rwanda: land of the 1000 hills
we are in rwanda for a brief visit for about 3 weeks and on the first evening we went for a brief walk to look around, never having been in rwanda before. Wow! kigali (capital city) does not look like its in africa - clean streets, sidewalks, no potholes, no slums??
of course, there is always a price to pay - the government is very strict and apparently they ship people off out of the city if they are unable to afford the standard of living. so there are poor people, they just arent in kigali. but on the positive side, kigali is a very pleasant place to live. very little crime, very clean.
on saturday, we tried to walk to town. someone told us it was about an hours walk, so we started off...very pleasant walk. eventually we got to a huge roundabout which had a nice fountain (actually working, again, kigali is amazing!) and well kept garden.
apparently it is tradition in kigali, when you are married to get your picture taken at this fountain. so there were all these wedding parties there. interestingly, here the men have to wear white gloves for their wedding...
after a brief rest at the roundabout, we continued onwards, but after walking another 1/2 hour, there was no city centre in sight! we decided to turn back since we had already walked for 1 and 1/2 hours. later on we were told its 14km to the city from bethel!! but we were not unhappy - it really was a beautiful walk with nice tree-lined streets, and moderate climate.
and finally, a couple of pictures of the bethel in kigali. Its quite nice, about 60 bethelites. this is the reception and office block:
and these are the residential blocks - they are 4 single story buildings spread out and very pleasant indeed.
hopefully i will be able to do another post about rwanda before we leave...
of course, there is always a price to pay - the government is very strict and apparently they ship people off out of the city if they are unable to afford the standard of living. so there are poor people, they just arent in kigali. but on the positive side, kigali is a very pleasant place to live. very little crime, very clean.
on saturday, we tried to walk to town. someone told us it was about an hours walk, so we started off...very pleasant walk. eventually we got to a huge roundabout which had a nice fountain (actually working, again, kigali is amazing!) and well kept garden.
apparently it is tradition in kigali, when you are married to get your picture taken at this fountain. so there were all these wedding parties there. interestingly, here the men have to wear white gloves for their wedding...
after a brief rest at the roundabout, we continued onwards, but after walking another 1/2 hour, there was no city centre in sight! we decided to turn back since we had already walked for 1 and 1/2 hours. later on we were told its 14km to the city from bethel!! but we were not unhappy - it really was a beautiful walk with nice tree-lined streets, and moderate climate.
and finally, a couple of pictures of the bethel in kigali. Its quite nice, about 60 bethelites. this is the reception and office block:
and these are the residential blocks - they are 4 single story buildings spread out and very pleasant indeed.
hopefully i will be able to do another post about rwanda before we leave...
