First Impressions of Rwanda

Holy Bananas... I finally arrived in Rwanda which appears to be the land of bananas. I have never seen so many banana trees they grow them like corn in Indiana! I spent the night in Mwanza before heading out on my 4th day of travel en route to Kigali. When I arrived at the bus station they had changed the route and the bus. It was a definite downgrade from the one I saw the night before but the lack of shocks over the bumpy road amused me because I knew it was only 7 hours to the border. The bus drops you off in a town called Benako, from there you have to take a short taxi ride to the border where it was a short hassle-free walk into Rwanda.  It only took four days to reach Kigali

On the 3 hour mini-bus ride to the capital there were definitely some striking differences between Tanzania and its neighbor. First, as I already mentioned is the multitude of banana trees. People in this country will surey never want for fiber. Unlike the landscape in Tanzania the view on the drive to Kigali was overwhelmingly green, there were no splashes of color that I had become accustomed to enjoying. Immediately you also notice how much better the roads are. There seems to be a lot more infrastructure and improvements progress at a much faster pace. I also noticed that almost every door had a red X or K spray painted on it (mostly X's). Apparently government inspectors have gone through the houses and determined which are in need of repair and which should be torn down and rebuilt.

Another important difference is the language. Big problem, I don't speak french! So unless I need to tell someone to brush their teeth (which might be applicable) I am at a loss in French. I found a "cheap" guest house to stay in although it was much more than I would have spent for the same in TZ. Most things were a lot more expensive in Rwanda actually. The conversation with the manager went like this; manager: (something unintelligible in the local language) me: "English?" manager: shakes head, "Frances?" me: shakes head, "Kiswahili?" manager: "ninajua" Great... I muddled through the rest of my time there in broken Swahili.

There's not a whole lot to report. After spending the day wandering the city I came to the conclusion that there's not much to do in Kigali. I walked up and down the hills of Kigali in the morning. I spent the afternoon at the Kigali memorial which was pretty intense although I hear there are even more poignant reminders at other memorial sites around the country. The downstairs was dedicated to the genocide in Rwanda. I didn't really learn a lot of new facts but seeing the photos and artifacts made it much more real than in the movies. What I found myself most frustrated with is that the world sat by and watched and did nothing. The upper level of the building housed displays of many other genocides/ethnocides throughout the world. You hear about them in class or on the news but when you're confronted with an array of facts and photos compiled in one place it's disturbing, especially when you pay attention to the dates. That evening I stumbled across a sub-par dance performance including a lip-synch portion. It was... interesting... at least it was something to do? In any event it definitely confirmed my plan of getting up the next morning and heading for Gisenyi.