Jon Comes to Visit!

Thursday (12/8), I called Nicole to wish her a happy birthday, and then went into work for a few hours before jumping on a bus to meet Jon at the airport. We got really bored trying to figure out what to do in Kigali and eventually went and ate dinner at the Chinese restaurant before meeting up with Adam and the others.
Friday, we caught a bus up to Gisenyi and met up with Portia who was letting us crash at her house. We walked around town, saw areas of Gisenyi I’ve never been to before and ate some lunch. I tried asking the guy if the croque madame was made with eggs and cheese and he just kind of grunted, so I asked again to no avail and finally just asked if there was meat on it and he said yes. I asked him if I could get a sandwich with egg, cheese and tomato and he said sure (which is amazing b/c most Rwandese make you order EXACTLY what’s on the menu and you cannot change anything up! Example: I tried to get an omelet with onions, tomatoes and cheese and the guy said it was impossible, even though there was an omelet on the menu with onions and tomatoes and one with tomatoes and cheese. After a long debate and me telling him exactly how much more I would pay, he went into the kitchen and came back saying it was possible and that I should pay the amount I had previously stated). When my food came, it was an omelet with cheese, tomatoes and toast imbedded in the eggs! It was hilarious and I took a picture that I’ll try and post soon. I was a little concerned when he wrote down, in this order:
Eggs
Tomatoes
Cheese
Sandwich
I think sandwich is code for slice of bread. It was pretty tasty though. Last time I was in Gisenyi for Nicole’s birthday, I ordered an omelet with tomato, onion and cheese and I pronounce tomato the French way so as not to confuse her, but I got an omelet with onion, cheese and fries (potato). Ariko, the French word for potato sounds NOTHING like tomato (pomme de terre).
Okay, back to Gisenyi this time around. The whole omelet sandwich thing ended up being extremely expensive, so I asked to see the menu and we agreed on a fairer price afterwards (ex. A whole circle of cheese is about 2700 and he was charging me 1000 for putting a few pieces in my omelet). That night we ended up going back to the same restaurant for salads and they were pretty delicious. Saturday morning, we got up, went over to Portia’s school where she helps with the deaf education unit and since Jon is a deaf ed volunteer in Kenya, he wanted to meet some of the kids. They weren’t there that day, but we did get to see Portia’s permagarden she built with the kids. Then we walked over to the Serena (the fancy hotel on the lake) and got beach chairs on the sand and laid in the sun and swam in the lake, read some books, listened to music, ate a yummy lunch and took a nice shower. A very buff Rwandan was walking around the beach and he caught Jon’s eye and we were both staring at him when his friend walked up and asked if we would take a picture with him. Turns out he’s a model and thought we were attractive enough to take a picture with. Jon took a picture with him on his camera, so I’ll have to get the photo from him first before posting it. It was a wonderfully relaxing day. We weren’t really hungry after a day in the sun and our big lunch, so we just went and got tea and a chapatti at the restaurant next to Portia’s house for dinner. Sunday morning, we got up and went to the bus station for the bus back to Kigali. We got in around noon and ate lunch at the cheap Indian restaurant and then hopped back on a bus to Butare. We ended up running into Trish who was on the same bus as us and as we were walking up to Simba (a supermarket with an outdoor café) to get a drink before the bus, my wallet was stolen! Some jerk stole all my money, my PC ID, my ATM card and our bus tickets! I LOVED that wallet too!!!! I was super upset but knew there was nothing I could do. I think the thief was probably pretty upset that he robbed the poor muzungu in town though. My ATM receipt was in there and my PC ID, so he could see how pathetic my bank account balance was and that I was a volunteer, so hopefully he felt bad about robbing me. We were able to get on the bus anyways after explaining to the bus people that we had already paid for tickets but they were stolen, along with everything else. They were all really nice about it. We got into Butare and dropped off our bags at the my house, then went over to Abdoul’s with Ryan for a breaking of the fast with him and his family. There was lots of food and it was pretty delicious.
Monday, I took Jon into my work and introduced him to people at the office. I did a bit of work and let Jon use the internet and then we went to lunch with Ryan. After lunch the boys went to the museum and I just waited for them at the house. We hung out at the house and I cooked dinner. I made ‘biryani’ (pretty much just fried rice with Indian spices, cashew nuts and raisins). It tasted really good though! Then we watched ‘creep show’ some 80’s horror flick someone at PC office put into the case for Ghosts of Rwanda. It was terrible. We made Ryan watch Glee and he liked it! Tuesday, I taught my HIV, sexual decision-making lesson while Ryan and Jon went to Murambi, one of the genocide memorial sites. I didn’t think I could take being there again and I had to teach, so just let them go themselves. The lesson was pretty fun and I think it really got them thinking because afterwards they were all sitting and standing around discussing.
Wednesday, Jon and I stayed in Butare and walked over to the Arboretum for a short hike, had some ice cream and met up with some other PCVs who were there. We sat and chatted with them for a while and walked back into downtown together. We bought some chapatti at a restaurant and cooked fajitas for dinner with guacamole. Ryan came over again and we watched some Glee. Thursday, Jon and I went into Kigali and ate some pizza for lunch before going to the genocide memorial there. The taxi driver who drove us came in with us and went through the whole thing with us and took us back for only 5000! It was a good 2+ hours. After, we took Jon’s bags to Adam’s house and laid there for a bit before heading over to the Ethiopian restaurant for Gavin’s birthday dinner. We were so early, we sat and had a drink and they brought us small bowls of popcorn. There was a little kid there with his parents who kept trying to give Jon his food. He was very entertaining running around and playing with the waiters, so we weren’t bored. My and Jon’s food was good, Adam and Gavin’s food was terrible and they both were so disappointed and swore off Ethiopian food forever. We then went out for a bit to the bar and then home. Jon left early Friday morning back to Nairobi and Mombasa.