Murisanga (please feel at home?)

Now that we've been here a month, it seems time to describe the ins and outs of daily life for us.  Believe it or not, we are just as exciting (or perhaps just as dull) as we are in the States.

Our House:  We are settling into our house.  Here is our address...we live in Kimihurura/Rugando, travel down the street opposite Parliament, after you pass the corner shop and the signs for ISK you keep going down the hill and then you come to the yellow bar, take a sharp left and look for the bright yellow gate; that's our house.  No, we don't have a street address, noone does and very few streets have names.  Naming streets and providing street addresses are in the long term plans for the future of this city.  In the meanwhile just look for that yellow bar and you know you are near our house.  When you get here, you can find the bell that is hidden in the bushes and ring, one of our guards or our housekeeper will let you in.  The house itself, like all houses here is in a walled in "compound."  We live in proximity to our neighbors but never see them (though trust me, we hear them).  Compared to the wealthy (very very wealthy) ex-pat community our house is quite simple.  We have 4 bedrooms, a guest room, a kitchen, a dining room and a seating area.  The best part of our house is the back porch.  This past weekend we went out and bought some plants and now this is where we sit for afternoon tea if we are home.  Most afternoons we are not here for tea because of work or school but it is still a nice place to sit.



New beautiful planting on right

Daily life:  Just like in the States, I am the first one up each morning (well, our night guard is supposed to be up all night but I think I've seen him snoozing in the early hours of the morning).  When I arise around 5:00am it is 10:00pm in Northampton so I get up in today while the most of you are living in yesterday and about to get into bed.  At about 6:00am our guard plugs in the water heater so we can have hot showers (if we have water and if the heater works).  By 7:00am the house is really hopping, Saadya and Nava are getting ready for school and Chantal our housekeeper has arrived.


Chantal in our Kitchen

 Breakfast like most meals here is a struggle.  The food we eat is always just a hair off, for instance we have tried so many different forms of milk but none of them taste right in cereal or tea so now we only use milk for cooking.  Breads are tricky because they tend to last about one day and then you can use them as baseball bats.  I'd say that thus far the biggest complaints in our house are food based complaints.  To her credit, Chantal tries very very hard to please our disciminating palates.  Once breakfast is over Saadya and Nava walk to school and I get picked up by a driver for the trip downtown to KHI.  In the afternoon, Saadya and Nava return home, most often walked by Patricia, and once my work day is over I get driven back and we try our hardest to enjoy dinner.  Most dinners are declared a success when 2 or more of us enjoy the food! I think both Saadya and I have lost at least 10 pounds here (Dr. Atkins look out, have I got a diet book in my future...).

I do have a new "vice" in my day.  I took a membership at the Serena Hotel spa.  The Serena is the fanciest hotel in this city, 5 stars, and it is a couple of blocks from KHI.  Now each day at lunch I go to a very chic, western style gym (well the TV is usually set to Al Jazeera, not exactly like Hampshire YMCA), I workout and then enjoy the fresh juice and other amenities of the spa.  It is luxurious and I get my exercise.

School, ISK (http://www.isk-rwanda.org/), has thus far worked quite well for both Saadya and Nava.  Nava has already had a number of playdates and gets along well with her classmates.  Saadya is involved in an afterschool activity for students at international schools in which he is trying to create a news story for a competition.  One of Saadya's new subjects is debate and, not surprisingly, he seems to enjoy it very much.  Both children are also having French class though I'll be surprised if they leave here being able to say much more than croissant and baguette.

Weekends:  Thus far, weekends have been tricky because we don't have a car and have discovered that being in this city carless is very difficult and gives one a land-locked feeling.  We do sometimes take bus adventures and a couple of times have hired a driver.  Last weekend we hired a driver to help us get the plants for our yard.  The weekend before we took a bus adventure to Caplaki, a crafts market.  We got to the market easily enough with just a brief interlude under a tree with some school children while it poured.  Shopping for crafts was fun...

Nava at Caplaki learning the basket balancing skill

but the return trip home was frustrating as we stood at the bus stop while bus after bus passed us by.  I guess we don't know the secret signal to getting buses to stop for us as yet.  Patricia is now our most savvy bus traveler as she has used busses both within and outside the city.  We hope that we will do some more travel outside the city in the next weeks.

Weather  OK, you New Englanders have had a snowy winter and I shouldn't be complaining but the heat has been tough on us all.  Last week it was in the high 80's most every day.  This week we have had amazingly hard rains and tremendous thunder/lightening storms.  We are not shoveling snow but we have been too hot and too wet in between being just right and seeing the rainbow.

Yes, our daily life, like daily life everywhere, is the sum of things that work, things that don't, moments of feeling homesick and disgusted, and moments of pleasure and happiness.