Small Country, Small World
I fell in love with Rwanda at 20,000 ft. From my airplane window, I stared at the gorgeous countryside surrounding Kigali—rolling green hills divided into thousands of rectangular garden plots edged by banana trees that, from the sky, look like stars. Black paved roads—impressive for this part of the world—and tidy red dirt roads crisscross the hillsides, running past neat clusters of simple square homes with tin roofs.Things were even better on the ground. As I exited the plane, I was welcomed to the country by a Rwandan named David who had been on my flight; soon, I discovered that he had met a friend of mine from Washington, DC several years ago in South Africa. Small world! David invited me to join him and Sarah, his traveling partner (an American girl who goes to school in my hometown, Los Angeles—smaller world), at a guesthouse in Kigali. I accepted, and was thrilled to discover that the woman who drove us there (the mother of one of David’s friends) has a sister who works for the Rwandan office of the organization I worked for in Washington. (Really, these personal connections were getting ridiculous.) I had come to Rwanda alone, and was expecting to spend the weekend wandering around Kigali by myself, but then I suddenly found myself at ease among a wonderful group of people within minutes of my arrival.Yesterday, I left the guesthouse with my new friends around 10AM to explore the city and we didn’t return until midnight. David, to my delight, turned out to be not only a wonderful conversationalist and all-around interesting individual but also a networking king; we spent the day meeting Rwandans and foreigners at downtown shops, an afternoon BBQ, a posh sports club (where I drank incredible Rwandan coffee), and a beautiful Indian restaurant. I had great conversations with a presidential bodyguard; interns and employees from government and non-governmental development organizations like USAID/PEPFAR, World Vision, and Project San Francisco; a widely-traveled Air Force officer (David and Sarah had first met him at the UN in New York); the General Manager for the Rwandan branch of Macmillan Publishers Ltd; and a Ghanaian student studying international relations and law in South Africa. We talked throughout the day about traveling, the challenges and successes of development in Rwanda and in Africa generally, and post-conflict reconstruction. I was in my element.What else? All Rwandans speak Kinyarwanda, but they communicate with the international community through French or English. French is more common, so I’m really enjoying the opportunity to practice the language. (To my relief, three months of exposure to Malay, Hindi, and Swahili haven’t pushed the French I learned over the last year and a half out of my brain.) I’m also filled with graduate school research ideas right now—besides the gender and conflict issues I’ve considered for the past few years, I’m also thinking about yesterday’s many debates from Rwandans on overpopulation and land usage. And finally, after witnessing the glamour of Kigali, I’m curious to see if Rwanda’s post-war development efforts have reached those rural hillsides I saw from the plane. I have a lot to think about, and a lot to see later this week.
Tags: Kigali, RTW 07/08, Rwanda
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