Rwanda is a tiny country by any standard, but it especially tiny when compared to Tanzania, which is to the east and is 50% bigger than Texas, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is to the west and is the size of half the continental US. Rwanda has a dark past of war and the 1994 genocide, but since that time it has been growing it has enjoyed 20 years of relative stability.
We came to Rwanda to visit our dear friends, Steve and Lindsey. They moved to Rwanda in 2012, so we we’re spoiled by their knowledge and love for Rwanda and the people there. Brianne and I were mostly interested in experiencing their lives with them, enjoying their city as they do and seeing what it’s meant for them to live so far from home.
It’s hard to talk about Rwanda without mentioning the 1994 genocide that the movie “Hotel Rwanda” theatricized. It’s hard for the mind to conceive of such tragedy and such pain and being in Kigali, where the genocide started and was centered, you occasionally find yourself imagining what happened at the intersection you’re driving through or what a person you’ve just met life was like during the genocide - because everyone 21 and over lived through it. The proximity of the event in time is unsettling and the conscience of the genocide still weighs heavily on Rwandans. They take weeks off during April to memorialize and people make extra effort not to mention the segregations that lead to the conflict and eventually the genocide.
That said, Rwandans are a wonderful and especially nice people, eager to share their beautiful country and their lives with you. We were fortunate to meet many of the people in Steve and Lindsey’s life. Kalisa, Steve and Lindsey’s guard, was a 60 year old Rwandan who made every effort to teach us some Kinyerwanda (by speaking it exclusively even though he knew we understood nothing) while we were there and smiled ear to ear every time you saw him. The night we left, at 2am, we were greeted by a smiling Kalisa at the gate who gave us both a great big hug.
We traveled one weekend to stay at Steve and Lindsey’s friend Tom’s place on Lake Burera. Tom runs a scholarship program for the local villagers on Lake Burera, connecting American donors with local students who wish to go to boarding schools or who wish to attend American Universities. The place he built on the lake serves as a place to coordinate with the locals as well as a place to house international donors for a night. It’s high on a hillside overlooking the large lake and the grounds are meticulously landscaped. It was sort of cross between a really sweet events camp and a high end hotel. We met many of the students while staying there, who were eager to practice their English and meet some Mzungus. We spent our evening around a large stone clad fire pit watching the stars and talking about our lives. It was one of the those evenings when time slows and conversation and thoughts seem crisp and important.
We also saw Lake Kivu, which is an enormous lake shared by Rwanda and the DRC. We were on the northern part of the lake in Gesenyi, just across the border from Goma, where much of the current rebel activity in the DRC is centered (which is very well documented by Virunga - virungamovie.com). We enjoyed a lunch at Steve and Lindsey’s favorite lakeside restaurant and I thought about this enormous high mountain lake and all of the people who have lived on its shores and all the two million people who live there now. Lake Kivu is also one of three lakes in the world that experiences large scale limnic eruptions, which happen when large pockets of CO2 erupt from deep within the lake (Lake Kivu is 1600 ft at its deepest). The resulting cloud of CO2, because it is more dense than the surrounding air, sits on top of and around the lake, choking every organism that requires oxygen to breath, including humans. Scientists have found evidence of these events about every 1,000 years going back, resultingly, there are efforts to degas Lake Kivu, using the captured CO2 to fuel Rwanda’s energy needs.
Our days were spent in Kigali visiting the orphanage that Lindsey volunteers at, exploring Kigali and meeting all of Steve and Lindsey’s friends, sitting on the Miller’s front porch watching the cars and pedestrians navigate the steep, green hillsides or watching the sunset, eating great food whether it was in the Miller’s home or out at one of their favorite spots and starting to decompress what our time in Africa had meant and what it would mean going forward. It was a relaxing, enjoyable time and we really felt like we got a good feel for Kigali and for the Miller’s lives there as expats.
We came to Rwanda to visit our dear friends, Steve and Lindsey. They moved to Rwanda in 2012, so we we’re spoiled by their knowledge and love for Rwanda and the people there. Brianne and I were mostly interested in experiencing their lives with them, enjoying their city as they do and seeing what it’s meant for them to live so far from home.
It’s hard to talk about Rwanda without mentioning the 1994 genocide that the movie “Hotel Rwanda” theatricized. It’s hard for the mind to conceive of such tragedy and such pain and being in Kigali, where the genocide started and was centered, you occasionally find yourself imagining what happened at the intersection you’re driving through or what a person you’ve just met life was like during the genocide - because everyone 21 and over lived through it. The proximity of the event in time is unsettling and the conscience of the genocide still weighs heavily on Rwandans. They take weeks off during April to memorialize and people make extra effort not to mention the segregations that lead to the conflict and eventually the genocide.
That said, Rwandans are a wonderful and especially nice people, eager to share their beautiful country and their lives with you. We were fortunate to meet many of the people in Steve and Lindsey’s life. Kalisa, Steve and Lindsey’s guard, was a 60 year old Rwandan who made every effort to teach us some Kinyerwanda (by speaking it exclusively even though he knew we understood nothing) while we were there and smiled ear to ear every time you saw him. The night we left, at 2am, we were greeted by a smiling Kalisa at the gate who gave us both a great big hug.
We traveled one weekend to stay at Steve and Lindsey’s friend Tom’s place on Lake Burera. Tom runs a scholarship program for the local villagers on Lake Burera, connecting American donors with local students who wish to go to boarding schools or who wish to attend American Universities. The place he built on the lake serves as a place to coordinate with the locals as well as a place to house international donors for a night. It’s high on a hillside overlooking the large lake and the grounds are meticulously landscaped. It was sort of cross between a really sweet events camp and a high end hotel. We met many of the students while staying there, who were eager to practice their English and meet some Mzungus. We spent our evening around a large stone clad fire pit watching the stars and talking about our lives. It was one of the those evenings when time slows and conversation and thoughts seem crisp and important.
We also saw Lake Kivu, which is an enormous lake shared by Rwanda and the DRC. We were on the northern part of the lake in Gesenyi, just across the border from Goma, where much of the current rebel activity in the DRC is centered (which is very well documented by Virunga - virungamovie.com). We enjoyed a lunch at Steve and Lindsey’s favorite lakeside restaurant and I thought about this enormous high mountain lake and all of the people who have lived on its shores and all the two million people who live there now. Lake Kivu is also one of three lakes in the world that experiences large scale limnic eruptions, which happen when large pockets of CO2 erupt from deep within the lake (Lake Kivu is 1600 ft at its deepest). The resulting cloud of CO2, because it is more dense than the surrounding air, sits on top of and around the lake, choking every organism that requires oxygen to breath, including humans. Scientists have found evidence of these events about every 1,000 years going back, resultingly, there are efforts to degas Lake Kivu, using the captured CO2 to fuel Rwanda’s energy needs.
Our days were spent in Kigali visiting the orphanage that Lindsey volunteers at, exploring Kigali and meeting all of Steve and Lindsey’s friends, sitting on the Miller’s front porch watching the cars and pedestrians navigate the steep, green hillsides or watching the sunset, eating great food whether it was in the Miller’s home or out at one of their favorite spots and starting to decompress what our time in Africa had meant and what it would mean going forward. It was a relaxing, enjoyable time and we really felt like we got a good feel for Kigali and for the Miller’s lives there as expats.
