A little more of Kigali!

With Thursday off of work for a holiday and cancelled weekend plans, we were free to do some Kigali-exploring these past few days! With that exploring came a better understanding of the transportation systems here, which were a shock to a suburban girl who has never had to use public transportation in her life.

Squeezed into the bus. It doesn't look super crowded in this picture, but they typically fit as many people as possible into them. Often, we end up sharing seats.

On Thursday we tried the buses for the first time. They’re a little confusing, but I don’t have any American public bus experience so I won’t try to make any comparisons. We went to a part of Kigali called Nyamirambo to hike up Mount Kigali. It’s not much of a mountain, but it was still beautiful and fun to hike. We were told we would run into an army base at the top of the mountain, but we never found it. We did come to a little village or neighborhood, and we met a guy who talked to us the whole way back down the mountain! When he asked us about our time in Rwanda, and we told him we were here for six weeks to work, he said something along the lines of, “You know, you could stay here for a long time and marry Rwandan men!” Then when we told him we have boyfriends in the US, he told us to send our little sisters. So, Rachel, you have a Rwandan man waiting for you! :P Sorry Shaun! He did tell us a lot more about Rwanda in general, and we had a good time chatting with him!

The beautiful hills of Kigali. There is a lot of dust/smoke/pollution in the air from dirt roads and the practice of burning all the garbage (ew) so it's not a very clear view, but just wait until I get some good pictures of the hills in the rural areas! They are amazing. 

Dirt everywhere, even on the bushes! We've gotten used to breathing it - for the most part. I still have a hard time breathing during some of my morning runs.

Gross feet. We have accepted the fact that even if we wash them every day, our feet will be brown until we have washed them a few times in the U.S.

Abby and Maggie on our trail up the mountain! 

Rooster! We were hoping to see more animals on this hike (basically just more chickens and goats), but this little guy was as good as it got. 

I love caves. In case you are wondering, I did not go in, but I really wanted to.

The guy I was talking about that walked us down the mountain was nice and took this picture of us!

We got some classic Rwandan food in Nyamirambo when we got back down. This is a fish brochette (basically a kabob) with chips (fries). It was so good! 

Saturday was the day of our first genocide memorial visit. We went with our new friend Maureen, who works with us at HDI and is from Kenya. The memorial was something I won’t forget – it was horrendous to read about how people can so easily be convinced that their friends and neighbors are the enemy and that they should torture and kill everyone just because of the ethnicity written on their ID card. Periodically, there were videos we could play that have personal testimonies. There were stories of teens that watched their entire families be slaughtered by family friends, wives whose husbands were killed right in front of them, and more. What struck me the most is not just that so many people killed those around them, but that they made it as brutal as possible. So much torture and suffering was involved before people’s lives were actually ended. It was also so sad to read about how ignorant and stupid the international world was while this was happening – heck, the French government was even supplying the killing side with weapons! Everything about the genocide is absolutely disgusting, but it’s so important that we know about it. The whole event was the product of the simple manipulation of people by the government. Awareness of our human weakness is where we should start for avoiding things like this in the future.

Flowers on top of the mass grave outside of the memorial. They say, "NEVER AGAIN" on them.

After the memorial and some time sitting at a nearby restaurant, we went home to meet up with our housemates and try a new restaurant, Meze Fresh. Guys, this is Chipotle in Rwanda. We were so happy, and we have already been there a second time. Actually, it’s Chipotle with a bar and an 18-year-old drinking age. Though we haven’t taken advantage of the bar yet, we are looking forward to bringing our computers and spending an evening there with burritos and cocktails.

On Sunday, I joined Maureen at her church here, Christian Life Assembly. I wasn’t sure what to expect… all I knew was that the service would be in English! To my surprise, it was EXACTLY like Christ the Rock (the church I attend while I’m at Lawrence). It was the same set-up inside and roughly the same size. Worship had the same type of music and a worship band. People may have been slightly more enthusiastic, like moving and clapping, but that was one of only a few differences. It had a powerful message about the cross and what that should mean to us today, preached in a similar style to Bill Lenz (the pastor at CTR). The similarity was so strange, but it was so comforting to be there and be reminded of home while fellowshipping with Christians from around the world!

Christian Life Assembly from the hill we walk down to get there!

We went to the market again when I got home and bought some vegetables, grains and fruits to attempt cooking here. It was our first time going to the market alone, but we did an okay job at asking about prices! Once we dropped off our food at home, we hopped on some motos to go to Mille Collines, better known as Hotel Rwanda, where 1,268 people took refuge during the genocide. We met up with Maureen again and splurged a little bit to spend the afternoon eating their delicious brunch and swimming in their pool! It was super hot out that day, so jumping in the cold pool and laying in the sun felt great! After that, since we were in the city already, we went to the movie theater in Kigali Tower and saw the new Superman movie in 3D. It was intense and good, but for some reason movies like that put me in a bad mood. I think it’s that feeling that the bad guy can just pop out of nowhere and you’re never safe that I get from these movies. 

Mmmm pretty food. Those are beans in those bowls - they are so colorful! I have to say, I loooove going to a market to get fresh food!

A "swimming pool" at the swimming pool!

Us with Maureen at Mille Collines!

When I got home I got to Skype with JOSIE and hear about her and Noble getting engaged! I’m so excited for them and can’t wait to see how God will work through that amazing couple! I’m looking forward to Skyping Hailey next week to hear all about her and Ebiji’s engagement too! My friends are growing up so fast :)