Househunting and more

More busy and tiring days – I don’t know if it’s the heat, the altitude or all the new sights and sounds, or the combination of the above but its draining just doing anything.

We have looked at about 9 houses in total, mostly the newer residential areas in Kigali - Nyarutarama, including the ex residence of the Kenyan ambassador. A number of the houses seemed to have been designed by someone with a mini palace in mind and built by drunken baboons, common features include very uneven stairs, en suites for practically every room and wings!!

In the end though we will probably end up living somewhere else entirely! One of Lons colleagues is going to leave in October/November, and we would like to take over their house – its located in the old part of town, Kiyovu not the new area, so there is much more mature greenery around, and it’s a house where we felt that we could make our home. It has from memory 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, a great shaded area to sit outside and an upstairs verandah as well. All though this house is a bit older and shabbier, it has a really good feeling. This means that we will end up in furnished temporary accommodation for the in between period – but it will be worth the wait I think. We will also negotiate taking on (most) of the existing staff, and maybe some furnishings as well.

Went to the Ambassadors for dinner along with the other new intakes (there are 4 new staff at the embassy). The ambassador is an experienced host, and we all had a relaxed, sociable evening.