The Land of 1000 Hills

Flying into Kigali I quickly realized that I was entering a place that very much deserved its name, the rolling hills were clearly evident from the sky. For those of you familiar with the "hills" of SK or even the foothills of Alberta please note that I used the term hill very loosely - they are really more like mini mountains, not so large as to have snow at the top but nearly tall enough to have a tree line. Sine arriving I have made several attempts at capturing the scenery in a photo however every one I manage to take fails miserably to capture the epic-ness of my surroundigs.



The distinct lack of flat was emphasized when the taxi dropped us off at the base of Tina's "street." And by street I mean a very steep and uneven red dirt road which is met by a slightly less steep but more uneven walking path just before it randomly ends without even a proper place for the taxi to turn around. Thankfully Tina enlisted one of the neighbourhood boys to carry my bags the 100 feet or so up the path to her house where I would be staying for the next two days, but not before I had what should likely be considered my first foreigner moment. The taxi let us out at the top of the road and then pulled away to turn around without first getting my luggage out of the trunk. Not knowing that the road was a dead end and unsure why non of the other girls were concerned about my escaping luggage I let out an "uhhhh...my bags?" which elicited a small chuckle from each of Tina, Hannah and Alice just before they let me know that he was about to turn around, especially since he didn't have any other option.

The afternoon was passed chatting leisurely and receiving a visit from another AIESECer who dropped in on his way home from school as well as time for my to shower and rest a little before heading to the weekly AIESEC meeing at the School of Finance and Business (SFB). The AIESEC meeting was entertaining and very different from a meeting at home. Firstly, it started about an hour late with member and very large number of alumni (like 50% of people there) sitting in a circle on the grass outside the school buildings. Barbara (TM responsible) went around the circle and everyone was required to give an update on their AIESEC activites for the last week. After each person spoke there was an opportunity for anyone else to ask questions or give suggestions regarding what could be done better. Nearly all of the people who spoke mentioned some sort of marketing call or interaction with externals, which is quite different from the very few people in @SK that actually do markting activity. Also, there were at least two occassions where individuals who were not performing were straight up called out in the meeting and asked to explain in no uncertain terms their lack of activity. Needless to say that would never happen in a meeting in Canada.

After the meeting everyone went to a club for Salsa night. One of the girls had arranged it such that by mentioning AIESEC we were not required to pay cover. The salsa part of the bar was organized such that there were plastic patio chairs arranged in rows, with tables in front of them, all facing the middle dance floor. The chairs were under and awning but the dance floor was open to the sky (which contains surprisingly few stars). Since Hannah and I had not eaten dinner we each ordered a Primus (local beer served in bottle that are roughly the size of two beer at home) and an order of fries to share for a total cost of about 3000 Rwf or 6 dollars. Service here is different from at home. The beers are brought to you, warm or cold based on your preference, and opened in front of you and then poured into a glass for you. Almost no on drinks out of a bottle, ever.

Though we were early we quickly realized that salsa night is for people who really know salsa (a few of the dancers actually teach sasla classes) meaning that I adamantly refused to get up and dance despite Joseph's (an alumnus) efforts. There was also a club part in the basement where a DJ was playing mostly American hip hop and Ugandan music which was were most of the AIESECers could be found dancing in true African fashion. At the end of the night all of us who were upstairs went down there leading a few of us (Hannah from the UK, Angelo, a US Marine and myself) feeling very white. Not so much because we were the only white people there but becaue we danced as such, making small movements in our little boxes as opposed to the Rwandans who danced big, fully using all their limbs and unafraid to make the most of all the space available to them. After the dancing was over for us Jospeh and Rom (a member of the African GN board who was just finishing his country visit) walked me back to Tina's place and helped me guess which of the gates on the hiking trail was Tina's. All in all it was a very fun night. I very much look forward to spending time with these many fun people again!

First Impressions:

- I am fro sure going to need to learn some Kinyarwanda
- It really is hilly everywhere - red dirt and green vegetated hills with hardly a flat space to be found. Even the rooms often have a slight slant to the floors!
- All the hills mean there will be lots of climbing and lots of stairs in my future.
- The people here are very nice and are unused to the quiet observant silence I usually display when encountering new circumstances and/or people. They keep asking if I'm ok.
- Everything really is made of concrete. EVERYTHING.! It's mostly kinda reddish in colour, like the dirt. Kevin and Eric weren't lying at all. Nothing is made from wood.
- "You are welcome" seems to mean come in/make yourself at home and "what's up" seems to mean how are you.
- Everyone has someone else to do most f the cookng and cleaning. Well at least everyone who is fairly well off, which is most of the people I'll be spending time with as the university and professional crown generally constitues fairly well off.
- It's not as crowded as I thought it would be. Mind you I've yet to see city centre.
- I'm going to have to get used to sitting close to strange men on moto taxis as it's a very common way of getting around here.