Oh Oh

Well that’s just great. I was reading through my Kinyarwanda phrase book to work on my greetings in Kinyarwanda. As well as containing words and phrases, the book has many cultural tips to pass on to the reader. One of the pages was entitled “Cultural Greetings You Might Hear.” It included this phrase, tucked in between greetings such as “You are welcome here” and “We are happy to see you,” and it just about knocked me over: “Why are you so fat?” What kind of greeting is that? I will utterly die from embarrassment if someone asks me that. My only consolation will be that the other people in my group are unlikely to understand Kinyarwanda, and therefore won’t know what it means.

Scarborough Blizzard Makes a Donation to Rwandan Children

Way back in March, Rich Hitchens, the fellow who is organizing this trip to Rwanda, asked us if we could gather up some used soccer equipment to donate to the children we will be meeting when we visit some schools while we are away. As I mentioned in a previous post, I wrote to four soccer clubs in Scarborough after Rich made his request. I didn’t expect to hear from any of the clubs right away, considering that it was March and soccer does not get underway until May (indoor soccer did not immediately come to mind).

On April 10, I received a reply from Michelle Cole Kennedy, who is on the board of directors of the Scarborough Blizzard Soccer Club. She asked when I needed the uniforms, and said she could give me some sets.

I met up with Michelle Cole Kennedy yesterday evening at 6:30 at the Blizzard’s headquarters (which, in an extraordinary coincidence, is located in the same suite of offices that used to house Sumcot Developments – I did mention this to Michelle). What a wonderful and generous person Michelle is!  She took me to the warehouse (in the same suite of offices) and proceeded to fill up a big box with soccer uniforms. I was expecting used equipment, but Michelle gave me new shirts, new shorts and new socks some of them still in the bags they were shipped in. She gave me two different team sets of shirts, enough shorts for two teams, two team sets of sock to match the shirts, brand new shin guards, and six brand new soccer balls. I was completely overwhelmed, and I even became a little weepy. Michelle said it was her dream to go to Africa one day. I had to go to a meeting afterwards, but I could not keep my mind on what I was doing because all I could think of was the Scarborough Blizzard Soccer Club, Michelle Cole Kennedy and her breathtaking kindness and generosity. When I said thank you to her, it felt like it was not a big enough phrase to cover how I really felt.

Kinyarwanda Phrase Book

I forgot to mention that the Kinyarwanda Phrase book that I ordered has arrived. It is a dandy little book, with many useful phrases and vocabulary in it. Of course I am still using the Kinyarwanda lessons on my ipod along with the companion materials. This has given me an idea of how the language is pronounced. The phrase book is like icing on the cake: it covers many things that the language lessons do not.

Mosquito Nets

Linda and I went to Canadian Tire on Sunday afternoon before dinner, to see if we could find the kind of mosquito nets that fit over a hat. We might need them while we are on safari or trekking up a mountain to visit the gorillas. We found the nets (and bought two each) and also purchased a water bottle holder gizmo that attaches to the neck of a water bottle and then clips to a backpack with a carabiner clip. I also bought a little book light with a funky flexible neck. I will need it for the flights. If I can’t sleep, I will need to be able to read. It will likely be dark in the plane so people can sleep. If I can’t sleep and I can’t read, I will be bugging Linda. I should get some practice sleeping sitting up, with my travel pillow around my neck. It is harder than it looks.

Travel Towels

Yesterday Linda and I went downtown to Mountain Equipment Co-op to purchase travel towels to take on this trip. The guesthouse we will be using does not offer amenities like towels: it is not a hotel. The criteria for the towels were that they had to be light and dry quickly. Mountain Equipment Co-op has such towels, in fact they have two different kinds: a sports towel and a travel towel. After much consideration, we opted for the travel towels, although I think we might want to take a shamwow with us to us as a bathmat in the bathroom (if we get a room with a bathroom) and in the shower room (if we don’t get a room with a bathroom).

While in Mountain Equipment Co-op, and faced with their huge displays of attractive things to buy, we also purchased a medical kit consisting of sterile syringes, suture needles and sutures, IV canula etc. We purchased one each. Then after a very brief consideration we also purchased a third in case of extreme emergency. If one of our trip-mates had a problem and needed one, we would not hesitate to donate one of our own kits, but that would leave us at risk should we need sterile medical equipment. I bought a little red first aid kit pack (empty – it is for making your own custom kit, which I will do. Mine will contain band-aids, bactine, ozonol or polysporin, alcohol pads, tweezers and rubber gloves. I think a tensor bandage would also be a good addition to the kit. Probably a few tylenols as well.)

Lastly, I bought a tube container of electrolyte replacement tablets in a multi-berry flavour. Linda bought the same tablets but in lemon-lime. Between the two of us we should be ok. We also have the Gatorade electrolyte replacement, so it means we each have about eighteen doses. If we need that much, we are in trouble.

Organizing My Stuff

In December, at school, we participated in a fund raising breakfast for a Colitis charity.  The food came packed in a bankers box, which has been stored in my office, empty, since then.

I decided to bring the box home and use it for storing all the little odds and ends that I will be taking with me to Rwanda.  I gathered up all of these bits and pieces from the various places where I had been squirreling them away, and put them in the box, which is now in my downstairs office.  I will continue to place things in the box as I buy them, thereby (hopefully) eliminating the likelihood of leaving something important behind when I go.

I still have to buy Tylenol and ibuprofen, gravol, immodium, benedryl, sun block, mosquito repellant (although I tried to order some permethrin from Magellan's Travel Supply but they were out of stock) mosquito coils, matches, athlete's foot cream, eye drops and a host of other things.

Finally, everything that I pack will be in a container of some description, like a make-up kit or travel cubes.  I am not going to have any loose items in my luggage, not even charging cords for my ipod and phone.  All of the containers will be labelled if they are not see-through.  There will be a place for everything, and everything will be in its place.  My shirts, pants, sox, gidgies and other clothes will all be in packing cubes.  I hate rooting around for little things in my luggage and it will absolutely not happen on this trip.  The flight will be enough for me, I won't need to be adding to my anxiety by not being able to find some tiny thing I tossed in my bag.

And ditto for my carry-on bag.  I will have enough to put in it (see my earlier post "The Carry-On Bag Conundrum") and I don't want to be rooting around in there while I am flying.  I need my flight to be as stress-free as possible.

The Fruit and Nut Bar Problem has been Solved!

Today while I was on my way to my Dad’s for Sunday dinner, I stopped into the Loblaw’s in Pickering to pick up some soup, which I intended to have for dinner because my jaw was still sore from the root canal procedure I had yesterday. While I was in the organic food/whole food/health food section, I noticed a stand-up display for Cocoa Camino Fair Trade Chocolate bars. I was scanning the bars on the off-hand chance that they might have a caramilk-style, vegan chocolate bar. No luck on that front, but guess what they did have: a fair trade, dark chocolate cranberry and almond bar. And vegan too! That is as close to a fruit and nut bar as I am going to get. I bought one, for scientific research, you understand. It was very good. I will stock up on these bars for the trip and give up on the idea of making my own.

Now the only question is, how many should I buy?