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| 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.
