Day 2 at CPF Ineza Now that the first mission and holiday is over, my body has slipped back into its natural routine. CPF Ineza, the microfinance agency I am now working for has its opening’s hours from 7AM to 8PM. I thought that we worked hard at microStart. I guess I was wrong. We work long hours but not 6 on 7 like that! That meant that I have to wake up for work super early again! Pshhttt… The weather is quite cold and I am not prepared for it. Gitarama is cold. Last night I slept in a sleeping bag underneath the comforter with an extra blanket. I was freezing and the hotel doesn’t have heaters. I never thought that it could get so cold in Rwanda, while not being on a mountain. I have a severe cold, hopefully I am not getting the flu. I would be upset if I return home with the flu from Africa. I am staying in a nice hotel in Gitarama. I told Cyrille from Exchange that I wasn’t going to stay in some priest, sister or silly guesthouse again. Those two weeks in Gisenyi with the priest was more than enough. A little comfort is needed while being sick. Cyrille brought me to the Splendid, another consultant had stayed here before. Splendid it is. Yesterday, I covered with the manager of CPF Ineza the status quo of the microfinance agency. Although, waking up sick I was on a mission to complete a business plan in 2 day. When I arrived at work, I was ready to attack but I was dragged into the back room. Every morning starts with a prayer. I thought oh nooo… now I am going to lose another hour of my day. The prayer started with nice songs in Kinyarwanda. After that I was warmly welcomed by all the staff and a passage from the Bible was read out loud. Everyone then could ask God what they wanted for the day. When it was my turn, I said I needed a divine intervention on this business plan. Blessings were coming my way and more prayers. I should have taken the bottle of Holy Water to sprinkle the office. I told the bookkeeper that I had sprinkled my laptop with Holy water so whatever business plan I was going to write, it would be divine. They prayed for their manager, who had traveled to Kigali this morning for a training with Amir. They prayed for each other. I wonder if Ankelien and Pieter would pray for me as their manager in the morning and then I would bless them. Food for thought for a new morning routine. Hehe…. They also prayed for the European refugee crisis. They prayed for Europe. This was strange. I wonder they said that because I was there. I thought to myself instead of praying for Europe, you need to pray for the refugees. Vous êtes une religieuse Madame. Oui Oui I say fast. Then the questions come are you married, children, divorce oh no; c'est horrible! The entire month has been about me needing to get married and multiply. My mother had also been breaking my head about me living in sin. Unmarried, no that’s not what we do. Obey your husband is the message I keep getting everywhere. The bookkeeper told me he made a prayer so that I will marry upon my return in Belgium. Seriously, I have a job to do here. With lots of concentration, I start 40 minutes later on the business plan. My mission was to finish the written part before lunch. Pierre, the bookkeeper brought me African tea (ginger tea with milk) with cookies. I brought my own blanket at work as I was afraid to be cold. I had wrapped myself in the blanket and hunched over my laptop. The African tea felt good. I have gotten used to the taste and now I can drink this strange combination all the time. Pierre keeps asking me to pause. I get fed up, Numerien used to ask me that too. Off course I want to pause but you have given me so much work that I can’t pause ! Finally, the literature part of the business plan is completed. Pierre wants to go to lunch with me. I got nauseas when he said that. Yesterday, we had lunch in the Parish slash mall slash supermarket slash rooms slash conference center slash restaurant owned by another pastor. The buffet existed out of two types of potatoes, bananas, manioc, two types of rice and two types of pasta. Carbs, carbs and carbs again. I shoved 1 type of pasta, 1 type of rice and 1 type of potato down my throat. Oh and I get a boiled egg on top. The food was beyond bland and I decided to drip chilli oil over it to hide the taste. No, no Francine wasn’t going back to the pastor super center slash everything. I told Pierre, I needed to return to the hotel to get my medicine. He said no problem I will wait for you in the restaurant. Aghhh, he didn’t get the point. Ok let me try this again. I am too sick to eat so I can’t join for lunch. Finally, he got the point. I went to the hotel for lunch, hehe. However, it was rather disappointing I found again potatoes, spaghetti and rice but they had bouillon soup. Three plates of bouillon soup for lunch then. I head back to the office to kill this plan. Pierre hadn’t made it back. Gitarama isn’t really a happening town. Very boring. I could never stay here more than 3 days. If there is ever a 2 week mission in Gitarama, I will have to politely decline. After some time, Pierre walks in and sees me number crunching. We are now on the financial part of the plan. He gave me a little help but I expected much more. Jean de adieu and I had worked so hard together on the financial plan of the Union. This time I was on my own. I had to create context from numbers and papers but with divine intervention everything would turn out alright. Pierre told me if you believe, everything is possible. So let’s see about this. It’s getting very dark outside and I am still number crunching. The Microfinance agency is full of people. Everyone comes late in the night. On one of the doors in the office, I notice a sign VIP. VIP in a Microfinance office ? Really? The smallest loan is 10000 Rwandan Francs about 12 Euro. So I am guessing VIP customers are 50 euro?! Not sure. The Microfinance agency runs different than microStart. They want profits; I don’t like that. I don’t agree with making profits on the poor. Interest rates are accordingly in the country and in CPF Ineza they vary between 18 and 24 % annually. What’s good about this cooperative is that they also provide microsavings as of 500 Rwandan Francs, 7.5 euro. Their products are according to sector. This is a tip, I am taking home to microStart and the interest rates are negotiable. Finally, the plan is finished. I have arrived. My neck is broken and I haven’t drank a sip of water. That is how focused I was. Upstairs from the office, there is a Church. The entire building was shaking but that didn’t bother me at all. I was on a mission. I gave Pierre, the flash drive and he began to print it out. I said I am leaving immediately. He got sad. I first had to sit down in the living room. Ohhhh nooo… I just want to get a hot shower. He started by telling me how fantastic, smart, great…. Etc I was. I was very thankful and flattered but my mission was to leave asap. We took a selfie and left. I snapped another picture of the calendar that was on the wall. A calendar of the board of directors of the Microfinance agency CPF Ineza. Another one I need to take to microStart. Lol It is too late to drive to Kigali so another night in the Splenid it is. I saw a cooperative of pottery around here so before I leave in the morning, I will pass by there. Maybe I can find something cute for the house ? I have given almost all my clothes away so there is space in my bag again. Let me rest because tomorrow afternoon is a full of meetings in Kigali. Night night