Rwanda, Rwanda

The past few days have been a whirlwind. Our plane left Halifax at 11:35pm on Sunday night. Uneventful flight- pretty much on time, slightly belligerent drunk man next to us (thank goodness for free alcohol on international flights, hmm?), overall pretty okay other than the lack of sleep. Katie switched seats with me so I had the window to look out when we were flying into London. Got to Heathrow… and then took forever to get out! The original plan was that Claire and I would meet Amanda and Brittany (who are both in Botswana) at Piccadilly Circus… We hadn’t counted on the amount of time it would take us to change, store our extra bags, and get onto the Tube. We took the underground to Piccadilly Circus half-asleep, and by the time we got off, we were desperate for coffee. We picked the first street we thought we’d find a Starbucks on, and coffee in hand, we set off on our London adventure. We’d decided against a real tour and chose to walk around and look at things ourselves. We were mostly examining old buildings and interesting shop windows (I found a hat store- I found it difficult to believe that hats were still common enough for a shop all their own, but later that day I discovered that I was wrong). Found some statues, including a shockingly tall one that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be the Duke of York. In front of him was a park, to the left an interesting-looking building and the Eye of London peeking over it, and to the right, a gigantic gold statue in front of a building. Since we were thinking of going on the Eye, we went left to take some pictures and have a look around. We realized the park was St James Park, and decided to walk through to Buckingham Palace… Turns out, that big gold statue? Yeah… In front of the Palace. Claire and I are sharp. We had a look around the outside of the Palace and noticed an extraordinary number of older women in the most elaborate hats I’ve ever seen (therefore, a need for a hat shop). Very strange. We walked back through the park and through the first building we looked at, which was some kind of government building. From there, we saw Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, and then crossed the street to the Eye of London. The lines were horrific so instead, we ate waffles, watched the living statues and… rode a merry-go-round! It was very Mary Poppins and one of the best things we did in London, by far. We then went back across the Thames to have a final wandering, where we walked into the National Gallery’s square and then on to Piccadilly Circus, at which point we went back to Heathrow and had some delicious Indian food for supper. What a great day!

The flight to Nairobi was not as good as the first one. I was exhausted but could only sleep in short bouts, so I was quite worn out. Kenya Airways has flight tracker mini-tvs on all the seats… which was frustrating, because I just wanted it to go faster. It was neat to see us start to fly over Africa, though. We arrived in Nairobi around 6:30 am and then had to board our (delayed) flight to Kigali/Bujumbura soon after, so no chance to explore Nairobi’s wonders. We arrived in Kigali around 9 am… however, all of my luggage (and Katie’s, and one of Crystal’s) did not. What a frustrating experience that was! Luckily it got sorted out the next day when we went directly to the airport.

We got to our house and, well… The positives- it’s big, and reasonably clean. Three bedrooms, although I ended up with the smallest (and the smallest bed, which is not so comfy for someone who moves in her sleep!) and two bathrooms. Two bathrooms sounds great, hmm? But we’ve no running water. So it’s all bucket showers, pouring water down the toilet to flush it and hoping like hell that we’re keeping our hands as clean as possible. The apartment has a small living room with couches and chairs, and a tiny kitchen with a (non-working) sink and a hotplate. Needless to say, the next six months are going to be interesting. Claire has a separate house… I plan on potentially abusing our friendship by showering and baking at her house, ha. It’s not so bad though. I haven’t seen a single mosquito in the house, which is particularly nice as I haven’t yet found a mosquito net.

Work is also interesting. I started yesterday, but as with most new jobs, I haven’t really done anything yet. Dr Laurien, the executive director of ARBEF, gave me some reading material on reproductive health and on Rwanda and its history yesterday, as well as a small packet about my project. Looks like the project working with returnees is definitely a go-ahead- I’m so pleased about that! The project supervisor isn’t here at the moment though, so I’m not sure quite what I’ll be doing or when I’ll start. I’m sure work will start to pick up soon. The people I’ve met so far have been really nice, although language is definitely a barrier. Everyone speaks Kinyarwanda, Rwanda’s traditional and common language; the majority speak French as well, and only two (Dr Laurien and his secretary, Florence) speak English. Yesterday, I had a three-way conversation with Florence and a French-speaker named Mbanda: she and I spoke to each other in English; he and I spoke to each other in French, and they spoke to each other in Kinyarwanda! It was quite funny.

I’ve gone out the past two nights, and it’s been nice to get a bit of a feel for Kigali. Wednesday, David (a coworker of Crystal’s) and his cousin, Moses, took us out to dinner at a restaurant called La Nouvelle Planete. It was the first Rwandan meal I’d enjoyed, and it was delicious- grilled tilapia, roasted banana, fries, and a large, cold Primus. I even tried some pili pili, Rwanda’s chili sauce… which burns! After that, they took us out to the Sky Hotel, to see what I can only describe as dance karaoke. Unbelievable- and hilarious! Each dancer would perform two numbers, and some of them were phenomenal. “So You Think You Can Dance” should have try-outs in Rwanda. There was quite a range of music from hip hop and R&B to African (including Lucky Dube!) to reggae. Mostly though, it was just a funny and very memorable Rwanda experience. Last night, the four of us girls went together to Republika, which is essentially an expat hangout. I saw more whites last night than I’ve seen in the four days I’ve been in Rwanda… definitely Muzungu central! Good food though, and nice to be out with everyone having fun.

Before I sign-off, a note on the wonders of travelling around Kigali. There are motos, which are regulated motorcycle taxis… Haven’t done that yet. There are also private taxis just like at home, but the difference is that there are no meters and you bargain for your price! It’s actually kind of fun. Taxi drivers try to overcharge foreigners, sometimes quite badly, but we’ve managed to get pretty reasonable fares so far. And finally, there are public buses… Which I rode for the first time to get to work this morning. What an adventure that was! Firstly, I live in an area called Kagarama, which is in Kicukiro district about 20 minutes drive from downtown Kigali. I had to walk from our compound to the taxi stops about 10 minutes away. And then I had to wait, and hope. I asked one woman in French how to catch a bus downtown, and she told me what to look out for and where to stand. Sure enough, about 20 minutes (!!!) later, a bus driver pulled in and shouted “Centreville!” out his window. On I got… The only white person I’d seen on any of the buses. Some of the other passengers looked at me like I was mad, and I confirmed when I arrived (only slightly late and not much worse for wear) at the office that it is somewhat unusually for muzungus to take the buses. I don’t see why- it was cheap (170 Rwandan francs, which is like less than 50 cents Canadian), quick and they are picky about the number of people on board now, so it was quite comfortable and safe. I actually sort of liked the whole process!

ETA: I wrote this this morning when I had no internet. A wonderful man came and fixed it and made my day. A second wonderful man made my day (again) an hour ago when I went to Bourbon Coffee (Rwanda's Starbucks) and made me the most delicious cappuccino ever. Rwanda's okay.