At least now I have some time to blog again.
Some of you knew about my special 20ies birthday ritual - never spend them at home. And i almost succeded, only spent one in Berlin, I think it was the 22. New decade, new ritual, its called the birthday week(s). Introduced by my dear friend Liz when she turned 30, we spent a whole week spoiling ourselves on Zanzibar at the time. Now, this is the documentation of the 32 b-day week.
It started off with the Irish Community St. Paricks Day Ball at the Serena Hotel. Last year I missed it cause I had to work the next day and there is no point in going to an Irish party and not getting drunk, right? This year, since my b-day fell in a Friday we all celebrated together, me, the irish and Dafne, the fellow B-day girl.
Iam waiting for a friend to send me her pictures with the whole crazy dress parade. Meanwhile, a photo of me and Liliana.
The next day, I had people over for coffee and cake. I got up early and flicked through my receipes. Iam not that much of a baking person, but I do have some hidden treasures scribbled down. And then for fun wanted to try out something new. Music loud, kitchen covered in flour I baked away happily. But when it was time to put the doughs into the oven, it remained cold. Of course, I remembered then that a couple of weeks ago, when I wanted to turn the oven off, it wouldnt and I had to unplug it. The mental note never materialsed into action and so the thing was never repaired. Nothing to worry about, carefully i carried the two bowls over to the neighbours, two guys, wanting to be helpful but unfortunately a little helpless in the kitchen. Didnt know how to work their oven. Now, slight panic. Called the other neighbours, out of the house shopping for their party that night. And then got lucky with the last one. An hour and a half to go. Phew. Cakes turned out delicious, neighbours got their share, too.
all is well that ends well, sitting in the shade on a very sunny post-birthday-afternoonNach dem ganzen Backdrama sitzen hier wir hier nun ganz gemuetlich im Schatten
Me and Steve, good to have a photography nerd friend (you said it yourself!) when you have just bought a new kick ass digitial camera.Saturday neighbours party, was followed by a dinner in Kigalis best new restaurant "Select", a lazy sunday afternoon and one of the best theatre plays i have seen here in Rwanda. Adapted from a south african play about two political prisoners performed by a rwandan and congolese.
Birthday week was completed with my fourth "Happy Birthday Anja Fischer" cake Monday morning in the office and two outings, one to
Mt. Kabuye with my friend Steve and the other one to Lake Ruhondo in the Northwest, my favourite area in Rwanda. its the rainy season now. Well, its seems its always raining season here nowadays. So, no surprise that it was overcast when we started towards the mountain. We only had a very rough idea where we were going, so gladly excepted local help when we parked the car in the parking lot of a small public adminstration building. Our entourage was made of 4 guys, the youngest about 9-10, all in flip flops, wellies or simply barefoot. The higher up we went the colder an foggy it got. By the time we reached the top I had put on my raincoat and hat whereas the boys were freezing and shivering in their t-shirts. So we just had a short food break in the forest, unfortunately without any view. This photo was taken on the way back.
Mit dem Wetter hatten wir nicht so viel Glück auf dem Weg zum Gipfel von Mt. Kabuye. Es war ziemlich neblig und regnerisch, vor allem auf dem Rückweg, hier auf dem Foto. Dementsprechend schlecht war auch die Aussicht, aber es war dennoch ein guter Trip!
Whereas we took a well trodden path on the way up, we were led down on the backside of the mountain, no path whatsoever, steep as hell. All to see a cave, which was a little creepy. It started to rain and it became more and more slippy. The red earth turns into something thick butter-like, expect to slide. And so we did. We were wet from top to toe and trousers were covered in red mud. I had already decided and announced to Steve that all that stuff will have to come off in the car and that we might be stopped a litle more often by the police who have been lining the roads on our way up from Kigali. Luckily for all of us I had forgotten my sweaty yoga gear in the back of the car again from a couple of days back. Better stinky than wet and dirty!
A week later, the weather was a little better, at least until we got back into the car to go home when it started to piss down like it only does in the tropics. The word was that there is a beautifully situated church on one of the hills overlooking Lake Ruhondo, up in the north towards the vulcanoes.
Ich wollte schon eine ganze Weile mal zu dieser Kirche, die so eine schoene Aussicht ueber den Ruhondo See hat, im Nordwesten in Richtung der Vulkane. Und so brach ich mit ein paar Freunden auf zu einem kleinen Spaziergang, nichts im Vergleich zu der Bergwanderung der Woche zuvor!
The walk was a little less heavy than up Mt. Kabuye, we made plenty of breaks on the way down to the lake and up again. Here during one of them, with Ashani and Nicks legs in the back.
One more down, many more to come!
Mit dem Wetter hatten wir nicht so viel Glück auf dem Weg zum Gipfel von Mt. Kabuye. Es war ziemlich neblig und regnerisch, vor allem auf dem Rückweg, hier auf dem Foto. Dementsprechend schlecht war auch die Aussicht, aber es war dennoch ein guter Trip!
Whereas we took a well trodden path on the way up, we were led down on the backside of the mountain, no path whatsoever, steep as hell. All to see a cave, which was a little creepy. It started to rain and it became more and more slippy. The red earth turns into something thick butter-like, expect to slide. And so we did. We were wet from top to toe and trousers were covered in red mud. I had already decided and announced to Steve that all that stuff will have to come off in the car and that we might be stopped a litle more often by the police who have been lining the roads on our way up from Kigali. Luckily for all of us I had forgotten my sweaty yoga gear in the back of the car again from a couple of days back. Better stinky than wet and dirty!
A week later, the weather was a little better, at least until we got back into the car to go home when it started to piss down like it only does in the tropics. The word was that there is a beautifully situated church on one of the hills overlooking Lake Ruhondo, up in the north towards the vulcanoes.
Ich wollte schon eine ganze Weile mal zu dieser Kirche, die so eine schoene Aussicht ueber den Ruhondo See hat, im Nordwesten in Richtung der Vulkane. Und so brach ich mit ein paar Freunden auf zu einem kleinen Spaziergang, nichts im Vergleich zu der Bergwanderung der Woche zuvor!
The walk was a little less heavy than up Mt. Kabuye, we made plenty of breaks on the way down to the lake and up again. Here during one of them, with Ashani and Nicks legs in the back.
One more down, many more to come!
