Kigali August 30 First Impressions

A city of hills with quite a bit of green, but also red soil and dust as this is the dry season. There are people everywhere, mostly moving about on foot. Children in school uniforms walking to and from school, boys and men standing around, little children running after us and calling us ‘muzungo’. There are small shops every few houses it seems. On the hillside where our compound is, the houses vary from very minimal to reasonably well kempt. Most Rwandans who work in offices have a phone in hand. They are smartly dressed – the men with cleanly pressed shirts and pants, the women with colourful dresses and skirts. The major shopping area is relatively small with some bigger shops, lots of pharmacies, internet cafes, phone shops, banks, travel agents, clothing shops etc. Yours truly may not be elegantly dressed, but she does have a phone in hand. She will be a pro in the use of Michelle’s phone from France especially when she gets the hang of text messaging.
The neighbourhood with the government buildings, is elegant, clean and with beautifully paved roads. There are some elegant hotels and an impressive bank building of the BCDI bank where I will open account next week, but in my Gikongoro province branch not here in Kigali. On the various hillsides the array of dwellings is very mixed: mostly small, simply constructed houses with a yard of some sort. People move around on foot or public taxi. The latter are much more organized than in say Sumatra or even Lima, Peru. There are also motorcycles and cars and some bicycles, although the hills make that a hard way to move around. The other night we took a real taxi home from the restaurant. The driver took a shortcut down a steep road which was not paved and more like a track than a road, with huge ruts. The car was an ordinary one and with four rather heavy people (I was the lightest) I was surprised we made it down. Such a road would be impossible to use in the rainy season. Moving around this city, one gets a sense of organization or control. There are three layers of control around the city: the community security force (volunteers), the police and the military.
We have been to a few bars in the area of the compound after the dinner hour. Here there are absolutely no tourists. There are very few women to be seen in these establishments. The odd one would be young and always with a male companion. It appears, and I had read this before I left, that women have family obligations in the evening whether they are married or not. The volunteers here find this an obstacle in having social contact with female colleagues after working hours.
Speaking of volunteers, there are about 30 of us in Rwanda with VSO. They are mostly between 24 and 34 with the exception of Antonia Eastman (from Wales) and me. She will be living in Butare, about 1 hr from where I am. I think we will get on well together. There are moments when I feel somewhat ‘older’, but on the whole these young people are very friendly and try to be inclusive. There is a preponderance of women volunteers, but I had already observed this in the training sessions.
Today I was in Kigali, (pronounced [Chigali] and was taken by a volunteer to see the MINEDUC, the Min of Education building. I will probably go there to attend meetings at one time or another. We also dropped by a volunteer, François, from Montreal, who works for a National Organization that tries to coordinate all efforts to work with and educate Rwandan children who have disabilities (hearing/vision impaired, but also physical and mental disabilities). In the afternoon, we went to spend our 100,000 RWfrs on equipment for our houses. This is about 170 US$. I bought sheets, towels, a blanket ,pots, jerry cans (plastic for water), broom, buckets, wash basins, glasses, cups plates cutlery, knives etc. etc. I felt like I was a student again, buying cheap stuff for my student room. There will be a lot more I will have to buy. I may splurge to buy a buta gas two burner stove. In the meantime it will be a kerosene stove (supplied by VSO) that I will use for cooking and heating water. I am perturbed to be without a radio. I meant to get one in Toronto and never got to it. Did not find a suitable one in Kigali today and it will be the only way to stay in touch with the rest of the world. I will have another try before leaving on Saturday afternoon.
The electricity issue is a big one. It’s 10 pm and I have light in my room, but this has been an exception since I am here. Mostly the electricity is off and this means darkness everywhere. I have realized it is treacherous walking outside after dark because you cannot see all the potholes. Every time the power is on I find myself charging batteries, cell phone or the laptop. (I have had to interrupt this writing session as the power did go out last night around 10:15)
I have met some Rwandans already- there are 6 who work in the programme office and who have given some workshops or who have helped us fill out forms. They are polite, friendly and quite easy to communicate with. On Friday, I will meet my employer. We will spend the day getting to know each other as we attend briefings given by the people in the –program office.
Later this afternoon I will be off to Kigali again to look around, perhaps enter this blog and then touch base with Maurits and Tine, who live here and who are friends of Pim and Ineke. I am looking forward to getting their perspective on Rwanda, as they have been here for a while. Maybe I can find a radio and a power bar. I am kind of obsessed with power and electricity. Next entry will be from Kigeme, via Butare, where the internet café is. Cheers.