Day 8: Lunch

Yesterday, for the first time, I ate lunch at Albert's. What can it be, I wondered, a new range of food I had yet to discover? Some new lunch delicacy? Or rice, chips and sombe? It was rice, chips and sombe. I didn't take a photograph, but after lunch I went into town to visit Bourbon Coffee. It's a Rwandan café chain (with a Western Starbucks/Costa-esque feel to it), and they've recently opened their first shop in London. I wanted to get out of the house alone (without an escort) and I had planned my escape perfectly. I left the house mentally armed with some key phrases. I finally got to walk past the little shops and houses I had passed so often on the back of a moto (na moto) or in the car (n'imodoka). Here is the view from Albert's road. At the bottom you can see a lot of houses made of corrugated metal.

When I finally passed a moto, I stopped. Now was the time.
Amakuru? I said.
Imeza. he said.
Nanga he kugende mu mujyi? I asked.
All the words had come out of my mouth in the right order and he had understood! I had asked him how much it would be to take me into town. As soon as it happened, I realised my mistake. He told me how much, in Kinyarwanda. I knew no numbers in Kinyarwanda. I held up four fingers and said Four hundred? hoping that my lucky guess would make it seem like I understood. No, he replied in English, five hundred.
Okay, I said.

Note to self: learn numbers in Kinyarwanda.

Here is what I had at Bournbon Coffee. Unfortunately, with the Western surrounds, come (almost) Western prices. I had a pot of African tea at 2,000frw (just over £2), and a slice of cake at 1,800frw. The headphones in this picture are very important because Bourbon Coffee has free wifi, which (when it works) is faster than the connection in Albert's house, so from here, I can use Skype.