Shelagh (pronounced Sheila) and I went down to the lunch together. I'd been visiting her office about something or other ("sleuth work" I call it) when the firm-wide announcement went out. I wish you could know Shelagh. She's shrewd but trustworthy. She's intelligent but in a very kind way; confident without being conceited; driven without being consumed. She's witty, both in the expat way and the Rwandan way. (Rwandan humor is different than America's. It employs logic and language twist, which I sometimes think more clever than the standard U.S. fair.) She's got a personality with depth, a sensitive heart and a little bit of edge - enough to make her spicy. Most of all, she's pretty. Her features are nicely proportioned and placed. Her skin is smooth and black. Though, what really animates all of her is a beautiful spirit and a secret joy (she's a newly expectant mother and she's got that special spark some of them have). Shelagh. She's someone I never want to loose contact with.

So, we grabbed lunch together. Today's specialty was rice and stone. It looked lovely, for traditional Rwandan food, which I admit isn't generally presented in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Particularly Rwandan buffet food. I enjoyed the rice up to the point were I discovered stone. That happened when I realized a tiny corner of one of my bottom front teeth was missing. I have excellent, strong teeth. No cavities. No need for braces. I and my dentist have always been proud of my teeth. Well. I guess, it was time for me to be taken down a peg or two. Archie's dentist, from the UK, had given him an emergency dental kit. He brought it back to the office. We opened the package and read the instructions. They actually had step-by-step instructions to fill a chipped tooth. Still, I was a tad nervous. This tooth was right up front - one of the teeth we use to tear our food. I made the second international phone call of my trip to contact my dentist, Dr. Love. She calmed me a little bit. Leave it, she said. (She didn't trust the "Dentanurse" package from the UK.) It should be fine and become less sharp over the next few days. They could either fill or whittle it down when I get back to the States in a month and a half.