Tuesday, 24 June 2008

Back in the Netherlands

Cannot say home sweet home, we feel a bit out of sync without a home in the Netherlands, but it is nice to be able to shop!
The flight went well. It started off with a flight from Kigali to Entebbe (Kampala) by Rwandair. We had a delay of an hour because some official was late, this is the misplaced flexibility Rwandair is renowned for. Because of this we saw hardly anything of the airport. A lady waited for us and wrote down the names and luggage numbers and made sure our luggage was sent onwards. It was a bit worrysum that she went of with our passports for half an hour, but we were with about eight, so we at least were not alone in this situation. We followed the lady up the elavator that is not working for nearly a year now, and boarded as last people the plane.

The flight takes eight and a half hours, which sounds just about right for a night flight. Unfortunately there is very little time left to actually sleep. You take on, get a drink, after half an hour you get a huge meal, then you watch a film, because sleeping after a meal doesn't work. At least an hour before you land they wake you up for breakfast.
So just after six o'clock we had our breakfast, had landed and got our luggage and were ready to drive off in our hire car. It is not our habit to be up this early on a Saturday. My parents were very surprised that we woke them up when we arrived in Markelo, before eight in the morning.

We did some shopping in the lively centre of Markelo. Just to set the setting for outsiders, my parents live at the edge of Markelo and it takes five minutes to walk to the centre, the 'locals' still look surprised if they here another language then their own (this includes Dutch). So we spend a reasonable amount in the local supermarket on the weirdest things, needless to say this does not make an average shopping trolly. After this we needed a nap to be ready for our Dutch meal and vla and of course the football game. The game turned more into babysitting then watching, it is hard work making four children watch a game quietly. As the photo shows they were well prepared, a shame that it didnot help.

Sunday we went for our anticonception visit; my sister with four children. The two oldest boys (9 and 8) were doing a survival run, this five km run includes a lot of obstacles: climbing over nets, running through mud, hanging on ropes etc. We supported them by standing at the side and cycling along. We took a wrong turn so had to wait at one of the last obstacles for a long time. By the time they arived there the heavens opened and we were soaking wet within minutes.





We quickly went to the finish where we had some dry clothes. Luckily the weather was nice so the rest also dried reasonably quickly, still we wanted to get home quickly. My sister told me the way, unfortunately she neglected to mention one turn and I took a guess, a wrong guess of course, so because I was too stubburn to look at the map we had an extra touristic tour of several km. In true Cruyf style we turned this disadvantage into an advantage by stopping for a 'broodje kroket'. A 'kroket' is a typical product that theoretically contains meat and is good in its badness, hope this clears things up.

Monday, 16 June 2008

Hup Holland Hup

We won!!


I am not (only) talking about the Dutch team, but about our Embassy team. Last Friday we plaid a game against the Banque Populair.


The oponents tried to intimidate us by spending half an hour warming up with impresive dances, but we kept our cool.





Within minutes it was 1-0 a bit later 2-0. They had one lucky goal, but we recoverd and in the end it was 3-1.



Our team from left to right:

Emma the intern, Dutch coach of Rwanda premier league team, Ingrid, Junior used to keep for prof team, me, ex Vitesse player, driver Vincent in a small girly shirt, Jan (vaguely), first aid lady (don't know her), Frits (don't know, speaks kinyarwanda), Harry, ??, Kash in girly shirt, ??, Pierre, Faustin, Deo, ?? fast Rwandan guy, gardner, Harry (embassador), Martin (walking away, didn't play).
As you can see, we also looked very professional.

Sunday, 15 June 2008

Pay taxes..be proud

This is a sign we pass daily which makes me smile


DFID - the UK development arm are supporting this body and more information can be found here

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

things to do in Europe

..perhaps a quick trip to the dentist?

seriously we have a good dentist here but have a list of things to do / organise / buy that is growing by the day

anyway for those who are interested in our itinerary

June 20th Night flight to Amsterdam
June 21-24 Markelo with Lons family
June 25-30 UK with Haze family
July 1-2 Ferry from UK and day in Belgium
July 3-10 Hague - Lon has a work course and Hazel socialises and shops
July 11-15 Barcelona
16-17 Amsterdam for a couple of nights and
July 18th return Rwanda

we should both have our usual NL mobile numbers, but if you want to contact either of us drop us a mail

Monday, 9 June 2008

A weekend in Kampala

For reasons that make most sense to ourselves we decided it was time to head off to Kampala for a weekend...
this sounds very jet setty, but the reality was a 10 hour plus drive

the equator - eagle eyes may spot that our GPS reads 00 degrees latitiude



1996 - a few huts, selling souvenirs, and warm fanta orange

2008 - a booming village of souvenir stalls, a hotel and the excellent Equation cafe http://www.aidchild.org/equation.asp

view from our bedroom

we arrived after dark and promptly got very lost in the big city - after finally finding our hotel http://www.holidayexpresshotel.com/we believed the Soundproofing on the website - but as we were located opposite a nightclub that went on until 6.30 am and the windows didn't fully close we had a noisy night - but slept surprisingly well (we got relocated for Saturday night)


Kampala is polluted, busy, noisy and yet the fact that it is lively, friendly and energetic makes it a pretty cool place to hang out, and we'll head back again for longer

Sunday, 1 June 2008

Bird figs




For the third time in the six months in the house we have a tree in fruit, its a kind of fig tree (the gardener says not for human consumption) which attracts lots of birds during the day and bats at night.

Unfortunately Rwandan birds tend to taunt you by sitting still only long enough for you to get really rubbish blurred photo - so here's a shot scavenged from elsewhere