I think when your own blog is writing a comment to you to get your act together and feed it again (thanks Laura) the time has finally come to get some fresh and maybe not so fresh anymore news out there. (scroll down i smuggled in an entry before the last one for my birthday).

And news there are.  After I came back from Indonesia – uh yes, for those of you who dont know, i was there on mission for 6 weeks, some visual impressions under the link more pictures) – i found myself homeless as my old roomie Andrew followed his heart to Sudan. So last week I moved again into a very lovely house.

I instantly felt at home, easy cause it was furnished and quite cosy but also it has this summer holiday cottage feeling to it, lots of light and very hot as about 10 am the sun starts to peek around the corner of the veranda and then follows its course until the very end of the day when it sets right opposite my garden chair. 

I am in fact witnessing my first dry season in Rwanda, last year we skipped it. The lawn has turned greyish and the veranda and floor inside the house are constantly covered in a fine layer of dust. Some of the sandy roads in the neighbourhood have turned into something that feels like you are on water when you drive through. For Moto drivers like me this has advantages as well as disadvantages. Of course I dont have to worry about these terrestrial rainfalls that already have surprised me a couple of times in the past but then my body processes a considerable amount of red soil that enters through mouth, ears and eyes, i wash my hair almost every day and the bath tub turns red.

Speaking of bath tub, this house has a pump which means no more bucket showers, hurray! On the other hand we have been suffering more electricity cuts than usual lately. It is to be suspected that this is due to the same reason why the internet gets cut all the time, we spend more time stuck in traffic or looking for parking, fancy new places like restaurants and supermarkets open: Kigali is growing...fast. I was gone for 2 months and noticed it immediately, blocked streets and more and more white people walking around. Problem with urban growing in Kigali is mainly limited space in between these hills and it will be interesting how this will be dealt with.

Sunday after the church - view from my house

But back to my house. Its in the same neighbourhood as the last one and there is plenty of friendly people around in walking distance. It is a shared house and currently I live with two girls from Uganda and India who I kind of inherited but who will be leaving soon. So from about October the new crew will be complete with another Ugandan girl and one from the UK. At least until December I will then be enjoying stable living conditions after months of being a guest, traveling or staying in hotel rooms. That should give me the time to think what is going to happen next year.

 Maybe yoga will also help, at least something I can do with a still broken toe!

The new chez moi

The end of February saw our first and last big Barbeque at the house. The smell of the best garlic sausages from the German supermarket slash butchery and the easy laughter of our lovely guests filled the sunny Saturday afternoon air...ah, life is sweet with a brochette in one hand and a cool, ehm, tonic in the other. 

As a host you dont want to get wasted too fast and too early. Very wise decision as guests continued to pile in until Midnight. 10 hours of socialising -  that must have been the longest barbeque ever. Luckily we originally overestimated people's appetite as usual which came in handy in the end so we grilled away happily through the night. 

A week later it was bye-bye chez Liz et moi and the Kiyovu neighbourhood and hello Kimihurura and Andrew. Positive and optimistic as I am I saw the bright sight of it and forgot about our perfect old home immediately. My window runs along the whole side of the room and for the first time i know the time of day when I wake up. My old window was totally covered with plants which, you know, was nice and mysterious especially from the outside but hey, daylight flooding the room got its own charme. The living room's door opens to the veranda where in beween trees, the gate...and the car... I can spot the other side of the hill.  

Howard, our recently bewidowed and slighly misled cock, his day starts at around 3 in the morning, adds a homely and farmy touch to it. So, yes, I love my new chez moi, at least in the dry season, and when my toe isn't broken. Slightly different from our Kiyovu city centre house accessibilty in Kimihurua is much more of an issue as few roads are paved which means hard work for a little Moto like mine and no taxis outside the house. Why didnt I buy a car again? On the other hand its got a lot more of  a neighbourhoody touch, you pop out to the shops or go for a walk in the area and it also means friends around so crippled me got lifts to work in the morning for a while. All in all, I cant complain and ever since Andrew took pity on me a made him and me a nice sturdy massage table life is all good where the 1000 hills are.

my big 3.oh!

I turned 30 with my foot in a cast, half a cast and badly mad as well. But I was still smiling anyway, I was in Nairobi with people I love and about to go on my first safari to indulge in some "Kenia- Romantik".

The first day whe pampered ourselves at the Nairobi Serena Hotel with massages and all sorts of body treatments including a 7 or 8 course meal at a wonderful seafood restaurant whose name I have unfortunately forgotten. I was full before the actual main course came and we had to take several smoke or just-walking-around breaks to make it all the way to desert which was served on special plates with Kenyan (or just made up to match our names or most prominent character features) proverbs written on it with chocolate sauce.   

 

The next day we were off to the Masai Mara with the flying Matatu Service of Air Kenya. When I first heard that we would go up and down at least 3 or 4 times before we arrived at our stop I wasn't amused at all and wanted to take the road instead. 

 

See the brave smile I put on as I was just ready to throw up in that 20 passenger machine. Miraculously everything calmed down and I spend the rest of the flight resting my head on Liz' shoulder only to occasionaly lift it up and pretend to enjoy the scenery - which was actually really spectacular....if only i hadnt had to concentrate so hard on keeping my lunch inside.

We landed at a perfect time to be driven through the Mara in the golden sunlight of the late afternoon. Our friends, the big 5 also didnt disappoint us. The first one was a lonely tusker cowboy who appeared at the horizon and walked with us for a while. The other big and small kings and queens of the jungle followed during the next game drives although there weren't tons as it wasn't the busy migration season. Good enough for us as we enjoyed the lush green scenery just as well. 

Back in the camp we were lodging in king size beds in cosy and luxurious quasi-tents. The South African couple running the site and the Masai proprietor saw to our full comfort and convenience - sometimes a little too much. However, when he sat with us in his traditional gear, his gigantic ear loops folded up and started to talk with Liz about the roughest  areas of Chicago, that was a memorable moment.

As were the spectacular sky, the sound of the rain and the colours of the Masai Mara. Unfortunately due to the political crisis tourism suffered a great deal in this area which is highly dependent on the revenues to keep the fragile balance between man and animal. so people: go to Kenya!! More to feed your appetite under more photos.