Highlight from our stay in Kigali

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Trip Start Nov 12, 2007 Previous
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  Kigali, Uganda
Sunday, November 25, 2007

So then we were in Kigali. We used the rest of the first day to get settled and wash some clothes in the hotel sink. I went for a stroll to find out what was to see in town, and I sat two hours on an internet café. I also walked by 'Hotel Rwanda' without knowing it, because the hotel in the movie is in South Africa, and the real hotel in Kigali is just a ugly yellow brick. After resting out a bit we went out to get some dinner, and ended up with at very fancy place called the Republic. We had a fantastic meal for less than 10 $ and we were very happy. After trying out KBC, a well known party place, we went home as we were tired after a long journey. The next day we had to find a new place to sleep, and we stumbled over the Lodge inn, a hell-hole, but a very cheap hell-hole. 8 $ for a double room was the price and the night would tell us why. We arranged to have a city tour the same day, and we were only 4 people, us and two German women from the European parliament. We got the history of the town, say the place were the Belgian soldiers were shot (see hotel Rwanda), and after driving around the whole city we ended up at the genocide museum. The museum was very brutal and honest, and contained some strong pictures and visual effects. One million people were slaughtered in about 100 days, and people were turning in their own friends and family. One priest even gathered his whole group of followers before he told the militia, and all were slaughtered except one girl, who survived by playing dead after getting a machete stroke to here head. This place can not be described, it had to be experienced. Outside were a beautiful garden with mass graves containing about 250 000 people from the genocide, increasing every day as people are telling their stories in the truth commissions (from which they gets amnesty for telling the truth). After the museum we drove around, and I ear dropped a conversation by the two German women. A bunch of Rwandan construction workers building a big house (not yet finished) were looking at us as we drove past, whereas one of them said in German that it was no wonder it was not finished if they just stood there! OH MY GOOD!  These two idiots were staying at the only 5 star hotel in town, at around 500 $ per person on EU bill, and they have the nerve to tell a bunch of underpaid Rwandan workers, probably earning less than a dollar an hour, to work harder to finish a mansion!!! That is what I call irony.
 
Bryce didn't feel like going out that day as the museum is pretty heavy stuff. I decided to go out on my own to see what I could find. Looking for this pub I ran into this guy who was on his way to the same place. Friendly as Rwandans are he ask if I would join him. The place was a simple place with less than ten people. I was introduced to his friends and I sat down. It is easy to get to know people down here because they are very curious about Norway and Europe in general, and also what we think about their country. We had a lot of fun, and after the beer we started on the Waragi, Ugandan spirits. After some hours I wanted to go on to a place with more people. Eirik was the only one who wanted to come along so we took a cap back to KCB, which was packed. I meet many people and got a lot of attention as I was the only white person there. After drinking away all my money (which wasn't that much) I had to get home. For my three dollars I got a tuk tuk, or a motorbike taxi, which was very efficient. Thank good I had a helmet for this guy was driving like he had stolen the bike, the gas and some more. As I got back Bruce could inform me that the place we had found was a 'flopp-house', a place were people can drop in for the night to do their business. And had was woken up by a mix of the mosques calling for prayers and a girl moaning. But what can I say, it was cheap so we didn't care:) 
 
The last night in Kigali we had deceided to meet up with Tim, the guide from the previous day for happy hour at Hotel Millies Collin. Chew a bit on that one: Happy hour at Hotel Rwanda. It sounds a bit weird if you ask me. We sat by the pool were people were forced to drink pool water in order to survive. But the thing is that the hero from the movie is not a big hero in Rwanda, he is considered a fraud. He takes credit for more than he did, and Rwandan people watch the movie as a true Hollywood fiction with elements of truth (about the genocide). We drank our beer and meet some people before we turned in early as we were heading towards Tanzania the next day. Kigali is a beautiful place, but there is not too much to see. If you want to meet some nice people and have fun, Kigali can be recommended.

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