Kigali, Rwanda

Happy 4th of July, Everyone!

I know, the message above and this blog post are very much delayed in reaching you. I am still having internet issues at my site so when I'm in town, I post. This week I'm actually in Entebbe at an HIV training conference so I have awesome connectivity.

Last year, on the 4th of July, I was chased by a cow in Uganda. 

Flashback to the scary Ugandan cow.

This year, on the 4th of July, I ate sushi in Rwanda (a land-locked African country ranked the 22nd poorest country in the world). Either activity could have turned out quite badly but ha, I'm still happy and healthy! I'll try to play it safer next year... or maybe not.

Me in Kigali. Sorry, I did not have my picture taken actually eating the sushi, so you'll have to trust me. It was awesome; some of the best food I've had since coming to Africa. We found a very swanky oriental place on the outskirts of the city.

Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, came as quite a surprise. I have never thought much about this country and admittedly, knew very little of it's recent history. A fellow volunteer wanted to visit so I was just along for the ride. Wow, did I learn a lot and am so thankful that I went.

Kigali, Rwanda, as seen from the north. In my opinion, it looks like many US cities.

It has architecturally cool buildings
with glass elevators.

It has beautifully clean, paved, tree lined
streets with wide sidewalks.

And it has wonderfully ornate statues and botanical arrangements in front of its government buildings (ya, ok, it was a gorilla statue, maybe none of our US cities has that).

The history I was referring to was the ethnic government-sponcered genocide that occurred in the mid-1990s. It is estimated that 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by dominate Hutu forces in 100 days. We learned that Hutu neighbors and friends turned against the Tutsis just because of their ancestry. Families that were intermarried were killed or tortured. We visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial where the remains of 250,000 people have been laid to rest in a mass grave. Even though the violence committed was shocking, the memorial was respectfully done, very informative and temperate. I recommend that anyone in the region go, if for no other reason than to learn from the tragedies of other's past. The country has been praised in its efforts to move beyond this horrific event, though the judicial proceedings are still in progress and many suspected perpetrators are still living in exile. I worry that hate crimes occurring around the world could escalate into a similar fate.

List of names of those killed
in the genocide.

Mass grave at the Kigali Genocide Memorial.

For our second day in Kigali, we took the bus to the opposite side of the city to visit a local market. The transport system is much nicer and more civilized than what I have been dealing with in Uganda for the past year. The buses are proper buses, not mini vans, and every person gets to sit in their own seat, not on their neighbor's lap (hahaha, I'm not exaggerating, in Uganda they will stuff 24 people in a minivan designed to seat 15). Rwanda also has motorcycles for hire to get around town, similar to Uganda. Except in Rwanda the drivers are all licensed and wear a helmet stenciled with their license number. Plus, all drivers carry an extra helmet that their passengers must wear. They are only allowed to carry one passenger at a time and no sitting sidesaddle or carrying babies. They don't drive like maniacs either. Everyone on the roads (which was not many, I didn't see any traffic delays) seemed to be following logical rules of the road... Uganda is just a chaotic game of how many people can you cram into the same space at the same time. 

Ugandan taxi park

Rwandan taxi park

Ugandan boda-boda (motorcycle taxi)

Rwandan moto-taxi (motorcycle taxi)

Can you see the difference? Uganda is just soooooo crowded!!!!

Off to the market.
From where the bus dropped us off to the market, was a long trail of steps between a lower class residential area. It looked very clean. Unfortunately, it smelled awful. Under those steps was an open sewer. Everyone's pit latrine just dumped into the gutter and flowed downhill. 

I discovered a new-to-me fruit at the market... or maybe it's a vegetable? The locals could not tell me the name in English and unfortunately, I cannot remember the name they told me in their language. While I was pondering this strange piece of produce, the vender told me to bite into it, see if I liked it. Of course, I am an "adventurous eater" so I bit right in! It was good. Kind of like a cross between a nectarine and plum. When we got back to our hotel, we searched the internet and discovered that it's English name is Tree Tomato or Japanese Prune. Once I read the name and ate another one, it actually started to taste a little tomato-ee. Weird how the mind works. Once I read the name it tasted like a cross between a tomato and a plum. Ah, it was okay. I liked it better when I thought it tasted like a nectarine.

Genevieve at the Hotel de Mille Collines poolside bar. Not that
stayed at such a fancy place, but we did visit their posh
facilities.

So that was my worldwide weekend in Kigali, Rwanda. It took us two days on a bus to get there, we spent two more days enjoying the city, then another two days to get home. Great trip! A big thanks to my friend Genevieve for recommending the excursion and being such an awesome travel buddy.