Soccer registration for Yusuf

Yusuf at the Rwanda Soccer Federation where he registered as a player in Rwanda.

Our friend, Juma, drove us to the Federation in his lovely, old Mercedes.  That's Zain in front right.  Juma is a translator fluent in Kinyarwanda, Arabic, French and English.  He's transferring to Darfur, Sudan for nine months and has invited us to his wedding in Kigali when he returns!  A lovely, gentle man whom we will miss.  He loves my cooking, by the way.

Attended Soccer Game outside Kigali

We drove with the General Manager of Yusuf's soccer team, SEC, to Rwamagana, about 60 km to the east of Kigali last Sunday.  Very fertile farmland with lots of banana trees.  Rwamagana was settled by Arabs from Oman a long time ago.

Arriving in Rwamagana and having some African Tea at a local restaurant.  African Tea is a mellow blend of ginger, tea and hot milk.  We loved it!

Very fertile land in a valley east of Kigali.

Local dwellings along the smooth asphalt road which is maintained for transport of agricultural products.  (Lots of big trucks.)

A little cool that day but pleasant.

Old mosque in Rwamagana.  New mosque being built to the right.

Yusuf took this picture before his team played.  He is not registered to play yet.  This pitch was very poor using wood chips as line markers.  The police guard uses it for practice and one end had no turf only red clay which had turned to mud due to earlier rain.

Very athletic players with unique style of play.  They are Second Division in Rwanda.  Eight players were moved up recently to Division One so these boys are new playing together.

This was a field beside the soccer pitch.  The birds feeding on the ground are large crow-like creatures with a white band around the chest.  According to Wikimedia, it is a Pied Crow common in East, South and Equatorial Africa.  There's one that sit's often on top of our house at the back letting out several belches of  "CAAW" before it swoops off down over the golf course.  Much larger than Canadian crows...more like ravens with black bills.

Drove out from Rwamagana to a 'finger' lake, tourist area called Muhezi.  The boy on the left was biking on the country road and knew the General Manager.  That's Yusuf on the right.  I believe the green bushes on the left are newly planted macadamia trees.  There's a deep, narrow lake in the valley toward the left.  End of day and I heard a mosquito buzzing around my right ear.  Time to go home to Kigali!

Photos around our neighborhood

Here is a collection of shots around our neighborhood.

Tennis courts near our house.

The Rwanda Development Board which is facilitating our business here.

Balancing act...

View from open-air restaurant at Manor Hotel looking south.

View of our house from the street.  It is a semi-detached but no one lives in the other half.

I walked up the hill from our house which you can see on the right.  Bosco's house with the barking guard dog is on the left with the black iron balcony railing.  House in between is rented to an airline where its flight attendants stay as required.

This is the storm drain with the airline house to the right and Bosco's house to the left.  Beautiful blue, morning-glory type flowering bushes.

This is our front gate which is open about a foot for me to re-enter.  Grounds person sleeps in the left tower where there is that turret-like window.  He's high and dry there and has two small rooms at the left lower side of our house with his own quarters.  We give him food regularly.

Lessons Learned so far...

Truly, the following points should be shared by anyone coming to Rwanda. But then, who would ever undertake such an adventure without the full support of multinational corporation with a department of staff dedicated to giving accurate advice to valued executive staff? 

1. If you live in urban areas, you don't have to pack a ton of DEET bug spray to ward off mosquitoes.  I have heard only one mosquito buzzing around my head.  That was when I was in a remote part of the Eastern Province at dusk.  I was wearning bug spray and a head scarf but was terrified that I might be dead from malaria within 24 hours.  Based on warnings from the Travel Health people at home, I was thinking that maybe malaria-carrying mosquitoes don't have any buzzing sound and can sneak up on me (someone who grew up in Muskoka).  Where are all the so-called mosquitoes???
2. Do bring the chlorine dioxide mixture to treat your own water which has been filtered already of any visible contaminants.  None of us have suffered any of the dreadful, dysentry-type symptoms that we we warned about by Travel Health officials back home.
3. Buy from small farmer huts located near a local Supermarket. Can you remember bringing home farm fresh eggs in a brown paper bag? Just bought a huge bag of green peas.  I've never tasted peas as full-flavoured as good in Grandma Goltz's clay pea patch. Prices are great and food is fresh although it probably needs to be treated.  For precaution, soak this food in a strong concentration of chlorine dioxide before handling in the kitchen or boil it for at least 20 minutes like I did the peas. 
4. Understand fully what you are getting for Internet service and how to download more time.  Look for promotions among the local service companies.  For example, after gobbling many megabytes of data thinking that our service was 'unlimited', we have figured out that we should have topped up our daily quota before it ran out.  Also, 'browse all day' in fact means maximum 2 GB which we ate up within hours.  Furthermore, we pay about $2 per day for this promotion but we have to reinitialize the service each day after prepaying for several days at a time.  This sounds pretty complicated to me.  Why not give us unlimited for a set number of days?  "Unlimited by this particular service provider won't be available for 2-3 months but at least its high-speed service is consistent - when it's working.
5. Make sure a portable internet stick for your Apple laptop is compatible.  We were forced to buy a WiFi router for our Apple laptop and that resulted in the strange payment arrangement described in Item 4 above.
6. The easiest access is an Internet stick with unlimited access for about $17/week.  However, you have to go back to the service provider to have more time added to the stick.
7. You can buy local SIM cards for your mobile phone and purchase little vouchers for about 3 dollars which give you a couple hours talking for outbound calls.  Incoming calls are free.  However, make sure the voucher has not expired especially if you buy if from someone standing on the street corner even if they are wearing the service providers uniform!  Went back to that bunch of streetcorner vendors and they showed me all the cards are dated 2011.  So, one of them took one of the vouchers and uploaded more time for me.  Problem with my earlier voucher was that the "scratch" strip peeled completely off on me taking the voucher code digits with it.  Unfortunately, I didn't decipher the digits accurately and thought the card was expired.  
8. In humid tropical climates, if your electrical water heater stops working, the metal plug could be corroded and needs to be replaced.  This we discovered after four days of cold showers.  Mind you, "cold" in the tropics means  "tepid" in Canada and at the most, just stimulates the lymph nodes.
9. When applying for Resident Permits, make sure you understand completely all the documents required.  I don't know why this process hasn't been completely documented.  The only thing I read was the need for a police clearance.  Believe me, there's always more so be prepared.  For example, you have to be able to prove your relationship to the person apply for the Permit if you are applying as a Dependent. 
10. Last but not least, take a week to sleep as you adjust to this fantastic warm, gentle climate in the tropical highlands of East Africa.  Life is simpler here than at home and a common phrase I keep hearing is "no problem."

Yusuf's Casa Kigali

Here are some pictures of Yusuf's room at our Casa Kigali. We brought the comforter and cover from Ikea in Toronto.  Perfect light weight for this climate.

The 'wired' generation.  Helps with home schooling and not feeling lonely with old friends just a click away.

Using the old Tiger beach towel from home as a floor mat.  How could I not bring it to Africa?

Common bathroom as above which Yusuf uses.  Yes, there's a modern, flush toilet but I don't take pictures of toilets.

Heading out to practice.

Returning from practice.

Kigali volcanic dust which comes off easily like powder.

Yusuf catching up to Zain as they head out to travel by motorcycle taxis to soccer practice.  Gate being opened by our grounds person, Juma.

Weather, House & Food

The weather never changes here except between light clouds and clear skys at night with a million stars in the southern hemisphere.  (We're two degrees below the equator.)  There's always a light breeze.  When the sun breaks though the fluffy clouds, it is very intense and dries the clothes on the line like on a hot day in July back home in Toronto.

Zain has been dealing very effectively in English with the mainly French-speaking rental agent.  (If you know Zain, you know what I mean.)  Over the past two days, the agent sent a plumber (un plommier) to replace the master bath shower taps and the kitchen sink taps. The toilet seat is missing a nut, if you can imagine! Also, an electrician came to replace bulbs that had burnt out especially in the cavernous stairwell that has no window.

One day when I was moving a curtain downstairs, a gray-green salamandar fell down and bounced of my left forearm before crash landing to the floor and making a quick exit under the couch.  Zain was in hot pursuit.  He and Yusuf lifted the couch and the creature skitted along the floor but was not fast enough for Zain's quick foot.  At the same time, I said to catch it and take it outside.  Too late after I saw a leg go flying.  Then, the other day, there was another one skooting up the wall.  The two must have been mates.  I quietly mentioned the second one to Yusuf in the event that he sees it and suggested that Yusuf try to catch it.  Haven't seen the creature since so hopefully he went out the same way he came in.

Zain had purchased a huge hunk of lean beef which I cut into three sections and boiled with bay leaves for a while yesterday until it was tender.  Then, I sliced strips and fried gently in olive oil adding salt, pepper, ginger, garlic and cumin.  Finally, I added some tomato paste diluting it with water.  Yusuf said that was the best beef dish he's ever had!  So, I told him we'll call it Mom's Kigali Beef.  Actually, I tried to replicate how Zain has cooked this in Toronto to the delight of anyone who has evern eaten it at our house.  However, I'm finding that the food here seems to have more robust flavour.  Actually, the slap of beef was a beautiful rich, red color.  The tangerines are large and a little pithy but very flavourful and juicy.  We also have some small, firm green apples like Granny Smith.  I'm hoping to make a dessert with them although Yusuf prefers them raw.  Beyond a doubt, the small fresh tomatoes are absoulutely delicious and cost $2 CAD for about 10 of them wrapped in cellophane on a styrofoam tray. 

I brought some chlorine dioxide as recommened by the Travel Health people in Toronto to add to the tap water.  I use it also in a more concentrated dose to soak all fruits and vegetables including carrots, green beans and cassava (potatoe-like root vegetable) even before I peel the root vegetables.  Bottom line is that water has to be boiled or treated.  I even use treated water to brush my teeth although Zain doesn't bother.  I suppose it's okay as long as we don't ingest raw water.

Flying KLM Toronto-AMS-Kigali

It was a night flight, cramped somewhere in the middle of a Boeing 747-400.  Because of the electrical box that supplied TV screens to individual seat , I had half the leg space that I expected.  They don't tell you that when you select your seat online.  Had a great piece of hot salmon served on rice with fresh piece of lemon.  Also, the pudding desserts that include dairy i.e. calcium, are great.  Slept until a man in our row had a huge cough or sneeze.  I woke up and automatically asked him if he was all right.  Sorry, sorry, he said.  Amsterdam airport is always great with great merchandising and fresh food.  Yusuf and I had a $10 breakfast of pancakes and fresh juice e.g. organic carrot juice for me and apple-mint for him.  When people saw what we were ordering, they all asked for it too!  Yusuf knew what to order since he had been there with Zain in November en route to and from Qatar for some soccer investigation.  (Yusuf met Zain in AMS since Zain was coming back from Africa at the time and they both came to Canada together.)

Anyway, I paid for a seat upgrade on the flight from AMS to Kigali...$47 each to sit in the exit row which gave us basically a playpen space to stretch and stand up. It was really nice and the stewardess sat backwards guarding the exit and she was very nice.  You can see the pictures we both took from those two seats together by the window.  The Italian Alps were spectacular in the bright morning sunshine!

Zain was at the airport waiting for us and he was almost jumping up and down with excitement watching us collect our bags from behind a steel gate barrier.  We all hugged and I asked him if he was "the goose that we were wildly chasing?"  He laughed and said he didn't know.

Left Toronto, Canada a week ago!

Last Tuesday, March 13, my 17-year old son and I flew KLM via Amsterdam to meet my husband, Zain Khan, in Kigali, Rwanda.  He has rented a McMansion here and is very excited about this very progressive African country.  We want to be part of the Information Technology roll-out.  Of course, once on the ground here, I can see some of the challenges.  For example, high-speed Internet is 'not'.  At least Google is making this blog site possible and MTN, a local service provider, is transmitting this connection from a 'stick' in the side of my laptop as I sit at a solid wood dining room table.

It's early in the morning while 'the west' is sleeping.  Our grounds person, Chuma, is washing the front steps.  He lives in a small apartment on the side of the house.  His main job is to let people in and out of the front gate and to keep up the landscaped yard.  He knows more English than French which is surprising since most regular Rwandians I've met prefer French.  Chuma is a young man, very hard working.  We share our evening meal with him and he seems to love our exotic combination of Canadian and East Indian cuisine.

My son, Yusuf, is completing his secondary school education online with the Ministry of Education based in Toronto.  His priority is to train in soccer here African style.  Yesterday, he went for a trial with a local league and came back smiling.  During the three-hour practice, the first hour was spent running 48 laps around a track.  Needless to say, he had to drop out part way through.  During the exercise session, the boys had a routine that they put to rhythm.  For example, they were literally dancing as they moved their legs and ankles in some kind of exercise formation.  Part of this involved raising their knees and clapping their hands under the thigh.  Yusuf had difficulty keeping the rhythm and they all laughed with him.  More later today since at least he was invited to return to the try-out for the team.

Today, Zain and I must visit the Rwanda Development Board to inquire about extending our visitor visas beyond the initial 30 days which Canadians are normally granted online when coming here.  Our business will focus on various Commonwealth African countries while we use Rwanda as our base in Africa.  Zain has travelled extensively throughout Subsaharan Africa for the past ten years while providing Telecom Management training and consulting.  During this time, I have supported this business from Toronto while raising our boys.  Now, the older one, Idrees, is staying at our house in Toronto while attending business school.  We expect to return to Toronto in early July at least to visit.