The importance of having Ernest

Like most people in Bujumbura, our house came with a cleaner. Ours is called Ernest and he’s been working here for 8+ years. The downside about inheriting someone who’s been around for ages is that they tend to be a teeny bit set in their ways of working and dear Ernest insists on kicking me out of the bedroom at 7.30am every morning in order to give the carpets a good shake. Or making fruit salad with a lot of papaya, and I don’t like papaya.

But Ernest is great. He’s certainly not very talkative and he’s always got a blood-shot eye that scares me a bit, but I’ve become rather fond of him since I’ve learnt that he can cook. His repertoire includes fish casserole, chicken curry, pizza, lasagna (see photo below) and probably more once I manage to extirpate the words out of him.

I’ve started to teach him a few recipes, like onion chutney, banana bread and chocolate brownies. Also the latest fashion in Buj is to send your help to someone’s house so they can learn from another cook, and I think I might just do that. So with a bit of luck, once I get a job there may be delicious vintage jams, freshly-made bread, samosas, chapattis and ragouts waiting for me in the evening…

Our new house

"Chose promise, chose due", therefore as promised a couple of photos of our new house and garden, with views (with some imagination required during the rainy season) over Lake Tanganika.

Some of the things I missed the most in Sudan were green spaces, and a place to sit out without feeling barbecued in broad daylight. Well, have a look at this:

The fine-looking garden is the brilliant work of Antoine, who comes everyday wearing the overalls we just bought him and insists on concocting herbs that when boiled, he swears, "will soothe your heads after a few beers". Although we will try to stay clear of the said-herbs, I cannot wait to sit on the patio and slowly sip my Pim's or G&T while looking at the city lights in the evening.

Needless to say that we are extremely happy here, yet one thing still puzzles me: I cannot figure out why on earth a giant wooden owl would sit on our patio, nor who would have put it there. Of all the figurines we could have ended up with, we had to land that monstrosity. I am considering recycling it as a door-stopper or simply leave it here, with the hope that it will fend off thieves at night.

We have moved!

I realise it's been an awful long time since we last blogged so I will try to give you a brief update. And for those of you who haven't quite followed, and judging by the new title of our blog, yes it's true - we have left Sudan!

Our contract ended back in December after almost 2 years in Khartoum. It's been tough, very challenging, yet really fun at times mostly thanks to the great people we've met out there and whom we'll miss very much.

I will particularly miss the dry heat, dusk and sunsets over the Nile, the desert, dashing white jellabyas and colourful "tobes" (women's traditionnal dress), the genuine kindness of the Sudanese, and to some extent the Arabic language.

Below, some pictures of one of our finest moments at our leave-do party, organised in the desert with a couple of friends. We camped, barbecued sausages, played hippie songs on the guitar and cricket. I even had my arms tatooed with hennea for the occasion!

So Maa'salaama as-Sudan, but what's next? Well, we've just moved to a tiny central African country called Burundi, right next to Rwanda and the DR Congo. It is located in the Great Lakes area and Bujumbura, its capital city sits on the top end of lake Tanganika, surrounded by beautiful green hills. With ideallic temperatures of 30 degres all year round and about 80% humidity, you might call it a nice change from Sudan, and we'll try to give you our first impressions over the next couple of days...