Rwanda Diaries

Who sees far, goes far. (Rwandan proverb)

Day 1.

Schiphol. Amsterdam. 6:39 am. On my way to Africa. Almost like Tippi Degré. Almost. In other words, if you dream of something long enough, it will come true. Like love. The airport has a library with art books, a piano, and tulip shops. They also sell gouda. As I said, dreams do come true. There was an evening and there was a morning, Day 1.

Day 1. Again. For real.

First time (real) Africa. Welcome to Kigali, Rwanda. Cute, clean, and hilly. Far from the landscapes of Chicago. Vraiment un pays des mille collines. Staying at the Nest Kimi for the first night. They have a design bar. Love, again.

Day 2.

Kimihurura. The first morning in Kigali. Woke up in an expat-kind of neighborhood and one can tell. Still, very nice. Sipping my first cup of Rwandan coffee and texting George, “my” cab driver to take me to Chez Lando. There’s a lot of hummus in Kimihurura. Apparently, the Israelis are bringing agri-tech to Rwanda and Chabad knows it.

Night 2.

I woke up at 3 am. Jet-lagged. It was nice, had time to think, dream, and think, and dream on. I have to say the mosquito net was kinda charming although I don’t feel like I should be saying this. But I will. The king size was nice too, with this mosquito net. I almost felt like a princess. The one with a little pea stuck in her mattress. In any case, long live my 16-inch Chicago mattress.

Morning. The only paper at the reception at Chez Lando is China Daily. Nuff said. I also see the “Inzozi”. It turns out the CEO of Rwandair is female - Yvonne Manzi Makolo. Indeed, it’s great to be a woman.

Day 3.

The Kigali Genocide Memorial. A resting place for more than 250,000 people. I had been to Auschwitz and thought I had seen it all. I hadn’t. Things got worse from there, at the Nyamata Church Memorial. A snapshot of horrid times. And the horrid times are even more horrid if you’re a woman. That was my key takeaway from Nyamata.

Day 4.

Introduction to Kinyarwanda. The focus of today is the woman. A woman as a farmer, a woman as an entrepreneur. A woman and “income-generating activities'“. Today, I must have heard about “income-generating activities” at least twenty times. Good. It’s always good to generate income. Don’t question that.

Question Coffee works to educate women farmers. “Ibara rihebuje. Soroma ikawa ifite.” Something to the effect of a coffee bean cherry having the right kind of color (the color of the bracelet that I bought) and then you know that you are supposed to pick it. Or, pick the cherry bean when it’s ripe?

Day 5.

The drum and the beat. Took a class of Rwandan traditional dance. I think got the hang of it. I must have danced my way through Rwanda and it must have been at least 50% of the joy of the trip. Everybody dances here. Women, men, children. In the city, on a dirt road. My ‘Afro Beats’ Spotify playlists are finally validated and useful. All the beats, all the moves. We also sang. Well I didn’t. But the song was called '“Rwanda nziza”. The song turned out to be the national anthem. Meaning, Rwanda is beautiful. It is.

Day 6.

Did an English speaking activity with the kids. If I were an animal, I would be…. A girl says: “If I were an animal, I would be a mountain gorilla because it brings tourism.” Then, I got twice: “If I were a city, I would be Dodoma because it is beautiful". The travel list is getting longer. Well … if I were an animal, I would be a lionESS. Mind that.

Day 7.

The village of Rubona. 90%+ of Rwanda looks like this. Or worse. So I am told. Kids find the muzungus, white people, very interesting to say the least. The meaning of the word is a “traveller” or so I am told. There had been no white people in Rwanda before the colonizers came. The first white people were anthropologists who sadly laid foundations for everything that eventually led to the 1994 genocide through the Hamitic theory. Ideology would likely be a better word.

The village has a government center, a clinic, a shop looking like an open bar in the middle of what could be a square. The bar serves the Virunga beer, by now, my favorite, and a bunch of soft drinks in recyclable water bottles. You drink your coke, you return your bottle and get some money back. What a positive environmental impact. Reminded me of my homestay in Germany when I was 16.

The bi-weekly local market sells all kinds of produce, some households products, and a large block of yellow margarine that you can buy by a scoop. Another zero waste idea? The market has a beauty section where women have their hair done. This fascinates me. No matter the poverty line, a woman’s longing for beauty is insurmountable.

Day 8. Erev Shabbat.

Friday Village Time. The most positive and empowering time yet. So much singing, dancing, rapping, reciting poetry … I have like thousand voice notes from this evening. And as I said, all the moves …

Day 9.

My first safari in the Akagera National Park at the border with Tanzania. I caught the Tanzanian mobile reception and hope it can count as another country off of my list. Thank you, T-Mobile.

After the genocide, almost all animals in the Akagera National Park were poisened to make space for the internally displaced people. It was not until 2015 that lions were re-introduced to Rwanda, thanks to a generous lion cub donation from South Africa. However, what I wanted to write about is the zebras. They are curvy. I would not be calling this out but at least three people in my group independently observed this phenomenon. I thought you needed to know.

Day 10.

A mini-trip to a solar field. Energy is in the air. The panels are from China. I asked about the storage. The batteries are expensive. They don’t have those. On the way back, I got a compliment in the middle of a dirt road. Quote - “this muzungu is pretty”. Now, there’s that. Ego boost or “ego boost”?

Day 11.

A visit to Envision, a multi-media production company in Kigali. The best music equipment in the country. Founded by Peter Lee who sold his car and moved from San Francisco to work with Rwanda’s emerging artists and creatives. Rwanda is clearly addictive.

Shortly before, the Kimironko market. That one is not addictive. Gives me headache but I survived. Got a huge piece of fancy “majorelle blue” fabric that I am turning into a table cloth. The best buy of the year. And here is a l’chaim to Africa-inspired Shabbats. And here is to more of Africa.

Day 12.

Last night in Kigali. But not the last one.