Scott's Last Weekend: Butare Pizza, Fanta, and a Dowry

     So while I was celebrating International Nurses Day and saying farewell to Melody, Scott was frolicking in the DRC. He decided to go see the gorillas there and then climb Mt. Niryagongo as I had done a few months ago. I heard from him after the gorilla trek, which he had really enjoyed (mainly because in DRC you are bush whacking through brush with machetes... every man's dream) but then nothing until he walked in the house door Thursday of that week at 5 pm.

     It was good to have him back although there is only so much entertainment my town can provide. Tiffany and Jared came over for dinner that night and I made paneer and sweet potatoe latkes with fresh kale salad from our garden. I tend to not pay much attention when adding spice to dishes for two reasons, 1) I like spice and forget that others don't necessarily love spice as much as I do; 2) Tiffany and I were chatting as I cooked and I was distracted. Sooooo needless to say the paneer was a little spicy. Knowing that Tiffany is from Texas I didn't see this as a problem. However, I'd forgotten that Scott and Jared are both wimps when it comes to spice. They were both practically crying and sweating. Jared wouldn't cave and eat some yogurt, but Scott did pour himself a glass of milk. I felt only a little bad about the situation. Tiffany and I both thought it delicious.
     Friday morning Scott walked me to work. I figured that I'd complete everything I needed to do and then we could get a late lunch. After dropping me at the front of CHUB he wandered down the hill to the new coffee shop while I headed to my office to finish developing the new Heart Saver CPR course for the hospital. Our BLS program has really taken off. As you already know if you read this regularly (and in order), the Rwandan staff teach and test BLS without anything from us. I'm so proud of them and I'm thrilled that the transition went so well as it appears the Ministry of Health is going to allocate new HRH staff to district hospitals and not replace the nursing positions at CHUB come August. However, during the BLS process we've discovered that those without any medical or nursing background were having trouble successfully passing BLS. So we are now helping them develop a Heart Saver Course, Hands-Only CPR. I was able to finish the slides for the course as well as the exam and finally developed the answer sheet and key. The plan was to have a meeting the following week with Désiré and Wilson to discuss the direction they wished the course to take. But at that point it was 1 pm and hardly a soul could be found at the hospital so I decided it was time for lunch.
     I called Jared and sure enough he and Scott were hanging at his house drinking beer and prepping for pizza night. I grabbed some samosas to share and jumped on a moto. It was unusually hot and my head was aching so I just wasn't in the mood to walk through the hubbub of town. I arrived and was handed a beer and joined in the conversation. I also cut the firewood for the oven, which Scott found hilarious and Jared insisted on giving me a lesson on how to properly use the hand saw. It was only after the fact that I informed him that I'd been using my dad's exact same hand saw since I was about twelve.

After a bit, Tiffany came home and I decided to walk home so that I could walk Rupert and feed him and shower. I was pretty gross after cutting all the wood. I told Tiff that she was welcome to kick Scott out for a few hours if need be, he knew his way home, but they all survived.
     Just as I was wandering out of my house to head back to Tiff and Jared's Scott texted me. He was freezing, despite having put his fleece jacket on in 66˚ F weather. I had already tossed his jeans in my bag, expecting him to say he was cold, but he requested his fleece onesie so I grabbed that as well and reminded him that he could build the bonfire or perhaps stand next to the 700˚ pizza oven. Medie, Jim, Emily, Emily's friend Townsend, and Medie's friend Jane joined the four of us for a great night of pizza, good South African wine provided by Scott, bonfire, conversation, and laughter. I wanted Scott to get the real Butare experience and this weekend was dedicated to the quiet lifestyle I lead here.

     We wandered back to my house way pass our bedtime under a pitch black sky with stars shining and crashed. I was looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday. It's one of my favorite things about the weekend. Unfortunately, I had a momentary lapse in memory and forgot who was with me. Sure enough, while Scott fed Rupert in the morning, it wasn't long before they were both in my room and encouraging me to get out of bed. It wasn't even 6:30 am. I finally got up and cooked breakfast, which we enjoyed on the front porch. Then Scott was off and organizing his belongings in preparation of the last leg of this portion of his trip. I found myself comfortable on the couch and continued reading The Book Thief, which I was enjoying. It's written from the perspective of Death, which is unusual and interesting. Definitely bawled over the ending though if anyone else is interested in reading it.
     About an hour or so later Scott grabbed his Kindle and also settled on a book. The next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes. We'd taken a two and half hour nap. Very typical of a gray Butare Saturday. We got up and decided to run errands, which included grand and exciting things like getting diesel, running to the grocery store, the bakery, picking up some Chinese take out for a lazy dinner since the electricity was going in and out all day, and also getting Scott's flat tire fixed. We suspect that the nail found in the tire was actually picked up in the garage because he wouldn't have gotten very far with a flat on some of the roads on which he'd been driving. We left his ridiculously dirty SUV parked outside of the garage this time around. He had been insisting on not cleaning the truck because he didn't want to appear rich as he crossed borders, which made sense to me. However I forgot to translate this to Charles and Venuste. We settled ourselves on the couch for a quiet evening after taking Rupert for a walk and I set up my mini projector and we watched my favorite movie of all time, Out of Africa.
    Sunday we woke up to an absolutely glistening clean white SUV. Charles probably spent over an hour washing the car. I felt terrible but was quite impressed with the job. Anyway, we did actually have plans for that day. One of the ICU staff nurses was getting married and we had been invited to both the dowry and wedding. We got up, Scott cooked breakfast this time around and my cup of tea just how I like it. Apparently I looked quite nice as I finished getting ready for the big event because according to Scott, I wasn't doing a good job of trying not to come home with a Rwandan husband. In an amusing feat, I rode a moto to Tumba, the neighborhood behind the hospital where many of the staff live, in heels and a dress. Several staff members were in attendance all looking very nice and Scott and I processed in with the groom's family and friends.

CHUB Staff and friends attending to the groom in traditional dress

     Now in many Rwandan celebrations there are 2 things noted by a mzungu. First, is the love for speeches. There are always speeches at a gathering no matter what the occasion and naturally, I will understand roughly every 17th word, if that. The second, is what Julie has termed, "The serving of the Fanta!" Fanta is our soda of choice here (I almost pulled a Julie right there and called it pop) and we have flavors such as Fiesta (my favorite), Citron, or Orange (childhood reminiscing can start now). You can also usually get Coca Cola or Sprite. The soda is always in glass bottles and is always served with a straw, which makes it extra carbonated when you drink it. Soda here is obviously a treat so at every special event, there is the "Serving of the Fanta!" We kind of love it. There is nothing to compare it to in the States. It is served with such gusto and pride and protocol, I just absolutely love it. But of course, try explaining this to an outsider who is traveling from South Africa where you can get absolutely anything under the sun and in plastic bottles too. I don't think Scott really understood what a procedure and big deal this tradition is until he witnessed it. I drank Fiesta (black cherry) and he had a Coca Cola. It was fantastic.

Pre Fanta excitement

Partaking in the Rwanda tradition with gusto!

     One of the nurses sat next to me and tried his best to translate what exactly was happening. While the guest to the left of Scott asked if we were brother and sister. Guess the blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale complexions could have easily lead to that conclusion. Anyway, after much time, gift giving, joking (some of these didn't really translate but others did), discussion  of the cow and "inspection" of said cow by a few of the ICU staff (inspection was not done on site as the bride's family did not host the dowry at their home), the bride finally appeared.

Gift giving from the groom's family to the bride's

She arrives!

She looked lovely and François, looking extremely regal in his suit, could not stop smiling at his bride. It was very nice to see them together.

After accepting and giving more gifts, two men started to sing. They had on hats and essentially togas over their clothes and were carrying walking sticks.

Mahoro translated for me that they represented the cows and it was a poem-song about how great the cows were etc etc. It was quite the performance. Finally, after 4.5 hours, 2 Fantas, and a few drops of rain, the dowry was over.

My HOD, Théogène and I post dowry

     Scott of course was starving even though we made sure to eat a large breakfast and my stomach was getting pretty grumbly too. We took our leave after I made sure to give François his wedding card because we weren't sure if we would go to the ceremony and reception. Halfway up the incredibly long hill from Tumba into town, my moto died. It just stopped. I have no idea why. So off I hopped in my heels and Scott and I ended up walking the rest of the way to the Ice Cream shop for avacado and egg salad chapati sandwiches for lunch. Just as I finished my ice cream dessert it started to pour down rain so we moved inside, enjoyed a beer and eventually wandered up into town. We stopped at the art co-op where I picked and Scott approved some jewelry for his family members and he got a few other items to take home.

Only thing to do when getting caught in
the rain in Rwanda is enjoy a Primus.

     Once home Scott loaded the car with a few things and we played some cards and generally just relaxed before heating up some leftovers for dinner and enjoying some fresh avocado from the garden. Then Scott thought it was a good idea to make lemon meringue pie. He had a jar of lemon curd, which I love and he insisted that all we needed to do was put it in a crust. While curd isn't the exact filling for the pie we made it work and the meringue didn't turn out too poorly either. Vanessa expressed her doubts first as she watched the two of us completely make up the entire recipe, from the crust to the filling to the meringue. It wasn't long after that we all had our doubts. However, it turned out pretty well  in the end and at the very least was extremely edible.

     Scott had experienced a weekend away and a true Butare weekend during his time in Rwanda and I think overall was very pleased to not have to drive anywhere. The only thing I wish we'd done was take a long walk down to the rice paddies because it is so beautiful. Monday morning I heard Scott get up about 4:30 am. After about 30 minutes when I heard him in the kitchen I got up to say goodbye. He finished wolfing down the cornflakes and yogurt in his bowl, grabbed his keys, and was ready to go. I think in his mind he'd been idle long enough and I could tell he was excited to get back on the road. We had debated the day before, which road he should take north to the Uganda border and I think my suggestion ultimately won due to the lack of police on that road. He gave me a big hug and a quick kiss goodbye, plugged in the coordinates to his GPS, and was off just after 5 am.

Monday afternoon when I returned from work and it was daylight I couldn't help but laugh at the rectangle of dirt left in the driveway from where his car had been parked and washed.

The remains

Scott reached the border just after 10 am, Nairobi this past Saturday and flew home for a month to the States Sunday night. And thus concludes me and Scott's South & East African Adventures.

Lessons Learned:

1) There is nothing wrong with a quiet, boring weekend.

2) Sleeping in is a thing to be cherished.

3) Just because you might be particular, doesn't mean someone else might not get it right. I need to let go of some of my Type A control issues and realize that some people can make as good a cup of tea as I can.