A Night Out in Rwanda

Having been in Rwanda for a few weeks, the visitors were restless for some night time shenanigans. The ever-resourceful Ron offered up an option – we could check out Rwandan ‘Karaoke’ and then hit up the local club. We were amenable to this idea and resolved to all take afternoon naps that Friday, so we’d have a chance of staying up past our usual bed-time here, which is about 8pm.

Come 8pm Friday night and the first stop was Tequila – the karaoke bar. We paid our cover of 1000 Rwandan francs (roughly 2 dollars) and headed straight to the bar. The rest of the group are beer drinkers, but I personally can’t stomach the stuff. So I perused the bar and asked for the one thing I was familiar with – a shot of Johnny Walker Red, no ice please (the tap water here is not a friend to my north American tummy). The bar tender brought out a wine glass and filled it almost to the top with Whiskey. Well – who says I can’t LOOK like a lady while drinking neat whiskey. I happily took my glass into the karaoke section while the rest of the group looked in disbelief as the only non-drinker in the group committed to hard alcohol. ‘You want some coke at least?’ Devon asked.’No thanks’ I responded ’I really don’t want to have to pee here’.  David said my dad would be proud.

Rwandan karaoke…is unlike any karaoke I have seen. It essentially consists of lip-synching to music while dancing on stage with a mic. There was a young lady on stage when we arrived, gyrating rather provocatively to Rihanna’s ‘Rude Boy’. She returned for several encore performances, her clothes getting skimpier and skimpier each time. Nudity is illegal so thankfully we were spared, but she certainly didn’t leave much to the imagination. Next up was a local young man, who thought it might be fun to pull David up on stage, have him do a few dance movements of his own, and then proceeded to do the ‘worm’ under David’s legs to emerge on the other side. Much fun. For me. The locals were beside themselves to see a Muzungu be such a good sport.

Then our good friend Ron, also known as ‘Acidic’ – went up on stage and lip synched to one of his own recorded songs – and we dutifully stood up, clapped, cheered and made excellent groupies . Ron has written and recorded a few excellent songs and it was great to see him up there.

 An hour later, we got a bit fed up and proceeded to the Silverback club. Spirits were high, and mine especially has been consumed throughly.

Highlights of the club include the following:

1.       Dal having to rescue David, not once, but twice, from the advances of a local man who simply wanted to dance with him, hold hands and twirl him around. 

2.       Steve keeping good to his pledge to dance with the ‘ugliest chick in the room’

3.       Dal being almost knocked off her feet when she was hit by a chinese man who was being ‘twirled’ across the room by the same local who was previously trying to dance with David.

4.       Devon and Dal reassuring the club bouncer that he was indeed a ‘sexy boy’. This was done by pointing at his rather expansive pecs and giving him 4 thumbs up. His words to us, and I quote ‘I want to be a sexy boy’.

5.       Random playing of  ‘Walk of Life’ by the Dire Straits and the crazy realization that all the Rwandans in the room KNEW and song and LOVED it.

Our night out was so much fun, made more so by the fact that the locals are welcoming, friendly and completely non-aggressive. In addition, most of the local men here think I’m twelve years old, so I typically get left alone. Rwandan women tend to look quite mature, and with my slight stature, baby face and lack of offspring, most guess I’m in my early teens. Good for me.

- Dal