Evicted!

So last night, as Farida (host mom) and I are polishing off our dinner of fried bananas and stewed beef, there is a knock on the door. Farida talks to the person at the door for a bit and then strolls back nonchalantly. We discuss the Rwanda Expo-a business/craft fair which we went to on Saturday, and then I inquired, “oh, who was at the door.” And she replied, “ah, it was no one. Here, look at this.” (keep in mind this entire convo is in our Frenglish language we have developed.) she hands me a piece of paper, where in English, it informs the tenants of block 6, apartments 1-6 (we are block 6, apt. 3) that the building has been sold, and we must vacate by SEPTEMBER 21, or be “forcibly removed”. We must also allow free access over the next two weeks to the renovators who are at liberty to come trounce through our place and rummage through our closets (and hopefully not find and pillage my stash of emergency chocolate). Farida said this all very calmly like it was normal to have someone-on two weeks notice-force you to leave your home of the last 4 years.

I immediately went into panic mode. Where will you live? Will your rent be as cheap? (we currently live in a block of 10 apartment buildings that were once owned by the government-in fact it reminds me a lot of my housing in Kazakhstan-and apartments were given out to employees as part of their salaries. There is an apt. building for national school of Rwanda employees, and we live in the one for journalists (hmm…the government employing journalists?! Never!) Anyway, Farida rents out the apt. from someone who works for Rwandan television who doesn’t charge much rent, because she was given the apt. for free…) It’s sad that these affordable apartments in a great location (the president’s mom lives in our neighborhood) are being privatized and as is remniscent of gentrification in the states, middle class families (such as mine) are being forced out to less desirable locations.

In fact, this is happening all over the city, where large mc-mansion type homes are going up where little clusters of lower-income huts had just stood. In fact, I remember when we first arrived our elitist “friend” Thar informed us “don’t worry. Our president will is planning on cleaning this area out.” Thinking we were offended by the clusters of one-room homes on the side of the hill. Where everyone will be relocated to, I have no clue, but I also have no idea who can afford these mansions that are going up everywhere you look…sadly I think most of them are for mzungus and other foreign investors.

I know Farida has family she can stay with and she is a lot better off then other single mothers I have met—she manages a petrol station, so has a steady income. Actually I went to her “office” last weekend, and I can’t believe how boring her job must be. She sits in a completely bare office from 7am-6pm 6 days a week. She has to manage money that comes in, but other than that, there’s not much. No computer, no company. She says she brings a book to read sometimes, but for the most part she is extremely bored.

So as of Sept. 21st, I guess I will be part of the homeless diaspera myself…(just kidding of course. I’m sure I can find something for two weeks.) From what I’ve heard there are no tenant laws here, and even if there were, few could afford to take a landlord to court. I hope Farida can find housing as comfortable as our current set up.

My room (which is more comfortable than it looks!!)