Last night, Colleen's last night here, we went to a place called "Car Wash," that's literally a car wash but also has a restaurant attached to it. Well, there is a gravel, fenced-in area that has tables and chairs and the food is really good. The last time I was there, the entertainment was lip syncing to American hip-hop, and this time there was a live band! It's more of a local place than an ex-pat place, which is fun. But alas, after a fun week exploring Kigali with me, Colleen left this morning to climb Kilimanjaro! I am still having trouble running the hills of Kigali, so I admire everyone doing that climb this summer.
Weekend plans
I'm going to have a pretty low-key weekend exploring the city a bit. Tomorrow one of the ladies from the guest house, Sophie, and I are going to meet in the morning and walk around the city before having lunch. I see her every day and she kindly (and patiently) helps me with my French and Kinyarwanda.
I mentioned before that there's a Yahoo Group for the whole city called Kigali Life. It's heavily used by ex-pats buying and selling things as well as organizing social events so people can meet. I responded to a message about yoga and pilates and am hopefully meeting-up with some people from that group this weekend for lunch or something. Anyway, the rest of my time will include some work on my projects for EGPAF. If the weather is nice, that may happen at a pool! You can buy day passes to the pool at Milles Collines.
Umuganda
Today I learned another interesting fact about Rwanda. At work today I was advised that tomorrow morning there will be no cars on the road and no businesses will be open. Why? Because tomorrow is Umuganda. On the last Saturday of each month, people across Rwanda are obliged to participate in community service. Digging ditches, sweeping the grounds, making composts, building houses, clearing land, or any other activity that is helping the country becoming better.Therefore, no businesses operate and no one is allowed to drive. It goes from 7:00am until noon. Even more interesting is that this tradition dates back hundreds of year, prior to colonization.
Things to know / lessons learned when traveling in East Africa
At breakfast this morning Colleen and I were talking about all of the things we learned about traveling in East Africa that weren't explicit in any guide books.We thought people might find some of this interesting / helpful.
- Just because your flight is confirmed doesn't mean you have a ticket - it really doesn't mean anything actually. Make sure you have an eticket number or you will not be getting on that plane. This almost caused me to miss my flight to Tanzania a few weeks ago.
- Always exchange currency through dollars. Never exchange East African currency directly for East African currency. When we tried to exchange Rwandan francs for Ugandan shillings, we realized that we were going to lose about 20-25% of the value of the currency. So, instead we converted to dollars first. I don't understand why this is the case.
- Don't assume you'll have wi-fi anywhere. If you've tried to Skype with me, you know that the internet connection here is truly a tool used to develop patience :)
- When you do have internet, don't assume you will be able to download anything. For example, it took me 30 minutes to download a 3 minute song on iTunes.
- Mini-flashlights are key. Headlamps are even better. My power doesn't go out much in Rwanda, but it went out frequently in Tanzania, and it was only turned on for 3 hours a day in Uganda.
- Always have an adequate supply of US dollars. For example, in Tanzania you can only pay for your visa in USD, not the local currency. Interestingly, this applies even if you're not from the U.S. So if I were from Australia, I'd still have to go get US dollars to pay for my Tanzania visa.
- ATM's only work sporadically, if they're available at all. As some of our friends unfortunately learned this summer, ATM's here love to eat up your debit cards :)
- Credit cards are not commonly accepted. If they are, then only VISA works in many places.
- Bring an extra voltage converter. I learned this the hard way. For some reason, last week my voltage converter from Wal-Mart melted and shut down. I really only needed it for my hair dryer, so I figured I'd just go buy a little hair dryer at Nakumatt. That was before I realized that a hair dryer costs $140 in Rwanda....wow.
- Don't assume it's cheaper to visit here. For reference, lunch costs between $5 and $10, depending on what you have. A coke is about $1.25-$2.00 in most places. A bottle of water is $0.75-$1.00. Hotels in Kigali range from $50-$60/night for a basic guest house (like mine) to $250+ at Milles Collines or Hotel Serena. A jar of peanut butter is $5-$6. And laundry is $1 per piece. Keep in mind that these are Kigali prices, which are inflated due to the influx of ex-pats and the overall economic strength of the economy here.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Always,
Meredith
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