drama queen!

just the other day I was thinking about my last 2 years in kigali - and really, the place is boring. there aren't any of the usual distractions available to the inhabitants. and although cultural events are cropping up there is still very little to do here. when a friend recently asked me what to do with visitors to offer them some sightseeing in town all I could do was suggest nice restaurants - she mentioned that all of my suggestions involved eating and drinking - but that she wanted to do something. well, there is little to do - and yet I can't say I have been bored in the last 2 years. maybe because adventure always finds me... take any story you want - as boring as can be - add a car meltdown and you get the idea of what my life is like :-)

so - this weekend we went to gisenyi as a friend was organising a party there. and because it's good to get away a party on the beach sounded right up our street. we set off saturday - and already on the way there I noticed that the timing of my car was off; this is not surprising since I've just had the spark plugs changed and that usually throws the car's timing off track. but it wouldn't be a regular gisenyi trip if urai didn't backfire every now and again - after all this seems to be happening every time I drive up there. and I'm getting good at ignoring these little inconveniences...

the party was great fun - dancing on the beach, whilst the waves roll onto the shore in the background... in the dark it felt like we were actually by the sea. and I miss the sea.
when we got home I went to get some water from the car - and in the pitch dark stumbled over a volcanic rock. as I was walking back to the house I thought - why is my flip flop suddenly so wet? turns out I'd really cut my toe and blood was gushing out. so we settled in the bathroom where I nursed my toe, washing it, pouring ludicrous amounts of antiseptic into the wound and finally dressing it with gauze, attaching it with duct tape.

yesterday we drove home, and again, the timing of my car was causing me headaches. half way I stopped at a petrol station in the hope that the guys there would know 5 things about engines; turned out I had to explain to them what I wanted them to do. we fiddled with the distributor and it seemed to work - for 3 minutes. but the result was still a better timing than before and I decided to just get on with the road and have the ninja figure it out today when suddenly the battery light flashed on on my dashboard. I vaguely remembered that i'd had that before but couldn't, for the life of it, remember what the cause was.

I caught up with my friends who were travelling in the other car at the mythical truck stop about an hour outside of kigali and told them. 'have you checked your fanbelt?' - low and behold the fan belt was torn to shreds.... great - that can really overheat the engine! luckily I've had enough car trouble in my life to carry such essential spare parts as fanbelts by the dozens whenever I leave town. the problem was that we didn't have the right key to open the screws on the alternator. and being at the truck stop where some traditional dancing was going on we immediately had a rather large crowd of self-proclaimed mechanics around the car who all wanted to fix the problem. I get very edgy when random people just take the wench and start working on my engine. so more than once I had to take the tools out of someone's hand and inform them that my two friends were the only ones with the right to do anything to my car. we eventually localised the right key and with a lot of pulling, turning and sweating managed to securely fasten the new fanbelt. luckily I have the friends I have!

on I drove back to kigali - with my bandaged toe - planning on going to the hospital to have a doctor look at it. we dropped our stuff off at home and my housemate took me to A&E where I registered and then we sat down to await our turn. I do not like hospitals; and to see a young girl being carried on unconscious and then being ferreted into the re-animation room made me feel positively sick. the mother was pacing the corridor praying out loud, clearly in distress. later I saw her walk her girl to the bathroom - so luckily the girl made it. but it's not a nice scene to witness.

eventually it was my turn - after basically harrassing pretty much anyone around - nothing happens unless you do it yourself. the doctor ordered me into the procedure room and opened a dressing pack. now, I am not someone who finds it difficult to see blood or to dress wounds either on myself or on other people - however, when someone dresses my wounds I turn into a whining child. the doctor started washing the toe with water and I kept twitching and winging as though he was amputating my leg. I apologised and told him I was a drama queen, but I'd get over it. after 5 minutes he opened the door and motioned to my two friends that he needed someone to come and calm me down; he couldn' t work like this. so my housemate held my hand and my other friend sat in the wheelchair next to the bed.

just as he was starting the rinsing process his phone rang but he'd already put on his gloves - so he asked my housemate to please take the phone out of his breast pocket for him. she did and asked whether she should answer it too? he put it on speaker and told the caller that he was in the middle of an intervention and would get back to him later.
the wound-washing commenced and at first I was lying down thinking that was a good idea; my foot kept twitching and it was overall an uncomfortable process. the doctor kept muttering 'drama queen' to me. and I kept cracking up laughing. once I decided to watch the operation closely I managed to hold still. once the skin was all softened and the wound clean he had to cut off the dead skin with a scalpel blade - he told me that I now had to hold still unless I wanted him to chop further into my toe. I managed to hold still. seems that I have to see what's going on to be able to hold out. he then scrubbed off the remainder of the dead skin and bandaged up the toe - done.

once I had been attended to he took me to the triage room and took my blood pressure and temperature and the second the triage nurse re-appeared he dropped the file into her lap, got up and said: hasta la vista!