- Cooking oil! (There's a tiny store 50 meters away that has some! But it's 4000 RFW and I only have 2500, so I need to go back home to find MORE MONEY (this is a frequent scavenger hunt task), and then come back and get the oil... Check!)
- Toilet paper! (The household is down to its last roll... Caleb goes back to the same cooking oil shop and yay! they have some. But only two rolls. He buys those, and the next day while we're out in the big MTN center with the bank to find more money we decide to go to the fancy supermarket to get more, plus tissues and paper towels. Our bill for these paper products comes to about US$48. Poorly chosen. Item technically acquired but points deducted for wasteful spending.)
- A light bulb! (My night table has a nice little lamp but it's not working. We've already found a shop that sells light bulbs, but this is a little tiny one and I don't know how to describe it so I put it in my purse, go back to the light bulb shop and show it to him, he doesn't have it but points me to another shop across the street so I go show them my light bulb, they don't have it either, I go back home and show it to Theo, and he takes it and materializes moments later with a working bulb. Check!)
- And so on.
With all of these daily challenges, it's nice to acknowledge the moments when things are just working. Today was a good day. We brought the kids to school, checked in with the finance office to sort out some fees for extracurriculars (which all went smoothly), then met Caleb at MTN for the aforementioned money-and-paper-products mission. Wasteful spending aside, an easy and successful trip. Also acquired a spice tea from Bourbon Coffee while there, which was delicious. Caleb then dropped me off at Lambert's office where I chatted with him and worked uninterrupted for a couple of hours. (Also worth acknowledging: no power outages and reliable internet here at our house all week, and a successful second week of remote teaching.) Had a lovely lunch with Caleb and Lambert (tacos!!), and then came back home. Caleb went to see about helping out with after school football for Athena (Mazie also has football but Caleb is NOT allowed to go near her team - too embarrassing), while Lexi has her first after school choir practice (she was recruited for choir after singing for her whole class during the big birthday extravaganza last week). I'm in my quiet, clean home getting a little more work done, while a black bean soup (using several ingredients successfully scavenged over the past few weeks) is simmering on the stove and smelling quite good. I'm feeling comfortable and cared for in our new home. Using my Kinyarwanda-English translation app, I was able to communicate to Theo and Violetti that they could both take the day off yesterday (it was a holiday, National Heroes Day), which they both seemed happy about. Caleb's (and Lexi's) social skills are coming in handy and helping us navigate The Gate - we got some little stools and he's been sitting out front meeting neighbors and learning the kids' and adults' names, the outcome of which is that some of the cries of "muzungu, muzungu!" when we arrive are now turning into cries of "Kalibu! [Caleb!] Alexa! Alexa!" Progress. It's also been really nice to hear from many of you back home and get words of encouragement and support when we're struggling. Generally feeling grateful for moments of ease and connection.
UPDATE: Predictably, shortly after writing the above, I received a new scavenger hunt challenge for an undisclosed family member.
The pharmacist down the street speaks very good English but apparently my pronunciation or terminology is different from what they're used to hearing and they kept thinking I needed help for "malaria." My trusty translation app sorted us out and we're (hopefully) all set. Check!
1 comment:
I love these posts!
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