KBC

KBC

I have had a most excellent night, and one that I did not think possible!

I went drinking. With the lads. And nobody proposed to me! lol

I had a totally wicked time.

It was Kirtsy's (another vol's) birthday and she threw a house party that pretty much everyone I know was going to. But I got a text from D earlier in the day asking if he could come see me to discuss his script.

I think I've mentioned this before, that there's a Rasta recording studio (Narrow Road) next to my office? It's run by Ezra who is a big name in Rwanda and is off on a tour of Europe soon until August/September, not the UK though I don't think. Basically, the office next door is full of really cool dudes. D moved down from Uganda about five months ago and works there six or seven days a week, just helping to run the studio. Sometimes he gets a little short on work so I hijacked some books from VSO for him.

He used to come into our office just to say 'hi' and we got talking about films. There's a film festival here later in the month and he wanted to enter a short. When he found out I can edit, we hit it off and he sent me the script to look at.

It's a true-life story about a friend who was raped by her teacher. It's very poignant as there is still corruption in the school systems here, whereby young female students are bribed: sex for grades. D's story happened in Uganda, where he's originally from. He is Ugandan, rather than refugee Rwandese. I've heard of it happening here too, from a teaching colleague. Drew (my AIDS Centre American friend with the big house) told us a heartbreaking story about his friend in the Cameroon who died aged 21 from AIDS, which he contracted from his first love/school sweetheart. Thinking it was an exclusive relationship, he confronted her to discover that her History Professor had been blackmailing her for grades for two years. She had contracted it from him, but did not know until her boyfriend was diagnosed. It's a big problem and one that does need to be exposed as people never talk about it. Nothing ever happened to the History Professor, possibly because HIV is a bigger stigma than abuse, or because people would blame the girl.

Anyway. We're going to work on it for next year. I'm introducing him to Celtx, which is what I use for scripting. It's free software for script formatting, plus a brilliant place to showcase your work, with a good community forum.

So, D turned up around 7:30, then Drew arrived shortly after. We continued the box of birthday wine, then headed over to Stella to meet a couple of Drew's friends: Christian and Regis, both Rwandese. Christian works in computer software and Regis is an accountant.

We got there to find Paula, Cathy, Marisa, Epiphanie and a couple of other vols already having a pre-party drink. We separated off and ordered brochettes and chips, as we'd be seeing them again later. Which we did. After getting a bit lost down the back roads of Kigali at night (biiig potholes, mud tracks, no lights lol). Wandered about for a while and then Regis casually asks: "Are we going to Nick's house?" - "Uh, yeah," I said. "How'd you know that?" He just shrugged and said "Oh, I know where that is." lol Aaaaargh!

Was a cool house party - tons of muzungus and Rwandese. Drink, music, food. It was Kirsty's 30th.

We stayed 'til the booze dwindled, then took a walk towards town. Honestly, I couldn't believe I was walking, tipsy, into town with four gorgeous blokies (Drew, D, Christian and Regis) having a truly laddish conversation and joking like I would on a night out with Gedge, Phil, Pete and Mark back home. 

Not a whiff of 'I love you, will you marry me?' In fact, we even laughed about that. I honestly didn't think I could have a night out like this. I know that sounds weird, but many blokes you meet are after a white wife and kids. They have no hesitation in asking you to marry them after five words of conversation. A lot of the time it's desperation born of poverty. Sometimes I think they think it's genuine. Either way, it's tiresome after a while. These guys were just so cool. And, of course, it's always fun to be with Drew - the token American everyone is entitled to take the mick out of ;) We have some great verbal sparring sessions joshing each other over our countries and national pride. It's funny how you really cling to that kind of humour sometimes - it can be hugely uplifting for no real reason.

Anyway, we got to Kabana, opposite the British Embassy, and drank 'til it closed. Nice place, but they have 'surprise unisex'. 

"Excuse me, where are the loos?"

"Through there." 

"Thanks... OH MY GOD THERE'S A MAN PEEING IN FRONT OF ME!" 

~check door~

hmm, yep, definitely the toilets...

I hate that kind of thing. I don't mind if I've had time to prepare, but otherwise it's a shock.

Then we mosied on to KBC (Kigali Business Centre) which is a club I'd never been to before. That and Cadillac are the two nightclubs really. I'd heard dodgy things about this one, so wasn't sure what to expect, but it was most excellent - waaaaaaay better than Cadillac. Sort of a cross between that and One Love - divided into rooms with a very cool lounge area, pool tables, and dance section. You could dance without being danced on too much. One guy did try and latch on at the beginning, but Christian swept me up and told the guy I was with him. After that, he backed off.

It was just one solid night. Seventh heaven. These gorgeous, intelligent blokies and none of them letches lol All of them great dancers. Half of VSO also turned up, too. It was fantastic. Such a cool night. KBC rocks and, now I know it's there, I think I will be paying a few more visits.

It's interesting how you can tell a lot about guys by their style of dance. It was like a sweetie shop and I just went between flavours lol Christian spent half the night showing me how to dance traditional sexy African-style. Lot of pelvic grinding, close holding and slow turns. Apparently, my fast spins are not so sexy. You have to slooooow down and wiggle your hips as you go round. He goes to Jo's salsa night, so I may start going more if he'll partner.

In contrast, D is a completely different style of dancer. Totally reggae and so damn well cool. Going between the two I had to mentally switch speeds. He's got this really nice kind of stepping thing going on that randomly reminds me of a man rocking a baby quiet. Sounds weird, but it's really yummy and calm.

Regis was trying to teach me to dance to a Congolese beat earlier in the evening. A lot of hips, kind of like static bhangra if that makes any sense? Very cool, but makes me feel like I have two left feet. It worked better when he sat on the bar stool and I danced against him. To be honest, by that time, we were almost danced-out.

I left in the wee hours - totally buzzing but completely knackered. D helped find me a moto. I flopped into bed at half-four. I was so sad to leave those guys. No doubt I'll be seeing them again soon. Possibly next week, as it's Mel's birthday.

I'm seeing Regis later today as he's very graciously just solved a major problem I was having. I'm off to Butare tomorrow, doing more research, and Jo is really ill. Six cats was just too much for her (did I mention she picked up the kittens whilst I was in Cyangug?) so I collected them the other day. We spent a wonderful Saturday in the garden. They wander out now and have a whale of a time. They're really growing into fine young cats. But it's left me in a bit of a panic about Butare, and maybe Kibuye the week after. Regis lives just across the road from me, at Chez Lando. He's agreed to drop in to feed/water/de-poop them whilst I'm away. I am soooo happy as, after giving my guard his one month's notice the other day, I seriously don't trust him to do it.

So, yay for parties. Yay for new friends and especially yay to extremely handsome, sexy, beautiful guys who can dance. I'm in a happy place :op