The busy streets of Kigali
11:15 PM
I loved hearing your voice and that everything is well and normal. It’s not that I take you or the boys for granted. But being away for this long makes me crave you. While this is a really valuable experience, I do feel like I’m missing out on some important Kick-back time because this is anything but relaxing. I told you on the phone a little about today’s adventure. Tim and Immaculee spent all day working on making contacts and schmoozing with Paul Kigame, the preside
nt. (It is interesting to be in a place where the leader is adored by almost everybody.)
Richard came early. He spent the entire day with us. First we walked through downtown Kigali. I took pictures but there’s no way they can do it justice. Extremely busy. People everywhere. You can buy almost anything from vendors or from the tiny shops crammed together. It’s very poor. Dozens of people came up to us selling everything from fruit to sunglasses, pants to belts, phone cards, fabrics, t-shirts, etc. Laughing, jeering, Kinyrwanda, French, snatches of English. Smells of delicious cooking food, tobacco, body odor, diesel exhaust, perfume. One scene that stays in my mind is about a dozen guys pushing a broken down bus up the street.
I loved hearing your voice and that everything is well and normal. It’s not that I take you or the boys for granted. But being away for this long makes me crave you. While this is a really valuable experience, I do feel like I’m missing out on some important Kick-back time because this is anything but relaxing. I told you on the phone a little about today’s adventure. Tim and Immaculee spent all day working on making contacts and schmoozing with Paul Kigame, the preside
nt. (It is interesting to be in a place where the leader is adored by almost everybody.)Richard came early. He spent the entire day with us. First we walked through downtown Kigali. I took pictures but there’s no way they can do it justice. Extremely busy. People everywhere. You can buy almost anything from vendors or from the tiny shops crammed together. It’s very poor. Dozens of people came up to us selling everything from fruit to sunglasses, pants to belts, phone cards, fabrics, t-shirts, etc. Laughing, jeering, Kinyrwanda, French, snatches of English. Smells of delicious cooking food, tobacco, body odor, diesel exhaust, perfume. One scene that stays in my mind is about a dozen guys pushing a broken down bus up the street.
Today we were just scouting, looking around. When we come back (after going to Sonrise School) we may go to shop a little more. We took lots of pictures but that sort of drew people’s attention and we already had enough of that. Richard is the only man with dreadlocks I have seen here. (“Hey, Rasta!”) Plus he is very well known as he grew up not far from here. Our group was the only white people around all day so we were closely studied the whole time we were about.
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