Chichen, Kawaccino and a Mützig

I've been here now just over three weeks and have tried out quite a few restaurants. There is some variation to be found. For example, you've got many buffet restaurants. Buffets are a big thing here, for lunch as well as dinner. You pay a fixed price, so far ranging in between RWF 2,500 for the cheapest lunch place - where you are allowed two tiny pieces of meat or you pay 500 per additional pebble - and RWF 11,000 for the all-you-can-eat BBQ buffet at our hotel. That is on Sundays only.

You get to pick your choices of raw meat, ranging from chicken to cow and any (regular) animal in between, which are then thrown over an open fire. About ten minutes later you come back, only to find out that the guy operating the BBQ has mixed up every order. If you're really unlucky - and for some reason everybody seems to be - you're selection of veal, lamb and a chicken skewer magically transformed into a greasy sausage, an undercooked pork chop and a piece of goat even Jaws would find hard to chew on.

The rest of the buffet is actually quite nice. Good salad bar and a wide range of cooked vegetables, different styles of rice and potatoes done in various ways. Only the chips (=fries) are, like in Mozambique, below par. Greasy, pale and mushy... A bit like Elvis in the seventies.

Then there are also a few Chinese restaurants. These are okay. Nothing really special. One's walking distance from the hotel on a rooftop. Place looks quite cozy, but is a bit too dark. The few oil lamps they have, are constantly being moved from table to table by the waitresses, in order for the guests to actually read the menu. Maybe it's dark on purpose, since the menu mostly has strangely familiar sounding meals like fried lice (which sounds like something from Fear Factor), curry chichen (no, it's not Mexican), meet wonton ('Hi Wonton! I'm Roberto!') and of course moodles (cow noodles?).

There's also a slightly more up scale place called Legends. It's symbol is a bright flashing sea horse which you can see for miles around. If you didn't know any better, you'ld think the place was some sort of a gentlemen's club. Legends... the place where legends operate.... on you! It is actually one of the better places to eat. They have a wine list which has a non-Italian Pinot Grigio (my favourite) and the menu includes wraps, pizzas, Indian curries, steaks, salads and pasta. An international kitchen indeed!

For lunch you can do the food court at the mini-mall which has one mini-buffet and one pizza place. The pizzas are somewhere in between a thin and a pan pizza. Nothing to get too excited about. Then in the same mall is a coffee/lunch place called Bourbon Coffee. At first the place looks like the lunch place to be. Nicely decorated and a large coffee menu with all types, flavours and sizes of coffee. Even the names sound Starbucksian (including a Vanilla Bean Kawaccino). And the menu looks quite good too. Soups, salads, omelettes, sandwiches and burgers. A typical lunch card and they've got free WiFi too. Okay, admittedly, it is more like LoFi, but fine.

But then.... The service! It is horrible! Really really really horrible! I must've visited over 60 countries by now and a gazillion restaurants, but without a doubt, this place has the worst service of all. We experienced it all! Being ignored, having to go to the counter to order myself, reminding them of it (3 times!), having the order mixed up, brought in the wrong sequence, group meals being brought 30 minutes apart, missing ingredients, ingredients not asked for (tomatoes, yuck!) and an erroneous bill. And this was only the most recent visit last Monday! How much can you do wrong with a simple 2 person business lunch? It was my 4th visit there and none have gone as should. I'm passing on Bourbon for the time being.

Then of course... there's my place! The greatest lunch place of all. It has the most elaborate buffet for RWF 5,000 (6 euros) or you can go á la carte. You can sit inside, on the terrace or in a hut in the garden, in between flowers and two garden hoses aiming at the sky pretending to be fountains. Yes, welcome to Chez Robert.

I could go on describing some of the other places including the various hotel restaurants, an Indian, an Ethiopian and the Kabana pizza joint next door, but that's all for you to find out if you're ever in this neighbourhood. The remaining question on everyone's lip is of course: how about the local food? Well, simple! It's typical creole style food like some of you know from South America or the Caribbean: Lime chicken, cooked corn dough (a.k.a. Xima or Funchi), eggplant and the classic goat stew. So far, I haven't seen any real typical nowhere-else-to-be-found Rwandan food, but maybe I haven't been looking in the right places. Maybe Bri can shed some light on this and come up with some must eat local stuff?

PS: I almost forgot! The local brew! Maputo became legendary partially for their beers. The Laurentina and my favourite 2/M beers were excellent. In Rwanda there are two locally brewed beers you can get anywhere. One's the Dutch Amstel and the other is the Mützig. This beer is not that bad, especially the draft version. Not as good as a 2/M but a worthy successor. So worthy that Heineken actually bought it.

Die Meister, die Besten, les meilleurs equipes, the champions.

The Managing Director of the bank is also the Treasurer for the Rwandan National Football Association, so he took us to an important football match in Kigali the first Saturday I was here. How important? Hugely important! It was an African Champions League match. The most popular club of Rwanda called Rayon Sport played their return match against the Ethiopian champions Harar Beer. With a name like that, you should be champion every year! The first match in Ethiopia ended in a 2-0 victory for the brewers (of are they the drinkers?), so the task of the local heroes was clear. Win with at least 2-0 to avoid elimination.

We were being picked up at 14:30 by the MD, but at 13:00 hrs while I was enjoying a nice Club Sandwich (no tomatoes!) the rain came down with a vengeance! There are two rain seasons in Rwanda and one of them is in March/April. Yeah, lucky me...

And it was pouring! A typical tropical rainstorm with those large raindrops, wind and even a bit of lightning. Surely the game would be cancelled... or not? I called our host to get the confirmation on the cancellation, but to my surprise he told me not to worry "because it was covered". Covered? A covered stadium in Kigali? With a real roof? One that would open and close? No way!

Oh well, I went back upstairs to get my jacket and at the agreed time our colleague picked us up. If you drive the main roads of Kigali it looks very clean and modern. At times I even think it's like driving through an American suburb. On the way to the stadium though, we passed through poorer neighbourhoods and all of a sudden Kigali looked African again. And as we got closer to the stadium, more and more people dressed in blue and white populated the sandy road. It was that typical feeling of pre-game excitement, when fans sing and cheer in anticipation of their teams good performance.

After a 15 minute drive we got to the Stade Regional de Nyamirambo. Yes, the stadium in which the game would be held. As it had rained heavily and there was still some downpour, the area outside the place was one big muddy field. Of course, we were in the car with a member of the Rwandan FA, so we had the privilege of VIP parking. This parking is inside the stadium were you basically park your car behind one of the goals. As a VIP you basically run the risk of getting your wind shield smashed by a shot that missed its intended target (assuming of course that the player intended to score a goal).

So, we were now inside the stadium. Well... ehh... stadium? The stadium is a football pitch with a large wall around it. Inside there are two stands on either side of the field. One has about 4 levels of concrete to sit on and the other main stand is about 15 concrete steps high. For those of you from Curaçao, it looked a bit like the old Rif or Suffisant "Stadiums".

And covered? Ha! Of course not. The VIP stand was covered! That's why we were told not to worry. We had V-I-P seats. This means that instead of sitting on the concrete steps we had plastic garden chairs to sit in. There was even a higher level of VIPs with highly ranked politicians and club presidents. They sat on meeting room chairs!

Luckily the pitch was artificial turf (a donation from the FIFA), so the game would not suffer from the rain. The teams lined up to greet the crowd and take the mandatory team photo's. All this time the - uncovered - stand to our left got fuller and fuller with the most fanatic fans of Rayon Sport. The entire game they created a continuous party with African drum beats, songs and even a some tribal dancing. One guy acted as the spiritual leader and kneeled in front of the stands, shaking his body to the rhythm and beating the soil with his hands. Probably calling up the spirits to bless the team and lead them to victory.


The game started and from the first minute it was clear what both teams' objectives were. Rayon went furiously on the attack and the Ethiopians just wanted to waste time. From the very first minute! They were on the ground so often, I almost felt like calling in some UN food droppings to strengthen them a bit.

The locals played very well but just couldn't score. Enough chances, but poor finishing. Half time score therefore was 0-0 and the fans started looking a bit worried. But not our "medicine man"! No, he was still doing is tribal dancing and obviously had faith in the final result.

Second half started and it was a copy of the first half, until the 73th minute. Finally Rayon Sport scored and the stadium erupted! People cheered, yelled and danced! The drums got beaten on more intensely and this is when it happened! Panic with the security! The medicine man had collapsed and lay there motionless on the ground. The Red Cross, who until then had had their hands full with all the suffering Ethiopian players, were rushed to him and (what looked like a real) doctor came from the VIP section to check what was going on. 5 minutes later the boy was carried out of the stadium and the doctor returned, making the well known gesture that the spiritual leader had had a bit too much of the spirits. No, not the ones from the afterlife, but the ones that come in bottles from your local liquor store.

Everybody focused again on the game and some 5 minutes before the end Rayon sport scored their second. It was now 2-0 and that meant that the local heroes had wiped out the poor result from the first match. The Ethiopians looked lost and had to hold on for dear life to make it to the final whistle. They succeeded in that objective. Both matched had now ended in 2-0 victories, meaning that there had to be more action to decide this one. I was ready for the extra 30 minutes, but to my surprise it went straight to penalties.

The penalties turned out to be something from a movie. A Hollywood movie of course. Harar Beer missed their first penalty, but all other went in easily until the very last one of Rayon Sport. The 5th player went up to the penalty spot and if he scored, it would be all over and Kigali could start partying. The crowd held their breath as he ran up to the ball and took the shot...

From then on everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The shot was to the right of the goal keeper, who anticipated well and dove towards the ball. He stopped it with his hands as I heard someone behind me whisper "sh*t!". However, the ball slipped from his hand, went via his legs and slowly rolled on the goal line. It was like a scene from a basketball flick where the winning shot just rolls and rolls on the rim, before falling in.

The ball rolled all the way to the other side of the goal. The goalkeeper saw this, got up and ran after it to stop it from crossing the line. Everybody just stared at the ball praying for it to go in. It was as if time stood still. As the Ethiopian goalkeeper dove towards the ball, it actually decided to cross the goal line at the very end. Everybody looked at the ref... he signalled goal!

The game was over. Rayon Sport qualified for the next round and the party started. People ran on the pitch, the fans went wild, and in the meanwhile the opponents attacked the referee. It took some 20 heavily armed military police to separate the opponents from the officials.

Finally things settled and we could leave the stadium. On our way back it was a party. The street were full of fans cheering and waving with whatever blue and white they had. Scarfs, sheets, flags, towels, anything! As long as it was blue and white. Well, that day we became a bit blue and white too! Go Rayon Sport!

PS: That last penalty sounds to unreal to be true. Luckily after the game I met Eric, the webmaster of the local football federation, who filmed it with his digicam. Check it out! Apologies for the text on the screen, but that is because it was converted with trial software.

First Impressions

I've been walking and driving around this city for some 9 days now and it is a very different experience. Very different from Maputo. This entry is a collection of first impressions. Obviously there will be lots of generalising and I will likely draw conclusions I shouldn't, but that's why it's listed as first impressions.

Rwandans are very nice people. Very friendly. Overall people are a bit introvert, especially compared to Mozambique. Mozambicans have the Latin extravertness and can probably be considered the Brazilians of Africa. Rwanda has a more traditional culture. People have high moral standards which is what makes is quite safe and friendly. For example, I sat in a taxi behind another car who's driver took ages to cross a road. Even when there were huge gaps in between oncoming cars, he didn't dare crossing the road. What do you think my driver did during all this time? He waited patiently! A taxi driver!!! I was biting hard into the seat cushion to avoid shouting "come on!" to him and the guy in front of us! Even Mother Theresa would've been all over the car horn trying to speed up the guy in front!

That's one instance, but there are many more you experience here, which make you realise how 'correct' people are over here. Just to mention a few:
- People actually wait for a green light before crossing the road. Even if the nearest car is further away that peace in the middle east. I jay-walked once and almost felt like apologising to everyone.
- Nobody shouts here. I don't recall anyone shouting out loud on the street. Maybe it is considered impolite. I should check that.
- People go out of the way for others, greet politely, help each other out, etc. Very refreshing!

People look different here. I mean different from Mozambicans. Duh! In Mozambique women tend to have a triangular shaped face with a pointy chin and sharp features. The men have more rounded faces. In Rwanda the men have sharper faces and in between all the not-so-tall locals, you often find the odd 1.85-1.95 meter tall guy. As if they dropped a whole bunch of Masai in this city. The women have rounder softer features, and a more oval shaped face and there are three hairstyles for women: the traditional short afro, the straightened (ironed) hair and then there's the most popular pulled back braids style. Actually, a lot of women here look like Brigitte. For you non-Rabo readers: Brigitte is a Rwandese colleague who, as I now realise, has a typical Rwandese look. One difference though. She has more hairstyles than this entire country put together!

The language spoken here is the local Rwandese language Kinyarwanda which basically sounds like... ehh... an African language. I have mastered my first word, which is Urakoze which means 'thank you'. Apart from that I now know how to say good morning, goodbye and hello, but I don't dare writing these as my spelling will probably make Brigitte roll all over the office floor. The second language everyone knows is French (yeah, lucky me...Not!). However, due to the colonial past under the French speaking Belgians and the role the French played during the genocide, there's a strong governmentally promoted movement to switch to English as the second language. Basically, the government wants to push out the French language. Everywhere on the street you see people walking with English phrasebooks and Oxford dictionaries.

Last weekend we also did a walk through town. First thing you find is a bunch of Forex stores. On the first street corner we hit there must've been some 15 of those. Basically it's an exchange store where you can exchange your Euros or dollars to local francs. No, not a bank outlet or anything official. Just a table, a cardboard billboard with handwritten rates on it and a bunch of guys running up to any foreigner that passes by. The local Rwandese franc (RWF) is worth about 0.00125 Euro cents, meaning that you get 800 of those for a Euro. And the largest denomination you see on the street is a 5.000 franc bill. This means that you walk around with quite some bills in your wallet. On the positive side, you hardly see coins.

The city centre is not that big. A few street and a bunch of small stores. All of them have hand painted signs and they sell basic needs. This is where you see that Rwanda is still a poor country. The streets are clean and the city-scaping looks quite modern, but the stores are very basic and no luxury items on sale. Even in poor Maputo you would find the odd Diesel outlet, a modern looking computer shop or a plasma TV in the store window. However, there is one brand new mall in the centre. It has some 20 stores, a supermarket and even a small food-court. There's also a coffee shop (no, not the Dutch kind) with wireless internet, that sells Starbucks style coffee. And like in Maputo, there are no American fast food franchises to be found. Yet! I guess if you want to become a millionaire, get that African Macky D, KFC or B King franchise license and introduce the finest food the US has to offer to this continent.

Last Thursday a colleague and I went to the happy hour in Mille Collines ('Hotel Rwanda'). It was recommended by an ex-pat we met a few days before. First, it was quite strange to walk in this place you kind'a know from a very impressive and emotional movie. The hotel actually doesn't look like the one in the movie (which was shot in South Africa), but I still felt some jitters. Nowadays, the place is not that great. It's a straight forward 3-4 star hotel, with little facilities. But the main reason the place is a bit shabby, is the large number of working girls waiting for the guests in the bar every evening. Someone mentioned yesterday that the place has a new nickname: the Mille V*gines (I apologise to all readers under 18. I should've mentioned that you should read this under parental supervision only).

The happy hour itself was okay. The 'hostesses' were not out yet and there was a band playing covers ranging from Dolly Parton to Beyoncé to Bon Jovi. Musical tastes so far are a bit strange here. Especially when it comes to non-African music. Yesterday I sat in a colleague's car and his entire collection of cassettes (for those of you under 20, that's a piece of plastic the size of your iPod which holds no less than 10 songs. On each side!) covered only American Country & Western (!?). Now that is surreal! driving on a dirt road in between small shacks, smack in the middle of dark Africa, listening to Garth Brooks...

Back in da Mothalan

The title comes from my African-American buddies (yes, I can be PC) who refer to this continent as the Motherland. I just kind'a spelled it a bit slangish. But what it really means is that I am back in Africa. I guess, as scientist currently believe that this is the start of human civilisation, it is my motherland too!

So since last Thursday I am in Kigali. For those of you who care more about my suitcase than about me, it arrived with me! That's twice in a row now! I'm on a roll! The flight itself was uneventful. The e-ticket promised a Boeing 777, meaning on demand in-flight entertainment even in cattle class, but it turned out to be an old 767 with just a single movie on a black & white projector screen. And they played the same silly Michael Douglas flick I had seen the week before, while returning from the Big Apple. How tough can one's life be?!?

Well, there I was on Kigali airport hugging my suitcase. First action: get a cab to the hotel. Already here the first differences with Mozambique became very apparent (obviously, I tend to compare Rwanda with Mozambique). The taxi was actually a real car! One from this century! And the roads? Excellent! Maputo's roads are a challenge, even for NASA's Mars explorer, but Kigali has well paved roads, with sidewalks, functioning traffic lights, road signs and people that actually drive decently. And this country is supposed to be poorer that Moz!

And apart from taxi's, also here you will find the mini-buses. The big difference here is that they actually stick to the maximum number of people that legally fit in that thing. Next to mini buses, the road is also full of moto-taxi's. Those are motorcycles with a driver wearing a green helmet and jacket. His cell number is splashed all over his helmet. You can stop one, jump on the back, put on the spare helmet and he'll take you wherever you want (or need) to be. However, I strongly recommend to review your travel insurance, medical insurance and testament before hopping on one of these. You might want to make sure that you paid the premium for the first two and included my name in the latter...

Kigali is a very hilly city. Or actually, Rwanda is a very hilly country. The country's nickname is Le Pays des Mille Collines, the land of the thousand hills. This makes the city quite beautiful. The city is splashed over 6 hills or so and is situated some 1.500 meters above sea-level, so there's a great view from almost anywhere! Ever wanted an affordable place with a mountain view and a great panorama? Come and buy a shack here! Land prices are still ridiculously low.

Talking about that nickname: Right in front of the bank is a hotel called Mille Collines. However, most of you actually already know this hotel... from a movie.... yes! Hotel Rwanda! The actual hotel is right in front of us. Quite strange to see it if you've seen the movie. It is currently again a fully operational 4-star place.

My hotel (Serena) is nice. Well actually, it's a luxury hotel. Probably the most luxurious (and most expensive) in town. However, I do intend to switch hotels as the Novotel has a better atmosphere, food, price, gym, on-site shops and nearby restaurants.

Wow! I have so many first impressions, I think I need to write a few additional blog entries this week. Well, the first week is always the most impressionable. Especially if on day 2 you already get invited as a VIP to an African Champions League match. That story will follow soon! It was a blast!

Getting back to comparing. Overall there are actually not that many similarities with Maputo. Yes, you see things here you would also see in Maputo, but life-style, people, food, atmosphere, scenery, city scaping, land scaping, climate and almost everything else is different. I hope to find enough time to write about these in the coming 6 weeks. But for now, I need to end this article as my colleague is downstairs waiting for me. Chow time!