Leaving Rwanda...

June 5/6 1:30 am
The afternoon with Jesse and leaving Rwanda...

I slept 11 hours last night. Laid in bed this morning and then finally got up, hopped on line, hung out on the porch in my pjs until lunchtime. Then Jesse, from Global Youth Connect and many other NGO and socially minded organizations picked me and and we went out for lunch to the Happy Rwandan Buffet and Espresso bar. It I right in the city centre which is incredibly hustly bustly and packed with people. Outdoor cafe made of stucco walls and connected to a market selling power tools. Think low tech though. All signs are hand painted. Our meal was fabulous! Lots of veggies as I was told which made me happy. After, I went to use the restroom. Thankfully the waitress spoke English...out of the cafe, up the parking lot, around the back of the building...second door on the right. I walked past the outside of the kitchen. I was in the dirty backside of the building, fences, gates, bars on windows, screens, lots of working hurrying about...But it is hot and Africa, not wet and smelly like New York...Still poor and dirty, but with a different flavor. Everyone is still black, however.

Jesse and I went to the post office where we waited a long time to pick up his package. I asked him about discrimination. I thought we were being told to wait a long time because we were white based on something he said and when a Rwandan came in and their ticket was taken immediately. It was an assumption and perhaps an unfair one...he said waiting happened quite a bit...

Eventually we were united with Jesse's package and off we went to the next stop. Idel's Supermarket. I wanted to get some supplies for snack on the plane later that night. We went in and Jesse showed me how to buy vegetables. This place is like a large bodega or mkolet in Israel (much of Rwanda looks like Israel to me...all the tile floors, stucco walls, poor construction, breeze everywhere and dry heat.) There is a vegetable stand but you do not take your own, someone gets them for you, wighs them, puts them in a brown bag, and writes the price on the outside. I asked the woman if I could photograph her and she said yes. Then a young man came over and he wanted his picture taken with me. Take my picture and bring it back to me. I said I would try...but I did not know how that would happen. He gave me his email address and said his name was Moses. He wanted a picture with the muzungu to share with his friends. My NGO friend had mentioned that this was very popular. I said ok and emailed it later in the day.

We then went to Jesse's office and he did some work while I checked on my flight. The thing with Rwanda Air Express, he said, is that your flight might say 7 pm but it might leave at 5. I called, all seemed to be fine. After a while Jesse took me to the airport and we said goodbye...off to the next adventure.