Strumming my pain...
In an attempt to de-oxidize the rust caked onto my musical skills, I have started taking guitar lessons. My teacher, Aimé, has been extremely patient as I whine about my tender finger tips and inability to play the damn F chord. For all the frustrations though, it has been great fun to exercise the repressed musician in me and serenade Melanie and the guards with really abhorrent renditions of Amazing Grace and Edelweiss.
Party on, party people...
Perhaps it’s that time of year or perhaps it’s just the ephemeral schedules of the expat set in Kigali, but I feel like I’m continuously attending an unending procession of parties, often of the ‘welcome back’ or ‘going away’ variety. Some are more titillating than others – a wine and cheese party, for example, has more caché than your average fete since both wine and cheese are difficult to find a) for reasonable prices or b) in good quality. Friends who have recently been abroad sometimes return with such hard-to-find riches and magnanimously host parties to share the booty. Garron and I hosted a dinner party (a follow-up to the wildly successful Mexican Fiesta Fiesta dinner party of March) of our own as well. The highlight was a dessert of pure indulgent genius – vanilla ice cream topped with home-made peanut butter sauce and fried bananas. Comme d’habitude, hats off to the chef extraordinaire, Garron!
The hills are alive... with the sound of running...
Along with some other intrepid runner friends, I ran the Kigali half-marathon on May 11… Crossing the finish line of the 21-km course in Amahoro Stadium, I was flooded with the usual endorphin-high but felt the reward especially hard-earned this time. The hills combined with a shortage of water at most stations made for one tough, tough course… perhaps the most challenging one I’ve ever done.
Remarkably, I was snapped crossing the half-way mark looking relatively uncrumpled and pain-free. Usually these action shots from races are the most unflattering pictures possible, but I was so pleased by this one, I thought it blog-post-worthy. I can’t believe I was actually smiling when I still had 10 more kilometers to go.
Post-race, some friends threw a BBQ at their lovely home where we nursed our sore muscles and gorged ourselves on grilled kebabs, potato salad, cake and champagne!
And they called it, the Birth of the Biz...
For those of you who don’t already know, Garron and two of his bschool friends have started an MBA admissions consulting business… www.elitembaadmissions.com
Check out the website and get them clients. There’s a juicy little referral fee involved…
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