Life in Kigali

Our apartment is starting to feel like home after we moved the furniture around a little and changed a few light bulbs to give off a warmer glow. The place has one bedroom and one and a half baths, plus a nice balcony that looks out to the west providing great views of the rambling hills around town and frequent gorgeous sunsets.

Our bedroom, complete with a freakishly short bed

Blogging in the living room

View from our balcony

 The apartment building is located near the Belgian school. To be honest, I don’t know exactly where the Belgian school is, but in a city where few street names exist and those that do are rarely used, that is apparently the best way to describe how to get to our place. The World Bank office is a short walk away, which makes Johannes’ commute even easier than it was in DC. For the past two weeks, I’ve been working at the Ministry of Agriculture, which is on the other side of town – about a 15 min drive away.

We are renting a big old white Chevy Blazer, fondly nicknamed Otto, which Johannes drives skillfully around town, dodging motorbikes and mini-vans and pulling in and out of tight parking spots. I feel lucky to have such a talented chauffeur! The guys who supervise the gate to our building always wave fondly when we drive in or out of the parking lot and try to teach me words and phrases of Kinyarwanda.

Most nights we go out to dinner. Much to my surprise, Kigali is FULL of excellent restaurants – many of which I still haven’t visited. Those of you who know me well won’t be surprised when I later write blogs of restaurant reviews, but just for a preview, here are some of the highlights so far: fresh ginger and lemon tea and chicken couscous salad at Shokola, Sunday brunch complete with French toast and caramelized bananas at Heaven, vegetarian spaghetti and fried plantains at Banana, and mutter paneer and naan at Khana Khazana.

I’m not going to lie to you – I still have mad cravings for a huge delicious salad and a Chipotle burrito, but hey, it could be worse! Thankfully, we have also found good beer here in the form of Mützig lager, which helps me feel slightly better about missing my favorite beer season back in the US – Oktoberfest!

To work off all of these calories, Johannes and I have started taking tennis lessons at the Laico Hotel. Our coach, Bosco, is so patient and encouraging. At our first lesson, when Johannes told him that we were both beginners, he said, “Don’t worry – I’ll bring lots of balls.” : )  Today we had our third lesson already, and we're both showing signs of improvement.

Bosco, our tennis coach, testing my forehand (which is not good...YET!)

 

Johannes in action

Sweaty and out of breath after our tennis lesson