Sorry, I couldn't update until today, considering the internet connection at my hotel is "poor". At least I have it.
I feel like I've been through a whole lifetime already.
The flight to Kigali was a little stressful towards the end, considering the raging lightning storms we were flying through. But most of the eleven hour trip was blue sky. I think I spent hours staring out the window at the landscape below. There is such a vast amount of nothing. More than I expected, that's for sure. Sometimes, I would be able to make out a small dirt road winding through the barren, red, desert landscape, just to find that it would peter out into nothingness, or become too small to see. I hardly ever saw any villages. I was really looking forward to seeing Nairobi, even if it were only from the airport windows, but it was too dark to see when I arrived.
Kigali was just as dark, due to the storm. A friend of my family had arranged for a driver, but they never showed up, so we had to resort to taking a taxi to the hotel. The seatbelts didn't work, the windows fogged up until I couldn't see anything, and the steering wheel was on the right side. I was strangely unphased by any of this until our taxi driver lost his way and a man in military garb came out with his huge machine gun and stared at his, fingereing the trigger until we left the area.
Yesterday, I saw a lot more of these men walking around the streets. Apparently most of them are just hired for security, but what do they need such high security for? I don't know...
On the brighter side, my hotel is really nice. There are such exotic flowers all around: hanging off of roofs and trees and bushes. All the cactuses here are almost in bloom. I walked around the "downtown" area of Kigali yesterday. It's not very big, but it is relatively nice. Everyone here says that Kigali is just a very small town, but the neighborhoods seem to go on for miles and miles. Were are situated higher up on the hill, so we are in the nicest part of town. I didn't see any beggars at all, and only two children were running around without shoes. There are some pretty fancy, modern buildings going up in the area, and there is a new library as well.
But today I walked down farther into the valley, and it gets rougher quickly. The earth just sort of falls away in places leaving large ravines which are filled with garbage, and people live right above them in little shacks with only a sheet for a door. It was really what I expected in the first place, but it's still a little unnerving to see things like this firsthand. The little children are very curious and stare at us with wide eyes and smile at us. Mothers point at us from their doorways and the little children run out to wave at us or flash peace signs. Sometimes they come up, just wanting to shake hands.
But the children can also be a little disturbing as well. They are the only ones who beg. Some of them who beg are only two or three years old. Sometimes they run up to me and tug on my hands and arms and legs and hold out their hands and ask for money, or my watch, or even my measly bracelet I made the night before from some hemp I found in my bag. I feel really gulity when I can't give them anything. I probably could have given them my bracelet, but I didn't. It breaks my heart because even when you say no, "oya", they keep following you, tagging along for blocks and blocks, still asking.
I met Rose Kabuye yesterday as well. She fought during the genocide of 1994. She became the mayor of Kigali at one point, and is an advocate for women's rights. She is quite a beautiful lady, poised and graceful. She works for the government now, but is a friend of a friend of ours and is helping us out until he arrives. She has arranged for a driver to take us to one of the many genocide memorials tomorrow. I'm sure it will be very sobering, but memorable experience.
Until tomorrow then.
