Day 4

Tuesday was a turning point. I spent the whole day doing nothing actually and I decided there and then that it was my last day of adjusting. Since I finally got some Rwandese francs and an upset stomach, I decided to go down to the market and buy my own fruit & veggies to settle things internally. Despite the strange smell, I found some good stuff to keep me in balance. My shopping bag contained; bananas, passion fruit, small tomatoes, carrots (big ones), small bananas (they do not call them plantain here) and green oranges. Sounds very poisonous, looks like it too, but have a sweet and sour taste. Byiza! And just to stay on the safe side, I also bought some toiletpaper, porridge, tea and bread. Funny thing, coffee is from Nescafe, jam is from Lidl’s ‘Jempy’ and the beer is Primus or Amstel.

Lesson 3
During the heat of the day - which wouldn’t actually be so bad if I hadn’t been sunburned -I got a third lesson in Kinyarwanda. Remember the first lessons?

Waramutse! – Goodmorning!
Wiriwe! – Good afternoon, Good evening!
Muramuke! - Good night!

Ndashaka amazi akonge / ashushe - I (nda) want (shaka) cold / warm water (amazi).
Ndashaka Fanta akonge - I want cold Fanta
Ndashaka amata ashushe – I want warm milk (amata)

Umuceri – rice
Ifiriti – fries
Imboga – greens, vegetables
Amakaroni – pasta
Ibirayi – potatoes, in fact they call them ‘Irish potatoes’

So when you want to order food, for instance rice, greens and pasta, you say;
Ndashaka umuceri ni imboga na amakaroni

And = ni, na, nu – depending on the subject

On the job (kukazi)
When greeting eachother with amakuru (as in ‘how are you today’), it actually means ‘what’s the news today’ as makuru means ‘news’. People usually reply by saying ni meza , which in this sense means: ‘no news’.

This simple explanation makes the rest also clear;
Umunyamakuru – a journalist (umu = person)
Ibinyamakuru – newspapers (ibi = the)
Itangazamakuru – media (itangaza = to broadcast)

Ngewe ndi umunyamakuru umubirigi – I am a Belgian journalist (Ngewe ndi – previous lesson: I am)
Wowe uri umunyamakuru umunyarwanda – You are a Rwandese journalist

Bwana vs mubyeyi
The relationship or sexual attraction between men and women is so very different overhere. For instance, short men would marry tall women, but a tall woman would never marry a tall man. Same for short people, short does not marry short. A short, skinny guy would take a tall, big woman, with a big butt and boobs. Skinny doesn’t do you good, nobody wants to marry a skinny woman. It still has to do with the ‘fertile’ image women need to have. I’ll pass on the visualisation, but even stranger; men like hairy women. According to my source, African men like a woman with hair on her legs and arms and find it very strange that white women shave everything. Probably because it’s rare for Africans to have much hair, they adore it even more.

My source also reveiled that Rwandese men are not romantic at all. Hence the fact that there’s so much domestic violence in Rwandese households. On March 8th, it’s National Women’s Day and we’ll visit some places where women gather to share their stories.

Anyway, back to the romance; it doesn’t exist. From my personal experience, I’ve found most African men quite ‘pushy’ when it comes to woeing a woman. The whole ‘hello pretty lady’ thing doesn’t work for me. Moreover, in the bars, you can see the men squeezing in the butts of the waitresses. They like a girl by the size of her butt. This unfortunate fate turned on me as well. My friend got a bit carried away and started to cling onto me and squeeze my butt. I’ll spare you (and myself) the rest of the details, but it wasn’t nice at all. The first thing that came to my mind was ‘oh no… another cliche confirmed’, there goes the unspoiled friendship. It lasted exactly 4 days. Anyway, life is all about second chances, I drew my friend thé line and tomorrow we’ll set off on the right foot again. Why don’t these men understand that in fact that is exactly how you chase a woman away? So ladies, when in Africa, watch the elephant and his trunk…

Off to bed, hopefully I'll be getting some sleep as my neighbour snores like an elephant. As long as he keeps his trunk down, we’re good.

 Tuesday 1st March – Gitarama 27 degrees