Embassy, Accident, Adventure? (September 15)

Today a group of us left UCK at about 8:30 am for Kigali. The group was composed of Patrick and myself, Leonard from ICT, one of the men from the finance department whose name I can’t recall all travelling in the UCK van with its driver. The purpose of the trip was to make a visit to the US Embassy who had granted $5000 USD to the English centre and then spend the money in Kigali on books and computers and other equipment for the centre.

After the ordeal of actually entering the embassy – think airport security complete with metal detectors and passport checks, except that you’re not allowed to bring anything electronic in with you, it must be left at the gate – we made our way to the embassy library. The library wasn’t very large but probably contained one of the largest collections of English books in the country and reminded me very much of the children’s section of the Pembina Trails Library from when I was little. Somehow it managed to communicate the same sense of childish wonder to me. It was in the library that we were met by Eddie, the American embassy worker that is the main contact with the UCK English Centre, and two of her staff members. Eddie was a nice jolly sort of lady who reminded me a lot of Bonnie from the post office at Shoppers. After shaking hands handing in a report making a little small talk and covering some of the terms of the grant Eddie and her staff walked us out and I was able to ask her a few questions. I learned that while she is originally from St. Louis she had not been home in quite some time as her to previous posts were in Honduras and Bolivia. The life of a foreign servant sounds incredibly cool to me and I wish I could have talked to her a little more. I suppose it would be more relevant for me to try and get in touch with someone at the Canadian Embassy who I might be able to have a chat with.

After that we went to RDB (Rwanda Development Board) and Patrick and I had tea in the office with Apollo. It was nice, though I must admit I felt a little awkward sitting on the couch in the middle of the office drinking tea with Patrick and Apollo while everyone else in the office remained working at their desks around the room (the office is based on an open concept with everyone’s desk facing the middle of one big room, yay for no cubicle city!).

After that we set about spending the money the US Embassy had given us (we had picked it up at the bank that morning before heading to Kigali). Mostly I just followed the men around the city at this point. We made stops in a computer store, an electronic store, Nakumatt and Simba supermarkets and at a few primary schools targeted at the children of ex-pats. I found the supermarkets very interesting. They reminded me of Walmart but in a smaller space with just as much stuff, if not more, stuffed inside. The supermarkets carry everything from liquor to groceries to electronics and furniture. They are not nearly as well branded, though you can see the beginnings of it, and there are about 10x the staff. Oh, and, the cashiers sit at their tills!!!

By far the most interesting thing that happened today was the car accident. Worry not, no one was hurt. While angle parked in downtown Kigali (it appears a little bit of Stoon followed me here) the back corner of the UCK van was clipped by a passing car, the force of which caused the van to rock in place. While everyone was dumbfounded Patrick asked, “What was that?” to which I said we’d just been hit and pointed to a small grey benz that as continuing to drive up the street.

Immediately after the accident at least 10 people were surrounding the injured corner of the van and offering to be itnesses, some even reciting the plate number of the car. Also, a moto driver that saw what happened took off after the driver of the benz. I’m not sure if the moto driver or Leonard (he’d gone running after the car) got to the benz first but either way he came back within a few minutes with Leonard in the passenger seat. The next step was to call the cops, who came and visited the site of a fender bender! Also, a man from a nearby garage was brought to assess the damages. Then the driver of the other car, who I soon learned was named Clement, got into the van and proceeded to spend half the afternoon running errands with us until the van could get into the shop. He even talked and joked with us and we gave one of his buddies a lift before the whole ordeal was over with and we dropped him back at his car.

Daily Smiles

- African time in terms of leaving Gitarama
- The entire car accident experience – I cannot imagine such a situation resulting in smiles and friends all around in Canada, only pissed people
- Complete randoms starting up conversations with me all day
- Eating a slightly off tasting burger in Simba Café just as I was really starting to miss food from home
- Not being allowed to help unload the van at the end of the day as there were clearly men present to do the lifting
- Rocking out to a CMT compilation of Dolly Parton music videos in the store where we purchased the stereo while they rain gave ‘er outside. The store owner was loving the old school country just as much as if not more than me!