Bujumbura

Lon's colleague Jaco moved from Rwanda last year to neighbouring Burundi as part of the Embassy Office there. He requested that Lon come down for a few days to do some financial verifications etc and since I hadn't yet been to Burundi I came too.

We were driven down by an Embassy chauffeur on Saturday morning, stopping in Butare for a coffee, before heading to the border. The chauffeur took care of all the formalities (what a luxury!) and we stayed sitting in the air-conditioned car!

The route through Burundi to Bujumbura saw us passing unterrassed hills, and towns which were subtly different from Rwanda, we also decreased altitude from 1500m to 775m which meant a huge change in temperature - so despite it being as hot as it ever is in Kigali now, we really noticed the difference.

We spent the remains of Saturday hanging out at Jaco and Leontines, and watched the sunset at a local bar (theoretically over Lake Tanganyika but it is so overcast at the moment that the lake remained invisible)

Sunday we brunched, took a tour of Bujumbura, and then went to hang out at Bora Bora - a very chilled place on the beach (note the pool - its not safe to swim in the lake because of the hippos and crocodiles) - we really had the feeling that we were a long way from Kigali.
Roundabout (why are European ones always so boring??)


Traffic police who have recently been trained by the Dutch

street life


There is a park in the centre of town, with swings, trees and plants, and is very popular for healthy Burundians working out in the shade.






On Monday Lon went to work, and I went on a tour of Bujumbura with Leontine. Firstly we changed money at a forex and Leo almost got into the wrong chauffeur driven silver Suzuki (as it was parked in front) and to the supermarkets and the coffee shop before the guys came home for lunch.

In Bujumbura there are some habits which differ from ours in Rwanda. Most people have a cook, and so eat the main meal at lunch time, and since the cook has to justify his existence lunch is a delicious three course affair involving sauces and finely chopped vegetables (our cook ((me)) just chops things haphazardly!)

We went to visit the Grand Marche in the afternoon, a big market in the centre of town. Again for me it was about making comparisons to Kigali's main market - in this case the roof is much higher, which means is has an airier feel. Celeste the driver came with us to help us navigate, I was hoping to find some of the local material, but didn't succeed - but we did of course search the whole market, only to go back to the first stall to buy something!

On Tuesday we went with Ellen as well (another NL partner who has relocated to Burundi) to the Rusizi national park which is just on the edge of the town. We were accompanied by an armed policeman instead of a ranger since there wasn't enough space for both in the car. We saw lots of birds and many hippo families.


hippo print



Then we went for coffee in the local coffee shop Aroma, which is a hang out for wireless internet users, and coffee drinkers.



Before lunch we went to the Congolese market and enjoyed haggling for treasures - much emboldened by each others presence and better at haggling for it too, and then spent the remains of the afternoon cooling off in the pool at Ellen’s since Jaco and Leontines was empty for repairs.

In the evening, waiting for Lon and Jaco to return from the Embassy Office (not Embassy as they are under the wing of Kigali) I heard fireworks..or so I thought, and was about to say so when I realised it was unlikely. There was an extended exchange of (automatic) fire on a hill in the distance (10km away)...the guards explanation of thieves seemed unlikely, but it was a stark reminder that life in Burundi is different - there is a curfew with roadblocks round the city at night, and its not safe to go off to the countryside for a drive as we do here. Another example is the tea plantation where Jaco used to take the dog for a walk on a Sunday is now no-go as there are armed rebels camping there.

Wednesday we went speed shopping at a local Christian cooperative which has a large selection of items, chickens and chicken feeders, milk and yoghurt, school bags and wooden furniture, and beautiful glazed pottery. We had to hurry as we had appointments at the Buj spa - a place with Thai massage ladies and a sauna. It was clean, and professional, and I had a full body massage given by a miniature Thai lady using hands and elbows which was both wonderful and painful.

We just had time after lunch to go to the marvellous greek run butchers which wouldn't be out of place in any European town, and finish the money buying chorizo and ham before catching the 45 minute plane back home.

Dobby

We didn't put it in our holiday report, because we didn't want to spoil it.

While we were in France we had some bad news from home. One of our cats had had an accident. Dobby (the female) was found not far from our house, clearly hit by a car. She must have died instantly.

We asked my colleague Jojan to be the guardian of our cats while we were away, just in case. She has a cat and a dog and knows what to do. Jojan got a panic call on her way to work on a Monday morning. She made sure that no immediate actions was needed, did some things at work and came to the house a.s.a.p. Evariste and Clarisse were busy discussing together with our Monday guard. Jojan handled the situation brilliantly. She sent her gardener of to find a box to put Dobby in. Clarisse got one of her favorite blankets. Evarist went to look for some plants and a stone. Jojan asked to paint Dobby's name on a piece of wood, but apperantly in Rwanda you use a stone.



It was hard for Clarisse, she was more attached to the cats than she realised and she somehow felt guilty this happened during our holidays. Jojan came by several time to check on her, it took her a while to get over it.

We knew that Dobby went over the wall, so it was possible she could be hit one day. But still it came as a shock. Neville was still a bit confused when we came back, but it could also be all the suitcases. Anyway, it looks he is getting used to being alone. He only does not want to sleep in the basket. They used to share it as kittens, but at some point Dobby kicked him out, now he still feels he is not allowed in it. He loves all the extra attention he gets now.

Red tape

Hopefully we can go this weekend to Bujumbura.

A couple of weeks ago my colleague in Bujumbura asked for some help, and I (and Hazel) would like to go there for a few day. So...

It turned out that our visas for Rwanda just expired, so we had to get new ones in order to be allowed back. So on Monday we filled in the form and gave 8 photos each, just in case. It should take a week. So I made very clear, we need it in a week, so should just work.

During the week it became clear this was not going to happen. This Tuesday I got the forms back with the comment that the photo was not correct. Somehow it was OK for the ministry, but now the immigration office needed one with a white background, not grey. The Dutch photos always need a grey background and we specially had some extra made in The Netherlands in order to have some quality. So we should get our passports back this Thursday, so we can leave on Saturday. Let's hope we get our Burundi visas at the border, we have no time to get those here.

The good news regarding red tape: Rwanda jumped 76 places on the 'Doing bussiness index'. This is surprising and very welcome. The country is developing and is very dependent from (foreign) investors. They cut the time to register by 255 days, imagine what it used to be.

Last week of holidays

Before we went to Pukkelpop we needed to be sure the luggage was not too heavy. We had an allowance of two pieces of 32 kg each and 2 pieces of handluggage of 8 and 10 kg. Should not be a problem you would think.

Surprise, we were 20 kg under! Only problem was, the suitcases turned out to be too small. (no dad not the new ones, they are perfect). So decision is already made to purchase huge suitcases next year. In the end we ended op posting a big but light bag through the ministerial post, not cheap but much cheaper than a fine from KLM.

Pukkelpop was great.

The day before we picked up Gem and Greg in Leuven and spent a few hours there. Nice town, but it was warm. We drove to Hasselt to get our entry bracelet so we didn't have to queue the first day. Then off to Genk where we booked a hotel. We decided we have become to old to stay at a campsite full of dirty and noisy teenagers and possibly mud.

Day one was a long day, we wanted to see some bands that were programmed early, as well as some that were programmed late. IT WAS HOT. In fact it was the hottest day ever recorded in Limburg (Belgium province). 38 C. I know that my family in USA might laugh at this, but for us it is hot. So we (and 50.000 others) hopped from shade to shade seeking beer and good music. And we did find it. At around 21.00 a big shower came, this was a releif as the temperature dropped, it didn't even last long. The ground absorbed all the rain and there wasn't even mud. OK maybe this is wrong for a pop festival, but we did like the fact there was no mud, we are old.

Day two we stayed a bit longer in bed, party because we wanted to see the last band, Kraftwerk. Maybe we shouldn't have. It turned out that they put there 1970 video on and pressed play on the CD player. We did see four men (assume the right ones) standing behind motionless behind keyboard, I am still puzzled how that can be a performance. As I said; a bit of a disappointment. In all honesty I must say I was very please to hear Das Model. We all know the (worse) English version, but I never heard Kraftwerk play the German one. The best version remains the one from Rammstein. For those who disagree: you're wrong. DAD quote: I like to share your point of view, as long as it's my view too.

Day three my beloved wife decided it was my birthday a day early. We woke up reasonbly late, had some breakfast in the hotelroom and opened pressies, my favorite part. As punishment for being old (it's not my fault!!) I had to wear a hat and some flags around me saying 40. Somehow I did not look out of place amongst the youth and only a few people congratulated me, of course surprised at the number on the flag. Anyway I am 2 x 20 not 40! If you want photographic evidence, please contact the wife, I have the right to remain silent.
(Evidence added by the wife!)

The trip to The Hague was uneventful except for a trafficjam at Rotterdam which added nearly two hours to our journey. The checking at Schiphol was fine, we just had to pretend our handluggage weighed 8 kg instead of 20.

We did enjoy our holidays, and as most people, are glad to be home, but want a holiday!

Neville, our cat, was very exited to see us and we are happy to see him and sad that his sister is gone. We just know we will spoil him even more.

So back at work.

Good news: probably both off to Bujumbura for a few days next week. We will let you know.

France

Week 3

We agreed to meet our friends Emma and Andrew in france. We thought they are in France, we are in France, good idea. What we didn't realise at the time is that France is a big place. We were in Britanny and they in the south-east next to the spanish border. It couldn't be further apart.

Anyway we did it. It took us two days to get there. We had a lovely time, they have this nice small family house in a little village, very pitoresque. We drank some wine, walked throught the village and spent some time on the beach and drank some wine. Nice.

On the way back we dropped by a school friend of Hazels just north of Paris. They seem to enjoy the French life. A small village, yet close to Paris, ideal.

Now (12 Aug) we are squatting in the home of Emma and Andrew in The Hague. A nice arrangement, we take care of the cat and in return we can stay here. We feel remarkably at home in The Hague. Did a lot of shopping and eating Dutch things including the obligatory fish at Simonis and sausage at Hema.

Visit Lons family

We (the family) rented a house in France for a week to see each other. My brother lives in Ireland, we live in Rwanda and my sister and parents in the east (hardly Netherlands). So this seemed a good solution.


The house we rented

The ferry landed around 18.30 in France and we had at least 3 hours drive ahead of us. So a quick meal at a french Mac. Donalds like place and of we went. It turned out that we had the route discription for the place but neglected to print out the actual address. oops. We found the road at around midnight and looked closely at the houses for signs of messy children, Dutch cars and lights left on. None of the above. So we finally decided the go back to the highway and stay in a roadside hotel. There were 4. Number 1 (formula 1) was full, number 2 did not like our card, not our bankcard, nor our master or English Visa. Stupid machine. The computer of number three showed three kinds of room, and only one sort available, so I pressed that button, after entering more data it decided the sort of room I choose was not available. I started to feel like all computers needed to be burnt on a stake together with their programmers. Hotel 4 seemed closed, with a big gate. Desparately I tried the little sidegate and could get in. The computer even worked and gave me a key and code for the gate; the computers are saved (not sure yet about the programmers).

After all this we had a lovely week with all the family. The highlight was a visit to the Astrix park where the kids could play a lot of games, very inventive. Fighting of and with 7 nieces and nephews was very exhausting though. Unfortunately my sister and family had to return a day early; Wouters father was taken to hospital with heavy bleeding, a scary situation, but he pulled through.

Visit Hazels family

The first week of the hollidays consisted of visiting various member of Hazels family. This included some travelling, but all short distances. We loved seeing Gem and Gregs new house and enjoyed our stay there. Needless to say we also did some shopping.

We ended the week by a short visit to Hazels good friend Claire. A short but good visit.

I know I should be writing a lot more here. But people involved know and others are probably not interested. I do wish to thank everyone for there nice warm welcome, we really enjoyed it.

Holidays

It has been a while since our last post, therefore hereby an update.

The first leg of the trip was comical (as often on this route). We checked in and noticed the chairs were not next to each other, so had it changed. After we were behind customs we noticed that they changed the seat from 2a and 3b to 2a and 6b, this would be the first plane that has seats 2a and 6b next to each other. At investigation the romulan looking lady said the flight was fully booked and change therefore impossible. At boarding the plane it became apparent that our handluggage was too large and had to be put in the hold, luckily we anticipated this and there were no breakables in it. It turned out to be free seating and we had two places next to each other. The plane was very bus-like. We had the backbench, the only thing missing was the back window. Had a conversation/interview with an american who each year used his 10 days holiday to visit projects in Rwanda and South Africa, but still didn't know much about Rwanda. Poor bloke had to fly via Amsterdam to the USA, a 20 hour trip.

As usual a lady was awaiting us at Entebbe. Communication was not her strong point. 'How many pieces?'. Pieces of what? Luggage, handluggage? Checked in? Including the handluggage taken off us? It turned out we had to take the handluggage of the luggage band ourselves, this included going past customs without a passport, but nobody seemed to care. The she asked how much weight. We found this a very personal question and the Swedish fellow traveller nearly flipped. We calmed her by telling this is normal and we never failed to get the Amsterdam flight. We knew the weight of our check in luggage still, but others had to guess. (how would they check anyway?). The ultimum question was how many peices in total, by which she meant how many peices of check in luggage all 7 of us had in total. As we were all individuals (I'm not) none of us knew anything of the rest. But luckily the lady figured out that the total can be calculated by adding all the individual ones. So up the never working escalators and the usual disappearing of the lady with our tickets and passports and unknown period of waiting. We finally boarded and all was well.

The flight was fine, although staff was slightly less attentive as last time, even misplaced Hazels breakfast order, without any excuses. Of course little sleep as the flight is 8 hours, so after drinks and dinner and before breakfast we could sleep for some 4 hours.

Arrival at Amsterdam before schedule at around 5.45. We got our rental car and headed straight off. We made it to Breda (last town before Belgium) before 8 and waiting in front of the AH to buy some snacks and a Dutch simcard, as Hazels simcard didn't work anymore. A long uneventful drive to Dunkerque. Got the 14.00 ferry and drove at the other end straight to Farnham.

The holiday could start.

I went to prison

I went with two of my colleagues and the project manager of the ministry to see Rwandas top prison: Mpanga prison. The Netherlands is financing the build of the new part where the 'top dogs', who are now in Arusha or Sierra Leone, can be housed. This building has to meet international requirements and is relatively very spacious.

For those interested Mpanga is 1,5 hours drive from Kigali. In Nyanza you take a newly laid road a bit further et voila. The fairly big grounds is surrounded by a wall with barbed wire and watchtowers as you would expect. The grounds hold four main buildings: A building for men genocidairs, a womens prison, a building for 'normal' men prisoners (mostly rapists). This prison is meant to hold all prisoners who have a life sentence. We had a good look at the building in progress which is delayed due to the lengthy tender procedures in Rwanda. This building has two floors and in total 27 rooms, 20 square meters each with own toilet, shower and washbasin. Downstairs holds a kitchen and canteen and upstairs a TV room with kitchenette. The court is huge for only 27 prisoners. The will be let out to play on the soccer and/or basketball fields at separate times from the other prisoners.

The court yard for airing.

The project manager asked me what I thought of the difference between these prisoners, who probably have a better life than an average Rwandese, and other prisoners. I answered that I did agree with him it is not fair, however these are highly political cases.

The building in front is the kitchen, behind that the new building for 'VIP Prisoners'. Photo taken from the football field.

We got a tour around all the buildings. So we casually ask how many prisoners there are; 300, 400...? No, about 5000 Genocidairs and 6000 other, and I forget the number of women, less though. So back to the question, no the difference is not fair; 5000 people in a place not even double the size of the for 27!! We went into the genocidairs building, a square building, open courtyard in the middle, dormitories all around. I counted about 10 doors, therefor about 500 men sleeping together. We didn't look where they slept, but I have a feeling I don't want to. It was a bit weird. thousands of eyes staring at you, but in a peacefull and very passive way. A few things struck me and probably will stay with me. It was very quiet and did NOT smell. Most men were just hanging around, a few were playing a game, one drew my attention, he seemed to be spending a lot of time to put his rag on the right spot for drying, it was a ruglike thing badly patched and in my view not even useful as cleaning cloth, maybe it was more about his 'turf'. There seem to be a well working hyarchy system. Some men with yellow hats were in charge of the order, they kept a straight line in the middle for us to walk through.

The womens prison was much smaller. A lot of women were also working out on the field. When we came in the women were kindly asked all to go to the middle, and they did, again in a very peacefull and obidient way. It was a bit embarrassing. The gave use each a handmade bastket, at least they seem to keep themselves busy. All the doors of all buildings are just open, but I have a feeling if you step outside without permission you might be shot.

All prisoners have an orange suit and if they leave the prison for example for work in the field, they are obliged to wear it. Within the prison most wear something else, specially because they only got one orange suit, no more.

In short an interesting en memorable visit, but glad it took a few hours, couldn't stand spending days or years there.