UNO and African Tea
Up until this point, I have written mainly about the meetings and other activities that have taken place since my arrival in Rwanda. I thought it may be now to share with you a little about the daily living situation.
First of all, the hotel we are at is amazing. First of all, I cannot figure out for the life of me why it’s called a hotel. It’s more like a nice little compound of maybe 10 different rooms, each with its own bathroom. I’ll take pictures and post them if I can. The rooms are of nice size and are pretty cozy. The bathrooms have all the necessities: a toilet, a sink, and a shower. Sometimes the water pressure isn’t enough to actually shower, so I find myself washing under the running tap or bathing out of a small basin. Interesting experience, I must tell you. Then there’s the issue of when there’s no water at all, which happens often enough that I may go for a couple days without showering. And electricity – well, that’s a whole different story. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t; sometimes the backup generator is turned on, sometimes it isn’t. But all in all, we have an amazing place to stay, the staff is amazing, and I’ve only just recently run into the problem of having my own personal inch-worm infestation in my bedroom. I finally couldn’t tackle them all myself and had to have the night manager come up with his stick and insect spray stuff. So gross. And the spiders! Oh my! I’ve been very grown up about the whole situation, killing them all myself or even catching them in a cup and releasing them back outside. I only screamed once this whole time, and that’s when an inch-worm fell right on top of me from the ceiling. Really gross. Finally is the fun times of sleeping under a mosquito net every night. For some odd reason it adds a nice comfort level to the sleep. I definitely love it – may have to invest in one upon returning home. Hehehe.
The food – oh my the food! For some odd reason someone told me I’d likely lose weight this trip. Ha! Every morning we are fed an egg omelette, two pieces of bread (sometimes toast), fruit (pineapple, passion fruit, an unidentifiable fruit, sometimes oranges), and tea. The tea is AMAZING! I think I’m addicted. If I don’t have at least 2 thermoses full of tea a day I feel like I’m lacking in something. I must find a way to bring some of this tea home with me. Yum. And the honey!!! The honey is so delicious that I must have it every morning on my toast. No joke. My day is not complete without the honey. And lunch and dinner consists of your choice of chicken, beef, or fish; chips (fries); rice; cabbage salad; peas or green beans; and Fanta or Water. And if we’re crazy enough to go out for dinner, there are all other sorts of options. Yeah. Definitely not losing weight, but enjoying the food immensely. J
One of the BEST things I brought with me on this trip – my UNO cards. No joke. Us girls played almost every night upon our arrival. It helped us bond like you would never believe. And then we started playing it with our hosts. Fred, Eddy, Pastor Paul, Pastor Joseph – they’ve all played with us and loved every minute of it! So much fun!!!! Who would have ever imagined that a deck of UNO cards would bring Rwandese and Americans closer? Good times. Definitely. Definitely good times.
Hmm, we also try to get to the internet every day or every other day. Some days we spend maybe twenty minutes, and a few times we’ve been there for an hour. The internet connection is slow at best, but it works. The walk to the internet is pretty short, maybe five minutes. Okay, I realize as I type this that it is completely impossible to "walk to the internet." But somehow we’ve gotten into this habit of saying "we’re going to the internet" and have completely dropped off the "café" part. Not sure where we picked that one up.. Anyway, tangent, sorry.
The market is up near the internet café. We make daily trips up there as well so we can stock up on bottles of water, fruit juice boxes, Pringles, and other such necessities. J (Did you know that they sell Sweet Thai flavored as well as Salt and Vinegar flavored Pringles?) And of course we have to buy clothes detergent. We wash our clothes in basins, by hand, and they usually take two days to dry.
There are these random birds that like to start singing at about 430 AM. And they sing until sunrise at 6 AM. Then we don’t hear them until the sun starts setting, and they get quiet when it gets dark. The wake-up call comes a wee bit too early for my liking, but I’m fascinated by this bird. I have yet to see it and take a picture of it – but I’m determined. Maybe I’ll be crazy enough to get up at 430 when I hear it and go outside in search of it. Yeah. Most likely I won’t do that. But at least I thought about it!
What other random things can I write about? It’s rained twice since we’ve been here. The rain showers both lasted maybe 20 minutes at most. Otherwise the weather has been just perfect. Sunny, a nice breeze. In the shade it feels maybe at 75 to 80 degrees. Under the sun, however, is a completely different story – I burned after maybe 10 to 15 minutes of exposure without any sunblock on. Haven’t made that mistake again. Like I said earlier, the sun rises at 6 AM… It sets at 6 PM. There are barely any street lights in this whole country (and forget about having any light signals or stop signs that are enforced). Any time we go out at night on our own, which isn’t often, we bring our flashlights. Jerrae has this head lamp – no joke – and it has turned out to be most useful. The flashlights have also been nice for when the power goes out unexpectedly. (Thanks for the flashlight, Dad! Works like a charm!)
Right, well, I think I’ve written more than enough here. I realize my thoughts are all over the place, and I blame that completely on the bird that wakes me up every morning at 430 and refuses to let me go back to sleep. Or it could be that I’m just writing whatever comes to mind… te he!
Oh, and just to let all of you know – I have fallen in love with this country and the people. I’m determined to find a way to get a job here once I’ve graduated from law school. Not sure it will happen, but I must try. And I will find a way to return here soon. The lifestyle, the pure love and affection, the determination to overcome the past… There is a sense of peace and calmness here. There is something here that fills my heart and soul… Yes, I’ve hit rough patches and some days are better than others… But no matter the issues I run in to personally, I still feel a sense of longing to stay or find a way to return for a longer period of time.
At any rate, I’ll stop here. Thanks for reading this… I love you all!
First of all, the hotel we are at is amazing. First of all, I cannot figure out for the life of me why it’s called a hotel. It’s more like a nice little compound of maybe 10 different rooms, each with its own bathroom. I’ll take pictures and post them if I can. The rooms are of nice size and are pretty cozy. The bathrooms have all the necessities: a toilet, a sink, and a shower. Sometimes the water pressure isn’t enough to actually shower, so I find myself washing under the running tap or bathing out of a small basin. Interesting experience, I must tell you. Then there’s the issue of when there’s no water at all, which happens often enough that I may go for a couple days without showering. And electricity – well, that’s a whole different story. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t; sometimes the backup generator is turned on, sometimes it isn’t. But all in all, we have an amazing place to stay, the staff is amazing, and I’ve only just recently run into the problem of having my own personal inch-worm infestation in my bedroom. I finally couldn’t tackle them all myself and had to have the night manager come up with his stick and insect spray stuff. So gross. And the spiders! Oh my! I’ve been very grown up about the whole situation, killing them all myself or even catching them in a cup and releasing them back outside. I only screamed once this whole time, and that’s when an inch-worm fell right on top of me from the ceiling. Really gross. Finally is the fun times of sleeping under a mosquito net every night. For some odd reason it adds a nice comfort level to the sleep. I definitely love it – may have to invest in one upon returning home. Hehehe.
The food – oh my the food! For some odd reason someone told me I’d likely lose weight this trip. Ha! Every morning we are fed an egg omelette, two pieces of bread (sometimes toast), fruit (pineapple, passion fruit, an unidentifiable fruit, sometimes oranges), and tea. The tea is AMAZING! I think I’m addicted. If I don’t have at least 2 thermoses full of tea a day I feel like I’m lacking in something. I must find a way to bring some of this tea home with me. Yum. And the honey!!! The honey is so delicious that I must have it every morning on my toast. No joke. My day is not complete without the honey. And lunch and dinner consists of your choice of chicken, beef, or fish; chips (fries); rice; cabbage salad; peas or green beans; and Fanta or Water. And if we’re crazy enough to go out for dinner, there are all other sorts of options. Yeah. Definitely not losing weight, but enjoying the food immensely. J
One of the BEST things I brought with me on this trip – my UNO cards. No joke. Us girls played almost every night upon our arrival. It helped us bond like you would never believe. And then we started playing it with our hosts. Fred, Eddy, Pastor Paul, Pastor Joseph – they’ve all played with us and loved every minute of it! So much fun!!!! Who would have ever imagined that a deck of UNO cards would bring Rwandese and Americans closer? Good times. Definitely. Definitely good times.
Hmm, we also try to get to the internet every day or every other day. Some days we spend maybe twenty minutes, and a few times we’ve been there for an hour. The internet connection is slow at best, but it works. The walk to the internet is pretty short, maybe five minutes. Okay, I realize as I type this that it is completely impossible to "walk to the internet." But somehow we’ve gotten into this habit of saying "we’re going to the internet" and have completely dropped off the "café" part. Not sure where we picked that one up.. Anyway, tangent, sorry.
The market is up near the internet café. We make daily trips up there as well so we can stock up on bottles of water, fruit juice boxes, Pringles, and other such necessities. J (Did you know that they sell Sweet Thai flavored as well as Salt and Vinegar flavored Pringles?) And of course we have to buy clothes detergent. We wash our clothes in basins, by hand, and they usually take two days to dry.
There are these random birds that like to start singing at about 430 AM. And they sing until sunrise at 6 AM. Then we don’t hear them until the sun starts setting, and they get quiet when it gets dark. The wake-up call comes a wee bit too early for my liking, but I’m fascinated by this bird. I have yet to see it and take a picture of it – but I’m determined. Maybe I’ll be crazy enough to get up at 430 when I hear it and go outside in search of it. Yeah. Most likely I won’t do that. But at least I thought about it!
What other random things can I write about? It’s rained twice since we’ve been here. The rain showers both lasted maybe 20 minutes at most. Otherwise the weather has been just perfect. Sunny, a nice breeze. In the shade it feels maybe at 75 to 80 degrees. Under the sun, however, is a completely different story – I burned after maybe 10 to 15 minutes of exposure without any sunblock on. Haven’t made that mistake again. Like I said earlier, the sun rises at 6 AM… It sets at 6 PM. There are barely any street lights in this whole country (and forget about having any light signals or stop signs that are enforced). Any time we go out at night on our own, which isn’t often, we bring our flashlights. Jerrae has this head lamp – no joke – and it has turned out to be most useful. The flashlights have also been nice for when the power goes out unexpectedly. (Thanks for the flashlight, Dad! Works like a charm!)
Right, well, I think I’ve written more than enough here. I realize my thoughts are all over the place, and I blame that completely on the bird that wakes me up every morning at 430 and refuses to let me go back to sleep. Or it could be that I’m just writing whatever comes to mind… te he!
Oh, and just to let all of you know – I have fallen in love with this country and the people. I’m determined to find a way to get a job here once I’ve graduated from law school. Not sure it will happen, but I must try. And I will find a way to return here soon. The lifestyle, the pure love and affection, the determination to overcome the past… There is a sense of peace and calmness here. There is something here that fills my heart and soul… Yes, I’ve hit rough patches and some days are better than others… But no matter the issues I run in to personally, I still feel a sense of longing to stay or find a way to return for a longer period of time.
At any rate, I’ll stop here. Thanks for reading this… I love you all!
posted by Cari | 6:26 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home