hotel rwanda

I've finally found fast internet in Africa. It's at a coffee shop, as expected, in Kigali.

My first full day in Kigali, Saturday, I went over to the Hotel Des Mille Collines, which, unbeknownst to me for the majority of the day, was the hotel from the movie "Hotel Rwanda." I felt a tad uncultured for not knowing that, as I was simply enjoying the luxury of a swimming pool and the hot sun. I actually enjoyed the hot sun too much, as I got some sun burn, but my time at the hotel was well spent. I spent the day swimming, reading, napping. I went back to my hotel for a late lunch, then went back to the hotel for dinner. Unfortunately for me, it started raining right as I got there, so I was kept from dining in their open air top floor restaurant - I wanted to see the city at night. Instead I met a couple of Luxembourgians at the bar and hit it off with them. We ended up going out to experience the Kigali nightlife.. in my opinion, there's no better way to experience African nightlife than with a family of Luxembourgians.

My second full day, Sunday, I slept in then went to the genocide memorial - a sad but compelling tribute to the genocide. The whole event is bizarre and surreal - a whole population of people turned on a given minority and just started slaughtering them, and the international community was too slow in responding to stop it. To say it got out of hand is an understatement, and it's unbelievable to think of the scope and pervasiveness of this mindless killing. And to think that it was only about 17 years ago that all this happened, and the majority of the people I see walking around lived through it, and were connected to it in some way or another - related to a victim or a perpetrator. In all, shocking.

And now today, my last day, will be spent trying to get my head back into the farming business. I hope I'm not shocked at what I find at the farm, I don't expect to be, and this week has potential to be a very good week. Here's to that. My next post will be back in the wonderful country of Uganda. And the countdown will begin, I will be home in the U.S. in less than 3 months. Something to be excited about.