Kigali

I got all excited on Thursday morning to pack and leave this godforsaken town of Gitarama. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very nice introduction to rural life and I got on well with the boys Jean de Dieu and Vedaste. Still, they didn’t quite understand why I left and had tried very hard to please me with warm water the past two days. Jean even took over when I was doing laundry and looked surprised to see muzungu-underwear in the washingtub. I tried to explain the boys I was coming back to see them, with some new clothes for both, but I don’t think it kicked in. They probably think they’ll never see me again.

Nyamirambo Muslim area

Accommodation is of course much more expensive in Kigali, but in the end I really have to get some work done. First stop was the Nyamirambo Women Centre, close to the town center. To my surprise, a young Dutch girl openend the door and showed me around. The rooms were tiny but very clean and fresh. Then she showed a big bundle of keys; one for the main gate, one for the room, one for the toilet and one for the shower. To be shared with the women of the office and the shopkeepers nextdoor. She advised me to go and buy a little gasstove to boil some water to take a shower. Also, this place was in between the busy marketplace and the great Nyamirambo mosque. Meaning… being kept awake till the middle of the night and awaken at 4am for morning prayer at the mosque. I didn’t think so. Still I want to get in touch with the volunteers of NWC for the ‘This is Africa-experience’. One of these Community Based Travel tours.

Les Soeurs de Citeaux
Second stop was the Lycee de Citeaux and the Convent of Citeaux. It’s one Block away from the Belgian Embassy and l’Ecole Belge, so very central. The place reminded me of my own Catholic school back in the days; uniform and nuns. They also have a few rooms available and after a short sightseeing I decided to take the room. It costs me double compared to the one in Gitarama (4000RWF/night = 4,88EUR), but I’m surrounded by tropical vegetation and a couple of acres with freshly grown crops. The rooms are very neat, tidy, clean and there’s a separate ‘Salle de bains’ (bathroom) with a couple of clean toilets and showers. Still messing with the little washingtub, but at least they don’t have to go out to chop wood for a bonfire to heat some water. I can just take it from the boiler.

Just when I signed the contract, I saw a little notice that I will probably start to hate sooner or later; curfew at 22h00! The abyss said ‘it’s a way of educating our girls’. I acted as a similar saint and nodded friendly before I went off on a second date with my mystery man. Amen to that!

Research permit
After a cup of delicious Rwandan tea, I was dropped off at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to hand in the paperwork for the permit. By the look on Dr Mudukakikwa’s face, I think I seriously overdid the whole thing. I wrote down my entire project, while I - after completing the bloody thing – found out in the guidelines in the back, you only needed to state a hypothesis or subject of investigation. I might as well have written ‘I want to investigate if gorilla poo looks the same as ours’ or something like that. Now he was going to read through my entire file and give me feedback next Monday. What I expect to hear is ‘you don’t need a permit for this as you are not a scientist or doing indepth research in gorilla-matters.’ Something I told them from the beginning. In the end I said ‘I only want to get discounts, nothing more, nothing less.’ Oh and I added a car to that too… you never know it might work!

UN memorial
Hallelujah for the nuns, they’ve got really good beds and I slept like a baby. Until I woke up to the sound of drizzling rain and some morons who had the entire convent to hide from the rain, but decided to do that and chat loudly underneath my window…. At 7 – freakin’ – am!They decided to leave at 8am, just when my alarmclock was about to go off.

As the day passed like an ordinary rainy day like the ones we have in Belgium, I did decide to go out and do something. Guided by my legs and without a fixed plan, I walked to the end of our street ‘Avenue de Paix’ (Freedom street) and visit the Belgian memorial, commemorated to 10 Belgian UN soldiers who got locked up and brutally murdered by the local military on April 7th, 1994. I vaguely remember hearing this news on tv when I was about 10 years old. Those UN soldiers were supposed to protect the Rwandan Prime Minister, but were captured when the latter ‘died’ in a mysterious plane crash, together with President Habyarimana. It was the official start of the genocide.

The memorial shows a small office full of bulletholes. Nextdoor is a small museum with some historical facts on genocides across the world and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Still, the empty office tells more than words. On of the soldiers, trying to defend his companions, got shot in the front door. The other nine were brought inside, pushed into a corner and blasted away with a grenade. Survivers were then cut with machetes.

A couple of dead flowers were put in this corner, where the wall still shows the massive impact of the grenade. All bloodstains were gone, but it must’ve been a terribly bloody scene. Outside the office are 10 pillars, each presenting one of the soldiers. The youngest soldier was 25 years, the oldest 32 years at the time of their death.

On April 7th, a Belgian delegation of relatives and officials gather at this memoral to hold a service for the victims. It’s also the start of an offcial week of mourning all over the country, with Genocide Memoral Day on the 7th and a week of comemmorations in all the districts. A very touching and emotionally stressful week, have I been told.

Lonesome weekend
Being in the city means I got access to many places, go to various venues for food or drinks and take a bus anywhere I want to go. Still, it’s not that easy to get around if you rely on public transport. The entire city sways around the many hills and consists of various areas. Remera is near the airport and about a 10minute drive away from here. There’s a shopping complex and a cinema, Club Chez Lando’s and some other nightclubs. In the weekends, these places fill up with expats and foreigners. In the city center, there’s the Nakumat Supermarket, Bourbon Cafe and La Galette, which fill up during shopping hours.

As you all know, I hate being alone so I tend to connect easily with people and make friends. This seems to be incredibly hard overhere. Usually, you don’t have to belong or work for an organisation to hook up with people. But here, there’s hardly any other way of meeting them. I don’t really know any of the expats and I don’t get to travel around as easily from coffee place to club without flexible transport. The only contacts I have are those in Gitarama, and Nicole, the housekeeper of the Belgian doctor, who leaves Kigali during the weekend to go home. She called me to hang out and go dancing… in Gitarama!

So here I am, on a perfect (rainy) Saturday evening, working on my story in my little room next to the nuns. I’ll be returning home as a complete saint if things continue this way. Let’s see what tomorrow brings, I hope lots of sunshine, but the rainy season has definitely made an entry.

Thursday 17th – Saturday 19th March – Kigali 18 degrees