A new oven, a trip to the market and a dinner party

As time goes by and life in Kigali is becoming normal; is turning into everyday life, the daily grind and routines become discernible in this jumble of events and experiences my love and enthusiasm for cooking is also growing stronger. We have a stove with two gas hobs which is fine for most meals; I mean, I usually don’t use more than two hobs at the same time even if I have four or more available. But what I’ve really been missing is an oven – most of you know how much I love to whack random things in a casserole dish, cover it with cheese and stick it in the oven for half an hour. Ok – to cut a long story short after weeks of contemplating spending 350 quid on a proper cooker with 4 hobs and an oven I discovered an oven for 100 pounds which had the perfect size and would be easily transportable if need be (i.e. if I ever move house or even country again ;-)) so the next day I went to the shop and bought it; as I was waiting at the till to pay the thing I discovered that it had two hobs on top as well! And it came with a spit which can be fitted into the roasting device – so I could even make roast chicken… bonus! So – I am now the proud owner of a portable kitchen – basically. Needless to say this makes me VERY happy.

Of course the new oven kind of meant that I wanted to use it and as I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather in the last week (post-paradise-blues?) I decided that cooking a meal for friends would be a good therapeutic measure (and a good excuse to show off a bit;-)) so I invited about 10 people for a dinner party on Friday night.

Friday is half day at the UN – bonus! – and so just gone one Christine and I headed out and got a moto taxi to Lalibela restaurant (Ethiopian food) to get some energy to tackle the market afterwards. The food was delicious and the market was closed. It was very strange; we got there and the gates were shut but there were loads of people inside the market still. After about 10 minutes we decided that we couldn’t be bothered to wait anymore and got another taxi to a different market. We bought two big – and I mean bigger than sainsbury’s bags for life – bags full of fruit and veg for about 8 quid; markets here are just amazing – and fun too! As we got out of the market we decided to get a car cab back as the bags were a bit big for moto taxis. We get into this guy’s car after negotiating a really good price – we’re getting really good at this! – some woman scrambled out of the front seat as we got in and the taxi driver quickly took another couple of drags on his friend’s ‘cigarette’ (I wonder) – they were obviously just having fun hanging out. Anyway – about 3 minutes into the drive the car starts spluttering and then the engine turns off. The driver is playing with the clutch whilst at the same time pumping the gas pedal; trying to get the engine to run again – as this doesn’t work he switches off the radio – doesn’t make any difference. Luckily we’re about to reach the crest of the hill after which it’s downhill – the car is moving along at the speed of a child walking; Christine and I are giggling the backseats and the driver just looks back with an embarrassed look, muttering ‘essence’. We get to the hill and start rolling down – at the bottom is a big crossroads with petrol stations; but they are on the other side of the crossing – we are wondering whether or not we are going to make it across without crashing. Christine adds: ‘at least there are enough people around to push us if necessary!’ – we make it to the petrol station and the guy fills up the tank and then does the pumping the gas and playing the clutch thing again; doesn’t work; turn off the radio and try again; to no avail. He gets out and opens the bonnet and starts fiddling with the engine. By that time the two muzungus in the battered corolla have attracted a guy with only one leg and an old lady without shoes who are trying to beg some money off us. We ignore them. After a while the driver gets back in and manages to inspire life into the engine – off we go again. We are worried though that he’s not going to make it up the hill into Kiyovu and to our house – but we do get there in the end, a couple of times it sounds as though the motor will die again, but the car manages to hold it together. As we get to the house the usual little game of – oh, I haven’t got enough change – but we are tough – it’s either you give us the change or the ride is free! They usually find money in their pockets after all… cheeky!

Back at home we start unpacking the purchases, sit down for a quick glass of water and then off to the supermarket to get the remaining items; mainly booze ;-)) Back home I started cooking dinner, not knowing if and how many of the people I’d invited would be coming. I didn’t hear from most of them until Friday evening about 6.30ish – seeing as most them are Spanish I knew they wouldn’t be turning up before an hour after I told them to – but at least I already knew this in advance and as I was making lasagne it didn’t matter because it has to be made last minute anyway.

Around nine the first people started arriving, by which time Christine and I had already had a few glasses of white wine with campari. We served the green pea falafel with pili pili sauce and were having aperitifs as more people started turning up. Once all guests had arrived I put the lasagne on and we all sat down for dinner. By the end of it we were all well on our way to being drunk – and it is therefore no surprise that the coffee which accompanied the chocolate cake was diluted with whisky. And it is also not surprising that the whole evening turned into debauchery after this. We all decided to go out dancing at around 2am – so we left the house for the planet club; which was closed. We tried somewhere else and that was closed too – as it is memorial week there were events taking place and partying obviously wasn’t on the cards. So we all went back to a friend’s house where the party continued until the early hours of the morning - another fun night in kigali!