Shipping Personal Vehicle to Rwanda

Hi Veronic in Montreal!  This eBlogger doesn't seem to provide me with your email address.  Therefore, would you please contact me directly at lindagoltzdeen@gmail.com?  We can give you advice and information that you require but would rather not post it publicly on this blog site.  Thanks for your post and I look forward to your email.  Linda Deen in Kigali.

Last Week in Kigali for a While

As many of you know, we will be returning to Toronto shortly.  Rwanda has become a fascinating place for me personally.  Because of the warm weather, sunshine, and unprocessed foods, I believe that my health has improved.  There are genuinely loving people here who have nothing to offer but their kind smiles and the strength of their youth.  (Contrary to the West, I have seen only very few 'old' people here.  They call me "Mama" and my husband "Papa".)

The 50th anniversary celebrations at the stadium near our house inspired me.  There wasn't one empty seat and no one was forced to attend.  Most of the speeches were in English.  There was a marching band, soldiers parading, a special combat display of karate-type movements, a comedy skit on the field showing three women physically defending themselves against a bunch of good-for-nothing young men, and singing.  President Kagame spoke about the need for the citizens not to think of themselves as 'victims' but to seek to leave a better country for its children than what they as adults had inherited.

 So, this will probably be my last post on this particular blog.  Here are my latest pictures...

Bouganvillia on our front iron fence.

Our front yard overlooking a park.  Lots of birds including very elegant eagles spiralling between us and the heavens.  When they catch something, they sit on our power poles to eat it letting any 'fluff' fall to the ground.

This is Ezekial, our guardian with his matchete.  The bottom end is used to swipe at the tough grass to cut it.

Fabrice, Yusuf's soccer friend invited him to a family wedding engagement party.

Girls serving ice tea with honey.

The bride being escorted into the party.

Bridesmaids with Miss Rwanda (I think) on the left.

The betrothed couple.  Very gentle people with extended family bonds and self-respect.

Professional dancers.

The 'wall flowers'.

So much lovely sunshine here now that the heavy rains stopped end of May.  Winter here now with very cool nights and hot sun in the afternoon.  This is on the front steps of our house.  I had this dress sewn from a thick cotton batik material.  My hair is very long now and tied back.

June Pics

Here are some pictures from my Sony Cybershot.  We've become accustomed to the 'unexpected' now.  That means that we can live more normal lives here and enjoy the fantastic warm weather and increasing sunshine...no more heavy rains.

This was my birthday dinner at an outdoor Indian restaurant.  Zain arranged for the staff to bring a surprise 'cake' made of fresh fruit, ice cream, and tea light candles.  They sang Happy Birthday to me with recorded music coming from the music system.

 Zeena (right), our student (business)/housekeeper/personal shopper, buying mangos for us at the Kirimonko market. She is a tough negotiator!  

Piles of legumes at the Kirimonko Market.

The open air part of the Kirimonko Market.  

Zeena (right) wearing the new glasses that I bought for her.

Zain and I at the Genocide Memorial Centre.  Very impressive and thought-provoking exhibition of pictures, quotes, commentary, human bones including skulls, and clothing from that period.  The point was that genocide has occurred in other places at other times and must be recognized as such and be prevented in the future.  The message about blame boiled down to the individual conscience.  This country has young adults like Zeena and Ezekial who both lost their parents 18 years ago.  We have observed the void in their lives especially since with dignity and appreciation, they have adopted us as parents!  We don't mind because all they look for is human kindness. They have remained good people despite their struggles in a country where there are so many like them including those who as children lost not only family but legs and arms.  The genocide was a man-made, racist mania instigated by a few very bad people who manipulated others using mass media including radio.  They controlled missiles and arms provided by the French government at the time.  At this site, there are 250,000 unknown people buried in a mass grave.  It's estimated that close to a million people were killed.

Visiting the Hotel de Mille Colline formerly Hotel Rwanda.  This is my favourite painting with the blue baskets raised to the blue sky.   By the way, this is my natural African sun tan!

The Hotel de Mille Collines (Hotel of a Thousand Hills) has that "boxy" look from the 1970's similar to our home in Toronto.  This lobby has been decorated recently with a French flair e.g. black velvet drapes for the  meeting room to the rear, wall paper on the two pillars beside me.

The weather here is good for the soul!

Our grounds person who comes from a rural area seemed to sense as I (also from a farm) did toward the end of May that the rains were subsiding.  He planted “cucombre” (cucumber) seeds in a little garden plot that he dug up and propped up with bricks on the incline at the side of our house.  So far, in addition to the cucumbers, I think we have tomatoes and a local variety of spinach growing there.  He built a shelter of branches to protect the seeds from any lingering pounding rains.

Yesterday, I sat facing west on our verandah in the early afternoon and realized that the bright sun was over my right shoulder.  It was heading west but in the northern hemisphere.  Because of all the rain and cloud during the “long rains” from February to June, and also because we’ve been very busy since arriving here, I never noticed this before.  At about six a.m., the sun starts its steep climb at about a 45 degree angle and then descends just as quickly to set by six-thirty p.m. 

In East Africa we are greatly affected by [great changes in air pressure over Asia that the winds reverse their direction] as air flows from eastern Africa into Asia during the northern hemisphere's summer.  In the northern hemisphere, winter air flows from high pressure areas to low pressure areas.  In Asia and eastern Africa this movement is called the Monsoon. (Minns, 26)

In Kigali (pronounced Kigari because there’s no “l” sound in the Kinyarwanda language making my name "Rinda"...just kidding), we live in a savannah or tropical continental climate fewer than two degrees south of the equator.   The pressure of the atmosphere on the earth’s surface is very light.  The greatest and most consistent heat from the sun is received here.  The hot surface rises and splits up in the upper atmosphere and moves either north or south.  It gets deflected slightly to the east by the earth’s rotation.  As this air moves out to the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, it becomes denser as it cools.  Therefore, there is a continual arrival of air from the equatorial regions and an ever increasing centrifugal forced which, because the air is rotating round the earth’s axis faster than the earth itself, tends to restrict a further movement to the poles.  Consequently, much of the air above the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the earth descends to the earth’s surface.  (24-25)

In our winter (May – Sept), as the earth tilts away from the sun and the sun appears to move north to settle over the Tropic of Cancer, the land in the northern tropical areas becomes very hot and heats the air.  This heated air rises and a vast low pressure area results.  The pressure is so low that air from south of the Equator is attracted to this low pressure area.  This air has travelled over the Indian Ocean and has high moisture content.  When it reaches the hot land, it is forced to rise and rain falls for two reasons.

1.       Convectional rain because of heated air rising and then cooling.
2.              Relief rain when mountain barriers force it to rise.

With the approach of summer when the sun moves south to settle over the Tropic of Capricorn, the area of lowest pressure moves south as well...and wet winds from the Indian Ocean...are pulled into the interior to bring summer rainfall (Nov – March).  (34-35)  (This represents the longest, heaviest rains for Rwanda.)

Honestly, since arriving here in mid-March, I thought sometimes that I was living under Niagara Falls due to the ‘roar’ of the rain ‘down in Africa’ and also the seemingly solid walls of rain which on occasion lasted for more than an hour at a time! It would wake us up at night.  On March 18, we also had wind from the north which forced the rain in through our less than well-maintained McMansion windows.  (The black, tar-like caulking was missing in some places especially where the water spilled over from the upstairs balcony into the living room.  No matter, we just swept the water out of the house over the porcelain tiled floor with a broom with a rubber edge since there was no door sill...that’s got to be where the salamanders come in.)  Thankfully, we had sound roofing but you can imagine the roar of the rain beating on the ceramic or, as with our current home, newer aluminum roofing tiles!

On my tourist map of Rwanda, the climate is described as “temperate” with temperatures of 25-30 degrees C during the day; 15 degrees at night throughout the year.  There are two rainy seasons – the “long rains between February to June and the “short rains” between mid-September to mid-December.  Dry months are January, July, and August to mid-September.  The lowest point of elevation is 3,000 feet above sea level at the Rusizi River in the north and west which drains into the Congo basin.  (The other 80 percent of water drains north into the Nile basin) and the highest point is almost 15,000 feet in the volcanic north-west area of Virunga where the 'misty-mountain' black gorillas live.  The relatively high elevation of Rwanda provides a cooling effect on this tropical zone.  “Mountains dominate central and western Rwanda.  These mountains are part of the Albertine Rift Mountains that flank the Albertine branch of the East African Rift; this branch runs from north to south along Rwanda's western border.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda)

In conclusion, having been here during the worst of the rainy season, I think that the best time to be in Rwanda for a six-month stay would be August through January.  Certainly, the arthritis in my knees has been less noticeable.  My husband said, “…and look at your complexion!” and my son claims that I’ve lost weight because of the high fibre diet of fresh food.  What more can I ask?

Reference:

Minns, W.J.,   A Geography of Africa.  Macmillan.  1984. Malaysia.

Pictures taken in May, 2012

Northern Province (hills created from plates compressing)

Esonga Division 1 (light blue) playing at main stadium near our house

Front steps to our house (a bit of a climb!)

Our banana tree

Road in front of our house

This man's job was to keep hitting the rocks to break them up to fill the road in front of our house.

Ezekiel ("Izzy") our 'guardian' drying the new boots we bought for him

Me standing beside the fake elephant outside Nakumatt department store

Inside the Kirimonko (Remera) Market

A lovely, cheerful mother sorting potatoes with youngster tied to her back

The Potato Section (Irish and Sweet potatoes plus Cassava).  Hooks hang down from roof to weigh the big bags of potatoes.  

Fruits and vegetables behind the potatoes.  I was standing on a stool to take this shot while waiting for shoemaker to fix a leather seat for us.

The shoemaker fixing our leather seat.  He fixes shoes that we would through out in the "West".

Pool at the Hotel des Milles Collines (formerly the Hotel Rwanda where the Americans were evacuated by helicopter and left their native admin staff surrounded by Hutu army forces)  

Yusuf's 18th birthday at the Bourbon Cafe at the Kigali Towers downtown.

Yusuf's birthday while waiting to be served.  Zain is happy and relaxed during a very active 'retirement' in Rwanda.

Recent Pics of our New Rental House

This is our new rental house in Remera which is closer to Yusuf's soccer training beside the Amahoro Stadium.  It's a bungalow.  Master bedroom on the far right.  Living room between the two pillars.  Front door in centre behind purple bush.  Dining room behind window to left.  Outdoor table and chairs in front of dining room windo.  To far left is another window for a small room off the kitchen used for storage and ironing.

In this picture of the living dining area, the front door is on the left.  (You can see just the right edge of it.)  The holes above the door are set in concrete and screened from the outside.  The air blows freely when the wind blows but the temperatures even at night are very mild. I've never felt a chill here although the native people wear acrylic fleece and lined, waterproof jackets.  I guess this is the beginning of winter here i.e. May - Oct.!  We all sit down to eat in the formal dining room.  There is no eat-in kitchen.  It's quite lovely!  The furniture came with the house and is very heavy, solid wood.  I can barely move this love seat myself!  There are two single chairs and a 3-seat sofa.  We sit there after dinner with a hurricane candle burning and pretend this is our 3 million dollar cottage in Muskoka.  Definitely, it has a rustic feel to it with the comfy seating and soft color scheme.  I love it because I believe it belongs to a Rwandan lady who lives in Ottawa or Montreal.  I really appreciate the feminine design aspects contrary to the first house we lived in.

This is the transition to the kitchen with a hall to the right taking us to the back door.  Right again is a long hall to the bedrooms and bath.  Second door to hall from living room.  This huge China cabinet was in the dining room.  I had it move by about six local guys so we could use it for books and other storage.  It was so heavy but looks beautiful from the front door entry.

We purchased this LG top load washing machine for about $400.  It is hooked to both hot and cold water.  The hot water tank is elevated on the top left of the picture.  This machine has a pump for flushing dirty water out through the dark hose on the upper right of the machine.  Actually, I think that is the drain going from the wall into the floor on the ground to the right.  There are settings for the water level and also for various types of clothing.  There's also an "air dry" feature but I haven't tried that yet since we hang everything to dry on a wire clothesline.

This is the single water tank which is filled from the city supply by gravity and also comes into the house by gravity via the which pipes.  We shut off the water to have a tap fixed and no one seemed to understand why the water pressure became so low.  I finally guessed that there was air in the lines.  After doing a charade with "Izzy" to explain, he turned on the tap on the lower left of this picture to blow out whatever air he could.  Finally, the two hot water tanks have pressure again!  There's one tank outside serving the laundry, kitchen and the common bathroom.  The second tank is in the master bath.

Here is Yusuf sleeping under his mosquito net.  He has a lovely wooden clothes cupboard and a window with a desk underneath.  Very cozy!  His suitcases are piled on top of the wardrobe.  I found out from "Izzy" that he continually sprays outside the house for "critters" like cockroaches and big bugs.  This morning I found a cockroach upside down outside at the back apparently stunned by something like DDT.  As I was entering the back door after resolving the air in the water pipe problem, I spied a huge black winged insect on the edge of the door.  Izzy jumped to destroy it.  He explained through charade that that think could take a big piece out of a human leg and he went to get his insecticide container with a hose connected to it.  He showed me that it was empty and that if I were to give him $15 (10 thousand RWF), he would get more of the liquid to be able to ward off those dangerouse insects.  I hope that includes salamanders because I found one on a wall last week but before I could return with an oven mitt and paper bag, he had vanished!

Shipping Personal Vehicle to East Africa

Shipping a personal vehicle to Africa is not for the faint of heart. We were warned not to even think about shipping our car to East Africa.  The reasons included risk of the ship being hi-jacked by Somali pirates and all the corruption at the ports.  Well, I knew that if the Somalis managed to get hold of Zain’s car, that he would go directly to Mogadishu and simply get it back from the pirates or whomever they might have sold it!   

Turns out there was a significant backlog of shipments from Oman to East Africa.  Our car, which was in a shipping container by itself for obvious protection against bumps, scrapes and temptation for thieves of any description or orientation, left Toronto mid-February on a train to Montreal where it was shipped possibly to Antwerp.  From there, it arrived in Salalha, Oman where it sat in a backlog to East Africa. 

I recommend installing a GPS to track the exact global position of the vehicle (we didn’t) because no one else will be able to tell you where your car is at any given time.  I recall that the ship finally arrived in Dar Es Salam April 10.  It seems that it took nine days for it to be unloaded because our car didn’t start getting cleared by customs until about April 20.  Part of the problem was that the Bill of Lading said “cargo” which the port people thought meant the whole container.  Therefore, the “cargo” got piled with all the other containers rather than being unloaded as intended.  The shipping agent back home should have identified the “container contents”  to be unloaded in Dar Es Salam. 

The Clearing Agent in Dar Es Salam, whom we had to pay another sum of USD in advance, finally got the container moved and unloaded.  The bonded driver started out with the car on Friday, May 2.  However, the Clearing agent failed to give the bonded driver our original Purchase Invoice from Canada to prove at the Rwanda border that we didn’t steal the car before heading out to Africa. 

That’s when the driver called Zain at 8:30 Sunday a.m. in a panic asking in some kind of broken English for the Purchase Invoice.  Obviously, the Clearing Agent at the port cleverly gives out only the owner’s cell number to drivers for after hour emergencies.  Zain managed to call the General Manager of the company in Dubai because Sunday was a work day in the UAE.  He told Zain that all the documents would be with the agent in Dar Es Salam but we’d have to wait until Monday a.m.  In the meantime, the driver called back to say he was leaving the car and going back home to Dar Es Salam.  Zain was quite irate at this point because, if a man ever loved a car, Zain loves his 2002 Mercedes C320.  Picture it parked by the side of the road at a remote border crossing in the jungle.

In very simple English, Zain ordered the driver to stay put and get a hotel room.  By now, Zain had called the second Clearing Agent in Kigali who rose to the occasion.  Through all of this, the driver had not been given enough money for gas and Zain had to give the Clearing Agent in Kigali money for about another half tank of gas.  The Clearing Agent in Kigali proceeded to the border crossing to resolve the issues which included taking a copy of the Purchase Invoice which had been sent to us by email from Dar Es Salam.  It turned out that the original Purchase Invoice was sitting in a completely different Clearing Agent’s office in Kigali.  When we changed Clearing Agent way back when to save a few hundred dollars, the original Clearing Agent was supposed to courier all the documents to the Clearing Agent in Dar Es Salam.  They didn’t.

Once the car was in Kigali, the next challenge was to make sense of the Customs Clearing charges particularly when we were told that “that’s the way it is”.  Fortunately, Zain found a professional firm that would take care of everything including a proper invoice, American style, for a good sum less than the “that’s the way it is” scheme.  Even still, the Clearing Agent in Kigali said they needed proof that the shipper in Canada had been paid.  It seems that they didn’t understand the original wire receipt from our bank showing the details.  Finally, after going directly to Customs with the issue, the well informed Customs people told Zain that it was quite enough proof. At least because we have a two-year Residence Permit, there was no Customs duty on the car nor the pots and pans, books, and boots that we had packed as personal items.

It’s May 6 and Zain is proudly driving us around in his lovely car.  “Izzy” which is Zain’s short version of Ezekial, the name of our grounds person, also proudly washes it by hand early every morning.   We pick up a lot of red clay due to road construction near our house.  We have an International Traveller licence plate, third party local insurance and international auto insurance which I purchased before leaving Canada.  Insurance for the car here is almost half of what it would be at home.  We still need to get a certificate from the Motor Vehicle Licence place which probably involves a quick check to ensure that the car is roadworthy.  All is good that ends well.

Zain driving out through gate of our new house in the freshly washed car.

"Izzy" watching with pride!