Gloucester Via Addis

Last sunset in Kigali for a while. Had a wonderful final evening with Harris. Went out for beer and an Indian at Khazana. Garlicy breath be damned!

 

Then it was off to the airport. My friend Emmy collected me and we sat in a stationary queue for half an hour. Kigali's got a new car scanner. As you approach the airport, you put the car on a rail, like for a car wash, then get out and walk through body scanners to the other side to collect your vehicle. It only scans one car at a time and takes forever. You need to add another hour to your arrival time just to get into the airport. Never seen anything like it.

My first flight was a three-hour stint to Addis Ababa on an extremely cramped Ethiopia airlines plane that appeared to have no air conditioning. I made the mistake of falling asleep in an aisle seat, only to be woken by the drinks trolley smashing into my knee. Not a pleasant start to the journey. They left the lights full-up the entire way and kept offering us scrambled eggs, which absolutely nobody needed at two o'clock in the morning. 

 

It was my first time in Ethiopia. Aramaic is a truly fascinating language, both to look at and listen to. As Harris said, it's hard to compare it to anything else. This was one of the gift shops. The clothes look like something from ancient Greece - very floaty and pretty - and there was a giant tourist billboard next to the shop showing the standing stones of Tiya. It gives the impression of a very old culture, even in a modern airport.

 

Like all airports, this one was pretty uncomfortable, and I had a seven-hour layover. I slept on the floor, I slept on benches, I cried into my coffee - when I could find a seat to sit down in. When I arrived, there was hardly anyone there. I slept for an hour and when I awoke the place was heaving. I was very glad to leave. 

The international flight from Addis to London was extremely comfortable. There was hardly anyone on it, so I had a whole row to myself and personalised in-flight entertainment. 

I've come to the conclusion that internal flights in Africa, and flights going East (such as Rwanda to India) are dreadful. Whereas flights from Africa to Europe tend to be really comfortable. A friend flew Nigeria to Rwanda with Rwandair recently with no in-flight entertainments at all. I had that experience on a seven-hour flight to India. The internal Ethiopia flight was hellish. Then you get luxury flying West. You wouldn't mind the discomfort so much if it was a budget flight, but flights in Africa are really expensive. 

Ethiopian Beer

Still, I made it in one piece. Utterly bizarre landing at Heathrow around 7 p.m. to hear the captain say 'Have a good night'. I looked out of the window and it was bright daylight! In Rwanda, it gets dark at 6 p.m. every night of the year, but during British summer it's light until 10 p.m. My brain is still struggling with that.

Dad and Marilyn were there to collect me. We headed home via a Harvester in Swindon, where I made Guinness my first drink and scoffed a plate of scampi and chips. Dad's garden in the centre of Gloucester is in full bloom at the moment.

   

 

 

Strawberries

 

On a High

Had such a lovely night last night. Headed over to Ubumwe Hotel with Harris to watch the sunset over a cold Mutzig. I've posted about this place before, but it really does have a stunning view of the city. Once the light faded, the hills filled with lights. Kigali at its best.

Then we decided to walk all the way home. It took about an hour, down through town, out along the highway and up into Kacyiru, talking and listening to music the entire way.

Saxy

Oh my goodness me. What a weekend. 

In honour of Harris and Chris being back in town, we headed to PiliPili, a beautiful bar with a swimming pool overlooking the city. We were joined by my friends Maja and Vincent and my housemates Dana and Sasha. Rwanda recently banned shisha, but something entertaining that's just arrived at PiliPili are these pitchers you can tap yourself. Pull a pint from your chair. Vincent demonstrates how it's done.

 

We started out as seven, but by the end of the night we were reduced to three - Maja, Vincent and myself, decamped to Ogopogo, which is not only a cool name for a bar, but also the Canadian equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster. Quite how it swam all the way to Rwanda is a mystery, but hey ho. 

There used to be a saying that 'nothing good ever happens after 4 a.m.' When you pass your mid-thirties, that gets revised down to 2 a.m. That's about the time my tequila-neck-lick friend found me and tapped me on the shoulder. We're just friends, but after drinking for six hours, my greeting was way, way too intimate. Like, smack your face against the wall in the shower next day, intimate. Yeash. My ability to adult just disintegrated. 

I eventually untangled myself and ran away on a moto. The next morning my whole head felt like shattered glass. I had the hangover from hell - worst in a very long time.

Which was a problem, as my friend Sameer had extended an offer to go up to see a very ancient forest in the north this weekend. We had a group all set to go, but then things happened - someone left the country, someone's family was arriving, someone injured themselves. It sort of fell apart, so me and Harris invited Sameer down to Kigali instead. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry, but that wasn't an option. 

Thing is, one of my closest friends is a doctor, and it's a medical fact that hair of the dog actually does work. Who am I to refuse doctor's orders? 

Turned out to be one of the best nights ever. 

We started off joining my housemate Dana, and soon-to-be housemate Adrien, at a club in town where there was a live band, but the band weren't that good so Adrien suggested we head to Metallica where he knew of another band playing. 

Me and Sameer first met at rock night, and we'd always been curious about Metallica. We'd been hoping for a metal bar, but they were always advertising jazz nights, so we never went.

We arrived around 10:30 and it was a little subdued, so we took a table and ordered beer. It definitely wasn't a metal bar, but by the time we'd finished our first beer, an absolutely incredible Nigerian saxophonist had taken the stage. I've never seen anyone play the saxophone in Rwanda before. He started out slowly but then brought the house down with an incredible rendition of Despacito. We were all on our feet by that point, and it just got better and better. There was a five-minute guitar solo at the end of Hotel California, and the night wound down with La Bamba and a medley of all things Bob Marley. We danced until we couldn't stand. Hands-down, the best live music I've heard in Kigali for a very long time.

It was just one of those weird nights where you drag yourself out, not expecting much, and it turns out to be utterly fantastic. The lead vocalist kept addressing the crowd as 'you beautiful people', so we played Marilyn Manson's Beautiful People on the way home in tribute. It was a really eclectic night. Best part - I woke up feeling excellent this morning, with a big smile on my face. Amazing what a night of dancing can do.

 

I say, I like your hat sir!

Pre-packing Prep

 

One week to go before I head for the UK. First time back in two-and-a-half years. Finding it hard to wrap my head around that. Not sure what to expect or how it will feel. Little anxious about leaving my cats behind. 

It's been a very busy couple of weeks. I got a last-minute contract with a UN department, to give capacity-building training to over 40 heads of civil society. We covered Sustainable Organisational Development, Policy & Advocacy and Resource Mobilisation over a day and a half in a hotel in Nyamata. It was a really impressive hotel with a huge swimming pool.

  

Those guys above are from the Rwandan National Union of the Deaf, who I used to work with between 2007-09, helping to compile the first Dictionary of Rwandan Sign Language. I worked with a different group of people back then, but these guys still knew my sign name even though we'd never met before. It was really lovely to meet them, and I plan to reconnect when I get back from the UK and brush up on my RSL. 

Definitely been working for the wrong people all this time. This was my first time working directly with the UN and the government. Not only was there a free bar, but also a bubble bath. Bubbles and beer. It was quite a treat.

More from the trip:

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

Preparing for, and delivering, the training took a lot of work, then there was the follow-up report. I had a small editing job to do for GIZ, the German development agency, when I got back, then... nothing. 

It's really uncomfortable going from a state of being constantly busy to having nothing to do except prepare for departure. Sitting here cradling Netflix on my lap, watching a lot of Deep Space Nine, reliving my teenage years and remembering conversations I used to have with school friends about the storyline. 

Went out for a drink with my housemates the other day. One of my housemates is interning with GIZ and her boyfriend is interning in Abuja, so sometimes hops a flight over to visit. We went to Friday cocktails at a friend's café, where they also have a yummy tasting board, but we'd scoffed it before I thought to take a picture. 

Hibiscus & Rosemary Gin Fizz

We headed to a bar next door where we had a few beers. Around 1 a.m. myself and my second housemate were flagging a bit, so I offered to walk her home.

Kigali is considered one of the safest cities in the world. As we walked, my housemate was saying how safe it is, and I said 'Well, there have been a few moto muggings...'

No sooner were the words out my mouth than a moto drove past and snatched her bag! It all happened extremely quickly, and thankfully she let go, so walked away with a bruised arm rather than a bloody nose, which is better than the last time this happened. Still, it was a bit shocking. I took her down to our local police station, where I knew one of the guys on duty. He was really lovely and took our statements. He told us this was the first report of a moto mugging in Kacyiru.

The same night, another lady had her bag snatched and a couple of days later her night guard managed to get it back for her. Among the stolen items were my housemante's bank card and driving license, so at least she got those back, if not the phone and cash.

Another friend, Chris, is also back in town and staying at my place. She left her car parked outside a friend's restaurant whilst she was away for a couple of weeks. A mechanic was supposed to come and collect it but never did. Whilst she was away, someone stole her radio.

It feels like theft is on the rise. There are reports of gangs armed with machetes robbing people walking up Mount Kigali, and people have been warned not to hike there at the moment. Unfortunately, the response from authorities is to make it easier for citizens to own guns. No one in their right mind needs an automatic weapon. Which means only people who are not in their right mind will have them. 

Arms are defined as firearms and their ammunition, grenade and other explosives used as arms as well as nuclear, biological, chemical or toxic weapons.

Feels like rather a step back in the fight against GBV too. As this article explains, 80% of partners killed by gun violence in the US are women. A guy comes home drunk from a bar and punches his wife, that's one thing. He comes home drunk from a bar, holding a gun...

Where's the option for 'Hell no'?

Lot of women I've spoken to feel rather horrified by this prospect. Arming the public doesn't seem to have worked out well for other nations. Being a Brit, we don't have many guns but there's still violent crime. The difference being, the number of people you can stab before being stopped versus the number of people you can shoot, is usually much fewer. 

Anyway, moving on to happier topics, Chris brought me a massive stash of goodies.

 

 

 

We headed out to dinner with Harris at SoleLuna and I managed to get a better picture of the flowers. 

Extremely glad to have my drinking buddies back. So many people have left recently: Maia, Johanna, Lynette - good when a few return. Went for a drink at PiliPili with Harris and saw the beautiful sunset in the first picture, and looked at this lovely view.

Also, some sort of religious holiday appears to have taken place as these little works of art popped up along the road. I've never seen street art in Kigali before, and it was all swept away by the following day.