So It Begins

My friend Christiane is just brilliant. She has this knack of finding the cheapest suppliers of 'stuff'. Thanks to her I got my health insurance dirt cheap, and now this printer/scanner! Cheapest I got quoted for a printer was FRW 80k, and for a printer/scanner between 180-300k. This one? 60k. Couldn't believe it. Anyone in Kigali looking for a really decent HP 1510 with starter ink cartridges included, get yourself down to Balaji Enterprises: 0788554144 / balaji.rwanda@yahoo.com Go down the road with Ecole Belge (the Belgian school), continue past BCK (German butcher), you'll eventually come to a junction. It's on the right, big banner. 

Anyway, plug over.

I'm celebrating tonight with a bottle of Bond 7 (the Kenyans can make whisky - who knew?). 

Found out today that I got my two-year visa!

Totally chuffed.

Rwanda is now home for the foreseeable.

My friend Cathryn is getting married in the UK at the end of July next year. I intend to be there come hell or high water, and I'm looking forward to a few creature comforts and a hot shower. But otherwise I'm setting up camp. Just need to make rent.

Talking business ideas with my landlord, who is a top bloke. Just paid off the last of my contractors today, so free of all responsibility. Unfortunately haven't got anything else in the pipeline since turning down a contract with a big development agency. The effort:return ratio just wasn't worthwhile. So, back to the drawing board, but I'm confident something will come along eventually.

It's nice to have the time to kick back and examine the past few months. It's all been fairly full-on but that's the major question mark dealt with. Looking forward to picking up my green card and getting my discount on visiting the gorillas.

Had a cracking night out with friends the other night (including my landlord, who is now a firm friend). Perks of knowing the manager of a hotel, we were treated to a free meal and drinks. Was lovely. Then walked for ages just chatting about everything and nothing. I love that Kigali is so quiet and safe at night that you can go walking and talking.

Been invited to another party tomorrow night, and a classical music concert on Saturday. Not sure I'll manage that one - really have nothing suitable to wear for a black tie event - but it would be intriguing. Never seen a string quartet play Kigali before. Ever since that trip to Gisenyi, rocking out to Van Morrison, I'm desperate to open an old school jazz bar here, but I think that's unlikely just now.

Tonight I'm feeling good, like I've finished my probationary period, learned a lot of lessons about so much, but especially running a business. It's hard! But now I can breathe, take a little time, formulate the next part of my master plan (like formulating a master plan). 

Might need to build an ark if the rains continue. Rained so hard the other day it was coming in through my door! Does the RNLI cover Kigali?

A Quiet Night Out

Beautiful moon over Kigali.

My friend Christiane has been staying the past couple of nights as she's building an eco lodge in Kibuye and has lots of paperwork to file with the government.

It's always a pleasure to have her. Mostly we sit on my porch putting the world to rights.

View From My Garden

Last time she cooked me an incredible meal. This time we went out for one. Decided to check out a Chinese restaurant, the name of which now escapes me. It's down the back of New Simba. Anyway, it was really lovely. I went for the pork dumplings and Christiane had the sweet and sour beef, which was deliciously crispy. The place was silent, we were the only ones there, so we sat out on the balcony gassing.

Unfortunately, this is where the drinking began. Christiane rarely gets out to the big city, so when she is here it's a treat to go out for the night. Not so much to do in Kibuye. We ended up back towards home along the bar strip of Kisimenti. It is literally a long dirt road filled with bars. She knows the owner of one of them, so we settled down to continue chin-wagging until two in the morning. I have an impressive hangover.

Strange thing was, the place was completely empty - on a Thursday night.

The restaurant was empty, the bar was empty...

This is probably partly because it was bitterly cold. Google reckoned 17c, but it felt much colder and the day had been hot. We were shivering.

However, there's also been a crackdown on noise in Kigali. There's been a big initiative to hush down the churches. Authorities have been walking in and walking out with their sound systems. A policy I'm not at all averse to. Some of them are incredibly loud, and it's certainly a lot quieter on a Sunday morning now. A friend used to suffer a lot because of the churches, to the point where she went into her local church one day to ask them whether they thought God was deaf? "If you can kneel in your home and whisper a silent prayer to God, and he hears you, why do you need a megaphone and a sound system to reach him on a Sunday?" she asked.

I'm no stranger to the problems of noise myself. I had to move house from Gikondo because I was staying in an apartment where I couldn't get a single night's sleep uninterrupted by music or loud gatherings. So, I'm all in favour of noise restrictions, I really am.

But it does seem to be taken to extremes on occasions. Friends have told stories of being at events that were closed down at seven or eight in the evening. One told of a poetry recital forcibly closed by police with big guns. I'm not exactly sure what they were expecting to find at a poetry recital - explosive words, revolutionary ideas, hard hitting sonnets?

It's led to an atmosphere of caution which seems to be affecting the nightlife. When we enquired as to where everyone was, the new policy was mentioned. It's partly that the government wants to curb noise pollution, partly that many bars don't have a bar license, and partly commercial jealousy. One friend was telling me about the time they were at a live music event which was closed down at around eight-thirty, the instruments confiscated, and they were sure it was because of a complaint about noise from the bar next door. You can complain about noise anonymously, there's a hotline, but if one bar on the strip is doing a roaring trade it's tempting for other bar owners to stick the boot in.

So, noise is an issue that's being worked out at the moment. If that was the main reason the bar strip in Kisi was completely empty that night, then it's having a serious impact on the nighttime economy. I completely agree that residential areas should be quiet at a reasonable hour, but there also needs to be sections of town that are non-residential and allow people to have their fun. There are so many fantastic restaurants and bars in Kigali, and a growing number of people with expendable income. The city is very safe, violence is extremely low, and some of the live bands that play are phenomenal. There needs to be space for celebration.

Amahoro stadium has a license until about eleven or eleven-thirty when they have concerts. That seems a reasonable time for bars. Vang Vieng in Laos was a backpacker's paradise, but they also had a curfew of eleven o'clock for music. In Germany there are certain hours of the day when you can't mow your lawn or disturb the neighbours. I'm in favour of that for early mornings here. I've been woken up at five-thirty in the morning by people digging gardens and playing their radios, even in one of the quietest neighbourhoods in town. It's partly a culture of early morning starts, and partly that houses aren't built with noise reduction in mind. Without double glazing, and with most houses having open mosquito-screened air vents to the outside world, there's very little between your ears and your neighbour's sound system.

One issue I'd like to see addressed is the horn-beepers. People who own cars beep their horns to notify their guards that they're home and want the compound gate opening. I hear this anywhere between five in the afternoon to midnight most days. I've been woken up by it. And if they beep the first time and the guard isn't quick enough, they just keep beeping. Great big Rav4s honking away. This would be forgivable if it wasn't for the fact that absolutely everybody in Rwanda has a mobile phone. If you have a mobile phone, and your guard has a mobile phone, why not call them to tell them you're outside? Beep your phones, not your horns.

Meh, anyway. I do love the fact my neighbourhood is so quiet. I'd like to see some balance found with the bars. 

Anyway, it was lovely to see my friend again. She's back to Kibuye today. 

She managed to find me a giant tub of Nutella, which has been in short supply lately.

Without it I've been experimenting with healthier options: lost bread with honey and fruit salad. It was okay, but it's just not the same.

Gisenyi

Leaving my Neighbourhood

I woke up this morning with snot pouring out my face. Felt like I was coming down with a terrible cold, so popped some zinc and echinacea. Pierre arrived mid-morning to collect the car. J&P have bought a cycling business in Gisenyi, right up on the northern border with the DRC and Uganda. He was heading up to take a look at the place and invited me along. I was planning on spending the day under the covers, feeling sorry for myself, but when he arrived I couldn't resist. I threw myself through the shower and settled down with Percy to enjoy the three-hours up north.

Percy enjoys road trips.

Rwanda is one of the greenest, most beautiful countries on earth. The trip north takes you along winding mountain roads towards the volcanic ranges of the borderlands.

Unfortunate cramped cow in transit.

Raindrop on agricultural terraces.
Every inch of Rwanda is farmed.

'Exotic' Fresian cows crossing.

Towns and villages nestled in the valleys.

People walk along the sides of the roads.

We stopped off for breakfast of potatoes and goat brochettes at a little place called Nyirangarama. It's won awards for excellence and business innovation. Because of this it's a stop-off for almost every bus along that route. They sell food and fresh produce from the local farms, plus providing much needed conveniences for road-weary travellers. Weird - they also have goldfish! I've never seen these before in Rwanda, and can't help wondering how they got here.

We encountered one accident along the way. You can't really see, but somehow this lorry managed to jack-knife itself across the road. Very lucky not to have continued down the steep drop on the other side. 

We started out in beautiful sunshine, which continued all the way to Gisenyi... where it poured down.

Van 'the man' Morrison provided the perfect backing track for our descent to Lake Kivu in search of the bike shop. It was raining so hard when we got there that we decided to shelter at Paradis Malahide to regain our strength with tilapia. The staff met us at the car with umbrellas and even provided a little charcoal heater.

By the time we had finished our delicious meal, the rain had stopped and we were able to ask directions to the business. It wasn't easy to find as there were no signs outside.

Lake Kivu

Percy peeking out from my bag on the back of the bike.

Posing as two tourists, Pierre suggested we check out the merchandice, so we took the bikes for a short spin. All that cycling in Laos really paid off, and the bikes were really light and easy to ride. Though there are a lot of hills in Rwanda (Land of a Thousand Hills). It's fun going down, but hard work going up. The guide reckoned you could cycle all the way from Gisenyi to Chyangugu (from the very North to the very South of Rwanda) in five days. I don't think we would have lasted five minutes.

It was great fun, and we dropped the bikes off back at Paradis before taking a look round and wandering down to the beach. It was really nice to explore Gisenyi. I've only been here once before, back in 2008. Never got to see the lake.

Luxury apartments at Paradis Malahide.

Dilapidated house by the lake shore.

Black and white Kingfisher eating a fish.

We headed back through town, and I got to drive for a bit. Building up my confidence in public areas. I always feel nervous, but then once I'm behind the wheel it comes back quickly. Driving a right-hand drive actually isn't as tricky as I thought it would be. I think it's slightly easier than driving a left-hand drive across Europe, because you feel like you're sitting on the right side of the road, and you can see around things to overtake. I only hit my hand on the door twice looking for the gear stick. 

Gisenyi is right on the border with the DRC, and just across from Goma where some of the worst of the fighting takes place. This is one of the crossings.

There's also a huge active volcano, Nyiragongo. It errupted in 2002 destroying parts of Goma and leading to the evacuation of 400,000 people. You can see the steam billowing from it like a giant cloud factory.

Some great pictures online and by Google imaging it.

Anyway, it was a lovely day. Having not been out of Kigali since getting back in May, I've now had two great road trips (Muhazi and Gisenyi) in a week.

Pierre did a great job driving back in the dark, and we stopped at Nyirangarama again on the way back so that I could pick up a pineapple for my breakfast.