Did someone say TICK??!

What a weekend. Never let it be said that I am not an out and out attraction for well....how do I say this nicely without offending myself....DISASTER. There, I am a disaster magnet.
I blame my thirteenth birthday and the wish I made while hunkered over the fruitcake my father always baked around this time. And no, the fruitcake was NOT an indication of what he thought of my state of mind. My birthday is four days before Christmas..fruitcake is appropriate.
Concentrating while blowing out the candles, I wished for a life less ordinary. How was I to know anyone was listening?
I often wonder whether these self-help guru's are right and we make things happen, pull them towards us by focusing on them consciously or sub-consciously. But since making that wish, my life has been ANYTHING but ordinary.
The next year after THAT birthday,  the last bout of the struggle against apartheid began. My high school life because of my belief in that struggle, was thrown into a turmoil that never subsided.
After high school, I chose journalism as a career and heaven knows two days have never been the same since then. I have traveled, been shot at, arrested, spat at, stabbed,hit on, mugged, loved, married, pregnant,lost babies, lost a father, lost other family, lost friends, been operated on - 4 times, nearly died, been dead- brought back, moved countless times.(the most recent being this move to Rwanda, central Africa)..and hard as some of these things have been....I wouldn't change a thing.
Not that life is done with me. Far from it.
Take this morning. This morning is the culmination of a particularly eventful weekend -- quite the bite festival.
 I woke up with a giant blob on my forehead. Somehow that blasted mosquito had dug her way (only a woman is THAT determined)  through the netting and bitten me on my forehead. Thank God Rwandan mosquitoes don't carry malaria. If they did, I would be MALARIA by now...LADY MALARIA.
Turns out our altitude discourages the nasty ones from visiting.
I must have particularly tasty blood, the mosquito equivalent of catnip the way they fight over me. I swear I can hear them brawling at night "my turn...no...my turn...!!"
My Puppy has tickfever...brought about by a tick biting him. A tick from a COW. Yes people, my darling Puppy escapes the confines of my fenced-in home and races to play with ......cows. In case you're wondering...the cows graze on the maize stubble in the maize smallholding across the road. Kigali is an urban farming site.
The vet came out on his little scooter to give him shots.....now he HATES the vet and for a while was extremely annoyed with me. To prove it...he pooped on the lounge floor - looking at me...the minute he felt better. That dog has cat genes...I KNOW it. Tried to trip me on the stairs this morning as well.
Also this weekend...my jeep had a flat tyre. You could run a tractor on those tyres. They're HUGE.
The jack was missing a pin. So a drama that lasted most of Sunday ensued....involving my husband in Korea, his family, my house staff, the neighbours, other interested onlookers...and successfully the garage down the hill.
Life, fate or whatever...not was not satisfied with that - oh no. Yesterday....I get to work to find .....NOBODY. Not speaking Kinyarwandan..I missed the announcement that yesterday was yet another voting day. I pitched up at work and it looked as though I had survived a nuclear holocaust. The streets were empty...the office deserted.
It was all bad though...I got a free day to recover.

Now tell me, why would I live anywhere else...at least for now? If I could JUST stop scratching my forehead...eeeeeek!

Bisous...
Sam