Lady Bubbles

We have a new cat! Lady Bubbles joined Magilla Glub Glub, Bethany and me to make a family of four in our Kigali home. She's a lot littler than MG3. Her mom was super skinny and probably about 1/3 the size of our big kitty. The two cats seem to get along and Glubbers is a great big brother. A few pictures are included.

Kayaking the Nyabarongo River

 

 

In May 2013, Bethany Ericson and I kayaked the Nyabarongo River. We put in just east of Kigali at the bridge near the Nyabugogo bust stop and paddled about 28 miles. Bethany Gauthier (wifey) was our shuttle bunny. She picked us up at the bridge on the Nyamata-Kigali road south of the city. It took 6 hours to paddle the flat water, meandering river through papyrus swamp and sugar cane. We saw lots of birds, some farmers and one hippo. Hippo was awesome and from that point on every time we saw a swirl of water in the river we expected another hippo to pop up and eat our inflatable kayaks. I didn't get any pictures when we passed it, so I paddled back up river to get close enough for pictures unit it reared up and dove in the water towards me, at which point I back paddled furiously and let him / her be. About half way through the trip, the Nyabarongo joins the Kegera River (or Akegera River, depending on what source you're looking at). Eventually this water makes it to Lake Victoria. Water was kind of dirty and I don't think I'd want to swim in it, but it was a nice paddle. Lots of people were excited to see up inflating the kayaks so we had about 30 people including some police standing on the bridge watching our launch. Despite being so close to Kigali, there is no development anywhere on the river until the bridge at the take out. Next time I'll bring a better camera and my fishing pole.

 

Total Distance:       28 Miles (45 Kilometers)

Start Location:       West of Nyabugogo Bus Station on Rwanda 3, near Ruyenzi

End Location:         South of Sonnatubes on the Kigali-Nyamata Road near Gahanga

 

Love love for the Glub Glub

We are long overdue for a post.  Our silence is a result of a super busy schedule, hectic travel, and limited internet.  Thankfully, we finally have a “normal” stretch for a while.  Normal for me (b) is still really busy – I have a pretty heavy teaching load and am starting to set up strong collaborations – but I am trying to be more balanced.  Enter Magilla Glub Glub Gauthier (MG3) Jr. 

For anyone who knows anything about me, you have known that I am obsessed with cute animals and have wanted a cat just shy of forever.  My city living and hectic travel schedule never seemed conducive for a cat, so I was forced to troll the internet for my fix (see www.cuteoverload.com).  However, coming to Rwanda seemed like a perfect time to get a pet.  While I will still travel in country a couple days a week, Nathan is generally in Kigali.  We both seem to be traveling out of country a bit, but for better or for worse, we are on exact opposite schedules.  Plus we are finally creating a community, including living on a compound with two other apartments, and hey, if we ever need litter changed, isn’t that what neighbors are for?

Having a pet provides a new lens through which we see Rwanda.  It seems most Rwandans aren’t too keen on pets.  This is true of many individuals I have met in sub-Saharan African countries where I have lived in or traveled – our pets are just their general animals.  They serve functions – protection from dogs, pest control from cats – but aren’t given particular affections and no special bond is formed.  But like almost anything we will experience here, the relationship with “pets” is particularly complicated because of events during the genocide.  (Note, I will probably always be vague on these matters, because the truth is everything I “know” is 20^th hand information but there will always be more details available online.)

Glub Glub came to us via a local vet.  She found him being mishandled on the side of the road by some kids and rescued him - may have seen more like a catnapping from their perspective.  The reality is that Magilla was WAY too small to be weaned and she believed near death.  The vet estimated him to be about 3-4 weeks when we got him – we fed him only from a dropper for the first few weeks and even that was hard for him to manage. 

There is no kitten food in Rwanda, so when we wanted to start transitioning him, Nathan bought and cooked ground beef from a local store.  The ground beef, as luxurious as that sounds, is going to likely be cheaper than cat food.  We found a couple of bags at $25 a bag, but regardless MG3 is a long way from that.  Our temporary fix is that between my two trips to the states and a friend visiting, we have stocked up some kitten chow and wet food.   We were using dirt for a litter box, and probably will be doing that again soon, but we were lucky enough for Nathan to stop by an expat yard sale where they had two boxes of cat litter they brought from the US for sale – crazy Americans, who does that,  hehehe ;)?!?!

 

We have heard the whole gamut for vet care.  It seems like most vets are not equip to handle pets, which makes sense in a country where pets generally don’t exist.  I have heard rumors of folks bringing in rabies vaccines, etc, for their animals.  The vet that helped us find Glub Glub seems better prepared.  He has his first round of vaccines in a few weeks and then rabies in 12. I can’t even bear to think what happens after that… regardless, he will be well cared for.

So what does this have to do with living a more balanced life?  Well, the truth is – what is the best cure for a long, stressful day?  Coming home to a furball.   What is the best solution to a life full of unfamiliar and new things?  Filling it with images of a kitten curled on your husband’s lap.  All of a sudden home becomes newly defined – home is wherever Nathan and Magilla Glub Glub Gauthier Jr are.  We might have to rewrite the ES and the Magnetic Zeros song – home is whenever I am with you and our super cute, hyper, fluffy, intense, big-tongued kitteh.

And as if we could contain the cute – Nathan, in his biggest gift in our relationship submitted photos to cuteoverload of our bundle of joy.  So imagine my surprise when I went for my weekly fix (my internet is so slow, that I restrict cuteoverload visits to Sunday morning) and there was my own MG3 for all the world to see.  (http://cuteoverload.com/2012/09/14/magilla-glub-glub/) I have included some pics here for you to enjoy too , though these are a bit more homegrown (ie, I took them). 

To family and friends, xoxoxo and I will really try to be better about posting.

Kibuye (Karongi)

We had two US friends passing through last weekend, and thought it a good time to visit Lake Kivu to the west of Kigali.  I have heard good things about Kivu, mostly about Gisenyi, the resort town to the north.  If we had more time, or access to our own car, we probably would have opted for Gisenyi.  However, Kibuye was much more our speed, a tiny little town with hills rolling straight into the lake.  There was hardly anyone or anything there, which was perfect, and it was only 3 hours from Kigali.

The buses from Kigali to Kibuye (now called Karongi) run frequently from Nyabugogo bus station for RWF2500-2600 per person.  Our taxi dropped us in front of Impala bus lines office and said that was the company that ran to Kibuye, and indeed they had buses every hour.  On the way back, we discovered that Capital bus also runs every 30 minutes - the service was equivalent, the buses are large and relatively comfortable, and they do not stop very often.  The drive is stunning, lots of hills, ups and downs, and switch backs.  I loved it, but on the way there, we had at least two passengers get sick. 

We had several folks recommend Home St. Jean to us for accommodations.  If you look online, the Lonely Planet blogs claim that the place has no electricity and no phone.  It has both, but the phone number is really hard to track down - 078-472-5107.  The rooms ($25(RWF15000)/double, with bathroom) were comfortable enough, very clean, and the view was amazing.  The breakfast was painfully slow and not that great and also not included in the price (dinner was rumoured to be better).  There is a place to swim, but its a path down a steep hill, a clearing of about 10 feet wide, a rocky shore, and an immediate drop to so deep that we could not touch.  Not kid friendly, or for folks who don't have good doggy paddling skills.  But completely empty, completely private, completely relaxing.

We went for dinner to Golf Hotel (078-642-8709), a 10 minute walk from Home St. Jean.  True to our friends' advice, they have amazing fish (Tilapia) brochettes.  The food here was great, the wait time decent (about 45 minutes for food), prices were reasonable and it was by far the best dinner view in Rwanda yet.  We didn't see the rooms, but they had a rooms from RWF15000-25000, breakfast included, and there was a hopping beach at the bottom of the hotel that would be better for mixed swimming skills.  We liked our first hotel, I think we will try this one next time because of the location, the beach, and the food.

On Sunday, we went to Peace (Amahoro) island for a few hours.  Boat prices vary wildly, but we tagged along with some nice folks who had negotiated for RWF15000 for the whole boat, both ways.  The island was a great escape - its tiny, but comfortable enough for the 15 or so folks who ended up there.  The place is very pretty, perfect for a few hour visit, but when we asked the prices to sleep there we about fell down - $200 for two rooms/night.  I suspect something might have been lost in translation, but who knows...

We will for sure be back, and will scout out other places in the area.  I am sure we will eventually make it to the resort town of Gisenyi, but for beautiful, quiet and relaxing, Kibuye is perfect!

Birds from My Hammock

Random bird pictures taken today (6/27/2012) from our hammock in the front yard.  I know nothing about birds and unfortunately can't identify any of them.  Took pictures of probably a dozen different kinds, but will only put a few on here.  More will go on facebook.

  

There were a number of the ones below.  I like their mohawks and long tails.

Since I'm red-green color blind, I always appreciate anything blue.  I also really like the long, curved beak of this guy.

Another one with a long, curved beak.  This one was really hyper and kept jumping from one branch to the next, never sitting still for very long.  It also kept going upside down and sideways.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm Potatoes

After 2.5 weeks, patterns are starting to emerge.  For anyone who followed our Vietnam adventures, you are probably not surprised to learn that food has been central to our routine and an avenue to explore our new hood.  

To start the list, since we are in Rwanda, is the local Rwandan fare.  There isn’t a ton of diversity in the day-to-day food, except for in the carbohydrates.  Most meals are chocked full of them, in many different forms.  When out at the PIH sites, we start our day with bread brought in from Kigali and frozen on site until needed.  The bread is accompanied with all kinds of delish relishes from Rwanda – peanut butter, honey, strawberry jam.  On special days, the house manager Sabine makes yummy crepes and omelets to spice things up – omelets seeming to be a consistent quick meal out or at home and not only for breakfast.

Lunches and dinners at site always come with choices of starch – today was rice and pasta for lunch and rice and French fries for dinner.  These are always served with some type of saucy goodness to smother the carb with – tomato soup with peas and eggplant, meat sauce, or my favorite, Isombe – ground cassava leaves with nuts.  Pretty typical in local restaurants are the lunch buffets, which for $2-5 you get a plate piled as high as you can get the carbs to fit.  Here you get more carb options – the most diverse buffet had ugali (local mashed maize), two types of rice, pasta, French fries, mashed cassava, and matoke – by far my favorite carb, plantains stewed in tomatoes.  The buffets will also include some sides – isombe, beans, tomato gravy and then you are given one (maybe two if you're lucky) small pieces of meat.  

Part of the reason that the diet is so carb heavy is that everything else is quite expensive.  Even when we cook at home, I find that we don’t use a ton of veggies – a lot of carrots (can get a bunch from a lady down the street for 13 cents), some green peppers, tomatoes.  Nathan cooked greens (maybe collards) one night that were really good; we have had both broccoli and cauliflower.  But they are pricey.  We are getting a better grasp of what you can get and what you can get cheap.  Nathan just made a trip to the market while I am at the project site, and I can’t wait to see what he has found!

In such a carb heavy diet, one might worry for our health.  I do sometimes feel fluffy – we have joined the local gym to try and nip that in the bud – but overall, I feel really healthy.  The food, while carb heavy, is all local and rarely fried (potatoes the exception).  We are taking multivitamins that we brought from the US and Nathan is encouraging me to eat the local tiny bananas and drink juice.  I want to make passion fruit a more normal part of my diet.  And there are also the giant and practically free avocados.

So we are still figuring out the food, but the one thing I have figured out… I LOVE the coffee.  Rwandan coffee seriously is the best in the world, and luckily that is readily available and worth every penny.

Kigali Electricity

Rwanda is full of things that are familiar to what we had in the U.S., but just a little different.  One such example is electricity.  For the most part, our house and other houses around us are provided with elecricity from overhead power lines.  Each house is lit up at night with incandescent or fluorescent lamps.  A lot of people use linear, 2 or 4 foot, fluorecent lamps as exterior lighting by sticking a single lamp fixture on a pole so that it juts out over their fence or gate.  People have electrical outlets throughout their homes and many have TVs, fans, toasters, etc.  We even have a washing machine at our house, though it just stopped working.  Electricity is much less common in the rural parts of Rwanda, but in Kigali it is commonplace.

Differences in Rwandan electricity include the voltage and frequency. The houses here use 230 volt, 50 hertz instead of the 110 volt, 60 hertz used in the U.S. This means that while many of or U.S. electrical products; such as laptops, battery chargers, our portable projector; can still be plugged directly into the outlets, others; such as the X-Box; require a transformer to work. Generally, things that run on DC and have an inverter to get from AC to DC will work here, with the X-Box being a notable exception with the inverter provided by Microsoft, though we've ordered an after market replacement that accepts multiple voltages. American electronics that run on AC directly; like TVs, DVD players, and refrigerators; will not work here without a transformer.
 
Regarldess of the voltage requirements, U.S. plugs will not go into Rwandan outlets without an adapter. We brought a bunch with us and they're really inexpensive, but if we forget to bring one to a coffee shop we probably won't be able to plug in our laptops. Rwanda uses an outlet that accepts plugs with two round pins (type C). Some outlets have a round pin sticking out that requires a hole in the plug to receive (type E).

Another big difference so far has been reliability. Our power has gone out a lot.  Probably 25 to 30% of the days we've been here have been at least partially without power. To be fair, they're working on our street right now and the power outages are probably more frequent for this reason. Water has been out about twice as often for the same reason. It seems that utility lines aren't really marked and the excavating equipment just digs them up. The picture to the left shows an electric line that has been repaired. The evening before we saw the line just sticking out of the ground, wires exposed, and I wondered aloud to Bethany if she thought it was still live. By the next morning somebody had re-connected it with a couple of short wires and some electrical tape.  We're pretty sure it was always a live wire. Scary to think about when you see hundreds of kids walk down our street every day on their way to school.  I've seen lots of exposed wires sticking out of the ground in different parts of the city where they used to (or expect to) have street lights and suspect that the risk of electecution is greater here.

Besides reliability, power quality is a real issue here.  Whenever I go to the restroom I watch our incandescent lamps (25 watt lamps - I didn't know they made such low wattage lamps for overhead lighting) get brighter and dimmer over and over again as the voltage coming in is constantly changing. All major (expensive) electronics need to be plugged into a voltage regulator to avoid dammage.  We have one for our refrigerator and another for our computer equipment. The one for the refrigerator (pictured below) makes a lot of noise when the refrigerator is running. It is rated for a much higher wattage than the one we use for our computers.

The last major difference in electricity between the U.S. and Rwanda is how we buy it. In Rwanda, instead of getting a bill at the end of the month for the amount of electricity we use, we have to pre-purchase electricity and keep track of how much we have left otherwise we could run out. I really like this system as it is easy to monitor our consumption. We go to any of the grocery or convenience stores that sell electricity and water and then give them the unique code for our electric meter. We tell them how much electricity we want to buy and they give us a receipt that includes a 20 digit code. When we get home, we type the code directly into our electric meter and it instantly increases our remaining balance by the amount we purchased. I’ve only bought electricity once so far and I decided to buy 30,000 RWF worth ($49), which was 223.2 kWh. This comes out to $0.22 per kWh, which is a LOT more expensive than what most people pay in the U.S. as the average residential rate for the first three months of 2012 was $0.1157. The increased cost is probably due to how electricity is generated. In the U.S., most electricity is generated from coal (34% in March of 2012 - though dirty, the cheap cost of coal keeps it #1), natural gas (30%), or nuclear (20%), and most of it is domesticly supplied. Rwanda gets 25% of its electricity from imported diesel fuel and another 20% from heavy fuel oil. The remainder is primarily from hydro-electric, though 20% of the total electricity consumed has to be imported from hydro plants in other countries. Here's a link to the Energy, Water, and Sanitation Authority's website on electricity generation. There are plans for a large methane extraction plant at Lake Kivu, but I don't know when this will go into service. The additional need for infrastructure investment in Rwanda probably also contributes to the higher electric rates.