March Stuff

Apparently, when we took the bus up to Gisenyi to start our Idjwi trip, we were very lucky. Jo's friend was driving up about an hour behind us and got stuck for ages after a lorry overturned. I'm not sure if she actually made it in the end or had to turn back.

In other driving news, my dad sent me a picture of my car, Kitty, under a foot of snow. Apparently the UK has been devoured by the Beast from the East as it's been dubbed, and set for further snow this weekend. If you'd like to read more, check out my dad's blog.

Quite a contrast. It's the rainy season here and we've been experiencing some incredible thunder storms. It's usually sunny until about three or four in the afternoon, then the sky turns black and the rain comes down in torrents. Sixteen people were killed when lightning struck a church recently.

Kagame has just closed 700 churches across the country. Some reports say it's for failing to abide by safety regulations, others say it's for pressuring poor congregations to hand over large donations. I saw this in the newspaper in my accountant's waiting room the other day.

I have to admit, it made me smile. There was another cartoon inside with a pastor telling  his congregation: "Don't worry. The government have closed down the churches, but they haven't shut down mobile money, so you can still send us your donations."

This was swiftly followed by a ban on mosques using loudspeakers. Certain areas of town, like Nyamirambo, have quite a few mosques, and when the first call to prayer starts around 5 a.m. you really understand why it's a popular move.

I just desperately wish the government would take similar steps with bars and nightclubs. There's one across the valley from us that starts around midnight or 1 a.m. and goes on until three, four, sometimes five in the morning on a Friday and Saturday. We've spoken to the police but they haven't done anything. I'm taking it to the head of umudugadu later this week to try to get her support. It really seems like there's a disparity between noise pollution from religious organisations, which is dealt with swiftly, and noise pollution from bars. It took us four months to get anything done about a bar that opened in a residential house next door, and even they held an event last week without a license.

Anyway. Other goings on at the moment...

Went to Jo's birthday and ate lots of pizza.

Went to Harris's apartment above CasaKeza for handmade pasta rolled by our friend Chris from Kenya. She was staying at my place, then moved to CasaKeza, has now gone to Nairobi, but will be back soon. She works as an engineer, selling equipment across the EA region. Really interesting to talk to.

Using bread sticks as chopsticks.

Maia's been developing a new weekly lunch menu, with a different set list every day, beginning with Moroccan Monday. I spent every lunch there last week getting a free feeding.

Caramelised Pineapple

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

Stuffed potato pancakes, inspired by our trip to Bunyonyi.

Cheesecake. Not on the free menu, but too good to resist.

It's been a very well-fed couple of weeks. Got roped into going to a children's party with Maia, Jo and Cindy. Not being a parent, I didn't realise that the point of children's parties was for the adults to guzzle good wine and eat birthday cake. Very much like adult birthday parties, only with more screaming in the background. It was a lovely night, and being a Chinese birthday girl we lit a lantern and watched it float off across Kigali. It was at a nice venue down the road from us, with a large garden, bouncy castle, and giant fish tank.

 

Miniature model of plans for an apartment complex next to the lake
with the creepy abandoned fairground.

Then Maia and I dropped Taia home with the nanny and headed out to The Hut. It's a bit pricey, but absolutely worth it. We had a bacon and jackfruit starter - a surprisingly good combination.

Sadly, we said goodbye to Harris, our doctor friend who is here doing a PhD. He's left for a couple of months to see family. I went to the cinema with him to see Black Panther the other week. It was my first ever time at the cinema in Kigali. It's a proper big screen experience with popcorn and everything, and our showing was in 3D. We got caught by the rain on the way home. Our motos pulled onto opposite sides of the street for shelter, and a few minutes later I realised there was a bar on the corner between us, so we ran to that and sat drinking until it eased enough to walk home.We gave him a good send-off at CasaKeza though, plenty of alcohol.

Calm, official photo.

Reality shot.

Maia will also be leaving in four weeks, so I guess I'm going to have to grow a social life and make some new friends.

Talking of (furry) friends, Gizmo is growing fast. He got his own vaccination book the other day, so he's now officially a member of the family.

He's developed a total bromance with Howl. The two are near inseparable.

Unfortunately, we have had some bad news. Howl's sister, Sen, the one who was poisoned when she was little, has developed chronic asthma. Something I didn't realise cats could get. Unfortunately, it looks like this is going to be a lifelong condition, requiring constant medication. We had a very difficult couple of days where I thought I was going to lose her at one point. Ended up creating a makeshift spacer from my own Ventolin inhaler and a paper bag (they never taught me that on Blue Peter). Managed to get her through it and she's now on a regular dose of corticosteroids. I've also had training from the vet on how to administer emergency dexamethason injections, and have three on standby if we ever need them. She's doing really well at the moment, though. Just makes things slightly more complicated if I ever want to go away because I'll need to find someone who can not only feed the cats but give the medicine, too. It's tricky as I have three cats that look practically identical. I have accidentally medicated the wrong cat myself once.

Not the only medical emergency lately. Went to a friend's birthday party the other night. It was really lovely. She's Dutch and the theme of the party was hygge. Instead of dressing up, we dressed down - lots of knitted jumpers and candles.  

I left around half-ten with Maia and her friend Ismail. He was going to give us a lift home as he had a car and lives next door to us. Only, as we left the house, he noticed a woman outside with a couple of the house guards. She was crying.

As we went to see if she was all right, we noticed she had blood pouring from her ear and all down her top. Ismail asked the guards what happened, and it turned out she'd been the victim of a moto mugging, where people drive by on motorbikes and snatch bags. As they yanked her bag away, she fell and hit her head hard on the cobbled road.

We bundled her into the car and did a mad dash to A&E at King Faisal Hospital, which is the biggest hospital in Kigali. We were a bit surprised to discover we were the only ones there. They rushed her into a room and we sat outside whilst nurses went in and out for the next half-hour. 

The reason we were the only ones there soon became apparent. Rwanda has a national medical insurance policy called mutuelle de sante. It's quite affordable, and everyone is supposed to carry it. Only, King Faisal doesn't accept it. So, she's there, bleeding from her head and vomiting, and they won't run a head scan until we pay them.

Word to those in the UK: the NHS is the most precious thing we have. Imaging that's your mother, or your child, or your partner rushed into hospital and they don't get treated until you flash your cash. Imagine they do get treated, and it's serious, and you wind up thousands of pounds in debt. Anyone who thinks the NHS should be scrapped is a fucking moron. You have no idea what you're losing.

Anyway, we pooled together to pay for the scan, the doctors and some painkillers, then waited around until her friend arrived. Thankfully, even private treatment in Rwanda is very cheap by western standards, as I proved when I had three months of intensive private treatment on my burnt hand and only paid around £500. The alternative for this lady was getting transferred to a hospital across town which did accept mutuelle de sante, and having to wait hours to be seen.

It was interesting that she called her colleague from work, rather than a relative. Perhaps she didn't want to worry her parents, perhaps they lived out of town, or perhaps, being twenty-seven in Rwanda, she didn't have any family. 

Anyway, we got the contact of the doctor, who told us that she was fine. The blood was from a cut, nothing more serious. She was discharged the next day and called up to thank us. Really glad she was okay, because she seriously didn't look it when we arrived at the hospital.

Unfortunately, the next day I got a text from Maia. She was back at King Faisal as her daughter had come down with malaria. We think she probably contracted it in Idjwi, as she got bitten quite a lot. She's on the mend now. It clears up quickly once you take Coartem, but still not pleasant. The rest of us aren't showing symptoms, so with any luck we won't.

In non-medically-related news, things are going well with the piano. Popped in to tune this Kawai again last week. I'm getting much faster with practise. It used to take me around four hours, now it's about two and a half. Though a lot of these notes were still in tune from last time.

I won't go into too much detail, because I blog about the pianos elsewhere, but we've had a lot of publicity recently. A big article came out about it in international press, and Rwanda's largest Kinyarwanda online news outlet came to do an interview. I thought it was just going to be a written interview, but they turned up with cameras, which was a little unfortunate as it was an extremely hot day, just before a major downpour, and I was a bit sweaty and flustered. But it's been good. We've already had someone ask us to go check out their broken piano next week and see if we can fix it. We now have all the strings we need for our own paino, and hope to star stringing in the next couple of weeks.

Désiré also designed, and had his team build, this lovely bamboo fence so that I have some privacy on my apartment porch. I'm house-sharing at the moment with a girl doing an internship with GIZ and another working for the centre for disease control. They're really lovely, but it's nice to be able to sit outside and work without being disturbed. 

Souvenir from Akagera.

Writing has also been going really well. I'm halfway through ghostwriting the memoir of a local businessperson and it's progressing nicely. It's something I'm actually really enjoying doing. There's just enough structure to make it fairly straightforward, and the person has lived such an interesting life that it's really fun putting it to paper. 

Another book which I helped edit just had its book launch at Kigali Convention Centre.

It was my first time going inside, although I did take a tour when it was being built. It's a bit of an odd atmosphere. It's rumoured to be the most expensive building in Africa, and it looks good, especially at night when it's all lit up, but for a major conference venue, it's remarkably hard to get into on foot and rather intimidating. I got dropped off at what looked like the main entrance, to be told it was actually not, then had to walk all the way around the perimeter to another entrance, down a road which was completely blocked off, with five extremely heavily armed, serious-looking policemen who made me cross the road. Not only can't you drive past it, you can't even walk past it. Had to stop and ask directions three times before eventually finding my way into the main foyer - and got charged FRW 11,500 (about £10/$13) for a G&T, which is insane money.

The event itself was excellent. It was really fantastic to see so many people brave a ferocious thunderstorm to come and support the book, and absolutely dispelled the myth that 'Rwandans don't read'.

 

My Name is Life is all about Karen's struggle for diagnosis and treatment as a cancer patient in Rwanda. It was really interesting to see the characters from the book appear in person, especially her grandmother who plays a big role. 

I've also scored another editing gig with an e-learning NGO, to edit their newsletter and learning materials. Apparently I'm 'super' and 'worth the money,' which is always nice to hear. It's a really good thing I derive such satisfaction from pulling people's grammar apart. Please don't take this blog as an example, it's impossible to edit your own work!

So, I'm feeling quite content at the moment. Between writing, editing and pianos, I have enough to keep me busy. Harris will be back in a couple of months, and CasaKeza will always be there when I need a beer, if a little quiet without Maia. Victor's promised to teach me how to make cocktails, so if I do that once a week, I'm sure I'll meet people in no time.