Walking around Rwanda, this is what I see...

I walked out of my office today after work and turned out onto the busy road that leads up the hill into the heart of the city. The air is warm and the sky is overcast, but the chance of rain is highly unlikely given that we are in the middle of the dry season. I walk up the hill past the infamous St. Famille church, past vendors with large plastic bowls filled with cookies and tissues and cigarettes atop their heads, past the occasional school-age teen looking over her schoolwork under a small tree in the grass. The sounds of construction work slowly fade as I move farther away from the road-expansion crews further down the hill. A large skyscraper, one of only a few here in the city, stands tall at the top of the hill still under construction as I approach the roundabout. A large fountain graces the middle of the traffic circle, and several streets spoke off from it. Shops line the streets, some with open doors, others with the whole store front open, selling cell phones, radios, and computer parts; dresses and shirts; and any number of other miscellaneous items that you find you need in our modern societies. 

While there are still many open sewers, particularly outside of Kigali, there are many closed sewers as well. That had been one of the government's initiatives was to get rid of the open sewers. The sewers are the reason that plastic bags are illegal in this country. Now, people mostly use small paper bags. The plastic bags clogged up the sewers, whereas the paper bags break down. I hadn't noticed any sewage smells until a couple weeks ago when I was walking near one of the busier parts of the city and there was a terrible smell, and I looked to my side and there was a large open sewage area. Other than that, the odors that fill my nose tend to be limited to the smell of car exhaust. I don't know much about cars, but from what I do know, it seems that cars here tend to have pretty bad exhaust pipes. Looking out over the city, the familiar haze of pollution in the air softens the view.

The city is busy now as everyone makes their way home, some in their own cars, some on moto-taxis, and most in the public taxis (buses which are privately owned by subject to regulations by the Ministry of Transportation), which you'll find completely lining the road for thousands of feet, separated by the areas of the city they service. 

I've come to prefer the motos for their speed and ease, despite their expense relative to the bus taxi. What might cost 200 Rwf (Rwandan francs), or equivalent to about 40 US cents, on a bus might cost me 800 Rwf (mostly because I just don't bargain down as much as I could sometimes), the equivalent of US$1.25 on a mototaxi. Before I came here, I had been told by a fellow American staying in Rwanda that everything was very expensive in Kigali. But I find it quite the opposite. I go to the supermarket and buy tons of vegetables and rice and yogurt and eggs and end up spending about 1/3 or even 1/4 of what it would cost me at a store in the US. And there's a good chance most of the stuff I'm buying is organic and free-range and all those other good labels that end up spiking your costs at the store. Eating out at local restaurants is also very cheap--fast-food prices but home-cooked meal quality--getting a meal of rice and vegetables and potatoes (and meat if you eat it) and fruit and a soda might cost about $4. Going to a more "Western"-like restaurant, or Chinese or Indian or what-have-you, might cost more--but still pretty typical for the US, probably leaving having spent around $10-12 per person.

My favorite indulgence here is African Tea. It's like heaven, and can spruce up any day, make you feel cozy or energized or whatever it is you're needing. It's black tea boiled together with milk and ginger, and then topped off with a little sugar. Best. Thing. Ever. Mmm mmm.