(Second) First impressions - Kigali

So that dread that I spoke of a couple posts ago – I found that it went away as I was sitting at the boarding gate at the airport in Johannesburg, staring at the blue and yellow sun that is the logo for Rwandair. The boarding gate was the smallest I think I've ever seen by the way – just a row of benches on either side of a hallway, a trash can, and a desk with doors out to the loading ramp thingy. Anyway, as I sat there looking at the group of travelers that were all flying on to Rwanda, I started to get that warm feeling of excitement again, and it occurred to me how long I've been saying I really need to go back to Rwanda, how long I've wanted to return, and now after a whirlwind of planning and prep, here I go!

The flight itself was a little rickety. I'm not going to say anything about the age of the airplane in case I jinx my return flight, but there were a few more creaks and bumps than I expected. Landing in Kigali was especially nail biting. Every time I have a rough landing, I remind myself that you do less damage to your body if you get into an accident when your muscles are relaxed than when you're all tensed up. So I force myself to relax, and force myself to actually READ the book in front of my face – READ and COMPREHEND - and then we're on the ground and everything is ok.

Once in the airport I made the immigrations guy laugh by walking up to him and saying “Hi!” rather enthusiastically – I forget “hi” is kind of a muzungu-ism, and “hello” is a little more normal. I remembered a tip I got before about transport from the airport – that taxis are so much cheaper if you walk down to the road outside the airport and hail one there, rather than try to get one inside the airport. I ended up paying half what I would from the airport that way.

Kigali is different and the same all at once. I think last time I was here the tallest building was maybe six stories or so, now there are big towers going up. The road that goes up from the central roundabout, past Bank of Kigali and on to Nyamirambo (the very busy Muslim sector) is not the wide-open hill-top road that it once was – now it is hemmed in by tall buildings on either side, with one very big one still under construction. A block away, Kigali City Tower, the biggest new building in town, is tall and shiny and it kind of glows at night, and it's full of boutiques and shops and grocery stores and a Mr. Price and a new cinema and offices. But the funny thing is it's located on a little street that used to be the hub for city-to-city buses in the town center. And around the corner was the main minibus stop in town. Those roads used to be bustling and busy, you would have to kind of elbow your way through the crowds and dodge cars and motos and big buses all the time. But now they're deadly quiet. On Sunday when I walked through there was only a lone street sweeper and a couple people chatting outside an abandoned shop. Presumably the bustle of buses and motos and people are not fitting surroundings for a gleaming new tower. Now you have to go down the hill to Nyabugogo to catch a bus – which isn't totally out of the way, but certainly inconvenient for anyone wanting to travel to another city from Kigali city center.

Walk a block or so away from Kigali City Tower though, into the old commercial district, and all the old hustle and bustle is healthily hustling and bustling along. Small shops border the roads, and people gather in the shade under the overhangs. Street sellers offer fruit, vegetables, SIM cards, airtime, flash drives, trousers, socks, brooms, cold drinks. Men walk by with tall stacks of mattresses strapped to their heads, or bags of grain, or stacks of plastic washbasins. Motos and minibuses and buses and cars all compete with pedestrians for street space. It's a sharp contrast from the space inside the Tower – which is gleaming and almost slippery in its cold tiled cleanliness, quiet and wide open, with fluorescent lights and handrails and metal detectors and shopping carts. I think it's a fair assumption that if a place is as busy as the streets in the commercial district, something must be working well there. Although us foreigners tend to like places like the Tower more, because we can get a latte and salad and internet and then go shopping in a big grocery store and then go to the movies, all in air conditioning and without being hassled for money, you wonder if it's really worth the income and the space to provide something so big and empty on a street that used to be so much more active. Even nearby Union Trade Center, with its almost identical shops inside and its metal detectors and its tiles, is a bit more bustling, perhaps because it's located along a road with similar businesses and so is not so out of place, or perhaps because it's more established and hasn't just supplanted an economically thriving area.

I'm glad to see Kigali is doing well, but I hope the wrecking ball will spare some of these areas that are actually working, even if they are a bit dirty and inexpensive and perhaps a little unruly. And trust me, it really doesn't hurt us foreigners to wade through some bustling shopping streets to get to our coffee and internet and salads. In fact, it might even be a highlight.