Welcome to the Centre Marembo!

This here is a photo of my new office, the Centre Marembo, which is operated by the Rwandan Youth Information Community Organisation (RYiCO). The centre provides information, advice and support, vocational courses and classes, and the payment of school fees, to street children and young adults in Kigali (although writing it like this doesn't do justice to the wealth of activities that go on here - I'd recommend looking it up online). The car is for classes in mechanics; the tent on the left is a classroom; and the building itself a combination of office rooms and a large room full of sewing machines for tailoring and sewing classes. The tree in the middle...is just a tree.

Today started very early, due to an incorrect changing of clocks on my part, and an emergency that needed to be taken care of by the boss before she came to get me. Having woken at 5:30, I had a nice breakfast and read my book, before at around 9 being taken to the office, where we had a short introductory meeting, before heading back up the road with my new colleague Ezraz to hunt down a dongle (referred to here by the more appropriate name of "an internet stick") and a sim card. This all preceded an enormous thunderstorm, which lasted for a couple of hours, and during which I sat and read more, given that the afternoon was supposed to involve finding somewhere to live and the heavy rains prevented anyone from going outside.

I've also moved from the guest house to Nicolette's place, at least for tonight and posible permanently. She is the boss, and she lives in a nice house with a spare room. Her daughter is a precocious, tri-lingual six year old with a habit for talking and for whom I was a horse, a reader, and a play-hairdressing victim. We also had a grand old song and dance, including the old classic "the lion sleeps tonight." A delicious dinner is now followed by sleepy time. I don't plan on always writing this much, but today was indeed a busy day!