Not a Bad Good Friday

Good Friday was my first day in Rwanda.

The jet lag and the energy-sapping awe of a new city make me pretty exhausted, so I will be brief, but here are some highlights, in pictures, of my first day here:

The first thing I saw when I woke was the mosquito net hovering over my bed. A different kind of first-morning sight.



After orienting myself, I looked out the widow behind my bed and saw my first daylight glimpse of my new home:

I then walked outside into the backyard of the guest house where I am staying for the next two weeks, where the father of the house and his 15-month old Rwandan baby Iranzi were hand feeding bread to their pets, two East African Hooded Cranes:



After that, Emily (one of my roomies) and I went to go look at the house we will be living in this year. The house is lovely: beautiful yard, beautiful tile, a close walk to my office, a guard house for a live-in guard, and a porch overlooking the Kigali valley that is took my breath away. Here is our porch and view:




And from the front of the house:




We then met our landlord over lunch, where we reviewed and revised our lease, trying to convince the landlord (through an interpreter) to put a cupboard (note -- a singular cupboard) in our kitchen as well as a stove. As currently situated, the kitchen has a sink and a tile floor. Period.
Thankfully, we prevailed. My first Rwandan legal maneuver! The translator said with some respect and mostly curiosity -- "You have, yes, the legal terminology?" So, here's my new street, in case ya'll want to come visit:




Later, in a more animated turn of events (even as compared to the intense cupboard negotiations), I was yelled at by a very angry man armed with a machine gun. This sounds a lot worse than it ended up being. I wanted to take a picture -- and did - of the remarkable fact that there are men with large weapons at the supermarket entrance. APPARENTLY, one is never supposed to take pictures of any armed men in this country. Note this, friends, before you come to Rwanda. The guard ran over yelling all kinds of unfriendly things (with accompanying hand gestures) at me and my Rwandan friend who was with me. After a couple of minutes, and after deleting the picture from my camera, we all decided I was an idiot, and actually the guard and I are now great friends -- saw him several times throughout the day and we shared multiple smiling fist bumps. Lesson learned, and a new friend --perfect! I regret that no photos survived the ordeal. [Also, don't take pictures of buildings either. Another guard was VERY disappointed in me and made me delete a picture of the Deloitte & Touche Rwanda building that I took for Kate Lynch and Hollis who work at D&T in DC.] Lesson seriously learned. I'm curbing my photo enthusiasm, don't worry. Can't fool me three times. But this guy apparently wasn't armed because he didn't confiscate my pictures:





I also got my Rwandan cell phone (only works in Rwanda and only comes with 3 and a half minutes loaded on it (what do they think we're going to accomplish in less than 4 minutes); took a very long, beautiful walk around the city (including many high fives with beautiful children who want to touch any white person they see -- called m); ate an outdoor supper and took my first moto-taxi home.

And last night I Skyped with my dearest JFL, celebrating one year of knowing him, and I more grateful than I have ever been for technology.

All in all, not a Bad Good Friday. Wishing you a joyful Easter from Kigali.