Kigali and Back

Successful morning, restful afternoon.
I retired to my bed pretty early last night, as we planned to go to the capital, Kigali, in the morning.
I have to take a second to explain my sleeping apparatus for those of you who have never travelled to a malaria-active area. I have an excellent bed to sleep in. It's a full-size foam mattress, with clean sheets, and many blankets that I never use. These are much better sleeping arrangements than I expected. The catch, however, (and i'm quickly learning that with most situations in Africa, there's a catch) is that my bedroom door goes right outside, and doesn't seal completely. To fend off the female, mostly nocturnal mosquitos that carry malaria, I basically sleep in a Princess Bed.
To be completely honest, I kinda really like it.
It's a little scary when I consider WHY my bed is like a see-through circus tent, but I just try to enjoy it for what it is. About an hour before I retire, I spray down the Princess Malaria net with 30% DEET insect repellant, and right before bed I spray my arms and head. Life's an adventure, oui?
I usually sleep pretty well, all things considered. (QUICK SIDE STORY: I think I was sleeping a little too well two days ago. I was napping after a large lunch (the nuns never think we eat enough) and I awoke to a strange sound. I ignored it for about 15 mins, until I became convinced it wasn't coming from outside. I looked around on the floor, and quickly saw what I thought was a small bug or something in the corner of my bedroom. I reached for my glasses, and after poking myself in the eye while putting them on, realized there was a ten inch gecko-type lizard hanging out about two feet from my bed. Awesome. In my underwear, I shook out my sneakers (to make sure there weren't more lizards in there) and picked up a sandal to shoo my new friend out of my bedroom. I got him out the door, and went back to sleep. END SIDE STORY)
Christine woke up feeling a little less than amazing this morning, so she decided to stay home while Sr. Augusta and I took the two hour public transportation van ride to Kigali. Rwandan radio is a mix of American and African reggae (classic, and dub) some newer American artists like Kanye West and Beyonce, and a lot of African pop and electronic music that is new (and awesome) to me. Pumping dance music at 6:30am, we made great time to Kigali.
The city was quite an experience, in a week of new experiences. So. many. people. The streets were again crowded with dirtbike-taxis, cars, vans, and people on foot. There are many beggars in Kigali. I hadn't really seen that yet, but many people who are physically handicapped beg for money on the street, same as in any other place. No wheelchairs or crutches though, just limb, eye, and handless souls asking for money. I try not to be naive, and I know the shock factor works best on potential alms givers, but this would've taken a back even the most cynical of American city-dwellers.
On any given block there are 5 or 10 young men selling MTN cards. MTN is the Verizon of East Africa (I find it relieving that Verizon isn't the Verizon of East Africa) and all mobile devices work on pay as you go setups. I hadn't considered this, but there is no other way to sell mobile access in a place like this.
Sr. had to visit a bank and check on the status of loans they'd borrowed to build dormatories at the National University in Butare for students from far away, (amazing) and I had to change some money into US dollars, look for a guitar (more on this later) and find a specific data transfer cable.
The money changing first. We quickly found an exchange office with a reasonable rate. (wait for it...) The CATCH, however, was that if you change smaller bills (I had $400 in twenties to change) the exchange rate is about 1/4 less than it is with $100 bills. This was a bit frustrating, but Sr. saved the day by pulling a $100 bill OUT OF HER PURSE and adding this to the one $50 we had, to make for a decent amount of change, with the understanding that Christine and I would pay her back later. (She's half superhero, half nun)
We quickly spotted a small music store, and found a great Ibanez-copy acoustic guitar. (I decided after visiting the school and consulting with Sr. Augusta to pick up a guitar to have while I'm here, and teach the kids at the school (and the nuns) with the intention of leaving it at the school when I go.) We bargained a little, and took home the guitar, strap, and extra strings for about $125, which is much less than I expected to pay for a guitar as solid as this one. Success!
Our last errand was the most difficult. I have a situation for you to picture in your head: Try to put yourself there. You're in Rwanda, and you need to find a specific computer cable. The most complicated piece of equipment you've seen the entire trip is a dell desktop, with a USB printer. Electronics stores consist of beat up speaker equipment and gorgeous mobile phones. You're attempting to explain to someone who speaks some combination of Kinyarwanda, French, and Hindi that you need a 1394 Firewire cable that converts from 4 pin to 6 pin. Good luck, Jack.
7th store was the charm. Only had one of the cables, and he took it from another package. To quote Capt. Miller in Saving Private Ryan: "it's like finding a needle in a stack of needles."
After refusing about 1500 phone cards, we had completed our errands. I looked at Sister's watch. Somehow, it was only noon.
Made it back safe, laying low and Christine is feeling better, all day at the school tomorrow filming classes and extra-curriculars.
Talk soon folks, keep the comments and emails coming, love them all! I know I'm forgetting to explain things, so keep asking questions!