When it rains, it pours....

Literally....

It poured all weekend. And I'm not talking like Toronto pouring rain. This is Africa. The rain is so heavy, it can wake you up at night. It even startles me sometimes because it often comes out of nowhere and when it really pours, it sounds like a heard of elephants is running on the roof. On Sunday, we saw it coming though. The dark clouds rolled in from behind the hills and brought some treacherous weather with them. This is after I had hand-scrubbed all my clothes and hung them out to dry....the joys of living in Africa....

So you would think, no big deal, just a bit of rain...watch a movie or read a book. Normally, that would be fabulous. But when it rains, it pours....

We had no power. Oh and no water. For the better half of the afternoon and all evening/night. Meaning dying laptop, no showering, no fridge, no light...this became my best friend:

Mark - this flashlight is the best gift you've ever given me

We ended up hauling buckets of water from the functional tap downstairs and washed our dishes in them...in the dark. The worst part was that there was no way to flush the toilets and I'll avoid further descriptions to keep this blog PG rated. 

Needless to say, this is a good lesson. To add to the list of things I'll never take for granted: electricity and running water!

I'm a Hasher

Running, name calling, and beer. Weird combination but that basically sums up the group I joined on Saturday known as the Hash House Harriers - they're a pretty big deal! There are different chapters of the group, known as HHH, running all over the world. In Kigali, we are the KHHH. 

Anyways, Norah found out about them through a friend and we decided to check it out Saturday afternoon. Wasn't sure exactly what to expect - it was a pretty big group and when I got there, half of them were already drinking beer. But it turned out to be an amazing run! We did a route that was about 9km but in Kigali, 9km feels a lot more like 12 or 13 because of all the hills. Some people have mentioned that the altitude has impacted their running performance but I haven't really felt the effects of being 5000ft above sea level...thankfully. So we ran through all these villages in Kigali - it was unreal! I didn't even know these villages existed. The kids in the towns sometimes run with us for chunks of the route. Other times, they just stare and giggle and say "good morning" - even though it was about 5pm at that point hahaha - so cute. I ran through small uphill alleys and behind little hut-like homes, jumped over little streams, and maneuvered myself up muddy hills.  My running shoes are evidence of my hardcore adventures.... 

 

My running shoes are taking a serious hit out here....

It's funny because before I arrived, everyone at home told me not to run, it wouldn't be safe, to find alternate ways of staying in shape...but here I am, running as much, maybe even more than ever. It's amazing! And it's even cooler when you get to meet people from all the world over via groups like HHH. In November, I am heading out with HHH to hike in the rainforest in Eastern Rwanda. Talk about experience of a lifetime!

Home Sweet Home - for the next 5 months anyways...

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post! I just haven't really done anything exciting enough to post these past few weeks. I'm just settling down at work, busy preparing for the courses I'll be teaching next month. Last weekend, Norah, Matt and I moved into our new abode. It's in a very happening part of town and I regularly wake up at 4 am to the sound of blaring music outside our place. It's lively, that's for sure! But we are enjoying it, except for the HUGE cockroach that basically took the house hostage a few days ago. I just screamed the whole time while Norah managed to trap it in a cup and release it back outside. SO GROSS. Anyways, enjoy these pics of our new home: 

 Our living room

 The view at night - please note the hills - so beautiful

 My bedroom - very patriotic, eh? (haha)

The view during the day!

More posts to come in the next few days....

that's all for now! 

A Weekend of Art

First and foremost, check these paintings out:

I loved this - it's textured. Reminded me of my brother's art. 

Apparently unmarried women in Rwanda traditionally have this haircut. Rad. 

These paintings were done by one of the landlords we visited on Saturday ...I was house hunting, which has been a tad stressful. We didn't end up taking the house this landlord owns BUT I did find a really great place. It's exactly what we were looking for! We move in Saturday, provided all goes well. It's in Nyamirambo which is the coolest part of Kigali (so far). I'll post pics of it once we're all settled in.

Saturday night featured a stop at a Canadian-Rwandese Music Festival. It was really diverse and all-around fabulous. Great mix of music from both African musicians and Canadian artists like Shad. I don't listen to Shad, nor was I even familiar with him before this festival but he did rap about the GTA during the show, which I was absolutely elated about. Actually, seeing or hearing anything related to Canada (like someone wearing a leafs or sens jersey) gets me all excited - I guess that's normal when you're away from home for so long. 

Shad strutting his stuff

I was also lucky enough to see some more traditional performances - Rwandan dancing and music:

 Traditional Rwandan Dancing

Great music

The Mighty Popo performed too. He is an incredibly talented guitarist. I am very lucky I got to experience Canadian culture interwoven with Rwandan tradition. Definitely a night to remember!

When in Doubt, Ice cream

Hard to believe, but this concludes week 2 in Rwanda. Time really does fly...

It wasn't the easiest week for me - being told there is no work for you because you aren't really qualified kind of sucks! But things have turned around and I have managed to join a department that makes a lot more sense: I'm now part of the department of physiotherapy. The director of the department is beaming over the fact that I'm a fellow 'exercise physiologist' - apparently it's rare around here! I feel very welcomed and am starting to get into the groove of things. I'll be teaching anatomy and physiology courses to first year students. And the coolest part is I get to work at another campus in Kibuye for a couple of weeks - it's on a lake, which means it's on a beach, which means I'm smiling! 

But it was a tough week and I found myself perpetually daydreaming about ice cream. Particularly chocolate ice cream (as most of you know, I have a serious addiction to chocolate). So today I decided it was time to find my favourite food. I kicked off the weekend with a tough hilly run, which just made my longing for ice cream that much more extreme. My running buddy suggested that Shokola might be the place to go post run! Shokola is this fancy cafe that a lot of expats go. It's beautiful though:

Shokola mmm

The photo doesn't do it justice - my photography skills were lacking tonight. To my delight, they had ice cream AND in the chocolate variety. As soon as I began consuming the cold chocolately deliciousness, all my worries disappeared. The funniest thing though - when I got home, I got a call from my cousin and he had just been in India for 3 weeks. He suggested (without knowing what I had gotten up to tonight) to go do something I want when I've had a rough go, such as getting ice cream! Yup, it's official: creme glacee is the cure to the world's problems....

sneak peak: tomorrow I'm going to a Canadian-Rwandan music festival. How cool is that? Keep posted!

Roadblocks....

On the advice of my good friend Madhvi, I'm going to share some of the less fun sides of being here. Don't get me wrong, this is the coolest thing I've ever had the chance to do but it really isn't all fun and games. I guess today I've reached a roadblock and I'm assuming it'll be one of many I encounter over the next 6 months...

First and foremost - mosquitoes. Even as I write this, one is buzzing around in my face and I want to squish the living daylights out of it. They harass me to no end. It's incessant. Day and night. Even as I sleep, they taunt me. I sleep in a mosquito net and they hover around my head, outside the net, buzzing. Buzzing, buzzing, buzzing. The buzzing doesn't end. It's almost like they're saying, the moment you get out of this net, consider yourself fresh meat. My legs are covered with bites and they get me through my clothes, including my bum. So here I am, awkwardly scratching, looking like a total fool. You know how people spray air freshener? Well I spray deet. Around my bed, on my body, everywhere. And yes, I'll probably develop some sort of horrid cancer 20 years down the line due to deet overexposure, but I'll take it over malaria because that's what those mosquitoes want to do. Share their malaria with me!

Next -- the staring. People stare here with no shame. I feel like an alien. Is there something on my face? Is my skirt too short?!! (my knees are almost always covered)...I hate it. I was warned about the staring and I didn't think it'd bother me. But when you actually live it, when everywhere you go, you feel eyes on you, I'll be honest, it starts to get to be a drag!!!

Language barriers -- Kinyarwanda is one hard language to learn. Half the time, I stare at people as they babble on, completely oblivious to what they are saying. For all I know, they are calling me an ugly fool but I really have no idea what's going on. I'm working on my French skills because most people here can speak at least some French but English is definitely harder to find.

Finally, work (or lack thereof) has been tough. In Canada, we are often bred to believe that our worth is measured by our work, that a good day is a productive one. The most productive thing I've done the past week is work on this blog. And for those of you reading this that know me well, you know how hard of a time I have with doing nothing. To make matters worse, there doesn't appear to be a job available for me in the nursing department (where I'm supposed to be) because hey, I'm not a nurse!! For now, all I can do is enjoy going into work and sitting at a desk for 9 hours doing basically nothing. I'll be kicking myself in the ass for complaining when my life returns to the hectic mess it normally is in Canada.

So I guess all these hurdles are, in the grand scheme of life, quite minor. At least the food here is clean and tasty and the sites are great. Homesickness has settled in though. This morning I thought to myself, oh hey homesickness, you're not welcome here. But it's something I'm going to have to accept and work through. It's inevitable to miss friends and family. The key is to get over those roadblocks and learn as much as I can. I'm sure I'll be a better person because of it!

I promise the next post will be back to exciting, happy me...with lots of pictures to go with it!

Oh hey, weekend

The weekend had arrived! Friday night was a stormy one here in Kigali. Lightning illuminated the night sky and there was rain on and off – Rwanda is entering into a rainy season. We still managed to go out for a laid back night though. We had a classic volcano dinner (buffet – which means people pile food on their plate– it actually does look like a volcano of food) followed by a drink.  We ended the night early in anticipation of our Saturday adventure....

We got up early the next morning and headed off to meet with some people from work. Of course, most people didn’t show up until 3 hours later (in Africa 8 am really means 10:30 am). When everyone arrived, we piled into a bus and headed to Lake Muhuzi (about 60 km North of Kigali, I think).  It was a beautiful drive! Lush, green hills everywhere. Got a glimpse of some farmers and cows (which is a big deal here as cows are basically the greatest thing in the world for Rwandans). On the way to the lake for our ‘picnic’ we stopped in a village to take a break.

Village we drove through

While everyone else hopped off the bus and went out for a walk, Norah, Matt and I stayed back and caked on the sunscreen (we are basically on the equator, the sun here is STRONG). Local children came up to our bus and stared at us with bewilderment. Then they started laughing. I guess we were quite amusing to them. Sunscreen is definitely a novelty here!!

The scenery around the village was awesome!

When we finally arrived, the first thing I noticed was this:

A MONKEY!!! I was so excited. He was jumping around and we gave him a banana. We watched him peel it and eat it – it was the greatest thing in the world.  Kind of broke my heart to see him caged up though as he was a bundle of energy. But I’m sure he enjoyed the banana.  By the time I had finished taking a thousand pictures of my new monkey friend, everyone had headed off to the dock and started dancing. Rwandans love to dance. It was quite the sight! I then went off on a boat ride. It was fun, although the boat was leaking, which made me a bit nervous!

I'm on a boat!

The afternoon was filled with games, lots of singing and dancing. People here really know how to have fun. By the time we got home that evening, I was exhausted. I was ready for a more laid back day on Sunday.

Sunday morning featured a stop at the market where we purchased a variety of fresh fruits and veges. The market was filled with people and was slightly chaotic but the fresh produce is so good and cheap, making it totally worth our while. In the evening, I went for my first run in Kigali. I met a friend from work and off we went. Thankfully, he knew a less hilly area so I survived my first run here. It was a great way to end a great weekend!

My first day in Kigali

It just so happened that my first full day in Kigali was a holiday. But we weren't entirely sure if it was a work day or not, so to play it safe we walked to work - only to find that there was none (I was kind of relieved as jet lag was in full force). So we used the morning to venture out a bit and explore the area.

Me posing with some gorillas (not real...yet anyways)

After sleeping the afternoon away, we decided to explore other parts of the city. I quickly learned that walking (and ESPECIALLY running) will be very challenging in Kigali - it's all hills. You are constantly ascending and descending. I love it! In the evening, we hopped onto motos (motorcycle taxis - SO FUN) and headed out to an area called Nyamirambo. Stone roads and cute little shops make it a very pretty area. Kids come up to you just to hold your hand, it's really cute. 

 

The view from a street in Nyamirambo.

This is the street I'm currently living on. Beautiful trees and flowers!

The entire area is bustling with life and vibrant colours...and hills, lots and lots of hills. It's no wonder it's known as the land of a thousand hills!!

Prelude to Part 2: EPIC journey to Kigali

2 days and 4 take offs later, we finally arrived in Kigali!! But what an epic journey it was!

Saturday night: After sorting out my overweight luggage (thanks to Norah who took on my excessive shampoo supply in her bags), we departed for London, England...on time! (surprising for Air Canada) We had a 10 hour layover in London so we decided to venture out of the airport and see the sights. I was in London last summer so it was like deja vu for me but nonetheless, very cool and lots of fun. We did the usual sightseeing things: Hyde park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby (where Will and Kate tied the knot - I took a picture of the balcony for you Marta haha), Big Ben, Parliament, and Trafalgar Square. 

London Rules

We then took a rest stop at a really cool pub. After a pint of cidar, fish and chips, and excessive giggling due to exhaustion, the 4 of us decided to hop on the Metro and head to Notting Hill where Carnivale was taking place. There was lots of great music and happy people - it was definitely a cool day. We then made our way to Paddington station and back to Heathrow we went!! We sadly had to say goodbye at this point as some of us were going to different parts of Africa (the Africa crew consisted of people headed to Botswana, Kenya, Ethiopia, and of course Rwanda).

Sunday Evening: After a delayed flight, our next stop was Nairobi, Kenya. It was a LONG ASS flight. Took over 8 hours! When we finally arrived, I was thrilled to finally be in Africa. It was a cute airport and I managed to get a shot with the Kenya Airways airplane. I'm such a tourist sometimes....

Planes are cool. Especially when they say Kenya Airways. 

Monday Morning: A relatively short flight took us to Bujumbura, Burundi. We stopped for about an hour but thankfully, just stayed on the plane.

Really bad shot of Bujumbura Airport.

Monday afternoon (I think? haha): FINALLY, our last flight happened and we were on our way to Kigali. It was only a 25 min flight, which made me very happy. I was giddy with exhaustion but so thrilled to finally arrive. It was all real now....