Surprises

Well today I found out something very interesting. We might be getting an American Peace Corp volunteer at the TTC, starting in January, it hasn’t actually happened yet but it is being discussed. I was shown all of the pre-arrival info that gets sent out about them and they get a whopping 10 weeks of training before they arrive in their placements, compared to our 10 days which we get with vso. So I’d better brush up on my American in preparation for their (possible) arrival. My American friend in vso, Lindsey, had been learning to speak British and she is doing very well. She so far has learned how to say ‘gobbledygook’, ‘anorak’, ‘proper’ and ‘brilliant’. She’s so good soon she’ll be appearing on downtown abbey or some other period drama. But my American lags behind, except for I keep saying ‘awesome!’ all of the time.

Another surprise is that I seem to have got fat in Africa. A woman stopped me on the dirt track and said something to me which I didn’t understand. And then unfortunately she decided to mime what she meant which was definitely the universal sign for ‘you have become a right porker’. I blame mum and dad. We ate too many chips and drank too much Primus on holiday. Chips are evil. The thing is when you eat out in Rwanda, every meal comes with chips. Brochettes (goat kebabs) and chips, steak and chips, omelette with chips in it, melange (mixed plate for people even less francophone than me) and chips...need I go on? So a sort of chip fatigue sets in. You wolf them down still, but their magic greasy appeal that sent me running down to the chippy in Bristol every Friday armed with my £1.50, has gone. They become routine, even dull, but they give you a spare tyre all the same. So I am going chip cold turkey for the next two weeks. Not a single chip will pass my lips!

I also think I’m starting to get a beer gut which is most unladylike, ewww. Now I’m faced with the task of trying to rid myself of it. As avid readers of my blog will remember, my attempts at running were definitely not without event. I do have some awful exercise dvds I could do on my laptop behind closed curtains (far too shameful to do in public view) which is a possibility. And there is always the Nzige tomato based diet. Or I could go on a Rwandan style Akins protein diet which would consist of...umm..goat and eggs...hmmm maybe not!