Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Bowling at Mamba and Fashion at Umbano

Everyone has been telling us about the Bowling Alley
in Kigali.  Yes, the one bowling alley in this big city with 6 lanes. 
It is at a restaurant called Mamba
along with a volleyball sand court and a pool!

We wanted to take our Korean neighbors
out since their Dad/husband was away for a couple of weeks, so 
we decided to ask them to go bowling and out to eat. 

A couple of things changed some of our plans but we did
have time to bowl one game.  
Only Moohwa and Pilip were able to come but 
the four of us had a ball.... a bowling ball! 
We missed Jung, though.

The cool thing about this place is the lighting....
and the guys who stand at the end of the alley
and pick up and set up the pins
!
Yes, for real... They have electronic scoring.. but manual pin set-up!

 Bruce was the pro of the night.  In fact, Moohwa accused him
of coming bowling everyday instead of going to work.
He just kept hitting strikes and spares for the whole first half
of his game. Even he was stunned.

 The rest of us struggled but had fun doing it.
The lanes were excessively slick and every time
you hurled the ball down the lane you almost flew
down or fell down with it.  
Moohwa had bowled on her college club league so she
was pretty good and since Pilip
hadn't bowled much he was just a hoot! 

He would literally throw the ball down the alley... but even
at that he managed to knock down quite a few pins.

 THIS PICTURE SAYS IT ALL!  BRUCE WAS VERY EXCITED 
ABOUT HIS GREAT GAME!!!
He might even be in mid-air!

He killed the rest of us... but we all had a lot of fun..
Definitely something we need to do again.

Ok... so spelling names is hard here.  The only one they 
got correct was Moohwa!




After bowling Bruce took Pilip home and had supper and Moohwa
and I went to the Umbano Hotel for a Fashion show.
One of Crystal and Carol's cousins is a designer and it
was her show that we were invited to.  It was to start at 7.
But no fear, we weren't late.  It actually started at 9!  

This is a great picture of Carol!  She is Crystal's little sister.

These 2 were the emcees and they kept coming out to calm us
down since the start time was so late.  The music mix
was terrific though so that helped.

Finally it started and Natalie (oh, I think that is her name)
the designer had some nice pieces!  Much
nicer than my pictures, because the lighting was hard
to work with. 

 THIS is quite a story!  Moohwa had called her driver to come to 
the hotel to pick us up after it was over.  She saw him in the doorway and 
kept motioning and insisting that he come sit beside her.   
Finally he gave in and came over and sat next to Moohwa and I said to 
him... "Do you always get dressed up in a suit to drive?" 
Moohwa immediately looked at who she had motioned over and 
realized that it wasn't her driver.  He was a complete stranger!

But fortunately he had a great sense of humor... We had quite a laugh. 
After the show he introduced himself as Alex.. the hotel event coordinator!
 What a great laugh we all had, including the real driver, once he arrived, 
and Alex told him the whole story 
in Kinyarwanda.

This dress was stunning in Hot Red...
a better picture comes later.

Sort of a "tie on" skirt....over a short dress.

This was my favorite--with a Spanish Flare.

Love the colors. Finally a decent picture.

 This dress had some awesome sleeves.


Cute little sundress.
And the models were all so 
much fun.
No serious faces like models elsewhere.
Great big beautiful smiles! 

Not my favorite dress but good model.

Another fun Model.  They were very animated and
smiling.. which was so warm and pleasant. 
Except this guy...He was the tough guy! ha!
 He had steely, penetrating eyes!  

Too blurry, sorry.
And then the wedding dress!

Last time for the all on the runway.
Here you can see the red dress!

The two guys rounded out the line-up!  

One of the girls showing off the red dress..
Better front view of the Spanish dress.
The designer was quite elated and seemed very humble. 
 Doesn't every show have a wedding gown?
No exceptions here!  She closed her
show with it and then came to greet us all.



Thanks for inviting me, Crystal!
It was wonderful!!



It had been a big day:  Aerobics in the morning,  Expo in the afternoon.
 Bowling in the evening and then the  Fashion Show late into the evening. 
Now you know why I am getting so behind with my blogs!  


But I'm leaving for the States tomorrow (Aug. 2) and I'm
not sure if I will keep blogging there or just have Bruce do it 
from here.  Who knows?  In the meantime, I still have a couple to finish....
so I better get to them. 


love,
margie



The 2012 Expo in Kigali with the Kids!

The Expo in Kigali brings in Companies & Corporations,
crafts and all sorts or things to have on display. 
The kids from Kagugu asked me if we could go.  So, last 
Thurs, Innocent, Lionel, Cythnia, Serge, Koffi, Patrick,
Mutoni, and Rachael and I took off for the afternoon 
to see what we could find. This year's Expo was even 
bigger than last year when we were here visiting Kigali.
There were 100's of people at the Expo today! 
The first thing we encountered
most people in Rwanda have never even seen before!
HORSES!
I have never seen a horse in Rwanda until today.  No one

raises them here --probably because the upkeep is too much.

 Apparently a riding school from Kenya will be moving
into Kigali... Yippee...  They were giving rides so I
checked to see if any of the kids wanted to try.
This was the sweet horse that they saddled up!

She is a beauty!
This was the little make-shift stable for the 3 horses.
Note the crowd watching from above and Koffi checking out

one of the other horses that was eating. 

Koffi gave it a try first,
while Serge, Mutoni and Rachel looked around. 

"Sit up Straight!" was the first command...
and then they taught each rider how to neck reign.
Innocent and Lionel in the back ground--excited

for the kids!
Koffi looks pretty comfortable.  He loved it!
 The "guide" soon let the riders handle the horse on their own.  
Each one was able to ride for about 5 minutes. 

Time for Serge.. age 10...
Now I want you to know that these children have never
seen horses before today... let alone taken a ride on one.

Serge, too was a natural and very at home in the English saddle. 


 Here Serge is telling her to turn left.  But on the way back to the stable...
the horse wouldn't stop and the guide had not told Serge how to STOP HIM.
But Serge didn't let it phase him.. although I think he was scared.  So scared
that when the horse proceeded to leave the arena,  Serge just grabbed onto
a metal pole and slid off the horse's back and down the metal pole!
It was astonishing..  and I missed the Kodak moment.  I was so worried for him.
But the horse just kept on going...
Finally the guide got him back for the next rider though.

 These folks were all watching from above the arena area.  They had just all waved.
I'm so sorry I missed that picture.  All those 2 handed waves just make me smile!

Cynthia was next!  This is Serge's big sister.
See the pole wrapped in Blue and White?
That is what Serge grabbed onto and shimmied down.

Cynthia had learned to pull back on the reigns..
so she didn't have to jump off!
Posing for the picture after her 1st horse ride ever.  
She was very happy and proud of herself for staying on. 


Then one of the kids backed out so Lionel took a spin. 

 Looks like he's been in the saddle awhile.. but this was the first time!

Ok... So this isn't the gorilla family we visited but this was the RDB
(Rwanda Development Board) booth... advertising the Gorilla Treks!  

These gorillas were so funny
and the kids just wanted to touch them.  But when they jumped at the kids... 

everyone pulled way back and giggled and giggled.

Cynthia and Patrick checking them out..
And the gorillas were checking out the crowd.
Then it was time for another ride....one for the non-horse riders!
THE SWINGS!
Felt like we were at Kennywood except this was the only ride!



 Patrick really loved this one.

 Serge and Mutoni and Rachel on the other side--
just coming to the end of the ride.

I love this picture...  Mutoni, Patrick, Serge, Rachel and who is that on the end?
I guess she just wanted to be in the picture! 
I couldn't get her to leave until after I took the picture! hahahahaha


The kids were fascinated with these hip-hop dancers.
Don't see these or hear this kind of music here hardly ever.

I was more fascinated with this guy
carrying 4 mattresses on his head.

Some folks will do anything for a nap!

 We had a fun afternoon and the kids were able to experience
things that a lot of people in Kigali have never had the chance to do. 

We did lots of other things, too but still didn't even get 
through even 1/2 of the exhibits.  We did get some sunglasses
and a couple of watches so the kids can be on time. 
Finally, 
just a little bit of traffic... coming and going to make
our ride home a little crazy... 


But this day was long from over and certainly experiences 
that will long be remembered.

Stay tuned!

love,
margie