Living, eating, and surfing

Hey, I have survived in Rwanda more than a month, and here is the bottom line.

Let's start with finances. OK, I spent under US$400 the first month. That's living pretty frugally by Western standards and yet eating fairly well. I've made it my quest to find the cheapest buffet in town ($2). In fact, there are four buffet places within walking distance of where I live. But the buffet has to have green vegetables. And salads. All the starchy stuff (i.e., rice, fries, cassava, mashed potato), will fill you up, but for real nutrition, go for the dark green. That means sombé (cassava leaves), dodo (amaranth leaves), and sukuma wiki (Swahili name for collard greens). Pumpkin and avocado are also healthy. Sometimes when I'm lunching with a local brother, I taunt him: "Where's the green on your plate?" That's because many locals prefer the starch. It's that way in many of the developing countries I've visited.

Here are some photos of these vegetables when cooked:

Dodo, sukuma wiki

By the way, the expression "sukuma wiki" literally translates "push the week" or "stretch the week." How is that? Since these greens are cheap, readily available, and grown year-round in the dusty soil of nearly every garden in East Africa, they are used to "stretch the week," when other supplies have run out or meat is scarce. You can find them at Kenyan restaurants here in Rwanda.

Sombé

Sombé is prepared by mixing the cassava leaves with bones (!) and groundnut (peanut) paste, thus giving it a nice flavor and texture, as well as a high protein content. It resembles, at the very least, creamed spinach, but you can use your imagination.

OK, that's my "healthy food" speech. Now, generally speaking, here is my take on various categories of expenses:

Food: cheap, if you eat local, moderate to expensive otherwise
Transportation: cheap, except taxi cars (bus fares are government-regulated)
Cell phone: cheap
Housing: moderate (although right now I've got a sweet deal, namely, free)

What about internet? When I was in Malawi 7 years ago, the only internet was in the cafes. There was no wi-fi. I went to a cafe about once every 2 weeks to check my e-mail. I ask myself now, how did I survive? What did I then spend my time doing that I am now wasting surfing the internet? Now, it seems, internet is everywhere and is almost considered a necessity. Here, I pay about $30 a month for internet. It has moments of speed, usually early in the morning or very late at night, but much of the time it's slow and occasionally nonexistent. And I live only about a 5 minute walk from the internet company headquarters! So I wish I could post more photos on this blog, but waiting forever for them to load is often not an option. (Note: A recent online report stated that Rwanda has the fastest internet speed of African countries. Ha! That's like saying the three-toed sloth is the fastest of all the sloths.)

The other day, I wanted to download to my tablet 5 publications from jw.org--not huge ones, mind you, 3 songbooks, English and French WT study issues--and so I decided to send them to myself by e-mail so that when I found a wi-fi spot in town (which turned out to be quite a challenge), I would have them all in one location to download. Well, just sending them by e-mail took almost the whole day. Then, at the meeting, a brother recently moved here from Angola told me that where he lives, which is on a big estate (read: suburban tract of homes), he gets superfast internet. So one day I went with him to his house--quite far, with no bus service--and loaded all my documents in 10 minutes! (at 200Kbps)

That was very kind of the brother, but in terms of decent wi-fi closer to town, I had almost despaired of finding a place, when I discovered that at a Chinese restaurant where I have a return visit, there is a sign advertising fast wi-fi. Their food is rather expensive (e.g., $36 for a seafood platter)--Chinese food here is generally more expensive than other kinds of food, whereas in the U.S. it is generally cheaper--but maybe on occasion I can order a drink or something and avail myself of their wi-fi. Oh, and also do my return visit!

Latest news flash: The other day a brother at Bethel, Dieu Donné (meaning "God-given"), told me about this outdoor bar where Chinese construction workers hang out in the evenings to have brochettes and beer. Did I mention before that Rwandans make these awesome goat, beef, and fish brochettes (shish kabobs)? If I didn't, here is a picture:

But back to the subject. We went to this bar the other evening and found a table of 6 Chinese people enjoying themselves. I wondered, how can we inject ourselves into their company without appearing too obvious? So first, we ordered some brochettes (60 cents apiece) and soda (sorry, no beer, we're on duty) and then I casually said hello to one of the Chinese guys. After a few seconds of small talk, he invited me to join their table! Pretty easy, right? I ended up placing several tracts and getting some names and phone numbers.

After about an hour at the bar, the brother asked whether I wanted to go into town to the Bamboo Chinese restaurant on the top floor of the 2000 supermarket. I told him I had been there before and talked to the lady proprietor. She was polite, but not particularly interested. But the brother replied, did you remember seeing a grand piano there, one that no one plays? So I agreed, let's go check it out. At the restaurant, the proprietor wasn't there, so after asking permission from one of the workers, I banged around on the piano for a few minutes. (It had a good appearance but was generally out of tune.) Then, as we were about to leave, we saw a Chinese person in the office. It was the 26-year-old chef. It was about 8:30pm and there weren't many customers at that point. He invited us into the office and we talked until nearly 10pm! He had so many questions, so I showed the video, placed a couple of brochures, and arranged to return the following week. Since after 8pm is the best time for him, I will have to determine whether I should get someone to drive me there in a car or take the bus alone or with a partner. This will be my third Bible study!

By the way, I intend to ask the proprietor if they would pay me to play the piano a few evenings a week. I can bring my own brandy glass. Hey, it's worth a shot . . .