Moving in Muzungu Circles

"Muzungu Muzungu Muzungu" - white person in Swahili - follows me around East Africa. This week however, I lived up to the Muzungu-in-Africa image. Thursday evening I finally made it to the British High Commission drinks night. Since Rwanda joined the Commonwealth in November, it's no longer an embassy. I took two friends - British Sam and American Karen. After all I am a dual national. My friend at the High Commission got us on the list. The HC has a pub called 'the goat and gorilla', and was screening the leaders' debate in Bristol. The beer was expensive but the wine was cheap. Unfortunately we were sitting with a big bunch of Swedes with zero interest in British politics, so I only caught enough of the debate to remark that Cameron's eyes are too close together, Clegg is marginally attractive, and Gordon comes up for air like a fish with gills. I was introduced to the High Commissioner himself (looking like an overgrown public school boy) but I wasn't in the mood for brown-nosing. Instead I got chatted up by a Burundi-man, then escaped, only to meet a doctoral student from Baliol - this world is too too small.

Friday I was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They don't yet have someone working on the Commonwealth, and Rwanda is not entirely sure what to do next, despite spending three years fighting tooth and nail to join. This is where I come in. I am frequently introduced as 'our Commonwealth expert from Oxford'. I've given up trying to explain Commonwealth HISTORY is what I know. But research I can do. So I'm currently navigating the labyrinth of organisations and NGOs and finding out how Rwanda can join. I've encountered some seriously random organisations. The 'family of nations' is a strange beast. I've sent many a sincere email ensuring the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth and the Association of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition that the Ministry will encourage the relevant Rwandan institutions to apply for membership. Like clockwork, my colleague took me to a buffet lunch at Afrika Bite.... I always ask about his wife, who lives in Belgium, indefinitely.

Continuing my Muzungu social-life, my housemate and I spent Saturday by the pool at the second poshest hotel in Kigali. We managed not to pay to swim, and just ordered some slightly off pineapple juice. And then in the evening, we went to a movie night at 'Heaven' restaurant - Parenthood (made me cry, I must be emotionally fragile) and then Anchor Man (much better the second time). Apart from a kid spontaneously throwing up beside us, it was the best evening a Muzungu can hope for.