That's so Rwanda

Here is what I know about Rwanda that makes me laugh:

 

1.     I went to the market on Saturday, as you do. And went first to the sweet potatoes. This way, they don’t squish my bananas (okay that totally sounded inappropriate). I arrived and the price was what it always is. One pile = 200 Francs. I only wanted half a pile and so, because Rwanda is transparent and the corruption free gem of Africa, the seller carefully began to split the pile into two. One here, one there. Two here, two there. The problem was, there had been nine in total. She looked at me with a sly grin and I laughed and told her I wanted the pile with five potatoes. She laughed and reached over and added two – just for good measure!

 

2.     The other day, riding home, I thought I would help out my moto driver. There is a code among drivers and it usually is to avoid the police. So…it looks like this: No police is a subtle wave, palm down, as if to say “Okay. Keep driving.” Police check point ahead is – also subtle – a circular movement of the wrist with index figure out, followed by the index figure indicating down. So, after clearing a police check point, and upon seeing a driver coming toward us, I indicated – ever so subtly – that there were police ahead. The driver of said moto, was so shocked to see a muzungu giving him the signal that he continued looking at me and even has he passed, his head kept turning toward me. I think he was so shock that he forgot to slow down!

 

3.     And there was today….after Patrick coming to get me 35 minutes late! because he ran out of fuel ….we were nearly home and just at the town centre there was a police check point. (See above and realize that he would have been lucky to have a muzungu to give him the heads up). He saw the police and stopped 4 metres in front of them. Hesitated for a moment, and then flipped a u-turn. 4 METRES INFRONT OF THE POLICE. As if that doesn’t spell guilty from a mile away. So he turned around and found a driver WITH a license to drive me home. But, he was going to charge me 300 (which would have been included with Patrick). So Patrick kindly gave the driver 300 on my behalf. I never did pay him for today but I’ll see him tomorrow. Come to think of it…I owe Patrick money for driving me to a school on Tuesday (which he never picked me up from) and now for today. Maybe I should just write I O Us.

Don't even get me started on the t-shirts I've seen people wearing here. I was honestly going to start a feature on this blog. "T-shirt of the Moment" Like the one recently that said 'Peace, Love and Crabs.' Awesome. Where can I get one? You've got to love it though!