Blogs from Kigali, Ville de Kigali, Rwanda, Africa - page 4

Today was a “down” day since I did not have tons of meetings and tons of information fed to me through a fire house. Breakfast was great - thick breakfast tortillas (I forget the Rwandese word) and an egg scramble with coffee, etc. I did not have to rush off, so I was able to get ready leisurely today. The first stop today was the genocide memorial. Simon had a meeting last night with some missionaries in Kigali and spent the night there. I am not sure how he pulled together a meeting last minute. He was planning to return to Gisenyi yesterday afternoon, but did not realize that we had a full day planned for us. He went with the flow like it was nothing and managed to plan a meeting and a place to ... read more

Having shivered my way into the airport at Heathrow, not having brought a coat as i was pretty sure i wouldn't need one out here, i joined the 1000s of people waiting at the airport due to delayed or cancelled flights. Although we sat on the runway for a couple of hours, thanks to the french and their air traffic strikes, we did leave and made it to Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia and then on to Entebbe in Uganda to drop off some passengers and then eventually arrived in Kigali. On arrival all non-biodegradable plastic bags are confiscated and it shows, the streets are not littered with bags in the gutters and are generally clean. I'm liking this environmentally friendly attitude already. I was collected from the airport and driven down Africa's crazy roads, people just ... read more

Christmas was our first holiday ever away from family. We substituted great friends. On Christmas Eve, we went to a small holiday party where we partook in eggnog, hor d'oeurves, and homemade ice cream (Jennifer) and pecan pie. We watched The Grinch and then White Christmas. On Christmas day, Jennifer baked a yule log aka buche de noel, and it came out right on the second try. We headed over to Alex's boss' house for a multi-course dinner that took up most of the late afternoon. We had guacamole, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, a bunch of vegetables, and for dessert we had chocolate mousse, pumpkin pie, and the yule log. Afterwards, we played Taboo and Apples to Apples. New Year's week featured Alex and Jenn finally getting their house ready for guests. We invited ... read more

Life or death. It was as simple as that. In 1932, the Belgian colonial authorities confirmed the divisions they were already using to their advantage in the population of Ruanda-Urundi by differentiating the “haves” and the “have-nots”, the old “divide-and-conquer” chapter of colonial governance. The result, for each person, was irrevocably set out in his or her identity card, and this assessment would apply to his or her successors ad infinitum. The words “Hutu” and “Tutsi” derive from the names of the peoples who colonised this part of Africa, 1,000-1,600 and 300-700 years ago, respectively, the Bahutu people of the Bantu race and the Watutsi people of the Hamitic race. But, immediately prior to European colonisation towards the end of the nineteenth century, the terms appear to have been used more often as socio-economic delineations, cutting ... read more

I'm here! I safely arrived in one piece with all my luggage right on schedule! I cleared Immigration, the Swine Flu Inspectors, and Customs with no problem. There was a driver waiting for me with another woman from my office whom I had never met, but who was on all of my same flights (except she flew business class). She's very nice and I should see her at the office here during the next week. This is my second trip to Rwanda and the second time I have met someone from the North Carolina office here that I had not yet met back home. I am now settled in my hotel room - yes, you read that correctly! I have a hotel room with a large balcony and high speed internet! There's not a cat in ... read more