At moments I have the feeling I have been here for longer and at others I have the "I'm new I dont understand the culture" slap!
While writing this the neighbors are playing the drums. There are drum's clubs around the city, actually each neighborhood has it own. The house life is animated, if is not the drums, it can be mass or mosque (the 4.30 am call). On the field of cultural differences, we have the crocodiles as pets (the back neighbor has 2!), the orgy of fruits and veggies i've been eating (so good after 2 years of none!), the people on the streets, walking, cycling, pushing the bicycle, motorbike, women (everybody actually) carrying things on their head, also sitting on the back of the bicycle with the things on their heads, sometimes i do wonder how the manage to see! There is so many people, really it's amazing!
Funny enough a colleague was telling me it was quite hard to walk on the streets, not because is dangerous but because of the entertainment it causes to the whole population. You become the "Muzungo" (the white person or the one that comes from far) but i replied i didn't feel it was that bad, that yes people tend to stare a bit but i didn't feel hassle. Big mistake! I decided to go on my own, walking of course, down town, man! it was interesting! I had everything, the guy following me, the children, the car stopping to ask me if they could become my friend, etc... I'm ashamed to say i did take a taxi back! A little at the time! And i'm waiting from my driving license to come in!!!
Culturally speaking there's little to do in Bujumbura, one cinema, one cultural centre (the french one) and many many bars restaurants and people's houses... Coming from Mongolia it wont be a big change there! Also there is many many hikes and explorations to do around the country, and being so little it will be quite easy to cover quite a bit. In the horizon, i have a scuba diving in the lake coming up, and a lot of travel for work, so it's all good!
All for all and after only a week here I have to say I have a very good feeling about this place! We'll see! more to come! and I will try to illustrate with some nice pics. the issue you see is that i've been told people dont like to be photographed, so i have to be careful as it can become a big issue... once i'm more into understanding people's mind i'll do a little reportage!
Well i'll leave here for now, so you dont get to bored of reading!
part of the garden, this is the guards sheed
The back terrace, playing backgammon became sort of part of the routine of the house<
Last but not least our lovely neighbour's pet!
