Wednesday in Rwanda

This morning I woke, did sit ups and squats, breakfasted and now we are waiting – for what, I’m not sure.

It’s been such a long time since I’ve blogged for real. Lol. Gratefully, I have lists of all I did so I might go back and fill in the details, but intul that time, I will recount for you the current situation. I’m sitting outside in the garage of Elise’s home… estate… property. There is one main house for the family- spacious living room and dining room with attached kitchen and bedrooms – this is where I shower and eat. And beyond the house is a tin covered garage space, and beyond that up some stairs is a set of small apartments and construction. We stay and sleep up there. There is a small living room, kitchen and two bedrooms – but the water doesn’t work, so we flush by buckets of water. I’m sitting at a chair at a table with Elise sitting on the table and her cousin standing behind me in front of Elise. They are speaking Kenyarwandan except for the random English word. All I caught was Elise telling her cousin “You want to practice English – speak English – just ask her” and with a blush, the cousin turned and I wasn’t asked anything. :) The family has two girls that clean, open the gate from the street to the drive way and cook food. One girl is shy and just watches me, the other tries to speak and will grin like crazy and tell me she loves me either in English or in French – she’s adorable.

The contrast between Oman and Rwanda is immense – but I must say that I’ve not experienced any real culture shock coming here. Perhaps it’s that I’ve been to Africa before, have dear friends who are Ghanian and simply adore African culture (a huge generalization, but there you have it)…. Perhaps too, it helps that Elise is here, and even though she’s often talking to her family, the girls, etc, I know I can speak out and ask her questions when I need to. It’s comforting to see her again, and really fun to watch her in her own home, among other Rwandan people. I always adored listening to her speak Kenyarwandan on the phone when we were in Dayton, and it’s really neat watching her now. I am easily entertained and not requiring a whole lot of maintenance and so I hope that I’m neither in the way, or a pest or a burden to her or her family.

The shower situation is my favorite here – it’s like camping, but in a porcelain wilderness. The one shower in the main house has water and even has a shower head, but you hold the head in your hands since there isn’t a resting point for it to rain down on you. It was cool yesterday but warmed up through my shower, but today, it didn’t warm up at all. I asked Elise and she had a girl bring me “hot water”. She brought a bucket – but the water was in no way hot… or warm… lol. I still used it with a grin and simply washed my hair and face. I really don’t mind the bucket/cup shower – it reminds me of growing up and camping all the time. It is entertaining though.

The honey here tastes differently – and I ate a passion fruit today. The tea is still good, the smiles still genuine and I wish I spoke Kenyarwandan. Lol. Oh well. Maybe I’ll have Elise teach me enough to communicate the basics.

The landscape of Rwanda is stunning. Rolling hills, low laying clouds and so much green. It started raining the night I started travelling here, and Elise’s mother told me that that means I’m bringing good luck. It’s very unusual for it to rain in June, and so the timing is particularly interesting. Elise’s mother is a beautiful woman with a strong character. They greet with three kisses here, followed by a handshake, and they are so very kind to me. Both her mother and her father speak English and do their very best to say everything so I can understand and respond. I hope that Sara and Mike come back with incredible stories of their time with the whole family after I’m gone.

It seems that we probably won’t see any gorillas – you need reservations well in advance, one place we could go is over 3 hours away, and there’s a chance we could go and still not see a gorilla. Perhaps is something like a friend coming to Colorado, and demanding we go hiking to look for bears. I’m certain we could wander the hills and not see a bear for weeks. Though – at least with gorillas, they’re in groups – easier to track? For their sake and protection – hope they aren’t too easy to find.