We had big plans to eat breakfast at Bourbon Cafe once we arrived in Kigali, so we were a little sad to head back to our house which currently has minimal food supplies. Once we got back I decided it was time to try out the oven portion of what I like to call our Easy Bake Oven:
Am I dating myself here? I totally had an easy-bake oven when I was a
kid and baked my first purple masterpieces by the mighty power of
lightbulb. (Thanks again Mom for letting me mess up your kitchen!)
About the size of a microwave, this has been serving as our stove, while
2 other non-functioning stoves serve as glorified trivets/ornamental
statues for our house. It's been a long adventure with the kitchen and
its definitely not over yet.
I busted out my biscuit recipe and managed to make a small batch in
spite of not having measuring spoons or cups and not knowing how hot the
oven could get. They turned out OK but next time I'm definitely
doubling the recipe... 2 each was not enough!
The oven smoked a little and also smelled a bit like burnt plastic when I was done, but I'm going to call it: Success!
Our landlord has hired a woman named Clementine to be our
Jane-of-all-trades; she does some cleaning, some laundry and also
functions as our daytime security guard. She also loves learning English
and as we were working she kept coming by the back door asking how to
say various household things in English. Robin was helping her out and
getting a Kinyarwanda lesson in return: Sheets, cup, bucket... She also
pointed out a child sitting up on top of our huge (and empty) rain tank.
I was confused what he was doing there until I realized that there was
someone else inside. Turns out it was her brother, inside the rain
barrel cleaning it out, while the little boy 'supervised', watching from
a seat with a good view up on top.
Robin started doing the dishes after our biscuit breakfast (we do them
in buckets on the floor of our 'kitchen' room), while I was wandering
around making tea and putting last night's dishes away. Clementine came
by the door again, looked in and saw Robin scrubbing away and said
succinctly: "Gender balance!" At which point we all cracked up and agreed, yes, gender balance. (Her
next question a few minutes later was, are you married? I think Robin's
stock is going up around here.) Definitely my favourite moment of the
day so far!
We're off to Kibuye as soon as we can get a bus. It's another town on
Lake Kivu, where we were a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the town we
were in previously (Gisenyi/Rubavu) is now under a do not travel
recommendation from the Rubavu/Goma border crossing all the way up to
Uganda, for at least 5 km from the DRC border into Rwanda, due to
shelling and gunfire. The situation is worsening but it remains to be
seen how bad things will get. So far Kibuye and other parts south along
the lake are still ok and not under advisory.
I've been reading the story of Dian Fossey, of Gorillas in the Mist
fame. I love the name she received while living on the volcano with the
silverback gorillas: nyiramachabelli, or The Lone Woman of the Forest.
Such a fascinating book, with such a terrible ending (spoiler alert: she
is murdered). It was strange reading about her travels and adventures
as I have been to most of the places mentioned in the book, including
climbing Karisimbi volcano and seeing the Suza group of gorillas which
included one old gorilla Fossey knew.
Many of you will remember that memorable trip up the volcano the first
time in 2009, where it ended up taking 10-12 hours and was an epic
adventure. We're talking about maybe making the climb in September...
Although prices have also climbed, to a rather bank-account rattling
$750 US, just for the permit. This does not include travel to the park,
accommodations or anything else, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime event.
(Or possibly twice, as the case may be for me).
Our work situation is a bit precarious here as the organization is
having difficulty securing the proper permits. So, we are not allowed to
work at the moment and are awaiting permission to continue our project.
At this point we've lost quite a bit of momentum and are wondering if
in fact we will be able to continue the project or what will happen.
Hopefully we get to finish the project that began with such promise.
However, pilot projects do have their challenges and the learning curves
for everyone involved can be quite steep.
We'll see what happens!
No comments:
Post a Comment