Rwanda 2

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Well the rest of the week was spent enjoying my surroundings and cooking my face off. Also turns out that the two workers I was training, Faustin and Katie, had started there one day before me. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!! So we collaborated a lot on what types of food these guys knew how to cook already and what was possible with the limits of our ingredients and kitchen equipment. Best part about the new situation is that these guys have French in their wheelhouse and a ton of cooking terms are French terms. So that was a lot of fun for me to describe a method in French and have them understand without me having to explain the shit out of every little knife movement or process on how to cook something. Fun! Throughout the week I was feeling pretty appreciated but also felt like time was fleeting. The bosses must have had the same feeling because they offered to pay to change my flight so I could stay another week to train more. After a quick thought I said yes and was making plans for a visa run!!! So I have an East African Community visa which states I have a single entry into Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. This means that I can freely travel across the borders of these countries as many times as I want without paying for an extra visa or something. Buuuuut the second I step out of the EAC it voids the visa and I have to pay to get in to whatever country im trying to get in to. Ok…so I need to run to Tanzania or Congo to simply grab the $30 Rwandan visa on my way back so I can catch the flight after my visa expires. Musanze to Kigali to stay with a guy from Austin, Texas…awesome dude by the way…probably the only Texan ive found that is so fucking cool! Anyways…then to Rusumo on the border the next day, stamp out, stamp in, stamp out, stamp in….just to find out on my way back in to Rwanda that the EAC visa I got was issued with error…whaaaaat….it was not just a single entry visa. Apparently all the EAC visas are multi entry. Shit. So I couldn’t get the 30 day $30 Rwandan visa which I needed to keep me here for another week….ummmm….well the border guy said I could go get it at immigration in Kigali. So straight back to the capital for meeeee…another night at Peter’s place and in the am I was 3^rd in line to fix this visa garbage. When I explained all things to the lady and that my flight was on the 18^th so I needed to extend the EAC visa for another week she explained to me that they give a 5 day allowance on these visas when leaving the country….sooooooo since my shit ran out the 13^th and I was flying out the 18^th I never needed to lift a finger to do anything about anything….goddamnit!!!!! oh well…I guess I had a good time seeing a few things in Kigali and hanging out with a new friend. Very fun. But yeah….bureaucratic bullshit at its finest!!!! Nothing an 11 hour bus ride cant solve! bluuuuuuurg

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