Commemoration Visit April 2012

Well, it has been too long since my last entry. I intended to have at least one, of not two posts up while I was in Kigali. However, we traveled quite a bit and met so many people, the time just wasn’t there. In addition to that, I arrived in Rwanda at the end of the 1994 Genocide Commemoration Week, which was a difficult time, but also possibly the best time to be in the country. To say the unity of most of the population is impressive is a massive understatement and I simply do not have the words to describe the way that Rwandans have come together in the last 18 years. My experience is limited to about five weeks in the country, but aside from the memorial sites in nearly every town, there really are very limited signs that nearly 1 million people were killed. From my experiences reading accounts of other genocides around the world, Rwanda’s progress is remarkable to say the least.

Aside from the Commemoration week, and really month long remembrances, Kigali was just as busy and fun as it was in January. Of course the main objective of my visit was to spend time with Laura, but there were many opportunities to experience things that I had shied away from on my first visit to Rwanda. In the southern part of the country we went to the National Museum in Butare, saw the King’s palace in Nyanza, and saw the Genocide Memorial in Murambi (some of these details are in the latest Rooster Rouser, my apologies if you are following both blogs). In the northern part of the country we visited the family of Laura’s Kinyarwanda teacher in the village of Mutara. Finally, near Kigali we met with a good friend’s family and saw their farmland and livestock met their friends and enjoyed some excellent food together, also met with other friends and tried sorghum beer. There are so many details I hope to fit into this entry that it may get a bit long, but stick with me. Trust me you will enjoy the read.

Let me begin with the fun and work myself up to the more difficult topics. Laura pretty much had the first couple of days in Rwanda planned out for me before I got there. I found out that the plan was to get on a bus for about four hours and head north to Mutara. This was a village near where Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda meet. There Laura introduced me to friends she had met over the last few months, and really most of the village. I would describe the northern part of Rwanda as the Wisconsin of the country, meaning the people are amazingly proud of their cows and milk. We visited three houses there and were offered milk at two of them. I was informed that it is very rude to refuse, so I had the freshest milk I have ever tasted, not that I really liked it, but the gesture was understood. I guess American food processes have ruined my taste for fresh, warm milk. But everyone in the village was so nice and welcoming, we were invited to come back any time, and I could tell they really meant it, part of me felt rather bad that I know it will be quite some time before I will be back in that neck of the woods. Upon preparing to leave the town we were offered a ride to the bus stop by a friend, he was so excited to show us some of the scenery and the borders with the other countries that we nearly missed the bus back to Kigali.

Towards the end of my visit we got to meet with a friend’s family on their farm outside of Kigali. Emmanuel is a very good friend who has visited us in Lincoln and Sioux City, and met Laura and my family, so it was exciting to meet his siblings. They have a nice plot of land overlooking the Nyabarongo River where they have hogs, cows and a good amount of crop space where they grow onions, potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, and beans. The area is beautiful, but flooding a bit near the river which was a good thing for my own safety. I was talking about going down to the shore when Emmanuel casually mentioned that there are crocodiles in the river, and rarely hippos, as well, good information to have near a river anywhere in Africa, I guess.

Complicating the visit a bit, as mentioned in Laura’s blog, there was a discovery of a mass grave in the area earlier in the week. This was a strange experience and I will try my best to explain the happenings we witnessed while there. Apparently a genocide perpetrator had revealed the location of a mass grave and the neighborhood was having a meeting to decide how to proceed with the recovery of the bodies. I came to find out that this is a not unusual meeting, and Laura had even been with a group earlier in April when they exhumed a mass grave for proper burial. So the night we were there Emmanuel’s sister, who is one of the community leaders, was taking part in planning for exhumation and related issues. The meeting was sort of a weird combination of a funeral and a family reunion. There was laughing and stories being told, and some people you could tell were a bit sadder, being quiet in the background. Really, just quite the thing to see, and just difficult to grasp the intricacies of what was happening. All in all, it was a very unique experience and one I am glad I could share, even if as an outsider.

Then there was Murambi.

I rarely am at a loss for words, especially when writing, but this section is the one that has held me up for two, maybe three weeks, in getting a blog update done. There may, in fact, not be an appropriate way to describe the memorial there. A couple days into my trip we decided to go to the southern part of the country to see the National Museum, the Kings Palace and the Murambi Genocide Memorial. The museum and the palace were informative and worth the trip…but again I say, then there was Murambi. So let me start with the history of the site as it was explained to me. The area is on a well visible hilltop and was a technical school that was under construction in 1994. There are several classroom buildings that people fleeing the early genocide violence were led to for safety, as many as 40,000 (some websites say 50,000) were staying there when the Genocidaires arrived. It had been a trap. With that many people on a relatively small hilltop, killing was depressingly easy. The bodies were dumped into mass graves and covered with lime which sort of preserved/mummified many of the bodies. A small fraction of those 40,000-50,000 are on display in the classroom buildings, laid in neat, but crowded rows on wood slat tables and benches. There are many websites out there with the terrible images, search them if you wish, but if you are planning on visiting the site, they will not completely prepare you for what you will see.

The best advice I have for preparing for a visit to the Murambi site would be don’t go alone, Laura and I went with a group of three others, all had different reactions, some were prepared, some didn’t really know what they were in for. The main museum prepares you (as best as possible) for what you will see in the classrooms, after a self-guided tour in the museum we waited for a guide to take us outside to the classrooms and the mass grave sites. First you will be walked by the relatively newly constructed concrete tombs for the victims that have been laid to rest. You may bring a flower to place on the graves, and after a moment of silence the guide will lead you back to the classrooms. There you will see maybe about 50 to 100 bodies in each of the rooms, I believe the guide said there are 24 rooms of bodies. At the first room the first thing you will notice is the smell. The smell is something you will truly never forget. Then you see the bodies. It takes a moment for your eyes to focus from the bright equatorial sunlight into the dark brick classroom. I found it strange how easy it was to see, but on some other level, terribly disturbing. Laura had prepared me well for what would be seen, as she had been there in a couple of years ago, still being led through room after room, some containing bodies, some containing bones, and some containing personal effects of victims you just see the magnitude of what happened a mere 18 years ago. I think there are only about 1000 bodies on display, maybe a few more if you count the bones that are in display cases and it seems like so many, but even counting all the deaths there it only accounts for 4-5% of the genocide deaths.

Then the tour concludes with the stinky French cherry on top. The tour guide concludes the tour by showing where the exhumed mass graves were, and explaining how useless the international community was in Rwanda. Apparently there were French soldiers in the area, who could have lessened the damage done at Murambi, instead they waited for things to calm down and moved in afterwords for the cleanup, which consisted of cleaning up classrooms to use for barracks, and, finishing off the mass graves by building volleyball courts on top of them.

Despite the atrocity there, it has been turned into a strangely serene and eerily peaceful memorial, and I would hope that anyone interested in Rwandan history or genocide studies makes the trip. Life as usual goes on around the memorial, there is a busy town nearby and it is not far from Butare where the National University and Museum are. It is also only a few hours from Kigali and worth the drive.

I think that will be all for this post. Sorry for the length, but there was a lot stuck in my brain that needed to be put on paper. Hope you enjoyed!

Rwanda Summary

Well, it has been about a month since I have come back home and I suppose it is time to wrap up this blog. I think I have covered a lot of ground in the past posts, so if I repeat in this one, please forgive me. My goal today is to mostly reflect on the things we did and how an outsider might view Rwanda as opposed to how the country actually exists. Maybe a bit of perspective from a business standpoint, and a bit as a tourist, and a little more as someone who now knows people in the country.

What I want everyone to take away from all of my posting, photos, and conversation is that even though Rwanda certainly is a developing country, it is not a bad place to be. It is strange to think about the past 18 years of recovery and see almost no signs of violence or conflict. There are random grenade attacks, which seem bad, but compared to the nightly news in nearly any large US city where there is a shooting or two every night, there is no violence in Rwanda. There are areas of Kigali where things like theft are more likely, but again in any city and some small towns that is a problem too. So overall it seemed like a really safe place. We were out past midnight a few nights and walked a few blocks home with no problems. There are always police and security guards around keeping the peace, though you wonder if there is no crime because of the guards, or if nothing would happen if they were gone. Difficult to say, but the security did seem to be over the top in some places for no real reason. Some buildings like the mall called the MTN Centre seem to have installed metal detectors as more of a status symbol than a real security measure.

Feeling safe in Rwanda was great for getting comfortable and helped get into the culture a bit, which I think is the only way an American should experience the country. There are easy ways to stay only where the ‘Westerners’ are, but I can’t figure out why that’s where you’d want to be. I can go to a nice hotel restaurant in Chicago or San Diego, or even Omaha, so why would I want to in Kigali? (You can see the first edition of the blog for more about the food in Rwanda.). I think it was well worth the experience to ride the busses and the moto taxis and to walk with the locals.

However, Americans are having an influence on parts of the Rwandan business climate. Like a lot of African countries Coca-Cola is huge, using their established model of putting large Coke refrigerators in restaurants and stores, thereby providing them with refrigeration they might not have been able to afford, in turn for the free advertising. The Coke example is one many people are familiar with but aside from that there are not many other US companies I saw selling their wares in Rwanda (there were other beverages including Pepsi, 7up Smirnoff, and Corona, but I really think that was all). There are many US business models in use, though, including the convenience store/gas station, the 24 hour grocery store, internet/computer/copy centers, and interesting interpretations of fast food (again see the food blog). One business that I would almost rather say I hadn’t seen was the African Bagel Company, which I am pretty sure is owned by American Hippies, who somehow rationalize the exploitation of a small Rwandan workforce to make the most delicious doughnuts ever. Some of the many problems here: it was behind a closed gate, and the only Rwandans there were kept in the kitchen, and only other hippies were welcomed here. A bad experience personally and business-wise, but again awesome doughnuts.

So what products are popular in Rwanda? Anything made in China or anywhere else in Asia seems to be the answer. Almost all of the food and groceries are relatively locally sourced, but any household good or durable good seems to come from Asia, especially Japan, Korea or China. Most of the cars and busses are Toyotas (like 90%) followed in a very distant second place by Kia, only because many of the larger busses are Kias, after that it is an even mix of every other brand of car in the world from Acura to Volkswagen. LG has the biggest appliance presence from what I saw. Otherwise I think all the little things you buy everyday like plastics, furniture, toys, and such were mostly made in China.

The best way for you to see the Western influence that is coming through in shopping would probably be to look at the biggest retailer’s website (http://www.nakumatt.net/). Nakumatt is the largest store chain in Kigali, but based in Kenya, is pretty much the Wal*Mart of the region. Similar to the Wal*Mart empire most of the stuff for sale is made in China and un-unique, but it is interesting to see this type of store thriving in such a different culture.

I guess I can summarize my experience this way, I was very nervous about going. I was concerned about everything from the long flight to if I would like the food. The food turned out to be great, I loved the place we stayed, the city was fun, and the countryside was beautiful. I would say the flight time was not the best experience, especially the 2 hour delay at the gate in Brussels before coming back to the US, but the flights were smooth and uneventful. So I guess as good as could be expected. I would certainly go back if I have the time, and if for any reason you are considering a trip to Rwanda just go for it, you won’t be sorry.

The End

Rwanda: Where I Stayed

The House Where Laura Stays in Kimironko

This entry is a bit shorter, but gives an idea of where we stayed, the next entry should be coming soon, still working on an outline and content for that one. Enjoy! 

Where I stayed:

In case you haven’t read the first post, I was in Rwanda to visit my wife Laura as she is doing research on Fulbright scholarship. I had the privilege to stay with her in a rented room in the Kimironko area of Kigali. We had our own private room and bathroom, and access to common areas of the house at all times of the day, and security was on duty 24/7. We had a full kitchen, large living room, and best of all a very nice covered patio to sit and watch the birds in the garden. The patio was a great place to sit and relax in the morning and afternoons, or really anytime. The house itself was very private, even though it was only about a block from the main road, there is a garden wall and a secure gate that keeps the outside world out of sight, but still easily accessible. Except for the two nights we spent in Gisenyi (more on this later) the house in Kimironko was the base of operations.

The country is divided into cells and districts (http://www.kigalicity.gov.rw/IMG/bmp/KCC-Cells.bmp) the Kimironko district is on the western edge of Kigali. It seemed to me that the area was rather diverse demographically. The view from our bedroom window was of large Western style houses on the hillside, but just to the west were small traditional sized mud brick homes, not much more than one room in size. Still other contrasts were the Kigali Institute of Education (http://www.kie.ac.rw/spip.php?rubrique1) right behind the house, the large semi-open-air market a few blocks to the northeast, and moderate to higher priced hotels and restaurants to the west/southwest. Throughout the area there were small shops and ‘supermarkets’, quite a few guest houses and hotels, some banks and offices, a lot of salons, saloons, and bars, not to mention the ten or so churches within walking distance. Other points of interest nearby were the Amaharo Stadium and sports complex where the Rwandan national team plays soccer (I think there is a national basketball team that plays in the arena there also, but not sure on that one). Somewhere nearby there was also a mosque, which tended to wake us up about 5 am with the call to prayer, never heard it the rest of the day, only the wake-up call.

Away from Kigali for a couple of nights we stayed at the Paradis Malahide which is a resort hotel on the shores of Lake Kivu near the town of Gisenyi. I mentioned this place briefly in the previous post; however it seems to deserve its own section. Our housemates in Kigali recommended that we tag along on a trip to the eastern side of the country to stay by the lake, having no concrete plans we decided why not? The hotel is a little ways from the actual town of Gisenyi, but a quick bus ride gets you back and forth. We did explore the town a bit, went to the market and looked at various shops, didn’t find anything super interesting, but it was a nice walk. Back at the hotel, we had a nice room with two twin beds (we pushed them together) on the second story of the large apartment style building. There were also individual bungalows you could stay in, but we opted for the room with the best view of the lake and a balcony. Every evening we could watch the fishing canoes from the village go out for a night of fishing, and if we were up early enough in the morning we could watch them come back in with their catch.

The restaurant on site is delicious as well, like mentioned in my previous post, between the four people in the group we tried most of the menu and it was generally quite good. Selections ranged from pizza to fresh fish to a great breakfast omelet. On weekends or when the hotel is booked up, the restaurant also has a campfire and traditional dancers. We were not lucky enough to see the dancers, but they still lit the fire which was quite nice to sit around with an after dinner drink and light dessert. Three days here went by very quickly.

I guess that is it for this entry, I will try to get another post up soon, probably something about where we shopped, and more on our daily activities, and a bit more on the country in general.

Rwanda January 2012 Intro and Food

 My Trip

So upon my return from Rwanda, I am finding out that there is so much more to the trip that I forget to share when I am asked, that I am just going to put it in writing. My intent is to include all the little details that anyone that has any interest in travel should know, but at the same time to keep your interest and not be a travel guide. I want to simply share what I saw and enjoyed while in Kigali and around the rest of the country. I will divide this into sections, some of which run together, some that are only loosely related, and maybe some offhand commentary. I want to tell you all about the food, the people, the city and the rest of the country, and how I compare it to life in the US. I fear this may turn into a much longer project than I intended, but stick with me, or just read the headings that look interesting to you. Enjoy!

Where did I go?

For those that weren’t sure where I went, or why: I went to Kigali, Rwanda which is the capital of Rwanda a very small country in the central to western part of Africa (http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/google_map_rwanda.htm). I went to Rwanda to visit the most awesome partner I could have, Laura Roost (http://lauraroost.blogspot.com/) you can see her thoughts and some of her work in Rwanda on her blog. We went all over the country to parks and villages and resort towns and enjoyed all of it, but mostly enjoying the time together. She has been there since October and will remain until July, while studying on Fulbright scholarship. I stayed in Kimironko which is a relatively small part of the city with its own outdoor market about three blocks from the house.

What did I see?

I saw so much more than I expected. I was expecting a big city, lots of people and all the things that go along with a metropolitan area. I did see that, but I also saw the small towns-like areas that make up the city of Kigali. Most of the areas have their own markets, stores, restaurants and bars. There are really not many “chain stores” so this makes each area of town even more unique. If there is a restaurant you find downtown, that is going to be the only location like it in the whole country (there will be more about restaurants in the What did I eat Section).

Aside from the basic cityscape, I saw progress. Large buildings are going up all over Kigali. They are building a new convention center, numerous hotels, and other business buildings; most of them being built by Chinese companies. If you think ‘Made in China’ is a problem in the US, you could not mentally conceive what is going on in Rwanda. The country is not just building downtown, either, residential areas near the city and in rural areas are building bigger, more Western style houses, and infrastructure is being improved everywhere. Electrical poles are being put up in very rural areas and roads are being paved and improved as well. Looking at hillside villages I saw hundreds of new roofs and new construction everywhere.

Aside from new construction, I also saw less modern things. In the countryside there are terraced fields all the way up steep hillsides everything from bananas and sorghum to corn and rice, to tea and coffee are grown in Rwanda. There were goats grazing along the roads, chickens roaming about and small cattle ranches. Away from the cities subsistence agriculture is still the main way of life.

What did I eat?

I think this is my favorite subject to talk about, because going into the trip I doubted that there was going to be anything very memorable about the cuisine, thankfully I was very wrong. The traditional food was some of the best food I’ve had anywhere. In describing the meals it is hard to convince anyone that rice, beans, potatoes, and a simple salad would be a great dinner, but the ingredients are so fresh and well prepared they are amazing together. Our typical lunch was a choice of neighborhood buffets where you get one plate and a drink for less than $5, sometimes as low as $2, depending on the place. There was always some sort of beans, usually some rice, vegetables, salads with mayonnaise as dressing, fried potatoes (chips/fries, whatever you want to call them) maybe some beef, chicken, or fish, and fresh fruit. And that was just the traditional food. Many of the places also had awesome spaghetti (still trying to figure that one out) randomly there would be a creamy mushroom soup which was very tasty too. Aside from the restaurants there was food prepared in our home, by the housekeeper Yolande, her food was also fantastic. She made great vegetables and always kept the fridge stocked.

There were quite a few good places for supper too. Some of the best pizza I have had, as well as good lasagna and pasta at Solé Luna and New Cactus. There was also the very good Chinese restaurant called Tangren, we went there for a birthday party for one of the housemates, everything was family style and we shared many things from spring rolls to fried pork balls (the latter was my contribution to the order). Laura and I also had a bit of an adventure when trying to find the Sake Japanese place, our taxi dropped us off and drove away before we knew where we were (not at the restaurant), that led to about a half hour of walking to a main road to get another ride. Once there, the food again was great and amazing quick service.

My overall favorite place and one of a very few non-buffets we ate at twice was the New Fiesta German Butchery and Quick Service Restaurant. They have and excellent German, American, French, and Rwandan selections on the menu. On different visits I had one of the best cheeseburgers I have ever tasted, then excellent beef stroganoff. Laura had a really excellent ham and chicken pasta, and brochette and chips that were just as good as anywhere else in the country.

All of the above places were in Kigali, but on our adventure away from the city to the Paradis Malahide Hotel near the town of Gisenyi we got a bit of a different taste of Rwanda. There was a great ‘drive in’ sort of place with potatoes, brochette (meat on a stick) and meatballs. Some of the best road food I have ever had! Once to the hotel the restaurant there made amazing omelets for breakfast, and a full menu of meat and fish for supper, all were quite good. I will probably have more on the Lake Kivu/Gisenyi area in another section.

Then there were the drinks. I miss the Coke already, and any of the other sodas as well, they taste so much better with the real sugar instead of corn syrup. It’s hard to find the good Coke in the states anywhere but Mexican grocery stores. The beer there was also pretty good, there are a few local beers from Rwanda and Uganda (Primus is Laura’s favorite, Mutzig was mine), also tried a couple of Tanzanian beers (Kilimanjaro, and Safari). For reasons that I cannot figure out the main import beer is Heineken priced about twice as much as the local ones.

A side note about the beverage companies’ influence in the region many of the bars and restaurants have taken up the beer brands on an offer for a free paint job. All over the country there are Primus bars painted in blue, Tusker bars painted yellow and black and Mutzig bars painted red. And of course there are the ubiquitous Coke snack shops in the familiar red and white.

Then finally there are the places that I would not recommend. Most of the larger higher priced hotels simply have overpriced menus as well. We stopped by for light lunches at the Kigali Serena and the Kivu Serena and were not greatly impressed by either one. The food was average and much higher priced than anywhere else, pretty much how most hotel restaurants are in the states tend to be. The Sportsview Hotel near Amahro Stadium also had overpriced food, though it was better than either Serena location. The Sportsview has a lunch buffet that was very busy and had a good selection of food, but was at least twice as expensive as most of the other lunch places just a few blocks away.