Rise and Shine

Unexpected visit to the set of Rise & Shine Rwanda the other day. Rather excellent. It's smaller than it looks on telly.

Treated myself to some new crockery too. Jo and Christiane weren't too impressed when I made them drink wine from pesto jars. So be it. Went to T2000 and found these lovely blue glass items for FRW 700 (70p) each! Suppose it's a civilised household now.

Went with floral for the plates. There's now an aisle for china plates and one for more traditional plastic. I'm a huge fan of plastic plates here. I don't think china would last a week with me. Cheap, durable, effective.

Also treated myself to a nice big mug. Able to hold a lake of tea for when I'm writing.

 Small pleasures.

Went out to a film festival with Jo and Nicole the other night.

We've decided we need to do more culture. It was all very pretty, lit up with fairy lights and and candles, but essentially it was a French home movie fest. Eight films which you had to vote for at the end. Not a single one made by - or featuring - Rwandans. Bit disappointing. Lots of dancing on the beach in Sri Lanka and climbing mountains in Uganda. One in which tourists went about irritating local wildlife - getting chased by an elephant at Akagera, and a gorilla at Virunga... The sort of thing you dread being invited to someone's house to watch.

Not bad, but not great either. Especially as they had the head of the Rwandan Actor's Guild stand up at the end and talk about the films no Rwandan actors appeared in.

The refreshments also adhered to the mad system that seems to have become standard for events here. You're not allowed to buy anything with money (in case, I assume, the staff nick it?) so you have to buy vouchers from the white people on the desk, to hand to the black staff manning the bar. You have to purchase in exact amounts as you can't get a refund on anything you don't spend, and there's a queue of ten people trying to buy tickets from two vendors. Twenty minutes to get your tickets, then half an hour whilst they cook your brochette and try to work out what to replace the chips you paid for with because there aren't any and you can't ask for a refund.

That sort of thing.

Still, the whole event was held at a hotel on the very top of a hill with a stunning view of Kigali. It was worth it just for that.

Though my garden is nowhere near as lovely as Jo's, I've been enjoying it lately. I've only just discovered that, alongside avocado and papaya, I have a banana tree!

It's only a baby, though. Will be a while before it fruits. 

I sat out on the lawn to write the other day. Very relaxing.

Moon