Merry Making

Happy Festiveness.

Spent Christmas day at Jo's place where Maia also flew in from the UK to join the revelries. She brought loads of goodies in her suitcase, so we made real mince pies.

  

 

 

Plenty of booze involved, including mulled wine and fizzy pop. This first one in Amarula, the African equivelent of Baileys.

  

   

Christmas isn't really a big thing here - the weather's too good. Plenty of lounging in the sunshine, nibbling nice things and admiring the view.

 

 

We had much hilarity with a present hunt where the girls, Zuba and Taia, hid all the presents, then couldn't remember where they put them all. We're hoping Zuba will find the rest sometime before next Christmas.

For the first time, Kigali is absolutely draped in Chstistmas lights. It's been really lovely. Blackpool, eat your heart out!

The past few weeks leading up to the holidays have been extremely busy for me. I landed a decent report-writing contract recently but it's for end evaluations for a programme which is wrapping up this year, so everything has to be completed by 31st so I've had my head buried beneath the paperwork, but should be finished by Monday, at which point I can relax a spend a bit of that hard earned cash. 

There has been time for a few shenanigans, though. I was kidnapped by Maja and Vincent and forced to go to Fuschia. It's a terrible name for a nightclub. All I remember is 1:30 in the morning having the conversations: "Where are we?", "Fuchsia." "How do you spell that?" "Fusci-, no, wait, Fucia-, no, Fuskia?" Anyway, we had fun.

 

And Sameer popped over from Kibuye and we went for a very posh meal at The Hut, which involved an indecent number of passion fruit mojitos and cheesecake.

 

 

In other news, celebrating what might be my last Christmas in Rwanda. Went to get my visa renewed, expecting my usual two years, but was only issued with one. No reason given, just told I need another inspection. When you're a business owner, they come to visit your place of work - in my case, my house - to see what's going on. Not sure if it's that I'm not making enough money, not working with the right people, complaining too much about noise issues on social media, or that this time next year I'm eligible to apply for perminant residency. No idea, but guessing it's nothing too serious otherwise I wouldn't have a visa at all. Just a bit of an unsettling way to enter the New Year. Will be doing a thorough spring clean to minimize my possessions in case I don't get the next one. 

Good news in leg-related going on, though.

It finally seems to be on the mend. Still extremely weak, and I've lost quite a bit of muscle mass, but I can walk pretty normally now and I'm starting to feel the tendon a little. Quite a bit of scar tissue in there, so I have a lumpy leg, but I'm okay with that so long as I'm mobile.

 

Where'd my calf muscle go?

In much better news, mum and dad chippen in towards my Christmas present. The Korean church in Kinyinya sold its piano - to me. It's the first piano I ever put a new string on and I'm extremely happy to have an instrument in my house again. The one we're building has gone to Dés now that I've finished stringing it. Shouldn't be too long until we know what it sounds like. You can find more on our project blog. I do plan to rebuild my original piano, but this one is a worthy substitute. Plan to get Bonani to teach me to play, rather than massacre it.

 

 

Breaker of Things

 

 

Found this cute little critter the other day. Love the colours on it. And just rescued two mantises in as many days from the cats.

 

It's been a busy few weeks. My friend Emma, a former creative writing student, came to visit and we went out for the night. She lives a bit out of town and doesn't get into Kigali often. She's part of a beekeeping operation and brought lots of wonderful gifts, including fresh honey, soap, a candle and lip balm.

 

Did some baking with my trusty bucket oven. Harris left some sheets of lasagna, so I finally put them to good use. Had to make the white sauce using Blue Band, but it tasted really good.

 

Also went to help my friend Bonani tune his piano. He used to be the manager at Kigali Music School, but that sadly ran out of funding and had to close, so he's setting up his own place in Nyamirambo. Someone gifted him a 1980 Swedish Nordiska. Couple of strings missing and out of tune, so I'm giving him a hand with that. Once I had finished tuning, he took it for a test drive and completely floored me. Very talented guy.

Then, on Tuesday, my lovely friend Tracey arrived with a special guest. Tracey runs a tourism business in Kenya. I last saw her in March last year when our friend Celia was leaving Africa. We had a girls' weekend away at Maasai Mara. At that time, she was heavily pregnant - and still running safaris. What a star! This time, she was coming to Rwanda to start another tour, and brought along baby Gabriel.

 

 

He wasn't too sure about me at first, but we bonded over shoes.

 And a love of chocolate pancakes.

  

Kaiserschmarrn
'Emperor's Mess'

Gabriel's Kikuyu name translates as breaker of things, and he sure lives up to that. He just looks so damn cute whilst he's at it.

Luckily, he didn't manage to break a cat - they're too smart. But the boy's got get-up and go. It's nice here though, because whichever restaurant you're in, people are always friendly and smiling when they see a baby. We took him to the German Butchery, and the next day over to CasaKeza to meet up with friends Maja and Vincent.

But his absolute favourite pastime was the garden tap.

 

Unfortunately, I'm now suffering the consequences of last night. There was rather a lot of rum and sangria consumed, and I managed to completely knacker my foot again. Just stood on it slightly wrong and the Achilles tendon tore again. Fairly distraught about that, as I've spent three weeks in physio and was really starting to get somewhere. I was almost walking normally, and now I'm hardly walking at all. Annoyed it happened a second time at the same place it happened the first time. Maybe this is a sign not to drink at CasaKeza any more? I hope not.

Tracey and Gabriel were up at 7 a.m. to start their safari, so I'm having an extremely lazy day in front of Netflix. Rather happy, as it looks like I have another contract before Christmas, which would be most welcome.

The Hypochondriac

 

So proud of my friend Pieter, who runs Thespis Consulting. He directed a play at Kigali Cultural Village last night with an all-Rwandan cast. Molière's The Hypochondriac:

A French play by Molièr, spoken in English, performed by Rwandans, directed by a Dutch guy.

How much more international can you get?

I've put the programme online here. 

It was actually my first time inside Kigali Cultural Village, which is just at the end of the road with Marriott and Serena on it. It's a collection of several tents for events. Really beautifully lit as you walk in.

 

I meant to ask Pieter before I left home whether it was posh or casual dress. I assumed casual, but as I walked in, there were loads of people in ball gowns and suits. It's only when I followed them, I realised I was in the wrong tent - someone was getting married! 

Quick about-turn. I eventually saw a tent with the EU sign outside and assumed that was probably where a production of Molière would be taking place, if anywhere.

I was right, and just like the TEDx talk, there was a full house.

I had absolutely no idea that the play was from the 17th century (1673), so 345 years old. It was only the second time I'd been to the theatre in all my years in Rwanda. The first time was Butare Deaf Theatre back in 2008. I'm not counting Ugandan cabaret at Pasadena in this. 

Theatre here is often a showcase of dance, drumming and visual arts, and in the villages it usually contains an HIV awareness-raising message, as a lot of theatre is commissioned by NGOs to spread health messages in rural areas. It was really interesting to watch a European play delivered in a European style, with a few amendments. There is one soliloquy where a guy is telling his reluctantly-betrothed how beautiful she is, and that was delivered in Kinyarwanda, comparing her soft skin to the gorillas in Musanze, and her slender neck to a giraffe... 

There was a lot of laughter throughout the performance, and the jokes came across well, which was impressive as it's quite wordy English. But, as Pieter explained, the play may be over three-hundred years old, but the themes are universal and still relevant: parental pressure to marry someone you don't love, a rich guy being surrounded by friends who adore his money more than him, someone pretending to be sick for sympathy... everyone can relate.

For most of the actors, this was their first time in front of a live audience, and they did superbly. 

This is my friend Pieter sitting to the right of the stage. They put the play together in five weeks, which was really impressive.

Afterwards, I took a little wander around the tent - it's really nice in there, showcasing various Rwandan craft makers.

Reception desk with reed mats, agaseki peace baskets,
bark cloth, milk urns, drums and spears.

Imigongo paintings, traditionally from magic huts.

After the performance Pieter and I went for drinks and dinner at the top of Ubumwe Hotel, which has a fabulous view of the city.