Amazing happenings.....

Now this is a pretty bad photo but look right and left of the solid wall to see hanging beads. See the red light?? Well, behind those beads could sit...a couple or a small group having an intimate dinner at Stella's VIP. Now this restaurant is so dark, Diana had to use her cell phone to highlight the menu.

At Stella's...Vidost, the Rector of the math department at KIST, a Technology University here in Kigali, Diana a Virginia State University math professor and Fulbright Scholar and Faustin, a KIST faculty member and I enjoying a dinner out on the town,

What you cannot see is that Vidost is about a foot away from a sink that is on the back wall just to his right. Dinner was a tad unusual...we ordered chicken and it came with NO meat on the bones. We ordered two half chickens but just bones and sinew arrived! The thigh meat was gone but the bones were all hooked together and grilled. We ate the best french fries ever and apparently, french fries are served at every meal here. Guess so...super delicious. Vidost ordered a salad and what appeared was a whole plate of thinly sliced onions completely covering the plate. Tried them...tasted like onions. He single handedly ate most of them.

This photo of some city housing was taken out of a media company's window. You can see the small housing and the laundry hanging. Primus is a local beer and their signage is everywhere.

I asked really important questions at dinner with Vidost and Faustin. I wanted to know about the sounds Rwandans make when they converse. There is a whole language of sounds woven into the spoken conversation that I find fascinating. There is a spitting type sound, which means, "I do not agree with you." Another that is made to get folks to continue the conversation; another that is an agreement sound and one that kinda sounds like, "tssss" in combo with a hand motion that one uses to get attention. These sounds are just so common that the people don't even notice it...and women do the same but with a different tone.

While I was out with the driver and on my way to a meeting at a media house, we started to turn left and the vehicle in front of us slammed into reverse and the mototaxi veered quickly right. What happened was a near horrid collision with President Kagame's convoy. They quickly crested the hill coming towards us with lights flashing and going about 70 mph. Kagame was at the wheel of his SUV and was waving at the people he had almost run over. Six vehicles, six seconds. Dieudonne and I were hyperventilating. Apparently this happens quite regularly. Think about that...Obama driving himself around town in a convoy????