Day 5

After a sleepless night and upset intestines, I decided to stay in the centre today and take some me-time. I was going to read, plan the next couple of days and eat little to clear the air… literally.

Merci Dieu
My morning started with a knock on the door at 8am with hot water for my tea. Jean de Dieu – his real name – is a local boy that works in the centre. He speaks quite some English and French and makes my life a lot easier around here. So starting with a nice cup of Rwandan tea, he also got me a cooking pan and a hot fire for my porridge. He even went to buy me milk for it. (They prepare it with water, but that’s even more tasteless).

When he said ‘j’ai du feu’, I thought he had a small electrical fire for me. Instead, he brought this mini BBQ ironwork with piping hot charcoal burning underneath the grill. There I was, the most incapable cook in the whole world, with a prehistoric fire and a cooking pot. I secretely hoped they would do it for me, but now I was challenged to do it myself.

One of the basic rules in cooking is: respect the quantities. I already broke that basic rule, so I ended up messing around with the milk and the porridge powder. The pot was so hot, you had to take a wet cloth to hold it. But with the cloth, the whole thing got out of balance. Then I needed to add some sugar – which I remember my mum saying ‘always at the end, never when the milk is on the fire’. So, I listened to my mum wandering through my head but found the porridge too fluid (that’s what you get when you don’t respect the measurements). So, I put it back on the fire, added more powder and sugar, while holding the pot in balance. Result; thick porridge, with some undissolved powder and too much to eat in one go. I thought of it as a big success. Tomorrow however, the women will cook it for me.

Thunderbolt & lightening
February till May is rainy season in Rwanda. In reality, you get heavy rain every two or three days, whuch lasts only 10 or 15 minutes. The average temperature is between 23-28 degrees. In the mountains to the northwest, it gets much colder during the evenings and nights. Overhere, in the central hills, we enjoy very mild temperature changes. When it rains though, it cools off by 10 degrees in a few minutes time. You can sometimes tell by a soft breeze that rain is coming, but in fact, you never know for sure.

Seminar
The rain was another excuse to stay inside the centre. I only went for a short walk in the afternoon and met some nice people coming from the fields, with crops on their head and babies on their back. The children are very amused by the muzungu in town. I shook every little hand there was to shake and headed back to find Madame Thérèse waiting for me. She is a very kind lady, but a real businesswoman. She’s in charge of this centre and her daughter runs the place. Since there’s a seminar going on, we have about 20 guests from Kigali. The are travelling through the country, to evaluate restaurant kitchens, cooking technology and management. They also promote more modern technologies for these places.

For dinner, I hooked up with this group and was served a very nice meal while some guy was playing music on a synthesizer. After tea, Madame Thérèse wanted to dance with me. I felt pretty embarrassed as in general, white people are known for their lack of rythm. Still, they were very amused and thought I did a good job. Even some of the children joined the party. Madame Thérèse was telling everyone 'que je suis sa fille', which means I’m a daughter to her. She gave me her number and if there was anything I wanted, I just call her and ask for it. Looking back, I had a very fruitful and interesting day. I really like being amongst these women. It’s a softer approach into their culture. Maybe one of these days I can help out in the kitchen. As long as I’m not in charge of the cooking, it’s all good.


Wednesday 2nd March – Gitarama 25 degrees