The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Miusic

The hills are alive with the sound of music!

For you avid music and/or movie fans, you will recognise this from The Sound of Music. I think this phrase is very fitting for the hills of Rwanda, especially around this time of year.

The hundred days of memorial have just ended and from that sombre period, we move on to the brighter side of life in Kigali. I don't believe there is a single country in Africa that does not appreciate the sound of music. Rwanda is no different.

I just came from the Kigali Up Music Festival, an annual festival held in Amahoro Stadium. It lasted the entire weekend and featured artists from all over East Africa and a few from the USA all with different genres of music ranging from Jazz to Reggae. I have to admit, reggae fan I am not, but it was really good. Who knows, I might change my mind about it after all.

There were two stages as well which confused me at first but made sense after a while. While the first stage was setting up, you had the choice to move to the second stage and listen to the amazing music there. When the first stage was fully set up, you could move there and enjoy more music. For the patient ones, you could wait for the stage to be set up properly then enjoy the music, but as I like to say, “To each, his own.”

The highlight of the festival for me was when about twenty Rwandan women came on stage with their drums each dressed in the traditional Rwandan garb. I've heard drums before and they were pretty fun to listen to but this was simply awe-inspiring. I have to say, there is nothing quite like the synchrony of a multitude of African drums played in perfect rhythm. In that moment, I couldn't have been prouder to be an African.

As I later found out though, women are not supposed to drum according to African tradition. I wondered why not when the women I saw were so good (power to the women!). Well, as it turns out, this is part of Rwanda moving forward.

All that aside, I wasn't surprised to see that some of Kigali's famous restaurants were not to be left behind. In the tents surrounding the entrance to the stadium were several of these hotels selling their food to the hungry crowd. I liked the diversity as well since there was a choice between African dishes, snacks, American fast food and Indian food – decisions, decisions...

For those of you interested in jewellery or perhaps some postcards, curios or clothes, those were there too. And the best part was, as always, the security. I will have to say this for criminals in Rwanda, you had better be fully committed to your job since the penalties for being caught are very high.

All in all, the festival was great fun and if you missed it, you can catch it all again next year!

Memorial

Ask anyone what comes to mind first when they think of Rwanda and the most likely answer will be danger or genocide or war. I cannot quite put into words the extreme brutality that happened here nearly two decades ago. I mean, I have read the stories and been told countless times of the horrors that happened here, but I didn't quite understand the entire concept until I went to the Genocide memorial museum.

Just a quick note before I go into detail about this. Rwanda has picked up the pieces of its life together and is now a thriving country with a lot to offer. However, the mental and emotional scars of that time run deep and I must warn you that the word “genocide”is not to be used very often and out loud. It could cause a lot of bottled or repressed emotion to come to the surface. It is a measure more for the people's comfort and safety that for your own, but really, you wouldn't want your fellow human being to suffer, would you?

Back to the main point. My friends and I arrived in Rwanda during the time that Rwanda was having the anniversary of the genocide for one hundred days. This ends on Sunday, the 1^st of July this year. The solemn faces and quiet, sombre mood were quite enough to gauge the seriousness of the ceremony. I knew I would absolutely have to visit the memorial some time during my stay here and I did.

Last Sunday, my friend invited me to the Memorial Museum, as it is called here. Anyone who has been there will most likely recommend that you pay a visit there and I will now proceed to do the same. The Museum is very well maintained and has a gorgeous outward view. The staff there are very friendly and (in my opinion) very brave. Not many locals go there, if any, since the memories that come with it are rather painful. I can understand this, having been there myself.

I would recommend that if you do not pay for a guided tour, you take the audio device with you. It will go a long way in explaining some things that the boards do not. I will also warn you here that nothing is hidden from the audience. Some of the pictures there are graphic but very telling of the situation that took place those many years ago.

I will have to save the rest of the information for your tour there since I do not want to spoil the visit for you. There is a lot to be seen and a lot to be learned, some of which you will not find in text books or on the internet. Seeing the pictures and watching the videos brings to reality the carnage, despair and trauma that some of the Rwandan people lived through and I also think it helps one to understand a lot about the country itself.

After that trip, I have learned to appreciate some of the things the people do and live with. I have conceded as well to the rules set in place since I believe they are for the greater good. I have learned not to take for granted the peace that exists in my own country. I have also learned to appreciate the friends and family that I have. I admire the courage and effort that the people of Rwanda have put in moving forward. I can properly understand just how far Rwanda has come from that terrible time in the past to the beautiful and happy country she is today.

Every time I see a smile on a Rwandan's face or hear them laugh, I am deeply moved. I sincerely hope it does the same for you.

For The Art Lovers

If there is one language that the whole world understands, it is the language of art. Of course art is a broad topic and this can span from music to paintings to carvings to the simple crafts of a people but this is one of the things that brings all people together.

Our boss (though he doesn't like to be called that), thought it would be a good idea to take us around to some art galleries and exhibits. The first stop was One Love Gallery. Of course there are the normal curios one would expect in a shop, but these were pure art. Some of the items may have been second hand and a bit dull, but they did not lose their artistic touch.

I'm no art critic, I'll tell you that, but I was simply awed. The statues and statuettes were in such fine detail and the crafts were in amazing shape. Of course, since one of the owners is Japanese, some of the things come from Japan as well.

Having come with a shopping list for several of my family members, I can definitely see myself going back there for something. (How do you think my mum would like a wonderfully decorated glass with a metallic surrounding base and matching saucer? Or perhaps a beautifully woven basket?)

The next stop was another curio shop not far from there. We browsed through the things there and saw a few more gifts for our respective families but I do have to admit that I would not find any of those in the curio shops at home and I am a n avid window shopper.

After the curio shop came the art gallery. It was very interesting to actually see the paintings from a new point of view. Art critic though I am obviously not, as we have already established, I can appreciate a good painting and I saw some very good paintings.

The last gallery however, was the one that amazed me the most.

At the door and to your left, you will notice some paintings of various scenes. One I saw was of a woman about to begin the traditional Rwandan dance and the man behind her banging on his drum with his stick.

Next to that were paintings on some traditional scenes. These were vivid and full or colour and very pleasing to the eye. On the opposite wall were several paintings made up of black and white patterns. Some of them had variations of the white, but there was no doubt about their plain nature. I was confused. Why would you put such beautiful pictures on one side and such ordinary patterns on the other side? So I went to investigate. And I smiled at my discovery.

The artist had chosen to use millions of Maasai beads which were sprinkled over the drawn or painted patterns. Where he varied the white, he used transparent beads. Interesting, I thought.

Then I got to the painting at the furthest end of the gallery and stopped in my tracks.

The longest painting on the furthest wall was painted in colour and done in the same painstaking way. The artist used the beads to colour the faces of the five women in the painting in the same way a painter would. The background hues were also set by the beads. There is no way anyone can overlook such talent and I am glad it can be displayed where it can be appreciated.

Of course, if you like what you see, for a fee of 100,000 Rwandan Franks (about $200), you can get lessons in art for yourself and from what I gather, it will be well worth it.

That was the end of our travels for today, but it is hopefully not the last we will see of art in Rwanda. I doubt this is the case since art can't really be confined to the four walls of a curio shop or a gallery. I think if you look close enough, you can find art anywhere you are.

How safe is Rwanda?

Some misconceptions about Rwanda stem from the violence of years past. But that is precisely what it is – the past. Since then, the government very wisely took down the barriers between the people and now, there are no more tribal differences, just Rwandans.

From what I have seen of Rwanda, under a great leader, they have come a very long way in eighteen years. I have been down dangerous streets before where you are afraid to look anywhere but intently at your bag lest you are robbed. What I can say about Rwanda is that they have some of the safest streets in the world.

I don't particularly have to worry about being mugged or robbed or that if I drop something that will be the end of my relationship with it. The people here are nice enough to chase after you and let you know what you dropped without taking a thing.

The presence of the police may be a bit daunting to some people, but they are there for security purposes and nothing more. If they bother you at all, they will ask you for identification and nothing more.

I didn't think it was possible to have such a low corruption rate either. When we were being oriented, we were given explicit instructions not to attempt to bribe anyone. Regrettably, this is quite the issue in my country, but here, the penalties are very steep so criminals beware!

All in all, the fact is that Rwanda is very safe, as long as you are on the right side of the law. A few more things are frowned upon that may, to the rest of the world, seem like infringement of rights or lack of development (which is not the case, to be sure), but I think that under the current rule and with the current laws in place, Rwanda is making a very good name for herself.

I sincerely hope that if you do come to Rwanda, and you should, you enjoy your very safe stay in the land of a thousand hills.

The Night Life

When the sun goes down in Rwanda, as I mentioned in my very first blog, the lights go on and oh the joys of this marvellous sight! However, in Rwanda, I should probably mention that by ten o'clock, everyone is safe and sound in their homes and looking forward to a nice warm bed and putting the little ones to bed and so on.

The number of taxis and cars on the roads will slowly dwindle to the odd car every now and again. The only means of transport then will be the Taxi Moto or the occasional cab and even then, you will have to be in a certain place where they will be waiting for you.

Where, you may ask, will you be headed at such a late hour if everything is closed and everyone has left for the night?

Why to a club of course! The general vibe I personally got from Rwanda was that it is too polite for night life to possibly fit in (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but rest assured it does.

Yes, party-goers, the fun goes on at night. The DJ will take your request and you and your friends can drink and/or dance the night away as you please. The Taxi Moto drivers and cabs will be ready to take you back home whenever you want. You have got to admire those devoted drivers' stamina. Staying up until the wee hours of the morning is not a fête just anyone can perform (I should know; all-nighters are no joke!) and the drivers will not take advantage of you in any way on your way home.

So, friends, party people, keep party rocking for as long as you want!

Although, if you have work in the morning (for which you definitely need to be on your A-game), an early night in might not be so bad an idea, no?

Hello Moto!

Travelling through Rwanda is a wonderful experience if you know where to go. There is so much to see and if you happen to get lost, the locals are more than happy to help you find your way, as long as you can identify at least one or two landmarks or the place you are staying at.

Having lived with the usual tedium of traffic jams and getting late for meetings, it’s refreshing to not have to go through that in Rwanda. There are no traffic jams except those at the traffic lights and even then, those are not really what one would call a traffic jam.

If you’re like me, you’ve travelled by car all your life and occasionally, you’ve relied on a bicycle (your own) to get you from place to place. After my friends and I crossed the Kenya-Uganda border into Kampala, I noticed an increase in the number of motorcycles in the city. This was also the case with Kigali. I was surprised to come to a place where the motorcycle drivers all convened waiting for willing customers. How interesting, I thought, and promised myself that I would ride one before I left Kigali.

Then I found out that I had no choice. On my way to work, I had to get on a motorbike or moto taxi as they are called here. There was no other way. Those were the most exhilarating five minutes of my life. Of course, my friends who are all used to using motorbikes as means of travel laughed at me, but really, it is an experience!

Said friends also commented that the bikes here are much more comfortable than the ones at home and the fact that, by law, you must wear a helmet adds a sense of security for the rider.At least if you get hurt, you have a better chance of living through it.

Now I know, most you are thinking “death trap!” and that you don’t trust motorcycles further than you can throw them, and quite frankly neither did I, but it’s actually not so bad after the first couple of rides. Besides, if you happen to be stuck out rather late or stranded somewhere you don’t know, these guys can really come in handy for you.

Of course there’s always the option of calling up a friend with a personal car or having one yourself, but when you can’t rely on a bus or on a taxi, travel by moto!

City of a Million Lights

Somewhere in the heart of Africa – well, not the heart really but pretty close, maybe an artery – lies a beautiful land, the land of a thousand hills; Rwanda. When I first came to Rwanda, I could hardly believe the landscape. The rolling hills and the rising sun seem to be in perfect synchrony. Anyone travelling by bus into Rwanda will know what I mean. The view from the bus is enough to make any avid photographer or photography fan gawk.

During the day, the houses built on these hills bring to mind the fervellas of Brazil.

In the late afternoon, the sun reflects on the roofs of these houses and the hills look as if they are decorated with shining jewels.

By nightfall, the story is different.

Each of those houses whose silhouettes are now lost in the darkness, have to offer but one light each and that is enough.
Coupled with the many street lights (for which I am very grateful), something magical happens to the land of a thousand hills. From any of those hills, whether you are rich or poor, from you get a view that in many other places is only afforded to the rich. Lights surround you on all sides and if you have a clear view, the sight is enough to make you stare in awe.

Having lived in Nairobi all my life, I have never quite given thought to how it would look from such a vantage point and anyway, such views are the stuff of romantic movies where the hero or heroine is gazing into the distance from their five star condo on the top floor of a hotel building and reminiscing on some nonsense pertaining to the general plot of things.

It is because of this view that I have decided to refer to Kigali as the city of a million lights.