Why is this night different?

We returned from our sunny, care-free (well, somewhat) beach vacation in Zanzibar to the spring holiday season (Passover and Easter) and to a country in the middle of the annual mourning period commemorating the Genocide.

There were rumors floating around Kigali that a Chabad Rabbi would be arriving with Matzah and Kosher wine to conduct a seder.  With only two days to go before Passover, it was finally confirmed that his trip was cancelled and we were on our own to figure out the matzah and seder.  I made a couple of fruitless attempts to contact the Rabbi in Kinshasa (Chabad of Central Africa) to see if he would be our supplier before we decided to just go ahead and make our own.  I posted on the local ex-pat list-serve inviting anyone interested to our seder and a few other seder invitations were posted by others as well.  Nava, Saadya and I spent Sunday afternoon making matzah.  As Nava rolled out here first matzah I noticed the shape quite by accident looked oddly familiar and...voila, we had out African Matzah in the shape of Africa!

Matzah by Nava

On Monday evening we sat down to our seder with two guests, Yaron, an Israeli who is an agricultural specialist here on a private contract working on a project to try to grow wheat and Wendy, an American who is here with "Save the Children" on a 6 month contract. Our seder table was beautifully set with kanga tablecloth from Zanzibar and a mouthwatering charoset that Patricia concocted from native produce (macadamia nuts, cashews, mango, apple and grape juice). There were a few items we couldn't find so we improvised a shank bone and maror.  Saadya led the seder and did a great job.  Nava was sad to find herself once again the youngest but managed the four questions without the benefit of LGA classroom practice.  I had one paper copy of a Haggadah and some pdf files so you'll notice a computer on our table.

Looks like a seder table doesn't it?

Saadya led

Our seder

Our seder disasters were minimal, nobody spilled wine on a white tablecoth and there were no matzah balls to sink to the bottom of our stomachs.   I did make a terrible pilau rice and have now been banned from all future rice making activities.  Funnier than my rice, Yaron wanted to bring some mixed fruit for dessert but when we opened the can it turned out he had bought an industrial sized batch of mixed tropical fruit jam.  Yep, this night was same, different, same.

Friday of that same week was a day-off as Good Friday is a national holiday in Rwanda.  Nava and Patricia went to a Antja, Rob and Yana's house to color eggs.  Antja and Rob are German and British respectively and are here as architects working on a library project, they arrived in Kigali at about the same time as us, coming from 11 years in Uganda.  Their daughter Yana is in 2nd grade at ISK where Nava goes to school.  We had to work very hard to get eggs that are whitish to take on the color since most eggs here are brown (with white yolks!) and I thought to buy food coloring from one of the Indian stores where I got a vivid red, green and yellow. 

Dyed eggs in a Rwandan basket

Then on Sunday we joined this family and a couple of others for a brunch and egg hunt at their house.

Nava on the hunt for chocolate

The brunch was great, good food, nice social atmosphere and plenty of playmates.  The big added bonus is that the yard at Antja's house has some trees that are producing piles of avocado, guava and pomegrantes as long as the local vervet monkeys stay away.  Nava came home with both a bag of chocolate and a bag of avocadoes, Saadya, Patricia and I came home with full tummies and the good feeling of having some social ties.