Kigali, Rwanda — Full Day and Then Some. Christmas Eve Day. 12/24/2018

December 24, 2018

Merry Merry – It was a full day and then some.

We had a great breakfast (shakshuka done with African ingredients – all kinds of beans and spices) at Heaven (can’t believe they named the place this way… but it is so delightful that I think it could be quite appropriate. We are hopeful that our room will become available on the 4^th night here so that we don’t have to pack up and get resettled for just one night. We shall see. Not that we spend much time in the room, or on our very private balcony or in our little private courtyard… Guess I know why it’s called Heaven.

We hired a driver for today (by the way they drive American style here in Rwanda – a pleasant break from the British style driving in Kenya and Uganda) initially just to take us to the Genocide Memorial Center, but eventually had him take us to numerous places so that we didn’t have to keep looking for taxis. A nice guy who somehow saved his money to buy a car and use it as a “private taxi.” His English is weak but we are all managing. His French is weaker, he says (not that that would do us much good as I’m certain his French is better than mine). Off we went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial – a critical stop to understand the country of today, which is so rooted in its very complicated past. The museum was built in 2004 and recounts both the early history of the country and the winding path to ethnic divisions and ultimately the systematic murder of 800,000 Tutsis by their Hutu neighbors (and in many cases their “friends”). This all occurred over a period of 100 brutal days in 1994. The memorial attempts and is successful at tracing the events of the genocide (as well as the mass burial ground located on the site, for more than 250,000 of the victims). The exhibit highlights the colonization of Rwanda and factors leading to the slaughter in both historic and very personal ways (with well-produced videos and interviews with survivors and relatives of survivors, as well as with Hutu families, and strong quotes and photos). It was humbling and appropriate to see all of the information translated into four languages with the type getting smaller with each translation and English being the smallest type font of the four.

But the Center does more than tell the story of the genocide. The exhibit is divided into three parts, with the first naturally being much larger than the other two.

1. The Genocide and what led to it; 2. The Children (huge blow up images of children under the age of five – with boards telling their names, ages, what food they liked to eat, what they liked to play, etc.; and 3. Other Mass Atrocities including the Holocaust, and genocides in Cambodia, Armenia, the Balkans, etc.

When you arrive and pay your entry fee, you are given a rose to place at the burial grounds as you exit the Center. It’s powerful. It was also well curated (although probably could use a little less text, especially since everything was translated into so many languages).

Prior to going to the center we attempted to get cash in various ATMs along the route (remember we had such a fiasco at the airport ATMs the day before). Well today didn’t prove to be much better. We stopped at three banks: two were out of order and the third didn’t have any money in the machines. The driver thought that perhaps the entire banking network was not functioning because so many people are trying to get money out for the holidays.. ??? So, after we left the Center, we headed to another bank. This looked promising, but alas the machine wasn’t working either. So we entered the bank thinking we could just go to a counter, but the lines in the bank were very long (last day before a holiday) and people were taking numbers to get service. We gave up on that and the driver said he knew a free-standing ATM on the way to our next stop. So we went into a little parking lot where there was a tiny structure with an ATM; we were third in line. But they ran out of money after the second person… fortunately the person who fills the machine came very quickly and we were suddenly cash-rich with Rwandan Francs.

We then headed to the Nyamirambo neighborhood, which the drive described as a “cheap place to live.” By the way, whenever we were in really nice neighborhoods with large houses and manicured lawns and lots of barbed wire, we would ask who lived in these houses and his answer was always the same: “White people.” He also said that many of the people in these big houses were diplomats from many countries. As we drove to Nyamirambo, he offered to show us the American Embassy but we declined. The destination we sought was the Nyamirambo Women’s Center – an NGO that works to combat gender violence by training women to sew and be able to support themselves. They have a sweet little shop with all the items they make on site: table cloths, pillow covers, bags, necklaces, placemats, clothing, etc. – all sewn.

Everyone was obviously happy to see us and for our many purchases. We talked with a few of the women and learned that the operation has expanded to give two-hour walking tours of Nyamirambo, and to host both basket weaving and cooking classes on site. While we were perusing the goods – we heard all these shrieks coming from the second sewing room next door; we were told that it was someone’s birthday and the tradition is to surprise the person coming from behind and to pour a bucket of water on them. I ran to photograph but the birthday girl had already fled to avoid getting wet.

We had told the driver to meet us back at the shop in two hours so that we could stroll the neighborhood and get a quick bit to eat. We asked one of the women for a good local place and she recommended Amurian (sp?). So we walked about four blocks, getting the flavor of the neighborhood, which is very heavily Muslim and reached a very large green mosque, turned left and found the restaurant. Food was fine, although it came with Ugali (the Congolese “bread” which is like eating solid starch – which you pull and use instead of a fork – sort of like injera in Ethiopian restaurants – but no matter how much you pull of the ugali it sort of reappears and reforms). We ordered two dishes from the menu, neither of which they had, and kept substituting until we found something that they could serve; I got Chicken peri peri and Mike got some kind of beef brochette. The young waiter was very sweet and a bit overwhelmed with having two Americans eating there. Getting the food took a long time. We wound up WhatsApping the driver to tell him we would need more time before we’d get back to the meeting place.

The Nyamirambo neighborhood is chock filled with little shops and people walking everywhere. From our little outside table we could see the neighborhood at work. From there we headed to a shop I wanted to visit because I had read that there was a young (under 30) female clothing designer who was listed in the 30 African entrepreneurs to watch. We meandered to her very tiny shop, but there was very little inventory and the clothing was definitely not as described. A bit disappointed, the driver suggested a craft market which we visited but most of the goods were not hand made so we opted to head back. Then, since we were in a bit of a shopping mode (and going to these different shops gave us both a destination and a chance to experience different neighborhoods), we (I) remembered that I had read that there was a brand called Rwanda Clothing.

The driver knew where their shop was, so we went there which was in a completely different part of the city. I actually bought a dress that is being altered and will miraculously appear at the hotel on Thursday morning (??) and Mike bought two ties. They actually had a lot of really nice stuff and they also can make things to order where you select fabrics, etc. But that would have taken too much time, because of the holiday. By the way, our driver’s name was January.

From there we headed to the hotel to navigate our dinner restaurant selection. We wanted to go to Poive Noir, which sounded fantastic. We had emailed them yesterday and they never responded,. Then we called and it didn’t go through. We asked the hotel to do it in the morning and when we returned at about 7 pm they said they had tried numerous times and the restaurant wasn’t picking up but they were certain the restaurant was open and that we should just go, So at 8 pm we got a taxi and headed to Poive Noir. In the car, both Mike and I thought it was interesting that no one thought that perhaps the restaurant would be closed. As we drove up to the restaurant that was indeed the case. We had read earlier about a smaller less gourmet restaurant called RePub (formerly called Republikan) so we suggested he take us there. I think he was relieved that we had an alternative and that he didn’t have to figure out what to do or where to take us.

Turned out that RePub was just down the road. We got there and they had just lost all their power.. but they said they had candles at the tables and that they were cooking since they didn’t need electricity to cook. We had a really good meal – starting with drinks and a snack of teeny teeny tiny fish that are breaded and fried and become very crispy… it’s the whole fish. We then had a goat dish and a fish dish with cassava leaves. Really good!!! and for dessert we had something called buzzy ice cream.. chocolate with some liquor I think.