After cruising the empty rural stretches of western Tanzania, crossing the border into Rwanda provided a stark contrast. People were everywhere! Pedestrians and bicycles were filling every conceivable gap on the side of the road. Known as the Land of 1000 Hills, Ross and I are considering a re-branding campaign to make it the “Land of Excessive Pedestrians and Bicycles in the Roadway.” The 156km between the Rusumo Border Crossing and Kigali had a speed limit of 40kph, and determined to not get another traffic fine that week, I made Ross drive most of the 3.5 hours. It was a joy and relief to climb out of the car in Kigali at Discover Rwanda to a stocked bar of cold beers waiting.
Managed by Aegis Trust, an NGO and charity which manages the Rwanda Genocide Memorial and Museum, all proceeds from the hostel go back into supporting those impacted by the 1994 genocide. We visited the memorial museum the day after our arrival and found it informative yet distressing. Hutu and Tutsi labels are not used anymore with all citizens referring to themselves as Rwandan only. The museum explains that this distinction was not ethnic, tribal or language based but instituted by the original European colonizers deeming anyone with less than 10 cows as Hutu while wealthy cow rich natives became Tutsi thus codifying economic classes into “distinct” ethnic groups. It is confusing, shocking and heartbreaking that hatred, murder and “ethnic” cleansing was only 100 years in the making.
After the museum we desperately needed a positive energy boost. Fortunately through a Dubai connection, we networked our way into a Thursday night gathering at the Inema Arts Center. Packed with mostly expats drawn to a happy hour of buy one get one free beer, we met a plethora of interesting people ranging from business school interns at various NGO projects to entrepreneurs who have relocated to Rwanda from Finland, United States and South Africa (to name a few) to start and grow businesses. It was a fun and inspiring night to be around creative, smart and interesting people. The party only stopped due to load shedding but sufficient levels of beer-induced euphoria meant we braved our first non-traditional taxi’s home.
The original plan was to depart Kigali for additional Rwanda exploring on Friday but having met so many interesting people on Thursday night, we couldn’t turn down the chance to attend a Saturday private villa pool party we had been invited too. Ross spent Saturday writing essays for b-school admissions and scholarships while I chatted up four cute veterinary students from Vets Without Borders at the hostel. As a lover* of all animals, it became imperative they these four ladies join us. As pool parties go, it was pretty typical and everyone was having a fun time and it was no surprise when 40+ people determined it was time to head for dinner at the trendiest Kigali supper club. Drinks were flowing, food ordered and dancing had started when the surge of suited up security detail entered the restaurant and the staff suddenly became much more serious putting an end to our dance party. It turned out, we had stumbled our way into the exact same supper club that Rwanda President Paul Kagame was to dine out that evening. Our evening continued somewhat less conspicuously after he arrived but it was still a great night and gave us pause about ever leaving Kigali.
*those who know me, know this to be
Joburg to Scotland 