AFN football

Thanks to the fact that someone must have forgotten to disconnect the Armed Forces Network (AFN) from the house some of my friends just moved into, I just watched a real, live, American football game. I may not be a big fan of the Cowboys or the Lions (or, really, professional football in general, for that matter), but I was thrilled to have the chance to watch a game. Since the games will be on every week, I think we might have a new Sunday night tradition.

Puppy

After dinner last night, we had plans to go out to a new club in Kigali. We drove out to the area of town where we had been told it was and found out that the opening had been postponed until the next weekend. Just as we were about to turn back onto the main road to head back home, we saw a little puppy dodging cars in the middle of the road. Terrified that she’d be hit by a car (and knowing that even if she wasn’t hit by a car, she didn’t have much of a future on the streets of Kigali), we decided to pick her up and take her home. We brought her back to the house, where we gave her some leftover fried chicken, bathed her and then spent quite a while picking ticks and fleas off of her. Apparently it was all a little much for her, because as soon as we finished, she fell fast asleep and slept through the entire night. So now we (that's a collective "we" since the puppy isn't living at my house and it's still not clear where she'll be living when) have a sweet puppy to play with and take care of.

Christmas dinner

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the supermarket to shop for groceries to cook a Southern dinner for about a dozen of my good friends who were coming over to celebrate Christmas in Kigali. Most of what I planned to make was easy and familiar recipes, but trying to find the right ingredients in Kigali is always a little bit of a challenge. (For example, it’s impossible to find cheddar cheese, brown sugar, sour cream, vanilla extract and who knows what else.) Thankfully I was able to find most of what I needed for dinner – including four whole chickens imported from Burundi.

Now, as many times as I’ve eaten fried chicken, I have to confess that I’ve never actually fixed it, so I was a little nervous. I didn't want to disappoint, but somehow, before long, we had stoves and ovens full of food, including more than enough flour-coated chicken and a big pot of oil. I forgot to take a picture before everyone started filling their plates, but I think everything still looks pretty good.With a decorated Christmas tree, Santa hats, Christmas music, and mistletoe, not to mention lots of good company, it really felt like Christmas.After dinner we exchanged gifts and finished up the night with a "family portrait" of all of us in our hats. It was really a perfect celebration of the holidays together.

Thunderstorm

This morning, something incredible happened. I woke up to the sound of a thunderstorm. Of course the sound of rain is nothing new since it’s been raining almost daily since September, but until recently, it only rained in the afternoons. Even now that it's started raining some mornings, I realized today that as often and as hard as it rains, there's never any thunder. It's just the opposite of home, where it seems that any time it pours rain, there's thunder to go with it. I never thought that waking up to a thunderstorm would be such a comfort. Plus, it was much easier to be lazy and sleep in with a thunderstorm outside than if it were sunny with the birds, chickens and dogs making noise in the street.

Des Mille Collines Rally

This weekend, one of my friends participated in Des Mille Collines Rally, one of the largest rally races in Rwanda. The race covers approximately 350 kilometers over two days time, and the cars race at speeds as high as 140 to 150 kilometers per hour on the roads in rural Rwanda. Four of us followed the race around Rwanda to take pictures and give moral support. We left early in the morning from the Hôtel des Mille Collines.
On Saturday, we headed east from Kigali to the Akagera region of the country, and on Sunday, the race went west into the Ruhengeri region. The race went through some really rural areas of Rwanda, so we were able to see a lot of towns and villages and a lot of the countryside that we would never see otherwise. The ride was bumpy, but beautiful.
Since the race is divided into sections, we were only able to see about half of it. We would skip a section in order to drive to the next one and set up, watch that section, skip the next one to drive to a new location, watch that section, etc. My "official" role of the weekend was photographer, so at every stop, I had to find the best place to set up the camera and take pictures of my friend's car.

Watching the race was pretty interesting, but what was probably more fun was watching the crowds that came out to see the race. Since the race was literally on roads, it passed right through villages like this one, so it was easy for people to gather and watch.
As you can imagine, rally racing in Rwanda isn't the safest of sports, but thankfully, there were no serious accidents this weekend and we had a great time.