This morning we had some final shopping to do, we were checking out of the hotel, and then busing back to Kibungo in the afternoon because we were screening Born into Brothels in the evening. I know that that is the simplest chain of events, but nothing goes as planned in Rwanda. You just have to count on the fact that you can’t count on anything. So I needed to withdraw some money since my ten day bender broke me. Not that I spent extravagantly though.
It wasn’t a holiday, but it might as well have been. Everything was closed. Except the churches. Even the shiny new Bank De Kigali wasn’t open on Sunday. So I didn’t know how to get money out. I was told there is a 7 days a week bank inside Novotel. Freddy had come by with Lama, and Lama and Kara were going to go back to the market to exchange some clothes, so Freddy offered to take me to Novotel. We split up.
Freddy drove me to Novotel and we found out that that particular bank only accepts Mastercard. Not Visa nor American Expresss (the two credit cards I do have). Apparently the airport has a branch of Bank De Kigali that is open and will accept Visa, so there the two of us go. We get there and find they are open and will take Visa. Great. Do you have your passport? Not so great. I have to go back to Isimbi, get my passport and then come back to the airport. I tell Freddy to just leave me at this point, I can moto around from here on out, but he refuses and we stick together. To be honest, I’m not too upset I forgot my passport because it means I get to spend even more time with Freddy. Riding in the car, just the two of us, is the first time I’ve had a really personal conversation with anybody from Rwanda. The two results of our several hours together is that I realize what has happened and is happening in Rwanda is something I will never understand. I am physically incapable of it, I can’t enter the mindset of what the people who live here have been through and felt. I also learn that Freddy is quite possibly the most amazing human I’ve ever met.
After going back to the airport and withdrawing money, Freddy drops me off at the edge of town because he is heading out to the country to see his father. I hop on a moto and go to exchange the american currency I have and then meet Lama and Kara. I eventually find one Forex that is open, and walk to La Galett, the grocery store that they’re at.
By the time I get there we are running out of time before we need to catch our bus to Kibungo. I haven’t eaten a single thing yet today so I am very hungry and I order food. Despite the staff’s assurances it won’t take long, it takes much longer and we’re late for the bus. I also learn that Kara and Lama had an equally stressful, drawn out time at the market. They were given the run around, had to go here to here, this guy wasn’t there, they had to call him and wait etc. The other mindset I just can’t get into is the carefree attitude towards time. I try, I really do try, to not care and let time be elastic, but I can’t let go of the entire concept of it like people can here.
Lama takes off before my food even arrives so he can negotiate our tickets for the 3 o clock bus instead of the 2 we bought them for. We go to the hotel, get our hundreds of pounds of luggage and cab the 5 blocks to the bus station. Our luggage takes up the entire back seat of the bus, and I sit in the row in front of it. I make a Rwanda playlist for the whole drive so I can listen while I stare out at the setting sun. It is without a doubt the happiest I’ve ever been in a vehicle.
We get to Kibungo with enough time to eat and go straight to the screening at the district building. When we arrive, we learn that no one is coming to the screening. There is an expo happening on the outskirts of Kibungo. We can’t believe that no one, despite our repeated questioning if we were scheduling on a conflicting night, would not mention that this HUGE event is taking place on the same night. We meet with a few students and Sigfried in front of the building and decide to postpone until Wednesday. Even when you plan and plan and plan, something isn’t certain until it happens. C’est la Rwandan Vie. Again, another cultural mindset we don’t understand. As much as Lama has to interpret words, he has to interpret the culture for us too. Kara and I never care, we’re never upset, it’s just kind of stunning. It’s a totally different way to think and operate. We cut our losses by just going to the expo with everyone else.
The expo had tons of local people setting up booths and selling things. There was also music and dancing and every single person in the surrounding towns. It was PACKED. It wasn’t too exciting to me, but then again neither is Kibungo and it was something to do. Maybe I wasn’t in the right state of mind. We checked it out for a while but in the end we were really tired and it had been a long day so we decided to walk home. I did a bit of work but couldn’t keep my eyes open, and I fell asleep by 10 pm.
