Much of the last week has been spent getting settled here in the appartment. I've come to the conclusion that "things" are what are expensive here, i.e. any type of manufactured good, which makes getting settled a somewhat expensive endeavor. The good thing is that transportation is cheap, and food is quite inexpensive, at least in terms of fresh goods.
I finally decided it was time to check out the main market, and it was awesome. Kimironko is a covered market, and the stalls are very close together, but there is tons of wonderful fresh produce. Tomatos, tree tomatos, fruits, vegetables, peas, potatos, beans, and all kinds of flours and sugars all piled high. The flour/sugar was a bit unnerving as they were all *swarming* with bees and hornets - so I stayed clear of that area. A pineapple for 50 cents, and avacados for 20 cents. It was an awesome pineapple as well, and became part of some wonderful curry. All around the sides of the food market are the meat, fish, and chicken stalls. Live chickens in places and full beef carcases hanging in the open air being carved for customers. I didn't so much buy meat. Some wonderful fresh leeks, lettuce, even fresh cilantro.
Home from the market I decided some mexican was in order - a bit of a procedure here. There are no tortillas so I had to make my own - and I've discovered this is a fair bit harder than I had anticipated. No cast iron pan, no tortilla press... I ended up pressing out the tortillas by hand on the bottom of one pan and then cooking it in another using the two as a press. It sort of worked, but I'm going to need to work on my tortilla skills, which presently are largely nonexistent.
The other day, I finally decided to try purchasing meat - at the supermarket. Behind glass, and all I was brave enought to buy was the minced meat, like hamburger. You purchase it the same way you do eggs, in a brown paper bag. I used some to make a taco salad, and it was ok - the meat here is very very lean, which is good, but I'm not sure it's really worth the price. Not expensive but I think for the same price I'd rather have a kilo of tomatos as opposed to a kilo of minced meat. So once what i bought is used up, I may be heading back to being veg.
In non-food realted news, today was the presidential inauguration. They have been getting ready for several weeks painting everything in town, putting up new streetlights, repaving streets, and repainting the alternating black and white stripes that are on all of the curbs here. The inauguration went well today, and as far as I can tell, there were no problems either. It was all broadcast on Rwanda TV and was multilingual so it was ok following along with most of it. And the rain held off, mostly, until it was all over. Tonight we're having some thunderstorms, but it's still mostly clear. The rain rolls in and out really quick, I'm interrested to see what it will be like in the next 3 or 4 weeks when the rainy season starts.
I also did laundry for the first time today. In the bathtub, by hand, which took a fiar while, but not as long as I had feared. Everything is now outside drying, and I'm greatly looking forward to having some clean clothes. I'm still not sure whether I will be hiring a cleaning person or not, it just doesn't really seem necessary to me, it's only me, and I don't really make a mess. I just need to find a place to buy a broom and a mop and I'll be all set. I must admit, however, it is rather strange hanging all of my underwear outside for the neighborhood to see.
In other news, I still haven't heard anything about my visa, which I'm chalking up to the inauguration being today. I'll try to get in contact with them if I haven't heard anything in the nest day or two. And Wednesday I'm off to the Embassy for Security Briefing, attempt 2. Hopefully, I'll be able to find the room this time. Oh, and on a final note I'm very hapy to report that I now have a shower curtain! This is very exciting, and water no longer covers the entire shower as I take a shower! In any event, I'm excited to get some real research started, which should get going this week or early next - now that I'm finally getting settled in, and have a few things done for camp that I had to complete, it's time to get some work done!
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