Day 13

On Thursday, Lydie picked me up to go to Kigali. She wanted to check out a couple of new supermarkets and do some shopping since she was expecting new guests at the lodge.

Bankstuff
With her help, I finally managed to withdraw some money. When I left Belgium, I made sure that my bank would reactivate the Maestro option and verify whether money withdrawal in Rwanda shouldn’t be any problem. Credit cards, according to my travelguide, are widely accepted. In reality, none of this works. The only international card they accept is VISA and I had to go to a special office to get money from my MasterCard, which is complicated and costs quite a lot at the same time. There’s only one bank that does this kind of transaction and there are no ATM’s for it. A real pain if you ask me and quite important for travelers who never use a credit card or have something different from VISA.

La Galette
For lunch, Lydie and I went to ‘La Galette’, which is currently run by Germans. It’s a very cosy and clean little place in the middle of Kigali. They have a varied menu and the food is exceptionally good. Even their prices are relatively cheap.

After our shopping, driver Jean-Marc - an ex-military sergeant and currently an independent business man – picked me up in the town-center and dropped me off at Anne’s place. She is a French-speaking Belgian doctor on a one-year contract, working in Kigali hospital. She works for the organisation ‘Medecins sans Vacances’ which has their Belgian headquarters in Mechelen. Her housekeeper, Nicole (31) is originally from Gitarama and speaks very good French so I had a nice chat with her. We will meet up in Gitarama during the weekend for food and drinks.

On a date
In the evening, I had a little ‘date’ at Lando’s with Karim, a (very handsome) Belgian-Rwandese salesman. He works independently but negotiates on product import and export with the Belgian group Colruyt. Many of their products can be found here in stores all over the country, I often wonder what they’d make of the Dutch words here. His main domain are cosmetics, so I told him to import some sunscreen as it’s nowhere to be found around here! Lando’s seems to be a very popular hangout for expats. It’s a hotel and conference center, bar and restaurant in Kigali’s Rimera area. We had a great evening and will surely meet up again.

Despite the busy traffic in the frontdoor, I hope to get a good night's rest and be all excited about the safari in Akagera National Park.


Sweet dreams!
 
Thursday, 10th March - Kigali