I am still in the heart of Bujumbura with my host Claude! Of course my boss in Kigali thinks that I am busy doing a good job winning and signing new contracts for his ICT company where I have a Kiraka. The truth of the matter is that ever since I set my foot here, I have been doing something similar to guzzling and swallowing. The temperatures here are quite high and that is why I find myself seated next to my rich host downing bottle after bottle of ice-cold Amstel. I have not yet made an attempt to seek for lucrative ICT deals here. He had asked me to check in all offices, hotels, ministries and factories. However, it was at another kind of factory that I spent most of my time! The factory that I visited was in form of a gym. You see, my wonderful host told me that after several days of guzzling frothy waters, it was always wise to visit the gymnasium and stretch our muscles. It is in light of this that he took me to the famous Fitness Factory in town. So we rushed to the Fitness Factory where we were greeted by many nice looking fit dudes and chicks as they danced Zumba style to the tunes of loud Rihanna songs. We joined in and started to shake our beer bellies in the name of getting fit. This was my kind of holiday men! It was as if I had gone to the Bahamas where dot.com girls are seen running all over the place in bikinis. In the gym, the relatively older and richer men were acting in an unusual manner. You know, whenever the dot.com girls swayed to the left and back to the right, the gentlemen in the room would behave like car wipers. Our heads would turn from one side to another, like lightening itself. That is why a third world war almost erupted when Claude and I positioned ourselves at the back of the hall so that we could keep our eyes busy in a car wiper fashion. Little did we know that the elderly men in our presence also wanted these strategic places in the gym. They confronted us and demanded that we move in the front near the aerobics coach. They insisted that their rightful place was behind where they could bend and touch their toes. We had to oblige reluctantly and left the older men behind as they continued to enjoy the aerobics class in more than one way! I pray that I return to Kigali with something more than just memories of the Fitness Factory. My boss will have expected me to visit real factories to negotiate for ICT deals instead of visiting Fitness factories!
