Settling Into The New Year

 

 My friend Sameer brought me this lovely Ganpati tea lamp.

 

It's been a while since I posted. Just settling into the New year. Been quite quiet as a lot of friends are out of town and I've been enjoying staying home, writing and playing with the cats.

Had my first cactus fruit the other day. I love Frulep. Every time I go in there, there's something weird and wonderful on display. Last time it was Guineafowl eggs. This time it was cactus fruit, also called opuntia. I didn't actually know what this was until I got home and Googled strange looking fruits. Watched a video on how to eat it, which was basically 'cut off either end, peel, and dig in.'

It's got the consistency of a mushy kiwi, with a much milder, watery taste. It's also got huge, hard, edible seeds inside. For that reason, it's not exactly pleasant, and don't try it if you have fillings. But it was something different.  

I've been quite healthy so far this year. I quit smoking and drinking on 3rd January when we returned from Gisovu. Since then, I've only been out drinking twice, which I'll talk about below. I wouldn't exactly say I feel better for it - maybe older. But I'm sure my liver and lungs appreciate it. I've been trying to eat more fresh food, but it's not easy. Most of the supermarkets have very limited fresh fruit and veg, and it's relatively expensive. I bought oranges, but they're dry inside, no juice. A friend explained they're a special type that were modified to grow in dry climates. I bought a mango, but it was rotten inside. I bought an onion - also rotten. I bought potatoes, soft and squidgy. The other option is to hire someone to go to the market and try to get local prices, but by the time I've hired someone to do that, I'm already paying more. So, really, the main options are whatever grows locally: bananas, carrots, butternut squash, tree tomatoes and passion fruit. Pineapples are also very good here, but there's a limit to how much pineapple you can eat. But I am cooking more at home now. Rediscovered my crepe maker and just bucket-baked a quiche.

 

Nakumatt has finally closed its doors. End of an era. It was the first major supermarket to open in Rwanda in around 2008. At night, the food court outside used to double as a nightclub and people used to ride the fiberglas elephant. Wonder what will happen to it now.

My friend Emma brought me sunflowers the other day. Unusual colour. She also brought honey. She and her husband work for Beeutiful, making bee products in Musanze. I'm always eternally grateful for honey as all the shops are now selling one brand called Made in Rwanda Honey, and you've never tasted anything like it. It's the consistency of golden syrup and tastes like burnt sugar. But it's that, at a normal price, or imported American honey for around £6 a small bottle. Depressing, as I get through a lot of honey. Thankfully, there's a place called Azizi Life in town that refills Beeutiful jars.

Dragonfly on my Washing Line

In cat news, they all received their jibjabs this week. Healthy kitties.

Back, L-R: Gizmo & Akantu. Front, L-R: Howl & Sen.

Sophie

So, the first night out was with Emma, to jazz night at my local bar. Unfortunately, there's only really room for around 50 people comfortably, and around 200 arrived. The jazz was nice, but there was a palm tree in front of the stage, so it kind of looked like a singing tree from where we were sitting. Due to the number of people, there wasn't any food, so we headed to another bar after for a burrito and more beer. Went home at a sensible time. Drank but didn't smoke.

The second outing was a couple of weeks later and nowhere near as decorous. Met a lovely Peace Corpse volunteer who is interested in sign language. Had a good chat and a litre of sangria. Poor Peace Corp people, they're sent home if they're caught using motos. How on earth are they supposed to get anywhere? 

Went from there to meet Sameer at Borneo, then on to PiliPili, where the drinking began in earnest when Maia and Justin turned up. Somehow ended up in People nightclub around 3 a.m. after several cigarettes and far, far too many Jäger shots.

 

  

Death in a Glass

Sameer and Justin Playing with the Classic Motorcycle Display

I am in no way exaggerating when I say that I spent the next 24-hours in bed. I only got up to pee and make toast. It took two full days before I felt able to interact with another human being. My bones felt broken. It was a great night, but not drinking hurts much less. 

Probably brought on by that episode, I then suffered a horrible cold, and Howl came down with something too, so we both curled up together and suffered through it. Thankfully, I discovered chicken noodle soup from Soy Asian Table and it saved my life.

Poorly Howl

   

So far, it's been an okay start to the year. Mostly wondering where work is going to come from, but at the same time really enjoying having the time to write and relax. 

Major fiasco with the phone company. Rwanda's introduced a new law that nationals and foreign residents are allowed to have three SIM cards, whereas visiting foreigners who only have a passport can have one SIM card. For reasons unknown to anyone but themselves, my phone company, Airtel, dealt with this by cutting off a whole load of customers. We received an SMS saying 'you will be cut off tomorrow unless you come to Airtel to reregister your phone by providing ID.' I called their helpline asking what was going on. 'Don't worry,' the guy said, 'it's a technical glitch, you shouldn't have received that SMS, you can ignore it.'

I ignored it.

I got cut off.

So, loads of people lost their business numbers, emergency contacts etc. overnight and had to go stand in queues for hours to get reconnected. One annoying thing in Rwanda is that communication companies are really bad at communicating. 

I've been annoyed with Airtel's lack of customer service for a while, plus WorldRemit doesn't work with Airtel, or local free numbers like the tax helpline. So, I ditched them and went to MTN instead. Whilst I was standing in the queue to register, a guy was there complaining about being cut off with no warning, so it's not just Airtel, but at least with MTN I can use WorldRemit to directly transfer money from my UK account to my Rwandan mobile money account. It helps with paying bills and buying airtime, as you still can't buy internet or phone airtime online in Rwanda. Things like PayPal and online card payments just don't exist with communication and utility companies. 

All a bit dramatic, but it was the final push I needed to switch to a (marginally) better provider, even if it does mean going through all my contacts to tell them I've switched numbers, and printing new business cards.

In a nicer turn of events, I made a loan to a lady to buy a sewing machine last year. She pays me back in installments, and I introduced her to a friend who has a fashion line and employed her. She came to see me the other day and - translated by my neighbour - said it had really changed her life. She gave me a gift, which is an incredibly gorgeous bedspread. They sell for a lot of money in the shop, so I was really blown away. I'll take a better shot of it once it's on my bed. She chose that colour because she remembered me commenting on it in the shop. Truly wasn't expecting this and felt quite emotional. Very, very kind of her.

My friend Harris returns in a couple of weeks, which I'm really happy about. I'm sure drinking will once again be on the agenda, but never, ever, for the rest of my life, will Jäger shots be included in that.

Oh, and Rwanda is going into space.