I've been living at my homestay for three days now, and it's nothing I ever would have expected. I am living with Raj, a textiles businessman from India who has been in Rwanda for ten years. I've posted an article written about him which is really interesting about how he came to Rwanda and what he has done for the Rwandan economy. He's also an active Rotary member, heading a huge project to build Rwanda's first public library located in Kigali.
- Raj loves cricket. World Cup is going on now and I have to admit I can somewhat see the excitement of men running back and forth between wickets. Somewhat.
- Brigitte and I have our own house. Yes. House. With our own security guard, a woman who serves us breakfast and cleans our clothes, a man who serves us tea in the afternoons and makes the most amazing southern Indian food for dinner.
- For dinner, everyone eats whenever they are hungry. Utinsils are not used, in favor of scooping up delicious vegetarian dishes with breads. Yum.
- Raj has a massive DVD collection. His favorites are Spy Game, Vantage Point, and Indian films I've never heard of.
- Raj used to have two snow white pet rabbits. A few years ago they escaped, and now there are tons of white rabbits hopping around the gated property. Their eyes glow red at night'
- We have a driver who takes us to class in the morning, who follows "African time," which means he is always at least 30 minutes late.
Our first night at Raj's we went to a birthday party for the two year old son of some of Raj's friends. It was basically a quiet get together of Indian friends and family in the area. The women all wore gorgeous traditional silk dresses and chatted together on the balcony over Fanta, fried fish, and fried green chilies and chickpeas, while the children ran around playing with balloons and the men sat at tables in suits smoking and talking. Someone explained that here in Rwanda, the Indian men do not wear the tradional Indian dress because it looks very similar to batiks--the traditonal dress for Rwandan women!
The food was deliciously spicy and everyone was incredibly polite and friendly. We even set a date to play badmitten with a couple who live next door to us for the following day--which ps: I'm terrible at.
While I sit here in the living room, ignoring the security man who walks by my window every 15 minutes or so and sipping my liquid-sugar coffee, I marvel at my unexpected week of luxury and try to ignore the creeping feeling of guilt that if I got out of my overstuffed recliner and walked five minutes down the road, I would meet people living without running water, in a home smaller than this guesthouse, with 5 children and little food in the pantry.
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