First Day at work: Lunch time

We decided to go to town to buy a phone. The SIM card I received isn’t a microsim. I knew this was going to happen and even wrote about not forgetting to bring a small Nokia that fits a regular SIM. Well I forgot to bring the Nokia so I need another phone. I will now be carrying 3 phones and 4 numbers. In town we bought a Teco phone. Teco seems to be a big phone brand out here. I bought a basic Nokia type of phone that supports facebook and costed me 10000 Rwandan Francs. That is about 13 USD ! Good thing I didn’t buy my phone in Belgium. This model would be 25 euro. A good smartphone costs about 40 euro. Isn’t that fantastic ?

I noticed that Rwanda is not expensive at all. Taxi’s, food, phones, etc are cheap. This allows for Rwanda to have consumption and an increasing economy. This is much better than Liberia for example where the average salary is 60 USD a month and a basic phone cost 40 USD. Many people can’t even afford a bag of rice at 80 USD a month. Rwanda is different the country is affordable to its people. It’s not like Liberia or even Nigeria in that matter, where life can pretty much only be afforded by the rich. I have seen beggars here in Gisenyi but it is very very limited to what I am used to see in Africa. If Rwanda keeps continuing this road it will be a very well developed place within a decade. Roads are being constructed in the countryside. A lot of new villa type houses are being constructed by the local population. It is a nice sight. I give another high five to the Kagame regime!

Buying a phone with Numerien is so detailed. He wants everything to be perfect and he got me an extra deal of 800 free talking seconds. (Never have I seen phone companies charging in seconds. But it’s good because you can recharge for less than a dollar; again affordability is key here.) Numerien wants me to be happy and receive the best he can give. Numerien impresses me more and more everyday. He is so well organized and structured. I am starting to think he has OCD… Lol

At 1pm we drove back to the city in another jam packed bus. I couldn’t see a thing and didn’t even know where Numerien was sitting. As you can see from the photo one guy had to hang from the window and I was sitting on half a butt cheek. The bus was overloaded and I was convinced it was going to break down. I felt really hot and had the feeling my toes were on fire. I started to think maybe the engine is underneath my feet and something is really wrong. The heat became unbearable while we were trying to get across another hill. Yep my doom scenario happened; the bus shut down and we started rollingggggggggg backward down the hill. He finally managed to stop rolling backward into a dirt road. No one seemed to care and stayed on the bus. They lifted the first row seats and yes the engine was underneath my foot. (See photo) So I wasn’t crazy! My feet were literally on FIRE! While fixing the van half of the people stayed on the bus. I thought that was so dangerous… After half an hour we decided to leave and hop on another jam packed bus. I really want to take moto-taxi as it faster but Numerien doesn’t think it’s safe plus it costs triple the price.

Arrived back to the Centre Francois Xavier for lunch I decided I wanted to eat African food. All I see on the menu’s here is kind of Belgian food. I assume this is a result of Belgian colonisation. I am not in the mood for steak or stews nor French fries or purée. There is one African dish casava pasta, so I order it. It wasn’t spicy at all, so I added the lovely African Chilli pepper. Hmmmmmm

I am happy I have a phone number so I don’t have to use my Belgian private number anymore. This has costed me 100 euro already in a few days.

Back to work.