Blogs from Ville de Kigali, Rwanda, Africa - page 14

There are only two events likely to draw a bigger crowd than a Rwandan football match. The first, setting your house on fire, as observed recently should pull you in around 2 to 3,000, dependant on it’s location. Near the main road appears to be best. You’d think in a country where fetching and carrying water is the national pastime and where children are schooled in the art from birth, the chances of a experiencing a serious blaze would be small. Sadly not, as the merit of this event as a spectator sport seems to far outweigh that of neighbourly duty. In fact you’d be hard pushed to find anyone lifting a finger to help, even close family seem to have better things to do. I can only speculate that when you have to make so ... read more

Mzungu is the Swahili word for "white person" which East African urchins joyfully shout whenever they catch sight of a western traveller, hence I've felt like a minor celebrity ever since setting foot in the "Pearl of Africa", Winston Churchill's moniker for Uganda. Uganda is just how I'd invisaged 'Africa' since childhood: lush green vegetation everywhere, brown roads that disintegrate into quagmires after torrential downpours, people carrying a multitude of goods on their heads (no hands) and big toothy grins on the locals' faces. Ugandans and Rwandans are perhaps the friendliest people I've met in the last year - very refreshing after entountering swindlers at every street corner in Egypt - and distinctly polite in the pestering stakes; they tend to go about their business and leave you in peace, no hard sales techniques here.... After ... read more

After visiting Rwanda, it is almost impossible to believe that this is the very country which tore itself apart just 13 years ago. I arrived here with images of machetes, bullet-ridden corpses, intertribal warfare, and societal breakdown - instead, I arrived in an efficient and orderly country, where the people are quick with a smile and a greeting, and harmonious living is the order of the day. Now, forgive me for lapsing into teacher mode, but let me refresh you on the basics of Africa's worst genocide. Thanks to divisive rule by the Belgians, centuries of latent mistrust, various episodes of intertribal violence in the decades after independence, and a simmering civil war, by 1994 Rwanda was a country set to explode. Members of the majority Hutu tribe were just looking for an excuse to eliminate ... read more

Getting Closer From London to Nairobi, Kenya After the layover in London, we flew to Nairobi. Apparently I was a little too naive to know that you just do not take photographs in the airport at Nairobi, Kenya. I had taken several when we got off the plane -- on the tarmac, the old-fashioned way, coming down the stairs in the outdoors. We stood in a very long line for our transfer boarding passes, so I thought I would just get a few photos of the people and sights. WRONG!!! There was also a little issue that one of my bags had gotten lost from London to Nairobi. Of course, I couldn't go looking for it because I was not going through customs. The gate agent told me she would go check for my bags and ... read more

….3 hours drive inland, west of Kigali, tucked behind a volcano, 1500m above sea level? The SEA !! Well almost, it’s the surprisingly large and idyllic Lake Kivu - There is a God! There can’t be too many countries in the world that can boast such a breathtaking lakeside shoreline, pretty much untouched by human hands. Maybe that’s why no one mentioned it. With a surface area of 2,200 sq. km, you’d think it would be difficult to miss. The reason its so quiet is maybe down to the fact that the road to Kabuye (Lake Kivu’s local town) is precarious to say the least, winding up and down some very steep hills* and before the tarmaced road arrived, courtesy of those hard working little Chinese fellows, you’d never have made it. For the lakespotters amongst ... read more