One weekend in the beginning of living here, I was having a harder time than usual adjusting to my new life. Now, after being here about one full month, I am getting used to the idea that it will take a little time to get our house to where I want it. But it is very unsettling coming back to a dusty empty house, especially before I came to my new peace with it. My remedy for that weekend is as follows.
First, I met Joe Christa. She is an Interior Designer here and a very hip young Rwandan woman! She automatically made me feel better. I could relate to her, and she knew all the cool places to go to get me on a good start. We organized a time to go to Kigali together and she could show me around! Kigali is about 2.5 hours away from where I live, and I made the trip there and back on that Friday. Oh boy was it necessary!
She first showed me Kimironko Market where I bought some decorative baskets and these awesome stools that are traditionally meant for sitting in while you cook ugali. (Ugali is the staple carb that I am very familiar with from Tanzania as well!)
She took me to the Kigali Market that had tons of different shops, and this one had plenty of fabric options that we were looking for to use as the backing of pillows. I brought a bunch of fabrics from the US that I wanted to turn into fun pillows here, they just needed a fun color on the back!
These are my fabrics from home being paired with the backing fabrics at the market. And I saw that stool in the market which I snapped a pic of because it inspired me to create metal bar stools for our kitchen as well!
Then we went to another fabric shop to choose the fabric that I will cover our custom sofa with. I landed on this really light gray with a basketweave pattern. I love it! We also went to a bunch of kitenge and batik shops where I could look at all of the more traditional African fabrics to make curtains out of. Here's the blue batik I ended up buying! Our living room is going to be pretty colorful. :)
I also went back to T2000 and found the mattress section! The typical mattresses here are hard foam. For the first 2 weeks here, it was the MOST uncomfortable thing ever. Maybe Patrick and I are getting old too, but both of our backs were hurting every morning from the old foam mattress. It was a big splurge, but I know how rare a spring mattress is here, and while I knew that this mattress purchase would not fit my bed, I had to get one to save our backs. It was also really fun testing each of them out with Joe Christa!
After hauling the huge mattress back to Rubengera, we placed it over the old mattress. Once home, I realized it's not AS comfortable as I first thought. We can feel the springs... BUT our backs are fine now and we're getting a full night's sleep! Bonus! They also agreed to replace our bed frame for us with a new custom one that fits the size of our new bigger mattress. It's about the size of a King! :)
The next morning I woke up refreshed from a springy sleep and feeling much more settled. It was the beginning of the home re-design phase. Things were happening. Drawings were made, pillows were being sewn, projects initiated! I was feeling good. The final phase of this feel good weekend was to celebrate! ;) You know that view from our window I keep showing off? Well Patrick and I hiked through a banana forest to get all the way down there to Lake Kivu!!
It took about an hour, and once we hit the lake, we ran into a bunch of people and some fishermen. One of the fishermen was from the Congo (right across the lake) and spoke Swahili, so fortunately I could speak with him to organize a boat over to the town where there are hotels and places to eat and drink.
We're on a boat!
We made it to our first hotel and had a couple beers. And check out that view! Then we headed to another hotel on the lake, The Cormoran. Beautifulllll!!! If any of you follow me on Snapchat, you may have seen our giggly moto ride from one hotel to the next. :)
By Sunday I was over my funk. I had committed to moving forward instead of feeling unsettled. How could I not enjoy this gorgeous country?! The only thing that made me feel even better? My mom sent me this adorable picture of Nami back in New York. Life is pretty good! :)
Love,
Teri