Food glorious food
on Rose Hardman (Rwanda), 04/Oct/2010 06:16, 34 days ago
Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-GBX-NONEX-NONEMicrosoftInternetExplorer4/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}We found a Kinyarwanda teacher this week. Julia and I are having lessons together and our first one went really well. However, it is not the easiest of languages to learn. Even the numbers change depending on what you are talking about. We’ll see how I get on!The working week was great but busy as we have some donor meetings next week. As already written, it was great to see the work and I am still very lucky that I love my job.A few of us went to Green Garden for dinner on Friday evening and then Julia and I wandered down to Tranquillity to wait for Roisin who was coming to stay for the weekend. She had tried to get a bus from Kigali to arrive in time for dinner but the earliest available bus was 8.30. Despite her bus going the wrong way and the driver proposing to her, she arrived safe and sound.Whilst we were waiting for Roisin we ordered some drinks. Julia ordered icyayi- which means tea. However she was very disappointed when it arrived and it was a teabag, hot water and milk powder. There are two types of tea in Rwanda- one is very similar to that which we have in the UK and one comes with ginger and milk stewed together. It seems to be pot luck as to which one arrives when you ask for icyayi. Julia decided to ask the waiter what you should ask for if you want the tea with ginger and milk. He seemed a bit confused though until a woman joined in the conversation and, although she was speaking in Kinyarwanda, it was obvious she was berating him for not knowing about the ginger and milk. The waiter then proceeded to write down all the ingredients in French and Kinyarwanda for us (probably to prove to the woman that he did know what it was!) There was one ingredient we didn’t recognise so Julia asked if it was ginger but they didn’t understand what she was asking. So she decided to draw a picture of ginger. There was a pause whilst we all studied this picture and then the woman and I just cracked up! I’m sure it was because we were looking at it upside down butit looked like a dead rat! However, the right way up it must have looked like ginger because they immediately knew what Julia was talking about. (N.B. it turns out tea with ginger and milk is just called African tea- an easy one to remember!)After Roisin had arrived we introduced ourselves to the waiter. Roisin has taken to using her surname as people have difficulty pronouncing her name. People have difficulty with my name too so I asked the waiter to give me a Kinyarwandan name. I couldn’t pronounce the first name he gave as it involves snorting out of your nose first (that is actually one of the sounds in Kinyarwandan!) So I asked for another one. He proceeded to give me a name that sounded a lot like ‘Well arse’. I chose to discard that one too so I don’t have a Kinyarwandan name as yet!I slept until very late on Saturday which was brilliant as I needed to ensure I had energy for the evening which was the Italian feast! Pauline arrived and Roisin, Pauline and I spent the afternoon checking out the market. Then off we all headed to the Italian feast which was to celebrate six people’s birthdays. The evening was absolutely brilliant- the food was delicious, the company lovely, and the dancing hilarious. Yummy yummy foodOn the way home Pauline and I were stopped by a man with a gun. We think he was drunk. He didn’t seem to want to let us past until his friend ushered us on. It made us feel a little uneasy but that is the first time I have felt nervous walking the streets of Rwanda as it feels such a safe country. We also saw a pack of dogs on the way home which actually made me feel more uneasy than the man with the gun!Another lie in on Sunday means I think I must have caught up on my sleep by now! Roisin left early to meet Catherine in Kigali. Pauline, Julia, Suzanne and I spent the morning pottering and Pauline and I bonded over our love of the Saw Doctors (probably much to the detriment of Suzanne and Julia’s ear drums!) We ate lunch whilst introducing Suzanne and Pauline to Gavin and Stacey. Further pottering meant that it was soon time to go to the White House for Sunday’s dinner (unfortunately not Sunday dinner though!) We had a big group this week as a group of Belgians were in Gitarama as they are working on a project to show films to the local communities, so they joined us. It was very enjoyable as always. And I got some good suggestions of activities for when Pete comes to visit.We returned home to be told that a tree had fallen over taking our electricity cables with it! So our electricity had to be turned off. In addition we have no water. Apparently this is because it hasn’t rained for ages even though it is the rainy season so the water source for the area has dried up. So it’ll be bucket showers and torches for a while!A busy working week next week with 3 days of donor meetings! Good job I caught up on my sleep.