Rwanda 2011 Day 6

---

Today started with a riddle: how do you work the shower?  Yesterday I had to figure out how to get the toilet to flush.  The water supply knob had been shut, so when I opened the valve, the toilet flushed!  Christina was the first to venture into the shower, and after a bit I hear,"Hey, Dad, have you figured this shower out?" Water barely drips out of the tub spigot even with the water is turned all the way on.  Playing around with things and looking for another valve I discovered that the shower head has multiple positions, including an "off" position!  You learn something new all the time!
The showers were cold this morning.  I went to ask at the front desk and found out that when we checked in to room 27, someone forgot to turn on the hot water which is in room 20, but heats water for rooms 20, 21, 26, & 27.  A bit late for today, but we will have warm water tomorrow!

Another lesson in patience - why am I so slow to learn:
We did laundry and then went up for breakfast.  We had bread, butter and jam. We were offered coffee or tea, which took a while to arrive to the table.  Once again I found myself wondering why the breakfast at the nicer hotel was not as  complete as the breakfast at the simple guest house in Kigali?  Then after a while (that did not seem so short) the eggs arrived.  Then after another short period of time the fruit plate arrived. Wow - how impatient and judgmental Jim can be - I find him hard to live with at times 😉 and I am stuck with this guy 24-7! - sorry that was Jim's alter-ego breaking in.

After breakfast I called Caritas to ask what the plan was for today. She said that Simon Pierre would be a few minutes.  A little later Simon arrived at the hotel.  He had been at a converence in the Congo and was stuck there last night because the border was closed. We were not going to be having a clinic day today as I had thought we were.  We drove by the clinic and looked around the school and clinic.  We delivered the well pump controller. The old one had been hit by lightning and burned.  There was a technician there to replace the controller and to install a lightning rod to prevent further damage (hopefully!) Simon talked about his plans to expand the clinic.  They plan to add  an "OB" area complete with a surgical room (presumably for c-sections) and delivery room. He also has plans eventually for a larger clinic building with 2 stories. This is  more of a long range plan but the OB area is in the plans in the next several months!

Simon took us back to the hotel so we could have lunch, and he had an errand to run.  As we drove from the clinic to the hotel it started to rain again.  It started pouring and then came the thunder.  We did not see any lightning.
We waited for the rain to die down a bit before we climb the stairs to the restaurant, but no luck so we struck out with our coats.  The hotel is on a hillside and every room opens toward the front, and there are terraced stairs going from the parking lot all the way up to the top floor where the restaurant is.
Simon came back at 2 to take us to the land.  They are growing sweet potatoes now, which will be ready for harvesting next month.  Then we went to see a new project: pigs.  They currently have several pigs, 1 male and a handful of females.  They have 6 piglets.  The hope is to grow the pigs to sell them.

We went back to the hotel for an hour and then Simon picked us up to go to another concert at his church.  He explained that his church was having 10 days of concerts and last night was the first.  The concert was great - more lively than last nights.  I am sitting outside my room right now blogging, because that is where the wifi is working. (wifi not working in the room, but has been spotty at the restaurant.)  Praise the Lord it is not currently raining.  BTW - did I mention that it has rained EVERYDAY so far?  And when I say rain, I mean RAIN!  This is not a Portland/Vancouver drizzle, this is huge drops and lots of them!

Ciao for tonight!

---