Blogs from Rwanda, Africa - page 31

There was a time when Butare, in the south, was on track to become capital of a post-independence Rwanda. Home to the country’s first university, a busy center of intellectual life, it seemed as good a place as any to plant the roots of a new nation. It was, however, buried deep in the south, just a few miles from the border with Burundi, and in the end, Kigali was chosen because of its more favorable, geographically central location. Decades later, with development booming in Kigali, it’s easy to see how the two cities’ fortunes diverged. Butare is small, sluggish, provincial - a rough stretch of souvenir shops and guesthouses on the Kigali road, a handful of auto-part stores and dress shops scattered along a side road looping out toward the market. The drive into town ... read more

If you’ve come to Rwanda for anything other than gorillas, your first days are bewildering, full of contradiction. Western knowledge about this country begins and ends with the genocide, yet it’s been almost fourteen years since that terrible chapter in Rwanda’s past was written. President Kagame - despite certain authoritarian tendencies, or perhaps because of them - has helped this country rebuild in ways that most people would’ve considered unimaginable just five years ago. In the past decade, Rwanda’s boasted one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. Kigali is on a short list of the continent’s cleanest and safest capitals; on its leafy streets, where freshly planted trees litter the sidewalks with their blossoms, you can’t easily imagine the checkpoints, the mass graves, the dogs feasting on the bodies of the dead - scenes played out in endless ... read more

After catching my connecting flight in Addis Abba, I finally arrived in Kigali just after noon. After breathing a sigh of relief at the arrival of my lugguage, I was greeted by two other interns, Marissa and Ally! I was able to eat, take a shower and settle down at the guest house, where I stayed until moving into my house. A few hours later I was zipping on the back of a "moto" heading to the UK embassy's weekly pub night and then having dinner out in a beautiful backyard of one the many restaurants. Less than 24 hours in the country and I was attending a conference on the quality of the resolution process with respect to land disputes. The conference was a perfect introduction and summary of the current dispute process dealing with ... read more

I came to Rwanda with relatively little knowledge and even less expectations about the place. I knew there had been a recent genocide, I knew there were some gorillas hanging about somewhere, and I knew very little else. But now I’m a little more educated. Rwanda is obviously synonymous with the 1994 genocide. Up to 1.5 million of their people were massacred during a few months of immense bloodshed. Since that tragic scar the nation has progressed at an unbelieveable rate. They do not pretend it never happened and openly face up to the stigma. In 1998, president Kigame took charge, following a well-trodden route to power in Africa - from child refugee to guerrilla leader to president. During his premiership Rwanda has introduced several policies and reforms that are years ahead of other African nations. ... read more

Jan 10,2008 Hey everyone I've made it to kigali before yesterday at night made connections through brussels and arriving here at about 8pm. I was a little nerves at first considering the embassy said I should have gotten a visa before coming.... but as luck would have it i met another Brasilian in the immigration line(she informs me that there's only about 10 registered brasilians in rwanda so I think i was really lucky) and she said not to worry so I didnt, paid $60 and got through in no time...immigration officials very helpful here...She works for a an NGO here and we should be meeting to go out this weekend. Hoped on a cab went off to my hostel....couldnt go to sleep because i was so excitedm so i went to the bar and ... read more