Kigali, Rwanda Travel Blogs

It Could Be Worse
Jan 29, 2009

... careening down the highways.) When I had told the operator that I wanted to go to Kabarore, he gave me a puzzled look. "Kigali?" No, Kabarore. "Small." Yes, it's small. "Hmmm." And then he smiled. "1000." Highway robbery sir, that's an absolute ...

LIfe's Questions
Aug 23, 2008

... of entrepreneurship, and taking ownership in it. This also allows Keza to partner with other organizations and the government of Rwanda to promote campaigns of gender-equality and workers rights. I am working on a campaign called the Ubuntu campaign, a ...

Losing My Derision
Mar 3, 2009

... lucky to get off so easily. I walked home in a fog. A strange day, a weird day, full of a different Rwanda, a different Africa. I remember in college when someone dared to disparage Africa, and my Kenyan friend leapt to its defense, proclaiming that ...

A Dark Past, A Brighter Future
Apr 8, 2007 (18 photos)

... person from Missouri to visit here since I noticed one kid wearing a shirt with Branson, Missouri written on the front.  Rwanda has definitely experienced a dark and violent past but it is a country looking toward the future with hope and its people ...

The Kids Came Back!
May 21, 2008

... 7 am and there were already about 50 people getting briefed on their upcoming visit to see the gorillas.  This is the place in Rwanda where everyone starts their journey to see the gorillas. Rwanda is one of the few places in the world where you can ...

Genocide reminders and colobus monkeys
Dec 12, 2005 (33 photos)

... itself, and instead spent a couple of hours wandering around the small town of Ruhengeri before heading back again to Kigali. Hotel Rwanda It being our last night in Rwanda, we decided to splash. We headed into town to MilleCollins Hotel (otherwise ...

Gacaca: My Experience
Aug 5, 2006

... talked about form of traditional justice live. Some background: Gacaca is a traditional form of justice that has been used in Rwanda since pre-colonial times. Translated, Gacaca, means "short grass" or "lawn" referring to the area where everyone in ...

What to do?
May 24, 2008

... route that is commonly done by travelers as the roads on the Tanzanian side are quite horrible. The options are endless. I can backtrack through Rwanda and Uganda where the roads are good and find my way to Dar Es Salaam (DES) where I could catch a bus to ...

Murchison Falls Safari and Rwanda
May 3, 2008

So today I'm in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. We arrived yesterday from Kampala after a lengthy bus ride and a lengthy border crossing during which our bags were searched and I had my carrier bags confiscated and destroyed in front of me! They're ...

She Golley
Feb 27, 2007 (36 photos)

... , we ventured into town the next day to find this cash-advance place so we wouldn't have to use their money. Walking around Kigali is deceptive. You could walk the entire city in a day but being a hilly trek distances are often farther than you think. ...

Musing about Musing
Feb 10, 2009

... , at least one that I've found. In general there are two types of restaurants in this entire country in any areas outside of Kigali. There is the run of the mill buffet place. That's where you pay about $2 to fill up one plate as high as possible with ...

Memorial Week in the Land of a Thousand Hills
Apr 13, 2008

... through Monday I was in Rwanda with two friends from work.  We went half as ordinary tourists- enjoying cosmopolitan Kigali, visiting friends in Butare, tracking Black and White Colobus Monkeys in Nyungwe Forest.  But we all also went as ...

Knowingly scammed by clever Rwandan kids
May 20, 2008

... Today, I am leaving Kigali for Le Parc National des Volcans. People come here to see the mountain gorillas. Rwanda, and its neighboring countris (Uganda and DRC) are apparentlythe only countries in the world where you could see gorillas.  ...

Quick note from Kigali
Aug 30, 2007 (4 photos)

Hi Gang, Just a quick note, I made it to Kigali and the weather is simply beautiful, about 72 degrees and sunny.  Hard to believe that Africa is so nice and this is typical of weather hear nearly year around.  Aimable, Didi and Pascal ...

KIgali
Jan 13, 2007

See the January 12th entry (entry #7) for the story on Kigali and the genocide memorial.

Vote For This, Sucka!
May 20, 2009

Election time at school. It happens once every year at Kayonza Modern Secondary in the second term. I was sitting at a desk with the Headmaster. Behind me were two other teachers and the school's director of discipline was speaking, telling everyone in ...

Gorilla Tracking Day 2: Amahoro Group
Feb 26, 2008 (20 photos)

Getting to Susa exhausted us.  We gratefully took a bush shower, ate dinner and collapsed into bed.  We were not looking forward to another round of fighting the dense stinging bush.  However, the thought of seeing more gorillas kept us ...

The Kigali Folly
Jan 7, 2009

... day here, and realized just under a week later. But I'll get to that later. First, let me give the basics. I'm in Rwanda. What was that, Daniel? Could that really be true? Are you actually in the Africa, the dark continent, the place where dreams ...

Nyamata and Ntarama Memorials
Jun 14, 2009

I went out to see two of the principal genocide memorials near Kigali today. Both are situated in churches that were so often the focal point of massacres after people flocked to them vainly looking for a place of refuge. In some horrible instances it was ...

Housewarming Party
Feb 17, 2005 (4 photos)

The 12th of february was Cordula's and mine housewarming party and Dieter Magsams und Dirk Ullerichs farewell party at the same time. We had about 100 guests. A band was playing music and later on DJ Andrea put music for a dancing bulk until early in ...

Gorillas in the Mist
Dec 23, 2007 (12 photos)

My first stop on the overland truck was to Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas.  It took us 4 long days of travel and a costly gorilla permit but it was well worth it.  Everyday a group of 8 people go to visit a gorilla family for one ...

Making New Friends
Jul 9, 2006 (2 photos)

... . I also made some Rwandan friends including Valerie (a Congolese student in his last year of school here in Kigali), Principe (a young accountant), and Josieane (a young female student at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology). After the service, ...

Hooligan My Fooligan
Mar 18, 2009

... that identity, the likelihood of violence rises exponentially. Not surprisingly, a few days later, I went to a football match here in Rwanda. No, it was not a local league match of some import, such as Atracco FC versus APR or some such nonsense. No, ...

Internship Planned Finally!
Jul 3, 2006 (2 photos)

Today was back to the office. I met with Désiré. He read my statement of interest for about 1minute and told me I'd probably enjoy working with the Good Governance and Reconciliation program in collaboration with USAID and Women Waging Peace. At the end ...

The African Staff Meeting
Oct 1, 2009 (1 photos)

... building, they were held in a cramped room at a rural school just outside of a dusty village that I called home, in Kayonza, Rwanda.  The meetings there had a certain kinship with those in DC, and in fact the grotesque formality of the events was just ...

Friday night out in Kigali!
Jun 30, 2006

Nothing much happened at work today. I basically read more reports (this time on violence against women). I was supposed to meet with Désiré and François and plan my internship for the rest of my stay, but it ended up being a quick 30 min. presentation of ...

The Walk to Muhazi
Feb 18, 2009 (4 photos)

... devoid of any lingering cheerful spirit, with a broken woman for whom Edison buys food), I mentioned the summer home of Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, was supposedly somewhere just north of us on the shores of Lake Muhazi. Edison knew it, and offered ...

Visiting Tragedy, and a Confirmation of Faith
Aug 13, 2006 (5 photos)

... colonizers and especially the Belgiums as they imported their anthropological ideas of race and corresponding capabilities to Rwanda. Basically, they imposed a racial concept on the formerly social classification system of Tutsi and Hutu. This began ...

Biking in the hills
Feb 12, 2005 (5 photos)

... helmet, but people have asked me if I like Rwandan Hospitals... I'm one of the only ones riding a bike here in Kigali. In Hotel Mille Collines, the hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina saved 1268 people from the genocide in 1994. Photos 3 - 5 Biketour ...

A rwandan affiance
Feb 12, 2005 (3 photos)

This is the affiance celebration of one of my collegues. In Rwanda, for the girl the affiance (Verlobung) is even more important than the marriage, because it's here that the girl's family will or will not accept her husband. The ceremony happens ...