Luckily for me, so was the rest of the class. I arrived and changed as some of the girls were lighting tea light candles at the front of the room.
There weren’t incents, but at the end of the
practice one of the teachers went around doing massages while we laid there in
corpse pose with a lovely scented oil. It was such a relief to finally get some
exercise in that stretched me out, and boy did I feel it in my arms the next
morning! The thing that most amazed me was that I felt so balanced by
comparison to my counterparts in tree pose, and that the actions were so easy
to follow as a group even across language and accent barriers. Rather than a
soothing soundtrack, the sounds of children yelling and playing outside, a
bicycle whizzing by, the fwap-fwap of
clothes being de-wrinkled before their attachment to a clothesline and the
crackle of a fire out behind the house all provided our au natural soundtrack.
The deep vocal breathing we were taught in my first yoga class also came into
play as I got to take in the sounds and smells of Rwanda from downward dog.
After the class finished, I met with Sasha about prepping for
Uganda and finishing-up some more of the M&E for Rwanda. I definitely have
bitten off a lot to chew, but am also very excited for the experience. The
first week of August, I will be in Kampala and Mbale figuring out all of the
steps needed in order to become a registered NGO in Uganda with legitimate
staff and ideally, a place for them to live! With that, I came home from yoga
and began my research of expats in Uganda, contacting all those I have met
along the way and giving a heads up to my fabulous Baganda family that I would
be visiting soon. What I thought would be relatively easy to locate via blogs,
NGO databases, etc, has actually been far more fuzzy and challenging. It will
clearly be important to be in Mbale with tons of business cards next week!
Having said that, there were a few expat hubs and currently I am working
through those in order to find possible housing. Time will tell if the website
is of any use, but this week will include a few busy Skype days for calling
Uganda and firming up plans.
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| View from City View Top |
After a computer filled day, it was nice to have the team visit
City View (the restaurant at the top of Equity Bank) in Musanze for a brochette
and banana dinner. Sophia, Dennis, Eamon, Sarah and Emily all came. While Sophia
and I were the only ones to eat, it was nice to have all of their company as
the days Dennis would be around were getting pretty short. Since he was leaving
Sunday, we tried to fit in a lot of his favorite places before he left. He wasn’t
feeling terribly well (like Sarah and Emily) and so dinner was just not on the agenda
for the three of them. We weren’t out too late, but with a day of travel ahead
of us all, we weren’t too eager to stay up late anyhow. Friday was meant to be
a morning travel to Kigali to get to work once we got there, but as happens so
often- that wasn’t in the cards.
The intern team arrived at the bus station around noon after
having a particularly lazy morning followed by getting a taxi to take most of
the Sarah and Emily’s things to the bus with us to go to Kigali. We got to the
station and found that the tickets were sold out until 2! While we often have
to wait for the next but, 3 buses in between felt like a lot. I wasn’t sure
why it was such a busy day at the bus station, but to kill time, the crew and I
went to our little tea shop to watch Grey’s Anatomy, blog, eat omelets and drink
up some tea. We passed the two hours in no time (especially when you consider
arriving to the bus 30 minutes early in order to get half decent seats. We made
our bus without a problem, though I think the tea shop owners may have gotten
the impression I was leaving town for good with the girls’ large duffle bags, and
you can only try to explain so much in multiple tenses is non-native languages.
We were there for the better part of an hour and a half, and happened to run
into Jackson (our Rwandese intern). He stayed for a bit to chat, but then had a
bus to catch so had to run. We finished watching an episode, and then headed
out for ours (which was only a half hour after his). Luckily, the bus ride was uneventful
beyond trying the potatoes at a stop the bus makes about 45 minutes out of
Kigali. I will definitely be getting off the bus more often at that stop!
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| The clothes are beautiful but so are the machines! |
Kigali is always so warm. As soon as you step off the bus in
Kigali with the same bags you got on with in Musanze you realize the
temperature difference. On Saturday, however, the weather was relatively mild.
We went to get groceries in town at the Nakumat and exchange money at the forex
bureau (there are none officially in Musanze- only banks). Nakumat is the
Africa equivalent of a Target Greatland or Costco, not in bulk. It has
everything! From fresh bread and dishes to baby cribs, appliances and clothing,
these stores are huge! They have just about everything- just about. Sadly,
marshmallows are not one of those things. Our plan for a good by event for
Dennis was a s’more making bonfire and good dinner out somewhere. Emily and
Sarah were also planning a surprise for their family’s arrival next week and
wanted to get supplies. It was a successful trip particularly, because water
was so much cheaper there per bottle and I was running low on conditioner
(surprising with the lack of showers taken)! We then made our way through some
craft stores near the UTC building, because most of the girls had not been
there yet. It was certainly fun to go with so many people, and because this was
Dennis’ last weekend, he was buying up a storm! The Emily and Sarah were
getting their igisoro fix, and I was just enjoying the experience. Shop-keepers
love when you come back with even more friends, and that makes them more
willing to bargain with you personally. This is true of the market as well, and
so when we go to the market and flood the ladies with paper beads orders and
dress requests- they love it!
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| getting in a little work in the morning! |
Saturday also brought clothing pick-up at the market. Since you
pay after the clothing is made, it is a little nerve wracking until you pick
the newly sewn clothing up. I had purchased my fabrics up in Musanze, and
brought them with me down south (mostly). When I got there, I found the bead
lady that we visit (for her more interesting designs) and fabulously, the
clothing was with her! I was so excited
to see what had been made and had my fingers crossed it all fit! I was in luck,
because everything was fabulous. The dress looked wonderful, the PJ pants were
just the right length and comfort, and the wrap-around skirt turned out
fabulously after she added the whole for the tie! I couldn’t have been luckier-
no adjustments were needed and I went off with all the new lovely pieces. I
couldn’t have been more excited to start wearing them, so you can believe that
the PJ pants were put on almost instantly upon reaching Hotel X.
Before going back though, I met up with Meddy. Always such fun to
hang-out with, we played igisoro the ‘right way’ for two hours with me losing
each and every game (a sad record compared to my record with Dennis’ way of
playing). I also got to meet Meddy’s younger brother, which was exciting, but
he didn’t speak English to me, so I assume that he doesn’t know it. It’s sad
not to be able to communicate with people that are so close to those you know
well and include them in your conversations, but again that is just a part of
traveling and a challenge to the education systems of Rwanda and the US.
Language is an incredibly hard skill to master as you age, and students should
be encouraged to learn more sooner. Meddy has been accepted to a school in Toronto
for a computer science certificate program, and I hope that he is able to do it
and be back near his lovely girlfriend soon!
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| Mood lighting at the snazzy Zaaffran restaurant |
While I have not had any wild Saturday nights, I am pretty glad of
that. Dinner was taken at an Indian restaurant near Kimihurura (and therefore
Hotel X) called Zaaffran. Ordering at restaurants where the food is unfamiliar and
the menu is huge has never been my strongest suit, so I was relieved when Sasha
(our resident Indian foodie) stepped up to the describing of different dishes. After receiving some hot towels to clean our hands, we ended-up with naan, palak paneer, a black lentil dish, some chicken and
goat, and a belated order recommended by a group of Indians across the room. We
had heard a few sizzling plates go out to people, and curiosity got the better
of Sasha. The dish was a stuffed paneer dish with peppers, onions and a few
other things. All delicious and not too spicy, I loved it! Dennis tried Ugandan
Waragi and knocked-back a martini (he must have been feeling those by the end),
before settling down with some tonic to finish off the dinner.
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| Present wrappings find other uses all over the world! |
Then it was home to the bonfire, and s’mores (curiosity of Aileen-
a longer term intern for Spark that arrived last week). I was a bit sorry to
finish off the marshmallows so soon, but perhaps she will get an address here
to receive a care package in the future! There were of course the usual
disagreements of burning them ‘mallows or golden browning them, but in the end
they were all delicious and we each ate one to many without thinking twice! Then
we told jokes, stories, and played a modified tri-round charades game. It was
fun, and I am glad that we all had such a wonderful last evening with Dennis. I
was definitely sad to see my travel buddy go the next morning, but glad that I
could help pack and get the last couple of pictures out to him from my camera
before he went.
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| Had to have one last Igisoro game before departure... |
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