Trip to Kigali

Okan and I took the bus into Kigali last Thursday hoping we would be able to buy the car on Thursday afternoon, and then take it too the shop on Friday so we could return to Butare that afternoon. As with all things in Rwanda however, nothing is straightforward and it took another 4 days to finally get the car. But we have a car now! Yay! Okan did ALL the work in finding the car, negotiating the price, and then taking it to the mechanic for 2 days of repairs/tune ups. My only responsibility while we were in Kigali was to apply for my research permit.  Needless to say, poor Okan was exhausted at the end of the 4 days. In my defense, culturally speaking, women are not really welcome during the negotiation process or at the mechanic. Fine by me! I just went to the pool!

It was really nice (for me at least) to be in Kigali for a few days. We stayed at the hotel Rwanda (Hotel des Milles Collines) on our first night (the one from the movie). A fancy treat for ourselves after our first month in Rwanda. The best part of the hotel was that there was no need for a mosquito net! Then we had a reality check and moved to a more affordable hotel for the other 3 nights. But that didn't stop me from utilizing the pools of other nicer hotels while we were in town. A beautiful crowned crane wandered around the gardens of the Leico hotel while I was there.

We know another fulbrighter who just moved into Kigali and after she settles in she's offered to let us stay with her next time we are in town.  Kigali is such a study of contrasts. At night time, looking out at the city lights over the hills, you could practically swear you are in Oakland, or some other hilly US city.

There is a gigantic divide between the have and the have-nots. There are TONS of gigantic fancy SUVs being driven around by some Rwandans. And then there is the other half of Kigali- where people are earning something on the order of $1 to $5 a day. There are also lots of amputees around-more than Butare. Presumably genocide survivors.

There's actually traffic jams in Kigali. It is like any bustling big city. Even with traffic, it was nice to be in a big city like Kigali again, even for a few days.

There are more foreigners in Kigali so you aren't constantly stared and gawked at. There are also some really good restaurants.  We stocked up on a lot of provisions that you can't get in Butare while we were there. Things like lentils, cheese, tupperware, cooking supplies, shampoo (that's right, NO shampoo in our town of 100,000 people), sunscreen, etc.

I'm teaching my final session for a while this upcoming weekend. I really struggle with deciding what material to teach. One part of me wants to just do something super simple and easy. But then I feel conflicted because I know that the students in this program are already really getting short changed in so many ways (too many to blog about) and I feel an obligation to make sure they get some material that I feel it would be criminal not to cover. The problem is that I know the students really have poor preparation for most of these tasks and it's painful for both me and the students when they struggle. And only a portion of the students seem to benefit from covering the advanced concepts.

I'm hoping to make our way up to Nyungwe next week- Finally! Looking forward to seeing the forest and meeting some of the other researchers up there.

Here are a few more pics of our little town of Butare.