Archive for 'Kigali'
I arrived in Kigali at the end of August, to begin my first experience of working here in Africa. I have looked forward to this for many years. And I know I am especially fortunate to come to Rwanda and Burundi – two of the smallest, but most populous and poor countries in Africa. I had [...]
Saturday morning in Kigali felt weird; it was spookily quiet in the streets as the whole population of the country spent the morning doing some community work in their local area - cleaning the street, digging the ground or just tidying the place up. Even the President was out there, digging holes for banana trees.
This [...]
Have you heard that water flows one way down the drain in the southern hemisphere and the other way in the northern hemisphere? Is it true? I live 1 degree south of the equator, and when I experimented pouring water in my washbashin, the water flowed anticlockwise. Does it flow clockwise in the northern hemisphere? Why not try it [...]
Over the Labour Day break I took a trip to Akagera National Park on the Eastern border of Rwanda, next to Tanzania. It is a large open expanse of savanna and woodland dotted with beautiful lakes. The wildlife is limited and rather hard to spot, but I did find some interesting examples of people trying to make livelihoods [...]
Hundreds of people trudged up the long hill to Nyanza, many of them wearing something purple, a neckscarf, a wrap, even a purple wristband. The colour purple is the colour of mourning in Rwanda and yesterday, 7th April, was the 15th Anniversary of the Genocide. At the top of the hill I joined the large crowd at the [...]
It was an exciting moment as the green truck with ‘The Big Green Moving Machine' painted on the front pulled up my driveway here in Kigali and delivered the boxes that Terry the packer had so carefully wrapped for me four weeks ago. I haven't brought very much because my family's still in England and needs [...]
Do you know where swallows go to in the Winter? At least two of them come and sit on the ledge outside my bedroom window here in Kigali. When I saw them this morning I was immediately reminded of the children's book 'Dear Olly' by Michael Morpurgo, in which a swallow flies from the UK to [...]
The airport advertising boards declare that Rwanda is ‘The Land of a Thousand Hills’, and that’s just what it looked like from the plane as I descended into Kigali, the capital city.
I could see green hills dotted with numerous small communities, sliced by rivers winding down to Lake Victoria, and the occasional flash of the [...]
