First Week in Kigali

After several days of very long flights I arrived in Kigali and promptly checked into my hotelroom and went to sleep.  Much of that first week was spent working out some of the basics.  And at the end of a week (and a half), I'm quite pleased to report that most of those basics have been taken care of.  I now have a place in Remera, a lovely 3 bedroom appartment in a 4-unit house with a wonderful woman from whom I rent.  The view from the main balcony (there are 3) is just gorgeous.  You can check out some pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nodybungle/. 

In the future I may see if it iseasier to just post photos here, or whether it will be better to link to flickr, so stay posted!  I have navigated things to get the internet working, my phone working, and as of today, I now have a television with Star Media, which is apparently a Chinese company in Rwanda that does television subscription service.  I'm still not entirely sure how the whole thing works, but somehow you recharge the account via your mobile phone. 

Absolutely everything in Rwanda seems to be prepaid - mobile phones, internet access, television, and even power.  I know this because the cash power ran out the other night, and it was rather dark getting ready for bed.  So in the next few days I'm going to be purchasing a great deal of prepaid power to prevent this from happening again - and then we'll see if I remember to check it before it runs out again!  But knowing me, this will likely happen at least once more before I get the thing figured out.

I've yet to really figure out how the pricing works for things either.  Random things seem to be very very expensive and others are very very inexpensive.  A $12 bottle of olive oil, and my $70 rice cooker, but the bus totown is 40 cents and a green avacado is only 40 cents as well.  It's mostly things that have to be imported that are pricy, but milk products - especially butter - seem to remain rather costly.  I've yet to do any meat other than chicken.  The goat last time was ok, but I'm considering just going vegetarian this time.  I don't really like meat all that much anyway, and am generally happy with produce and beans, so that may indeed be the route.

Finally I should note how very much I am loving my mosquito net.  Following several nights being eaten alive, I now have the net up in my bedroom, and it is wonderful being able to sleep.  I'm even figuring out how to keep my hands away from the net while I sleep so that they don't bite my hands through the net!  Two days ago I had 12 bites on my left hand alone, but the swelling is going down and I don't think there's been any new bites.  So this is progress!

In the next post... details on the visa-acquisition-saga, and the upcoming inauguration.