Hey girls
and guys,

it's been a while since we've been leaving a message on this blog. And we are seriously sorry for that… we really can't explain why this happens - but we guess it's just laziness. Also - that reinforces the problem, because after some weeks there is so much to say, that you don't know, where to begin.

So we decided today, to write something about the little things of every day life,
that are characteristic for our African experience:

· TIA - This is Africa
o Everytime something doesn't work the way we would expect it to work in Europe, the xplanation is TIA - This is Africa…. We are saying this at least 5 times a day…it's suitable for almost every situation, for example for the following ones:

· Internet suckz
o The Internet in our place is a mess. Sometimes it's not there, sometimes it's just veeeeeery slooooooooow and sometimes, when you want to use skype, your
conversation is stopped every 20 seconds…. Typically TIA. On the other hand, we
can even watch funny Youtube-clips if we start to load them 5 hours in advance!

· Our office is our living room, and our living room is our office
o We are a big family! 9 people are living in this house at the moment, and another handful hanging out here every day, because they work here. The problem is, that the NDA-Office is at the same time the place where we live… Sometimes it drives us crazy, because you always have the impression, that you should work, but then you remember, that you don't need to work all the time, which then often results in not working at all…
Sometimes I think it would be helpful, to go to work in the morning, come back
in the afternoon and then be sure that work is over… but with us - work is
never over. And everything is too relaxed at the same time - so you have to
learn how to be disciplined! A valuable lesson actually, now that we think
about it!

· If we want to drink, it's either Rwandan Beer: Primus or Mützig or the Ugandan
Gin: Waragi - mixed with tonic water or coke, which is the cheapest longdrink you can get here and so our new standard drink ;) Waragi, though, has the reputation to cause very bad hangovers…., It's made from cassava and sugar cane, which makes it sweeter than the Gin you might know. But alcohol is bad and makes us fat anyway, so what's the point! ;)

· Every time you go out, people are asking you for money - sometimes it suckz being a Muzungu (white person), sometimes we wish we were miraburas (black people). Sometimes it's exhausting to be considered a super-rich, super-beautiful
American. that's what people think but that's not what we are. But we are glad
to make this experience of being different from all others. When we will see
strangers in Germany in the future, we know how we definitely won't behave.

· Nearly every day - we are going to the tailor, who seems to never finish our clothes, that should have been finished 2 weeks ago. Typical case of TIA…. And in the meantime we are buying more and more fabric and thinking about what we could have made out of it, which becomes a little obsession of ours. It's great to get creative and design your own clothes, but after a while, we figured out, that it is very time consuming and the results do not always look quiet like what we had in mind in the first place…but: Today we got a message from our congolesian tailor, that he finished all our clothes and that we can pick them up! And they look great :)

· After a while - African food really is the same every day - people eat to be stopped from being hungry, but not necessarily to enjoy their food, that's exactly what our chef does: potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, rice, more rice and banana for lunch, every day. We should teach Martin how to cook some tasty meals… without rice and peas. Et on est en manque de sucréries! On the other hand, we discovered where to buy tasty Buttermilch and we started to eat fresh fruit salat every morning! We also managed to identify two very cool places where we can get super delicious coffee stuff, cookies and cakes. And sometimes it feels stupid to complain about this, especially when you talk to people that cannot afford to eat twice a day. So: who needs sweets?

· Manque de Bewegung - so we are doing Frühsport on the terrace. It's really not easy to do sports in Rwanda! First of all: where to go? - There are people everywhere! Second: when to do sports? - It's always so hot... And finally: what sports should we do? - For jogging it's to hilly, warm and there are no real tracks, for cycling you would need a bike and calmer roads without pedestrians and holes everywhere on the streets, wouldn't you and for swimming you have to pay lot's of money every single time you want to use the swimmingpool containing "strange" wurmkrankheitenübertragendes water. Anyway, we managed to survive the last 9 weeks without running and will continue our Frühsport, which should be fine. And: we are able to watch the
Olympic games on 5 different channels, that stimulates our sporty conscious at
least mentally.

And: the next week, we will spend in Burundi - for free, almost. There, we will drive through the country and have some interesting days! Holiday! So, everything's fine down here!

GROS BISOUS À TOUTES ET À TOUS!

Tanja and Ricarda