Christmas in Kigali

A belated happy holidays to you all! I hope you had a relaxing, enjoyable time with family and friends and are ready for new adventures in 2010!

So how did I spend my first holiday season in Kigali, you ask? Well it was a pretty quiet affair, particularly given that I had to work Christmas and New Year's eves-- federal work waits for no (wo)man.

However, I was able to leave early Christmas eve for a lunch at a co-worker's house, which was a very nice, loud, family affair.  I went with some of the drivers from our office, who decided that we should go by minibus.  Most people in Kigali get around town by minibus, which are basically old rickety minivans crammed with twice as many people as the vehicle was designed for.  I've traveled extensively by this means during my other trips, but this was my first experience with the minibuses of Kigali and was memorable for two other reasons.  One, I saw how a gearshift works.  Squashed up front between the minibus driver and a friend from work, the gearshift (which was hot!) was right up against my leg.  The plate/squishy leather that usually covers the base of a gearshift was missing, exposing the inner workings.  I spent the one-hour ride fascinated as the driver maneuvered the gearshift, which was in desperate need of some WD-40.

The other reason the ride was memorable was that I saw my first person with eleven fingers: the bus "conductor".  Apparently there are quite a few people in Kigali with eleven or twelve fingers, but the young man collecting the 180 RWF ($0.31) fare was the first I had met.

The lunch was a festive event, with attendees ranging from only a few months to 80+ years old and coming from a variety of countries.  I made friends with the kids by using my patented "no-shared-language-required-to-find-this-funny" 3 fingered reverse handshake, originally taught to me by street children in Cambodia.  (Its a  difficult handshake to explain but you can ask any of my travel companions for a demonstration.)

Christmas day dinner was spent at another colleague's house, with another couple from work sharing the meal with us, making it 4 real adults, a 6 month old baby and me at the table.  I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be a companion for the baby or for the two married couples, but I felt more comfortable with the baby, so spent most of my time with him.  After dinner I played Wii for the first time.  It turns out that in the "Redneck Jamboree" game I excel at sawing wood but am terrible at dynamite fishing.  Something to work on in 2010.

The rest of the holiday weekend was spent at various brunches and potlucks.  The nice thing about not having family to spend the holidays with is that other people take a lot of pity on you, invite you over, stuff you full of food, and then make you take a week's worth home with you.  Now I wish it could be Christmas every week.

As for New Year's Eve, it turns out a friend of mine from Brown is currently working in Rwanda, out in the boonies. He and a bunch of his colleagues came to town for the weekend so we caught up over dinner and I went to a party at his NGO's house, which is just down the street from mine.  It was a nice change to hang out with people my own age, instead of  people old enough to be my parents.

My birthday was spent eating the food I had collected over the week, which, for those of you who know me well, recognize as the best birthday present I could have asked for.

Although its hard to get into the Christmas spirit when its 80 degrees and sunny out, Kigali does its best to help.  At the supermarket there was a (very scary) animatronic (black) Santa waving out front and a (plastic) Christmas tree was put up in the lobby of my building.  Another thing that doesn't seem to change from one continent to another, that Christmas tree is still up. Let's see if its still there in June-- that would really be a taste of home. :)