Hi, I am Baptiste

“Hi, I am Baptiste. I cook and do house cleaning for ther Australian ‘ Muzungo’... “
... No I am not really, but let’s pretend I am, just for this blog entry...
Let me tell you a few things about myself. I am not a local; around here. I come from a little village near Cyangugu, on Lake Kivu - about 4 -5 hours from here. I live next to the Democratic Republic of Congo. I speak fluent Swahili and Kinyarwanda, but I don’t speak French or English. That’s because I left school in year four. I have recently completed a 4 year cooking course run by some Americans. I come from a very nice family (I have three brothers and one sister).Unlike here, there is electricity in my house. Back home I have my own motorbike (which is a very rare thing around here). One of my brother is a carpenter and my younger brother is going to join him soon to learn to be a welder. My sister is married and has 2 children. My mother grows vegetables and look after our chickens. My father has been out of the picture for a while. The reason why I got this cooking and housekeepig job at the cottage for 3 months is because my mum is Sister Adeline’s sister (I know, that sounds funny). Sister Adeline works a nurse at the health centre in Muganza (where sister Josephine also works). It is very quiet around here for me. There is not much to do besides cooking and making sure the house is clean. I try to keep José happy, but is not always easy for me to understand him, and it is not only a language issue. Thank god I have the neighbours to talk to once in a while; especially Mado who often comes and helps me when I am cooking. At least, she speaks my language ( I wish the whole world spoke Kinyarwanda). She is about my age and we get along well.
I try to keep José happy all the time. I watch him closely so I can anticipate what he needs, but sometimes, he does not let me help him the way I want to help him. For instance the other day, he wanted to make his own flask of tea. What’s wrong with my way of making tea??? He is also funny about his way of insisting about putting water purifying pills in the water I use for cooking. He is fanatical about it. He puts the pill in my hand and makes sure that I put it in the water can he specifically bought for cooking water. I have never used water purifying pills in my life and I am still alive!!! These Europeans are paranoid... And then in the morning at 5:45 he stands on a blue mat and does some strange contortions for about one hour, the other day, I even saw him stand on his head.. Perhaps that’s because he comes from Australia...