Natural History and Kigali
First full day of activities started at the Rwanda Natural History Museum — the Kandt House. The building is old and a bit worn, but what's inside covers a lot of ground. Exhibits on evolution, national parks, volcanoes, minerals, Rwandan history. There's an outdoor section with live snakes, which I wasn't expecting. No photography allowed inside, so you'll have to take my word for it.
What I can share are the views. Kigali is built across a series of hills, and from the vantage points near the museum you get sweeping panoramics of the city. Buildings climbing up and down slopes in every direction, red clay roads winding between them, green vegetation filling every gap. It's a city that feels alive in a way that's hard to pin down in words. You just have to look at it.
Lunch and Local Food
Stopped for lunch at a local spot. Had goat and plantains, which was a better combination than I expected. The goat was tender and well-seasoned. The plantains were fried and slightly sweet. The kind of meal you think about the next day.
Hotel des Mille Collines
After lunch, we went to Hotel des Mille Collines. If you've seen the film Hotel Rwanda, this is the real place. During the genocide, the hotel's manager sheltered roughly 1,200 refugees inside the building. When the military cut off the water supply, the swimming pool became the only source of water for everyone inside. People drank from it to survive.
Standing there looking at the pool, knowing what it was 20 years earlier, was a strange thing. Today it looks like any hotel pool. Clean, still, lounge chairs arranged neatly around the edge. The ordinary surface and the extraordinary history occupy the same physical space, and your brain has to hold both at once.
Walking Through Kigali
Later in the afternoon we walked through parts of downtown Kigali that aren't on any tourist route. Just the city as people live in it. Market stalls, motorcycle taxis threading through traffic, people going about their day. Everywhere we went, we were noticed. Being visibly foreign here is a constant and persistent experience. People look, sometimes stare, sometimes wave or call out. Not hostile. Curious. But it's a steady reminder that you are a guest in someone else's home, and you stand out in a way you never do back in the States.
Full day. Starting to feel the rhythm of being here, even if I'm still adjusting to most of it.
