Life in Instagram

J: I imagine that this man was having a conversation with a few others as they tried to fit this bed-frame into the bed of a truck, obviously to no avail.  I then imagine this little man–he was perhaps 5’6″–saying something along the lines of “I’ll just take it down.”

M: So he did. On our way from the bus station to our guest house in Kigali, he ran past us down the hill that leads down from the US Embassy where I take yoga every week. Literally ran. Down the very steep hill. He just trotted his way past us and other Rwandese who were completely unperturbed by his strong-man feat. And in case you can’t tell, this large bed-frame was balanced on his head.

J: The thing about my imaginary event is that somehow this man ended up carrying this bed-frame for about 3 miles.

M: You have no idea if it was 3 miles!

J:) Whatever, I’m sure it was far.  We watched him carry it at least a kilometer.

M: Oooh fancy international traveler. Using the metric system.

J: First of all, the metric system is quite simpler to use and secondly, I can’t imagine anyone I know volunteering to walk this bed-frame down that bigass large and very steep hill.  That was my point.  Regardless of if he took it 1k to 3k.

M: Do you even know how long a kilometer is or would you have to Google it? Because I’d have to Google it.

J: google.

M: The same day we saw Amazing Bed-Frame Man, we hadn’t much work to do in Gahini so I said on a whim that we should just go to Kigali right away– Monday instead of our usual Tuesday. My cute husband’s eyes lit up and high-fived me across our desk. “Great idea, babe!” he whispered, so we wouldn’t disturb Gerard, our office-mate. And we were off. Our reward for getting there early was getting to go to Quiz Night at Sole Luna!

J: I really enjoy when she refers to me as “her husband” even though you should all know that we’re married and my proper name.  Anywho, Quiz Night was…

M: *makeout break for being cute* Just kidding. Ha, Justin! I even interrupt you when we’re typing. This is so true to us in real life.

J: Oh lord…well Quiz Night was freakin great.  The team below was named “After 69 kids, your mom has the deepest lake in the world.”

M: BECAUSE one of the questions had been “What is the record number of children born to one woman?” Answer: 69 and another was “What is the deepest lake in the world?” Answer: Lake Baikal. Combine those two and you get this wonderful name that won us Best Name (and 5% off of airfare on Rwandair). I thought of the name 🙂 I’m really proud of it. Just saying. Sorry, Ma.

J: But “Best Name” was the 2nd best thing we won that night.  We ended up winning the whole shebang!  Which was sweet because it meant that our adult beverages and delicious brick over pizzas were FREE.

M: You do a lot of formatting things that take a lot of time. But fine they look cool. So anywho because we won, we got to make up the quiz for this week! Which we are about to give in about five hours. To a whole chorus of heckling ex-pats. It’s gonna be great.

J: …formatting shormatting.

M: Justin just told me sometimes I need to let the segment end and move on to the next photo but I just NEED to say that the pizza was delicious and well-worth the exorbitant amount they charged for it. Grampa, my pizza had anchovies on it and they were delicious. Wish you were there.

J: So we’ve been spending a lot of time at this coffee shop called Shokola Lite here in Kigali when we’re here.  Especially today.  As of now we’ve been here since it opened at 10 am and it’s now 3:40.  We’ll be here for another hour and a half or so.

M: I don’t know if that sounds terrible or not, but to us, it has been close to heaven. It’s like an African ex-pat version of the Gryphon. We have no semblance of Western culture in Gahini to enjoy, so this is an indulgence. And the decor is funky and colorful– there’s a whole wall of wooden dowels covered in sections of African fabric. I’m salivating over it. And some of the footrests and baseboards are covered in this burlap with all kinds of neat sayings on them. Justin snapped this picture when he and Deke came here last week while Jocelyn and I were yoga-ing it up.

J: I should say that if any of the pictures look grainy, they are.  They were taken from my iPhone.  That is all.  Except for this: Our friend Bethany Crabbs Simpson said that these three things are all you need.

M: All you need is love! Do do do do doooooo All you need is love! Do do do do dooooooo…

M: Our new schedule has been 3 days in Kigali, 4 in Gahini, repeat until we leave. This weekend, we house/dog-sat for the South African missionaries, Wim and Bertha, who live up on the hill and Deke and Jocelyn came out to visit us in the Boondocks. These are the South African dogs, Becky and Nugget. It was a wonderful, much-needed “holiday” to be able to cook for ourselves and we slept in twin beds so we actually slept well because we weren’t elbowing or kneeing each other all night.

J: Okay, we don’t live that far from “civilization.”  It’s only an hour away from Kigali.  I’m pretty sure my Mom used to have to drive 4 hours just to get to a Wal-Mart.  But yes, here are the dogs.  They’re hilarious.  Perhaps I’ll video them the next time we take them on a walk.  Then you’ll see.

J: I’m not very good at Bananagrams.  I kind of think that it’s a dumb game.  The second statement is true because of the first one.  I know lots of words, I just don’t know how to make them connect to one another very well.  So I decided to do some “off-roading” in our game the other night.

M: We used to play Scrabble, which I would win, and then we’d play a game of Chess afterwards so he would win. It was only fair. But we had no Chess around, so Justin just did his own thing. Which is what made me fall in love with him in the first place. Doing his own thing. Not Bananagrams. Anywho, this game was played in the replica of a traditional Rwandan milk-hut that is on Seeds of Peace’s deck that I’ve never been in until that night. Then we ate tough goat kabobs and chips a.k.a. Freedom fries. Let me also just say I never ever ever drink soda in the States, but I drink it a lot here. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s what’s available, but Coke is so good with Rwanda’s version of “pub food” like this.

M: Justin took this when we left Gahini at 7:30 AM this morning to go to Kigali. We hitched a ride with the Bishop so we didn’t have to deal with the smelly, terrible mutatus/coasters. Hale-freaking-lujia!!

J: Yep, there it is.  A sign.

M: I love his Instagram pictures! On my list of “Things To Do When We Get Back To The US” is “Make Justin’s Instagrams into magnets” because I love them so. And also “Put Justin’s Instagram pictures onto cards” that I can send to all my pen-pals.

J: This one willnot be on any of those cards and/or magnets.

M: Well, this is where we live, so I love this picture.

J: Holy crap…I would have never even tried this in the U.S. but we both had Carrot-Ginger soup with this pita bread on the side for lunch today.  It was unbelievably delicious.  Maggs can’t even believe that I like it that much.

M: It is probably because it was reminiscent of Indian food. I think the menu said it was “cooked with exotic spices.” But yes, it was delicious. And only 2900 Rfws, which is about $5. Yum!

J: Here’s a video I took of ants…there were thousands of them…I read about these kind of ants in Barbara Kingsolver’s book The Poisonwood Bible.  Sometimes they spread out and overtake entire villages, forcing the villagers to run to the nearest body of water and jump in.  Makes the ants in the U.S. seem quite pesky but tolerable.

M: Good grief I am SO glad you didn’t tell me that when we saw them. But now I understand why my sister hates ants. Because when there are just a few, they’re whatever. But put them in a line 20 feet long, and it’s creepy and gross. In my incredible powers of estimation, I would say there were probably a million or more. Truly. They were crawling out of a hill in the side of the ditch and down, down, down the hill into another hole on the same side of the ditch. Blech I just got the goosebumps. Or ant-bumps, rather.

J: We’ve got another video coming your way…below is a link, but when I get the time, I’ll embed it in this post.

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf

M: Dang it, I’m getting hungry again. More soup, anyone?

J: Delicious pizza is just…oh 2 1/2 or 3 hours away…we can make it!  Hold fast my love!

M: Too bad it won’t be free this week.

J: Why is it that something that is free is always better?

Love,

M&J