READJUSTING part two

CUSTOMER SERVICE

It was Martine who drew my attention to it first but since then it has been a real pleasure – customer service with a smile. It’s not that it doesn’t exist at all in Rwanda but every time you encounter it it makes an enormous impression because it is so rare. Here, maybe it was always like this but it is such a pleasure shopping or ordering stuff in bars and restaurants. No grunts, no waiters lying slumped asleep across their counters, no padded bills, genuine smiles and conversations, food being delivered exactly as ordered, hot and promptly. We went to McCloskey’s in Donnybrook one evening to watch football and have a drink and get something to eat. There were about 25 customers in the place and just one barman on duty. He managed to serve everyone their drinks, brought food for five of them/us, tidied up in general and still had time to chat to everyone for a bit, check that everyone was happy and read the newspaper. Rwanda has a distance to go yet.

BUSES

Well, Rwandan buses may be driven in a lunatic fashion and are somewhat of questionable condition but at least they leave on time and get to where they are going more or less as expected (I am talking of the inter-city buses of course). I walked down the road to catch the 1400 75 bus to Ballinteer. By 1410 it was obvious it wasn’t coming. At 1415 a 75 passed in the opposite direction – presumably it was the one coming back up at 1430. Eventually at 1445 it appeared. I asked the driver ‘What happened to the 1400 bus?’. ‘No idea ‘ he said, ‘probably just didn’t turn up.’ Thought of telling him this wouldn’t have happened in Rwanda, figured there was no point.

HORSES

Driving through Cavan, I saw horses. There are no horses in Rwanda. Not one. They looked wonderful.

THE PORTERHOUSE

One of the absolutely most fantastic, wonderful things about living in Dublin is The Porterhouse. The first Porterhouse was (and is) in Temple Bar, a pub where all the beers served are either brewed themselves on the premises or are other specialty beers from microbrewers all over the world. You cannot get Guinness, Heineken, Carlsberg, Coors or any other commercial brands. And what they do have that I really love is a range of porter and stouts that cannot be matched anywhere: plain porter, Oyster Stout, Wrasslers Stout, wheat beer, American-style lager, red beers – you name it, they have brewed it in the basement and are serving it upstairs. There is now a second Porterhouse on Nassau Street near Grafton Street, more central and accessible though the pub itself is nowhere near as nice as the original Parliament Street one, and a third one in Bray. There is also one in Covent Garden on London – check it out if you are over!!! My personal favourite is the Oyster Stout – if you like Guinness, taste this and see what real stout is supposed to taste like!

CHAT

I am a gregarious kind of person, there is nothing I like better than talking to new people in strange places. In Rwanda this has been a real problem. Normally when I travel, it is me who has to take the initiative to strike up conversations (except in the USA where people are naturally chatty and open to strangers). In Rwanda, you are lucky if you get a few minutes to yourself before someone sidles – or strides – up to your table, plonks down and immediately starts questioning you (Where are you from? Are you married? How many children do you have or Why not?) and then immediately start into what they want from you – money, books, a scholarship, school fees for their kids, university fees for themselves, a drink or whatever. Looking back over the 22 months I spent on Rwanda, this was definitely the single most negative aspect of my entire stay. All the more so in that when I visited Uganda and (briefly) Kenya I found nothing of the same attitude – no begging, no requests, no reflex ‘Give me stuff’ reaction. Maybe joining the East African Community will help Rwandans to shake off this attitude of dependency.

So it is all the more wonderful to be back where you can simply strike up conversations at will without worrying that you are involving yourself in a situation you will find it difficult to extricate yourself from. At the cash register, ordering from a barman, peeing in the loo, standing in a bus queue, I can just start a conversation and chat away! Awesome!!

ATTITUDE

Things are not good here in Ireland at the moment and are getting worse. All kinds of cuts and claw backs, cuts in disability services, tax hikes, repossessions, a general air of gloom and despondency. Under it is a feeling that things will in the long run – maybe even the medium run – get better but for the moment all is doom and gloom. Rwanda, for all its difficulties, is (forgive the phrase) a ‘happening’ country. Things may not always be planned carefully or carried out with foresight and planning (Alfred: That is phrasing it very diplomatically indeed!) but the general air is of progress and expansion and optimism and confidence in the economic future (Alfred: political and social is a little more complicated).

LITTER

People always said Rwanda was a very tidy country compared to its neighbours. To be fair, we have always known Dublin was dirty but I had forgotten just how dirty it is. My first visit to the city centre I was stunned at the litter everywhere and the casual way people added to it as they walked around.

SO, WHAT WAS IT LIKE?

How in the name of Jaysus do you answer this question in thirty seconds or less, which is the maximum time the person asking you is going to devote to any serious level of concentration on your answer?

PRICES

This was a big surprise. Things are a lot cheaper here in Ireland than in Rwanda, in real terms. A pint of Guinness in central Dublin cost me just under RWF3000. This is the same as a similar drink in Novotel or Milles Collines and three to almost four times the price of a Mutzig in a local bar. Given the relative rates of pay and salaries it makes me realise just how expensive Kigali is (Alfred: AS all your Ugandan friends kept on telling you!)

I HAVE A CAR AGAIN!

Oh man! My sainted brother Aindriú gave me a car, a silver Honda Accord in really nice condition and I cannot even begin to express the wonderful feeling of being independent transport-wise!!!!

GUINNESS

I don’t drink that much Guinness as a rule, preferring lager or cider. But Ken Goodwin had abjured me to have a pint of Guinness when I got back and to think of him as I was having it. So I did. Wow – amazing taste. Since then, it has been Guinness every time (other than in the Porterhouse where the Oyster Stout is possibly the best stout in the world).

Plus seeing my family again, having a fridge/freezer again, walking on Killiney Beach by the sea (!!), and – most amazing of all – finding Martine waiting for me when I got off the plane. La vita è bella!