I click in hope constantly.