Getting used to it here

As I sat in the front seat of a modest but comfortable taxi car on the way to downtown Kigali, I couldn’t help but wonder if my (comparatively) white arm hanging out the window was getting us more attention from locals than we needed. I eventually retired my hand back to my knee for a different reason: traffic flow is pretty much improvised here.

Sure, there are traffic lights. They look very similar to the ones in Canada, save the fact that they don’t light up. It’s surprising how well traffic seems to move through intersections. Comparatively, Vietnam is much worse for traffic. There is also lots of human traffic, many people carrying/balancing large objects or containers on their heads, no help from their hands. It’s impressive to see this in person.

The two taxis drove us into an area where we could exchange some American dollars for Rwandan Francs. One dollar got us 548 Francs. Most of use exchanged about $200, and plan on stretching that for two weeks at least.

The biggest problem we’ve run into concerning money is that exchange shops suddenly don’t accept American bills printed earlier than 1999. “A bad year,” they say—alluding to counterfeiting, I assume. Too bad half the bills we have are printed before this date. They also give you less for your buck if you’re exchanging anything below a $50 ($1=500, in these cases. Things I wish we knew before coming here. Sigh.

With fresh local currency in hand, we walked to the UTC Mumuji building—the closest thing to a Canadian mall in Kigali. It’s where white people seem to go to feel at home. I must admit, a wave of western comfort comes over me in this building. There is a coffee place called Bourbon where foreigners account for more than half the customers. They brew Rwandan coffee, which any local will tell you is the best coffee in the world. There is also free WiFi with any purchase, and so three of us brought laptops and shared them to send emails to our parents.

Bien sure, ça devient plus facile à parler français ici, même ci ma grammaire n’est pas parfaite. La plupart des Rwandans savent comment parler français, beaucoup savent l’Anglais, et seulement aux occasions rares, nous rencontrons les gens qui parlent seulement Kinyarwandan. En tout cas, ce n’est pas trop difficile à communiquer.

Eating is also made quite easy for us. There is a cook at the house I’m staying at called Maria who takes two buses just to get here every day. She is fabulous and makes great sponge cakes, cookies, fresh passion fruit juice and a variety of hot meals. Today she made mini pizzas, potatoes, rice, beans, beef stew and steamed veggies. There’s always fresh fruit on the table and there’s always beer in the fridge. Mutzig beer is the best I’ve tasted here so far, and at about a buck fifty a bottle, it’s cheaper than Fanta in most places.