Africa... here we go again

So I am aware that I didn't actually get to a word about Africa in my last post and that the title is quite misleading. However, I dare you to upload all those photos to such a long post using this thing. It has a terribly user-unfriendly interface.

Anyway, we woke from our flight just in time to land and go through customs. It took forever! So once we finally got through Alexis' whole family was there to meet us (except little sister Solange aka Soso who stayed back with big brother Patrick's little girl Alexa). The drive back to their house took an hour on winding, bumpy roads that are barely wide enough for two small cars to pass each other let alone big trucks. I wished that it was light out so that I could see the landscape (and oncoming traffic). The last bit of the drive was the craziest. Their house is on the top of a steep hill with a crazy path heading up to it. Once we got there I met Soso, Alexa, and Charlotte (a girl my age who helped out the family around the house). I was welcomed so warmly by the Nyandwi's that I immediately felt like part of the family.

The next few days are still a bit of a blur. We mostly stayed around the house as the weather was pretty crumby and I was terribly jet-lagged. I did a lot of sleeping... tagged along as Patrick ran errands/worked all over Nairobi... and ate Mrs. Nyandwi's amazing food (this included succulent beef, chicken and goat covered in delicious sauce, sweet potatoes, spicy chiles and my favourite millet porridge for breakfast).
Matatu; Alexa

So after the cloud of jet-lag cleared, it was time for little Alexa to be baptized. As Alexis is her godfather and she is his namesake, Patrick had planned to have her baptism while we were in town. The day began with no electricity so I got to enjoy the delight of the bucket shower. And I'm not even being sarcastic. After several days of luke-warm showers under zero pressure, I thoroughly enjoyed the scalding heat of the water Mrs. Nyandwi had heated for me on the stove. We headed to the church late in the afternoon with Alexa looking like a little princess. Patrick had asked me to do the first reading. I was so touched. I have never been so nervous in my life and I don't remember a word of what I read. After the church we went to a reception and ate delicious African food and drank lots of delicious African wine and delicious African beer. I met a whole bunch of family friends including this adorable little girl named Kenza who took photos of me and told me that I'm too light.
Alexa and Mama Tina; Alexis with his new Goddaughter; Kenza and me; Alexa cuts her cake.

The next day was my birthday and the whole team (minus the two girls who were still in Europe) arrived bright and early in the morning to celebrate with me. After getting everyone settled at their hotel just down the road from the Nyandwi house (and letting them nap until mid-afternoon) we went to Karen to use the internet and stopped by the pub for beers and chicken gizzards (which I discovered that I do not like). Our favourite mode of transportation in Africa was the 15-passenger van known in Kenya as a matatu. Shawn (one of our film-makers ) and I got experience it at its best when trying to get back to the hotel. It was around 4pm and the whole world seemed to heading home. After waiting forever we got crammed into a matatu. I think I had about 6 school kids sitting on my lap. Thankfully Shawn had gotten into the front seat so he could ask the driver where we were supposed to get out because I couldn't see a thing.

That evening we all went up to the Nyandwi house for a birthday feast of barbecued goat and all sorts of other goodies. I got a big card with little notes from everyone and had one of the most memorable birthdays of my life.

Alexis and Patrick barbecue the goat; Mrs. Nyandwi, Soso, Tina, Alexa, Alexis; Shawn, Megali, Matt, Dr. Nyandwi.

Africa... we meet again.

Ok so it's the middle of January, I am not in school, my useless job only gives me 25 hours a week, and I have no more excuses.

It's blog time.

So Africa.... it's been a while. I've missed you. Now just like the good ole friends that we are, let us reminisce about all the good times we used to have:

So it all began last July.... Mum and Dad drove me and Alexis to the airport for the first of our epic flights to Nairobi, Kenya. We got all checked in with no issues and were off before we knew it to Minneapolis. That was the easy part. Our flight was much too large for the capacity of the baggage conveyor belt and I nearly witnessed death by killer luggage for a child who was standing too near the belt before her father grabbed her out of the way just in time.

We took the overnight flight to Amsterdam and on our approach I was very happy to see that the Dutch fully live up to their stereotype by putting windmills everywhere. From the airport we went straight to the Heineken brewery (where else would one go in Amsterdam?). It was much overpriced and set up like a museum with a bar in the middle and we had a jolly good time taking many a ridiculous photo and drinking many a Heineken.


Next we went for a stroll through town eating bread with cheese and salami and drinking wine straight from the bottle. We sat by the water and embarked on a fight to the death with the local birds for possession of our food. Next our stroll took us through the red light district and we witnessed many stoned tourists and next-to-naked women in all the windows. It was not a good time... interesting from a cultural anthropologist-like perspective but I was sooo not in the mood.


We took the train in the evening to Brussels and went to meet Alexis' big sister Chantal and her boyfriend Theo. They live right in the city-centre (perfect for us tourist types) however, its on the 4th floor so I had to drag my excess of luggage up floor flights of stairs. Not fun when I couldn't even remember the last time I slept. And on top of it all Theo doesn't speak much English so I had to somehow make my brain work in French for the next few days. But my efforts were rewarded with Belgian beer: the best beer I have encountered on this planet thus far.... and so many varieties! I had cherry beer, white beer, dark beer, 9% alcohol beer! It was great!

Chantal and Theo took us to a baptism in the Rwandese community of Brussels (a rather substantially community). There probably hundreds of people there and it lasted well into the night. This was my first taste of proper Rwandese food and boy-howdy it was awesome!!! So after a full day of food and complimentary drink, Alexis and I went out for waffles with two of his friends from the proverbial "back in the day". I promptly lost my wallet and all that was in it and had a little nervous breakdown. Then we went to a Rwandese bar, drank some more beer and ate brochette (savoury meat and onions on an stick). I felt substantially better among good eats and even better company. I only had a few dollars in my wallet so in the morning I cancelled my credit cards, transferred all my money to Alexis and came out of the whole experience no worse for wear.

We were lucky enough to be in Brussels for their Fete National (National Day/Holiday)... the equivalent to Canada Day I suppose. There were all sorts of parades and expositions and we nearly saw the royal family except that it was so crowded and security was so tight that we quickly gave up trying to get anywhere near them. So we went over to Grand Place instead and I immediately fell in love! The architecture oh the architecture!!! It made me weak in the knees. Then we saw little Mannequin de Pis, touched Lady Luck, ate more waffles and drank more beer. That night we took the last train out of Brussels to Ghent for their annual week of partying and festival-ing. We got there around midnight and met up with a couple of our friends who would later be travelling around Africa with us. We danced the night away and then took the first train back to Brussels in the morning. Chantal was not pleased when we woke her up at 6am to let us in.

The next day... or rather later that same day we walked around the Royal Palace grounds and went to visit Chantal at work at the European Commission. She took us to see the European Parliament and we took in happy hour and a nice pub out front. Then we rushed back to the apartment, packed and hopped on the last train back to Amsterdam. Our flight to Nairobi was at 10 am so we had to take the train the night before and spent the night at the airport. It was sad to be leaving Europe and our excellent hosts behind but I was very excited to be setting foot in Africa in less than 24 hours. After a miserable night at the airport we got on our flight and were asleep just as soon as our bums touched our seats. We didn't even notice when we took off.