Well – I definitely had an “I’m in Africa” moment last night. The Internet was down. AGAIN. (It works about 65 percent of the time). So I poured over two Taste Magazines, brainstorming recipes for my chicken dinner. Unfortunately, all the chicken recipes called for sweet potatoes or pancetta – items I didn’t have. So I decided to concoct one of my staple meals – chicken stewed in fresh tomato, ginger and honey with onion & parsley.

I was excited. I had eaten chicken only twice since arriving in Rwanda and never prepared it myself. When I finally unpackaged my chicken, I was a bit unnerved by what I found. It looked more animal than anything carnivorous I had ever purchased before. Complete skeleton with the gizzards hanging out. Whatever it was, it wasn’t chicken. It looked more like “rat” or “Fido”. It had been under the “Poussin” sign at La Gallette. I thought “Poussin” was French for “Chicken” or "Cornish Game Hen"...at least that is what Julia Child says. Apparently I need to work on my French. Whatever it was, I was thankful for the trimming knife as I tried to skimp the little bit of flesh off the skeleton, into the stew. It was almost enough to make me consider being a vegetarian…for a second before reality set it.

I think, from now on, I’m sticking with beef.

That was yesterday. This morning Nyanja and I were supposed to met at 8 am at Bourbon Coffee (essentially the ex-pat coffee house) and catch a bus to Butare. Well, today is Umuganda. That means there are no moto taxis and buses from 7 am to 11 am because everyone is either doing public service or, like me, hiding at home to avoid hard labor. Nyanja and I won’t meet until 1-ish.