Kigali and Soccer Match

I was finally able to make it to Rwanda. My friend Connor and I left early Friday morning, May 1st just as Brian and Annie were about to make their trip back home to the States. It was very sad to see them go, but I was also excited to see Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.

We ended up catching a ride from a guy who was driving all the way to Goma (DRC) for work. He was taking materials to them to help build a school. It was a much safer, cheaper, and comfortable way of getting to Kigali. It worked out great.

Connor and I, after getting yelled at for taking pictures of the Rwandan border crossing, met up with my friend Max in Kigali. He has spent almost 18 months since 2004 working for the Millennium Village Project and living in Rwanda. He has done a great job picking up the language and was able to show us all around Rwanda. It is a stunningly beautiful country with huge green hills and mountains surrounding the town. On our drive into town, we saw prisoners from the Genocide working on the hills. I started to worry that we would be overwhelmed the entire trip by reminders of the genocide.

We went out for a delicious lunch where I splurged for an amazing hamburger (hard to come by in Mbarara). We then visited Max’s home and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out there. It is much different from where we are in Uganda as it was a true suburb of Kigali. Unfortunately our plans to head out to the village to visit a church in Nyamata that is a memorial to the genocide were foiled because it turned out to be Labor Day and everything was closed.

We went to grab some drinks at a bar / restaurant called Executive Car Wash were the principle is simple. You drop off your car to have it washed and while you wait, you go have some beers. Pick your car up, and drive home. Wouldn’t exactly go over well in the states. We then went and had some Italian food for dinner, which was delicious and met a handful of the other Americans working in Kigali (many work for Paul Farmer as part of Partners in Health). Definitely gave off a bit of a snotty vibe, but I am sure they are good people.

The next morning Connor and I went over to the Genocide Memorial Museum in Kigali. It was an extremely depressing and eye-opening experience. I still remember seeing clips on TV back in 1994. I don’t remember any details or anything. Walking through the memorial center, it was one disheartening fact after another. I struggled and continue to struggle to understand how something like that was allowed to happen, even though I know similar massacres happen around the world today. There was so much tension culminating and it wasn’t even close to the first time there had been a considerable massacre carried out in Rwanda. The most difficult section was upstairs where they had short biographies about children who had been murdered and how it had happened. They did not hold back details. It was especially difficult because I kept thinking about all the kids in Nsiikye and that these kids were no different than those kids. We had planned to go out to Nyamata afterwards, but we both agreed that we had had enough for one day.

The rest of the trip was fun and relaxing. We continued to eat delicious food, but it was much more expensive than Uganda. However, Max was able to put us up at his place, so we saved money on accommodations. It was a nice treat to get to eat some good food. The other striking thing about Kigali is how clean and organized the city is. Boda boda (motorcycle taxis) drivers all wear uniforms and have helmets for themselves and passengers unlike in Uganda. The streets are spotless and there are very few street vendors. NGOs are all monitored and even kicked out of Kigali if they are not doing what they are supposed to do. It is amazing to see how far the country has come since 1994. Although, I do have my concerns about how restrictive everything is.

It was a great weekend and Max ended up coming up to visit because of work later in that week. It was good to catch up with him and see how different everything is. Although, it was nice to get back to Mbarara where things are much less expensive (although still expensive relative to Africa).

That following week was intense as the last of my partners in crime was leaving. Connor and I made the most of the last week he was around and had a great time out in Nsiikye with all the kids. I actually started taking Runyankore lessons from one of the local Nsiikye girls in return for me teaching her some Spanish. It is going on well so far. Kinda tough because neither of us really know how to teach a language, but I am trying (ninjezaho) which is what matters to all the locals.

This past weekend, Danny and I were finally able to pull together an event we had been trying to pull together for about 2 months. As I had mentioned in a previous blog, too lazy to figure out which one, Danny has been coaching a girls soccer team out in Nsiikye and I will sometimes go out and help him with that. Also, the Mburara International school has enough girls to field a soccer team. We figured, none of these girls have ever had a chance to play a full 11 v 11 soccer game because really, there are very few opportunities for girls to play soccer at all. On Sunday, May 17th we were able to arrange for the two teams to play against each other. It was a mismatch in terms of age as the Nsiikye girls are almost all in secondary school, but the Mburara girls were skilled and had shoes…

We had a great turn out and had an extremely successful game. The Nsiikye girls won 1-0, but everyone had a great time. Danny is leaving soon, and I am as well, so we have put the coaches in contact with each other and hopefully they will be able to arrange another game in a month or so. It was great to give the girls this opportunity because really it is the boys who always get a chance to have matches and play. It was a lot of fun.

Anyway, that catches us up for a while. My family is coming out this Thursday and we will be going rafting on Friday, then back to Mbarara for the weekend before heading up to Fort Portal to do some Chimp Tracking then flying to Amsterdam for a long weekend. Should be a blast. I am really excited about them coming out and happy the finally got around to it. Will update you when I return from Amsterdam. I will only have about 2.5 weeks left after that as I fly home on June 19th. It is going to be reallllly tough to leave.