Cadillac

Car Wash

[GMT +2 Rwandan time]

Ugh, what a night! We all went out for melange at Chez John last night. Some brilliant murals of gorillas on the walls. Melange (French for ‘mixture’?) means buffet over here. It’s the staple form of food: a selection of plantain, potatoes, rice, peas, spinach, cabbage, beans, fish and goat (or another red meat). Sometimes other dishes are included such as avocado or aubergine. It’s delicious, but very high-carb. Most people put on a bit of weight.

Also had a rare treat yesterday, both in one of the classes, where we had a quiz, and at the meal. Good chocolate was shared out. It’s very hard to get good chocolate here, apparently. Rwandan chocolate is pretty unpleasant and anything else is extremely hard to find, and expensive. It was hugely enjoyed by everyone.

The Director of VSO Rwanda also turned up and made a speech. He taught me the sign for Rwanda in AKR (Amarenga y’Ikinyarwanda/Rwandan Sign Language) – which is ‘gorilla’ :) He also raised a toast to my arrival, and to the work of other volunteers who had helped organise the training, which was lovely.

After that, some people went home and some of us (Paula, Joe, Sue, Joanne, Morley and Amanda) went on to Car Wash, which is a large pub complex – sort of an enclosed place with tables, chairs, some under-cover seating, a pool table and a bar.

After that, we headed on to Cadillac, the night club. It was a good, if slightly strange experience. The carpet is amazing – fluorescent orange, yellow and green! The music is very good, mostly African with the occasional one we knew from home. The only criticism (and I was very tired by the end) was that you can’t just dance without men constantly coming up and trying to dance with you. It can be quite invasive. There’s no harm meant by it, everyone is extremely tactile with each other, but as muzungu women you get a lot more of it.

It’s interesting, in this culture there’s no hang-up about physical contact. It’s common to see men dancing together or walking around holding hands. Paula said there’s a nice greeting that is more common to men than women, where they touch foreheads three times, a bit like kissing on the cheek.

It was a good night. Paula and I drank more than our fair share of warangi (Ugandan Gin – very good stuff). We shared a bottle. By the end I was totally shattered and dripping with sweat :op I shared a taxi back with Joanne and Morley, got back about quarter-to two.

The cost of things works out pretty well here. I reckon last night I spent about FRW2,000 at Car Wash. The meal was covered by VSO. FRW1,500 to get into Cadillac, 1,000 on water in there (500 a bottle) and 1,000 sharing the cab home (3,000 between three). So, a total of about 5,500 (£5.50) on a night out! Although, you can’t start thinking in those terms because you get paid in Francs, so you’re not living off sterling in the first place. But it’s an interesting comparison.

Anyway, I must go pack now. I had a brilliant lie-in this morning and woke up naturally. I’m now moving in with Martine across town for a couple of days, then into my house - hopefully on Monday. Martine offered yesterday, instead of going to another B&B. She’s going to teach me how to use my water purifier, gas stove and lamp, which arrived yesterday :)