A Funny Thing Happened...

A week or so before I arrived in Kigali, Johannes was here by himself. One morning, a woman approached him outside our apartment building and asked if he needed a cook. He didn’t want to be rude, so he came up with what seemed like a legitimate excuse. “No, I’m sorry – my wife is coming next week, and she’ll take care of the kitchen.” Haha, yeah right! ; ) 

The slogan of the National Institute of Statistics: “If you don’t count, you don’t count!” Shout out to Prof. Zeevi at CBS! : )

One day while doing a short-term assignment at the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI), I brought a box of chocolates to share with my colleagues after lunch. One of the women was very excited about the chocolate, and she started reciting a Rwandan proverb in Kinyarwanda. Her colleague politely translated for me: “When the rain falls, it falls again.” After pondering for a moment, I ventured, “Ah, so what she is trying to say is that I should bring chocolate again, right?” “YES!” they all exclaimed.

The price of a normal-sized box of Kellogg’s Mini Wheats at the nearby Nakumatt grocery store: $16!

So plastic bags are not allowed in Rwanda, which helps make this a very clean country. (Between you and me, I snuck a few in – my shoes were packed in them!) The grocery stores offer brown paper bags, for example, but sometimes you just need a plastic bag, right? Yet Rwanda takes this law so seriously that even plastic trash bags are outlawed. Yes, this means we throw our trash directly into the trash can – craziness, right? Luckily, our cleaning lady takes care of the mess that ensues.

One day at MINAGRI, we were approaching the deadline for my report, and I was getting frustrated about delays in obtaining the information I needed from my colleagues. In a moment of exasperation, I lamented to one colleague, “When you Rwandans say that something will be ready in 5 minutes, you actually mean one hour!” Without a moment’s hesitation, he responded with, “Yes, we’re sorry,” apologizing for all of his countrymen in one fell swoop.

The name of a restaurant near the Bourbon Coffee in MTN Centre that we haven’t yet been brave enough to try: Dolphin Seafood!

Johannes and I were shopping at Nakumatt, and we were contemplating purchasing a loaf of bread at the bakery counter. Johannes inquired, “What kind of bread is that?” pointing to a loaf on the shelf. The man working there pondered for a moment, and then responded, “It’s brown inside.” Hmmm, very helpful information! We bought the loaf of bread anyway, and it was pretty good! : )

The price of a box of Snickers ice cream bars at the nearby Nakumatt grocery store: $20!

Earlier this week Johannes and I went out to dinner with our friends Diego and Lewis. We each took turns ordering our drinks – a small beer for each of us. The waiter arrived shortly thereafter with TWO bottles for each of us. We were all quite puzzled until Lewis explained that, in the Burundian tradition, it is polite to bring two bottles when someone orders a small beer. In a sense, it’s like that old Lay’s potato chips commercial: “No one can eat [drink] just one!” The unfortunate aspect of their hospitality is that the second beer gets warm in the meantime, but oh well!