A day in Kigali
Within 1 minute of stepping outside my hotel, I have been approached to buy a newspaper, a wall-map of Rwanda, a phone card and a Ludo board (I couldn’t make this up). The streets, or rather the pavements, are the scene for a huge amount of commercial activity.
----------
The rain comes, not the usual Rwandan downpour, but heavy enough to get wet. Suddenly, with my umbrella up, I am almost the only person still walking. Everyone else is sheltering in shop verandas, waiting until it stops.
----------
The courtyard is just off the main street in one of the suburbs of Kigali and holds a fascinating contrast of tradition and modernity. On one side a few women are peeling vegetables and cooking chapattis, presumably for sale because it is only 10am. On the other side, some young men are at work on computers, editing wedding videos and dubbing with music. I have come with a friend who needs his video camera repaired. A young woman wanders in with a few children’s’ clothes which she is trying to sell.
----------
Back in the centre of town, the coffee shop with lattes and wifi internet access is nearly full, about 50% of the customers being white. In some parts of the city you could walk about all day without seeing a white face, but this is one place where we congregate. Like most of the others, I am working on my laptop. I have nowhere else to go while my car is being serviced : this is day 3 and I am still not confident about when I will get it back.
----------
Dusk brings the rush-hour, the streets in the shopping zone are full of lorries unloading huge amounts of materials. Keeping a large stock is common : in the craft shops you can hardly squeeze past shelves crammed with articles for sale.
I eat in a “pub” away from the centre of town – goat brochette and chips for £1.50. Here I am the only white customer and my presence brings a lot of interested stares.
----------
My hotel has no water. I’m not sure whether this is the persistent Kigali problem, or just some localised issue. It eventually comes back about 7pm, so I store some in a bucket in the bathroom. A further cut in supply the next morning shows that this was a sensible plan.
1 comment:
I can truly idenify here :) Kigali is an amazing city. It has some of the best Indian food I have ever tasted and just opened a Mexican resturant. The crafts abound. Though we found ourselves in a few grocery stores getting side glances. We thought that the best place to buy our souviner coffee. It is a place where you see other white people, but feel just as shocked when you do as the natives who see us regularly. Oh I cannot wait to return. Out of the 8 nights I have stayed in Kigali I have not had water 2 of those nights. It really depends where you are staying I guess.
Getting your car serviced? I will never forget while in Gisenyi our van broke down. They brough a mechanic out and it was amazing to watch him work. He was not afraid of getting his hands dirty, that is for sure. He was covered in braking lubricant when we waved our goodbyes praying that the brakes would work as we travelled to the volcanoes. They worked perfectly.
Post a Comment