Murphy's Law Dictates...

...That whatever can go wrong, will.

Such was Friday night, after I went to see a late movie with a friend. Driving home on Constitution Avenue, getting onto the ramp to the Roosevelt Bridge, a drunk driver swerved in front of me, jumped the curb and rolled his car down the hill next to the road. I put my flashers on and called 911. (911, for the record, is absolutely ridiculous. It took me 5 minutes to get through to the local police. Five minutes is a long time to wait if you're in an emergency!)

As I was talking, the drunk driver, whose car had been righted, actually tried to drive away, going the wrong way down the ramp. But his car got stuck in the mud (it was POURING). Then I noticed the cars coming up the ramp, and a car smashed into me.

The guy who hit me had also been drinking.

So--I saw my first drunk driver, saw my first accident, and had my first accident on Friday night. I didn't get home until 5 am (I was talking to police for 3 hours) and the damage is appraised at $6,000. But I'm okay, no physical injuries. It's just one more thing that I have to take care of before I go. Fantastic.

On another note, I talked to a girl who interned at UNHCR-Rwanda for the past several months. She just came home to Canada. I only had a short initial conversation with her, but I'll be talking to her again. She said that the staff at my office are really nice and fun to work with, but that the Rwandans, as compared to other East Africans, are more reserved and hard to get to know. That's what I've heard before. She also complained that the children, who are quite well off compared to other neighboring countries, have a begging mentality--"they see your white legs and come to you for money," was her direct quote. It sounds a bit like Afghanistan in that regard-- there's a lot of aid money and people are starting to expect some handouts--but incomparable in the sense that Afghans are much poorer than Rwandans.

She was only in Kigali, though, so I'm interested to see whether it's the same up north, where there is presumably less aid money coming through.