My New Hometown

I finally had time this weekend to check out my new "hometown", Musanze. It recently changed its name from Ruhengeri, and it is famous as the base-camp for tourists who want to venture out and see the Mountain Gorillas. Several expensive hotels line up along the main street (which is paved, but still very dusty and noisy), and then a grid system spans out into the residential areas.

I live and work on Avenue de Cooperation, which has nice villas on both sides, gated and guarded, and circled by wonderful gardens each. Our residence, pretty like most other houses here, is built just on the ground floor, with two main aisles divided into several rooms, plus a huge kitchen and a lovely dining room. As far as I can tell, we are four people living there 'full time' (an American, Joel, and two Rwandan girls, Bernadette and Mireille). Then there's also Sandy, from Britain, who splits her time between Musanze and Congo. Our staff is made up of one (or two?) guards and a maid/cook, Fais, who is spoiling us with delicacies every day (among the dishes we had this week: French potatoes in the oven, several kinds of veggie pies, fish and chicken, rice, salads, pound cake, pizza, pasta with tuna sauce, fruit salads). Needless to say, I gulp down every day as if there's no tomorrow (ironically enough, I will probably end up putting on weight in Africa, after staying slim all those years in the US...) The only thing I miss at our place is beer (I pretty much shocked Fais when I asked how I could have a beer case delivered at home. She came up with an aid, Baptiste, who will take care of this tomorrow). In turn, I was quite shocked the other night when I found out that we also have a shed in the garden, which is full of... gorilla skeletons (we have some American researchers who just showed up in order to study the bones throughout the summer). So yes, pretty serious stuff going around!

Back to food, though: service is slooooow everywhere (I hang out quite a bit in hotel lobbies and at the Volcana Lounge to see football games). Any dish takes way over an hour to be prepared and delivered (the ultimate frustrating experience was in Butembo, Congo, where we had to wait for almost 80 minutes to get our coffee, and about two hours for our omelets and Croque Madame)... Oh well, the idea is to never go to a restaurant when you're really hungry, but to time it well in advance.

I also visited the market (Joel, who has been here some seven months, could only remember where the clothes market was, so I still have to find the veggie one this week). I wanted to buy a bed-side lamp (in my room, the switch for the main lamp is next to the door, which is at the very opposite side of my bed - it gets all the more complicated when you have to come back to bed in the dark, and find your way in through the mosquito net). Anyhow, they had these battery-powered lamps, and some other type which you would have to plug directly (not through an extension cord?!), so I gave up. Half-of-the-market was filled with itinerant tailors, who set up their sewing machines quite randomly, all over the place.

After half-an-hour on the main street (again, I need to stress that it IS paved, unlike all dirt streets I saw in Congo), I almost couldn't breathe anymore from so much dust everywhere. There is this constant flux of people (Rwanda is one of the most densely-populated countries in the world, with 380 people/sq km), and they all seem to drag and push and carry stuff back-and-forth at all times. Of course I am followed everywhere by a cortege of kids, who can only say "Good morning" in English, regardless of the time of the day. There is a new state policy here, though, that is looking to replace French with English as the main non-native language in the country. At the same time, I am trying to start learning some Swahili (not very popular here, but probably the best language to know in Africa overall. And quite simple, according to all accounts...)

As for my job - I am putting together a plan these days, on what stories, pictures and videos I will start producing, once my work and park permits are issued (in order to be able to go up into the Volcanoes National Park.) So yes, I am really settling in here (no problems whatsoever so far).

The only big change: I don't like the Italians anymore (they really have a pathetic squad this year...) So let's keep going beautiful Messi and Argentina! :-)