at the beauty salon

now that I've been here just over a month, it was time to get the old facial hair situation sorted out again and I was very happy to discover that waxing was an option here too! so yesterday I had my first appointment at the beauty salon in the hotel de milles collines to get my eyebrows and upper lip sorted out (sorry if this is too much information - but in case you didn't know: the hairless woman is a myth!)
anyway - the place is in the lobby of the hotel and when I got there I was sent downstairs - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! a tiny spiral staircase, seemingly endless... I can definitely not put on any more weight if I want to continue getting my treatment there; that's how narrow the stairs are.
in brighton I was used to the 'no-mercy-vietnamese-place', i.e. in and out in 3 minutes - this took a bit longer, but was also more entertaining! once I'd made it down the stairs into the actual 'salon' I was shown into the 'treatment room' - a&e cubicle at royal sussex county hospital springs to mind. a small cupboard-type room with a hospital bed and a trolley full of ointments, pads and instruments; I was told to lie down (a novelty compared to the old office chair that kept rolling away). the woman put on a pair of magnifying glasses and ended looking as though she was about to start welding - scary! then she set to work - a meticulous procedure of waxing, plucking, trimming and brushing followed - at one point I got worried that she might have misunderstood me and was removing my eyebrows completely; luckily they are still there and looking very nice!

some traditions remain unbroken!

carlos, christine, tifas & mask

as it was easter sunday yesterday christine and I had organised an easter brunch which we then decided could also be a bit of a bbq and housewarming party. so we invited a few people, asked them to bring friends and family, pets, drinks and stuff for the grill.


we got up fairly early and started preparing the pasta and potato salads, got the cheese and salami ready and hardboiled the eggs for the traditional 'eier tütschen' (swiss easter-thing whereby everyone chooses and egg, then you knock it on top of the opponent's egg and the egg that doesn't break wins - easy). I have yet to spend easter without the egg-thing; some habits die hard! I even tried to colour them in with food colourants; but pink on brown shells does not seem to work! oh well - they were nice anyways.

the buffet

we had told people to come from 12pm onwards and as usual, nobody wants to be the first one to turn up... so by about quarter past one we decided we were starving and so we started to eat; it took about 5 minutes for people to turn up; and how nice to be greeted by someone chewing their food!


in the end about 20 people turned up and as a true collective group effort we eventually managed to get the bbq burning (with a little help from plastic bags and kerosene... ;-)) once it was going though it was great. nicky had made some truly delicious burgers and we had bought meat to make brochettes - they were really nice! so on we went through the afternoon, chatting away, drinking beer and wine, eating and just generally enjoying ourselves despite the appalling weather (it started raining at around 10pm the previous night and did not really stop until everyone had left our 'garden party' at around 6pm) - proper english rain... mmh - I'd hoped to have left those grey and desolate days behind for good... but then again, it is rainy season!

at 7pm we all went to the serena hotel to the opening night of the rwanda film festival, the kigali part. it's the 4th year this is running and they take an inflatable screen into the hills - hence the name 'hillywood' - and show films to communities, followed by discussions - a really cool idea! this week there will be films shown in different locations in kigali. the films come from young rwandan film makers but also international film makers - but it's all very independent (except for films like 'shakes hands with the devil' which is being shown for obvious reasons) and small scale; but still very exciting. towards 11pm my heels were killing me and we were tired after a long day of lots of excitement, so we walked home - me barefoot with my ban-ki moon shoes in hand...

two girls and a bag of charcoal...

after the memorial we had to go and do our shopping for the easter brunch/bbq/housewarming - so off to the market we went. first we went to the nyabugongo market (as described in the travel guide) - a bus 'terminal' (i.e. a big dusty field with hundreds of little white mini-vans) and people selling random things. there was one guy who was walking arount trying to sell one tie; that's all he had, one tie - I'll never get it. then there were stalls selling mainly travel equipment, such as suitcases, bags, shoes, t-shirts, mobile phones and music - loud music blaring out of speakers; the bass way too strong for the capacity of the speakers... and everywhere people bustling around, arriving departing; taxis honking their horns and negotiating prices. we walked across the street to the shop-building (a multi-storey building with loads of little shops in it) to find out where the food market was and promplty hit the language barrier; but we managed to find someone who told us the name of the market and the moto-taxi drivers understand names of places and can say the price in french - all you need! so we arrived at the market in the end where we did all our shopping for about 7 quid... amazing! never going to buy fresh produce in the supermarket again! it was fun bargaining with the people and I know for sure that they ripped us off; but to buy a kilo of potatoes for 10p really isn't too bad!
the last thing we bought on the market were the eggs; the woman wanted to sell them for 90 francs a piece but I knew that they were not supposed to cost more than about 80 francs (at least that's what they'd cost in town the last time); so the guy next to the lady sold us 30 eggs for 80 francs a piece without flinching; they were the big brown eggs too, so we thought we'd got a good deal. when we got home and cracked them open we found that the egg yolks were extremely pale and in one case even almost white - so maybe they're eggs from sick chickens, who knows? they tasted fine though ;-))

once we'd managed to buy all the groceries we only had the meat and the charcoal left to buy. so we went down to the german butchery to get the meat for the bbq and to try and find out about where we could buy charcoal. eventually this guy told us that if we walked past the sky hotel along the road that leads into nyamirambo there was a lady on the right hand side who sold charcoal. so off we traipsed with our shopping in search of the charcoal lady; we found her. of course there was the language barrier again but with pointing and gesticulating and smiling I got her to sell me what I wanted; she started filling up the bag whilst christine was standing near the road and me observing the lady - in turn being stared and sniggered at by a bunch of locals; again, we were massively ripped off (but how do you know?) and when we left she said something along the lines of, 100 francs for transport (up the little slope to the street) I just laughed; then she said something in kinyarwanda to the guy carrying the bag and I went - quoi? - and they all started laughing heartily - I will never know what that was all about, but it doesn't matter. then we were faced with the challenge of getting home with all the charcoal - I know: moto-taxi! no problem - christine on one with the meat and the toilet paper swinging in the wind; me on the other one with a bag of charcoal between myself and the driver. the amazing thing is, I was wearing a white t-shirt and managed to not stain it - beat that!

being tourists (as opposed to working tourists)

on thursday night we went out for farewell drinks for lindsey and I must say, there is not much of a difference between farewell drinks here and farewell drinks in brighton - except maybe the price. we had a good time and eventually left the bar at about 3am well hammered and all. luckily we now have guards at our gate who open the door for you so you don't have to fiddle with the key in the dark, etc. we also made it down the suicide ramp fine and passed out shortly after. nice lie in on friday morning - oh what bliss! after cups of tea on the terrace we unanimously decided to spend the day at the pool in the novotel - it was hot and sunny and we were tired from the night before. so off we went, got to the pool and had just settled in the deckchairs when it starts raining... mmh - never mind; let's go to the restaurant and have some iced tea and food whilst we wait for the rain to stop. it took its time, so we had coffee as well. but eventually the sun came back out and now we were in pole position to get the best spots at the pool - and we did. it was perfect - I am even getting close to having a tan line (and that after 2 days of sunbathing only - bye bye english legs!!) after the pool we went home and cooked ourselves a nice dinner and then settled down to watch films with cups of rooibos chai tea (thanks Ann - it's amazing!) and the remainder of booja booja (thanks Caro - needless to say they were out of this world!) - well, what can you want more than to spend your night snuggled up with tea and chocolate on the sofa watching shrek 2 laughing your head off with a good friend?

after a really good night's sleep we woke up the next day all fresh and full of beans - and we had the most productive day in kigali so far! after breakfast we set off to the genocide memorial. it is really well made and explains the history of rwanda before, during and after the genocide really well; powerful pictures and videos but it is not an intimidating place and you also don't walk out with a depression afterwards. the nice thing about it is that it's a memorial site where people have been buried and there is a room where people have hung up photos of their loved ones they lost, so it's a dynamic and personal place; not just a museum. In the upstairs bit there is also a whole section on other genocides of this world; I think it's really 'nice' to remind people that rwanda was not the only human catastrophe and that one would have hoped that they can serve as examples and reminders to never let something like this happen again. there was a saying in the museum which read something like: "when we said 'never again' did this apply only to some people and not others?" - good question! definitely going back to have a look at that upstairs section - we were too tired on saturday to take any more in.

of kerosene and cold showers...

well, life in kigali remains interesting and full of surprises - on saturday night, around sunset (how timely) the lights went out. we were sat on the terrace thinking, shoot - have we run out of electricity? when we went to check the meter it was completely off - so we didn't run out of credit; it was our first power cut. we took it easy - after all we live on the same road as the prime minister - power was bound to be reinstated as soon as possible. it is now tuesday and it's still not back... there must be a real problem!

just as well that we had bought kerosene lamps and a gallon of fuel - it came in handy these days! it was quite fun on saturday - you know, the sort of thing that doesn't happen every day and as we went out for dinner and then went straight to bed afterwards it didnt' really matter that there was no light. the next morning still no power - but who cares, we cook on gas and the sun was shining. we spent all afternoon at the pool of the novotel, soaking up the sun and working on the tan. what more can a woman want than to lie in a deckchair with the sun shining in her face, a cold beer in hand and fit blokes parading up and down the lawn... could it get any better? well - it could get worse - still no power at home but in need of a shower after the pool... mmmh - not the most fun thing in the world - but at least I don't have long hair! then another dinner at the restaurant because cooking in the dark just isn't fun and again straight to bed after dinner.
by the time we got home last night and there was still no power I started getting a bit fed up with it all - to add to it the wick in one of the lamps was finished so we were down to one lamp now... great! we couldn't be bothered to have yet another meal at the restaurant, so we went on to cooking in the glare of the flame - it was not too bad actually.

getting up this morning was extra hard for some reason - maybe because I knew I could not put off having a shower - and what could be more exciting than a cold shower on a sleepy body... ? I sincerely hope that we will have our power back tonight! at the same time it helps to realise that we cannot take these things for granted and that some people live like this (and worse) all the time - so really I shouldn't moan - at least I still have running water!

oh what - life is not perfect?

exactly 3 weeks ago today I arrived in kigali - and it feels like so much longer... my time in brighton seems so far away already and the 3 weeks in germany almost as though they'd never happened...


slowly, things are panning out here and I'm getting into a routine; not least because I've found a house which I love and which I share with an awesome flatmate. and seriously - how could you not get used to drinking your tea on the terrace when this sight greets you first thing?

but because not everything can be perfect, I have to accept the little disappointments along the way. for instance this morning I was told by the guy in charge of security at the UN that this house does not meet the standards... bugger! I told him there was no way I was moving - what do I have to do to be able to get clearance? I need to convince the landlord to build a wall around the back and put razor wire on it; then it will be fine. after all we do live 3 doors down from the prime minister - you can't find a safer area in kigali than this. so - when we meet the landlord this weekend, we'll have to convince him that he wants to build a wall round the house without putting the rent up - I might chip in a proper cooker seeing as we're cooking on a camping stove for now and that really isn't good enough for me!


oh well - I am not going to complain, the situation is solvable and there had to be a catch somewhere after all! life is still good - I'm still amongst the luckiest people on this planet and the smile is still all over the face - and seriously - if this is going to be my biggest problem, I don't have a problem at all!

two girls and a gallon of kerosene

the fun never stops in my life! with my new and wonderful home came a new flatmate and friend - and now we're playing house - it's so much fun! part of me is a bit gutted that I did actually have loads of things that could have been really useful for the new home - at the same time it's cool to get to buy it all over again - half the fun is choosing your things.
because our favourite spot in the entire house is actually outside we bought a couple of kerosene lamps when we went to T2000 - a chinese sells-everything shop where we got blankets (the nights in kigali can be quite chilly) and a kettle (tea in this country ROCKS). so we spent all afternoon anticipating the evening on the terrace with the new lamps and how good they would look - we only needed the kerosene.
so off we went to the petrol station after work - we needed to get cash power (electricity) anyway and that is purchased at the petrol station. we enquired about kerosene - and got a blank look (they call it petrol here and actual petrol is essence - took a good hour to figure that one out) - so we just pulled our lamps out of the bag and pointed - big smiles (and a look of - do they think we sell the stuff by the decilitre?) but no - no kerosene here - you have to go to the other neighbourhood. off we trudged down the road to the next petrol station where a lovely young lad looked at us and went, can I help you? yes - do you have kerosene - again; what do you want? pull out the lamps - and his face broke into a smile: 'don't you have electricity where you live?!' as a matter of fact at that precise point in time we didn't but we explained about the garden and the romanticism in the petrol lamps - he didn't stop smiling but sort of semi-understood (I think) - but didn't sell kerosene - so we went to the bigger petrol station across the road where there was a kerosene pump. so we enquired with the dude who sat next to the pump - he didn't speak a word of french or english and generally looked like he'd inhaled slightly too much of the fumes... not sure what his job was - probably guarding the pump. they were also selling big yellow canisters of stuff and we asked whether this was kerosene - the guy just went, no, no, this is petrol - so we waited for the other guy who could help us - he eventually turned up and explained that petrol was kerosene and that the 1 gallon container was the smallest they had unless we had our own container which we didn't. so we ended up buying something like 20 litres of kerosene because we absolutely could not wait another day to light our lovely lamps... and now we have kerosene to last us for the entire 2 years I think!

this morning I was telling my colleague and she started laughing - hahaha - 2 muzungus buying kerosene, how funny is that! - turns out kerosene is for rural people - here it's electricity and for the event of a power cut you have rechargeable lamps - not very romantic - but I guess a symbol of progress and prosperity. I'm sure this was not the last time we did something that will seem bizarre to the rwandans - and I'm happy to provide a good story for the dinner table!

nightlife in kigali - hasta la victoria siempre

el che luminoso... hasta la victoria siempre!

I thought that discos with carpeted floors, mirrors on every wall and 7 disco balls had died out since the eighties went out of fashion - not in kigali! one of the most infamous clubs is the cadillac and that is where we went after the Republika Lounge on saturday.


but I will start at the republika lounge because that was also a comedy experience... it's a lounge and it's all done up nicely, with typically african furniture on the first floor of a building overlooking the city - marvellous location and very tastefully furbished. in europe you would have some trendy lounge music in the background - cafe del mar or something of that sort. well, we are not in europe - so it was the gipsy kings... it must have been their best of - over and over and over again... volare, oh oh, cantare, oh oh oh oh...


the service is also quite impressive (rwanda is trying to reorient its economy towards service provision - there's a way to go still if the restaurants are anything to go by ;-)) we sat down and the server came over - what would you like? - could we see the menu please, we're undecided - no problem - I chose to drink a campari with orange (a challenge for bartenders in england, mind) and my friend ordered ricard (that french stuff that goes white when you mix it with water) . so the girl gave me a strange look when I ordered the campari and had to go round to the bar to ask whether it was possible - not with orange juice, but passion fruit goes well with it too. now, the ricard was the challenge of the century for the poor girl - we had to tell her about 4 times, then point it out on the menu 3 times, and she still needed to re-confirm with the bartender - to top it all off she went - do you want water with it? dooh - of course... it is funny how it also does not seem to register that if there are seven people sat around a table and one person orders another drink, chances are that someone else might want something too... well - I just tend to smile and think - I don't really care, I'm not in a rush and I have not been here long enough to get all wound up about it - I'm not expecting people to be like europeans, because they're not.


anyway - after the republika (which was fairly empty and after the gipsy kings started playing norah jones, which just makes you want to go to sleep) we moved on to the cadillac - kigali's infamous night club - a trip into the obscure past in many ways. everything - and I mean everything - was glow in the dark: from the letters above the entrance to the stamp you get to be let in to the writing on the carpets to the paintings on the wall... you walk in there and the music hits you - mainly gangsta rap and LOTS of shaggy - it's all about the grinding at the cadillac! the club has a dance floor in the middle, the dj is in a little gallery above it - there's uv-lights surrounding the window out of which the dj can see the crowd. on the dancefloor there's hundreds of sweaty people grinding themselves up against each other and unless you can deal with it you shouldn't go anywhere near the club... they are persistent and will try and try and try - no I want to dance on my own is not a concept that is being understood here. even when you've found someone you want to dance with and that person goes to the bar for two minutes the vultures turn up - not just the once - EVERY time you are left on your own for more than 3 seconds (the time it takes to close in on you, basically) - but we had fun.

the dancefloor with the dj-gallery

the smoking area in the cadillac is in the basement area which is also where the table footie and the 3 pool tables are - it's like walking into mafia territory - dingy, smoky and the prostitutes are even more offensive there than they are on the dancefloor. it's amusing and sad at the same time - and above everything there is a luminous painting of the che - you couldn't be more kitsch if you tried!

out of africa but without robert redford washing your hair

I can't believe how lucky I am - I must have an army of lucky stars shining on me at the moment... I have been here 2 weeks and I already feel very at home and although I have been wishing for the beach at one point this weekend, I have not been homesick at all - in fact, my life is better than it's ever been - and if I could have my beloved friends closer by it would be perfect.



the lounge...

but anyway - the most important point is that I have found a home, and what a home it is! but maybe I can just start at the beginning: on friday I spoke to my colleague again who had told me that there was a spare room in her house to arrange for a viewing; we went that very afternoon. The house is located 3 doors down from the prime minister's residence and when you open the gate the first thing you see is a driveway sloping down at a 40% angle - it's covered in moss and trees hang over it and somewhere at the bottom you can see a house nestled in the lushness of the surrounding vegetation. The house itself is a typical rwandan house - one storey - spacious. opposite the entrance is the kitchen (we will need to invest into a proper cooker with an oven - I am already missing baking things...) to your right you come into the dining area. to the left of the dining area is one bedroom - it's massive and I think we have pretty much decided that we will keep it as our internet/telly/guest room as the rent is so cheap we don't actually need a third person - and I personally am ready to live in a little bit of luxury which includes being able to carefully choose who I live with and I don't think my current flatmate can be topped... the dining area is separated by a low wall-thing from the living area. beyond the living area are the sleeping quarters - separated by a door from the rest of the house. two rooms, one on each side with a bathroom in the middle. but the best thing about the house is the terrace - double doors open from the lounge outwards to the terrace which overlooks the wild and untamed garden; host to 2 avocado trees, various other trees, bushes, shrubs and flowers and countless hawks, weird black birds with saber-style beaks and even an owl! we have been contemplating getting a couple of gorillas to guard the property - would compliment the already abundant wildlife quite nicely.



I think gorillas would like it here


so, after I moved in I settled down with my new flatemate, with whom I clicked instantly and we spent the best part of our weekend sitting on the terrace and drinking either tea, coffee or beer and chatting away - we even played backgammon and I have a feeling this might become a regular ocurrence. even after 2 days of constant talking we have not run out of stuff to discuss - jackpot! so last night as we were sitting on the terrace by candle light enjoying the local brew she went: this is like out of africa but without robert redford washing your hair - couldn't be better!



sunday evening bliss...

you think you know what rain is because you're british?

well, having spent a significant amount of time in England I thought I had seen pretty much every facet of rain there is - I was wrong! it is the rainy season and so far this has meant short but intense showers for 15-30 minutes and then sunshine again. for the last couple of hours it has been raining sheets - absolute sheets - the world is grey but still lush and in fact the rain makes the colours of the trees and flowers even more vibrant than they already are.

and of course when the rain comes down like this, everything else comes to a standstill. normally it's the tea break at 10am and we all walk the 50 yards across the yard to the coffee room but in this weather this would equal a 20 minute shower. I was kind of looking forward to that break - even if it's only an excuse to leave my desk for 10 minutes (the 'coffee' (crap nescafe with nido full cream powder milk) is not worth the bother; having said that I am starting to get used to it already - oh dear!) - anyway, even I'm not that cool and have opted to stay at my desk and muck about on facebook instead when the door opens and the cleaning lady comes in with a mug and some coffee granules - 'I'm just getting some water' she says - ace! I feel like a right princess - being served coffee at my desk due to adverse weather conditions - beat that!
in fact it's the same lady who came round last week with a tray full of swiss chocolates, lighting up everyone's afternoon - call me a snob - but I could get used to this!

whatever happened to chip and pin?

it's my second week in kigali and today I had to go and get money on my visa card. now, being swiss (banking heaven ;-)) and moving to england was a challenge in terms of banking - I had, until my 25th year, never owned a cheque book and received exactly 3 cheques in my entire life - in england you could buy chewing gum with cheques - weird! but england moved on from when I first got there and not too long ago introduced the revolutionary principle of chip and pin (again, I had never before had to sign when paying by card - chip and pin all the way ;-)) - well, now I could buy rizla with my card. well, here it's all cash, baby! there are a couple of atm's around but they don't work with foreign cards it appears - so anyway, back to my point: I needed money. so you go to the bank where there's a counter specifically for withdrawals on visa cards. you show your card and your passport - they enter your name and card number into a system - you sign about 3 pieces of paper - one of which is a cheque to yourself ;-)) with that cheque you then go to the tills in the front of the bank where it takes another 10 minutes to process the cheque and hand over the money. and guess what - the highest note I've seen is a fiver... 200 quid in five pound notes - makes me feel like I have a LOT of money (which I do for local standards) - apparently the write-a-cheque-to-yourself-system also applies for withdrawals from your personal account at the local bank here - strange.

On a similar note, shopping in the supermarket is also quite an experience: the actual getting your stuff is not that different from what we know, other than that apparently you never quite know what you're going to get as it depends on what containers have made it through with what merchandise. but the tilling system is well old school: they write it down on little receipt blocks with coal paper to make carbon copies; then you take both copies to a separate till where you physically pay; if you buy a lot you get more than one receipt and the lady at the money till has to add the two (or more) receipts up with the calculator - but you know what - it works!