4th of July Rwandan-style, Kigali, & Safari
While y’all in the U.S. were shooting off fireworks, barbequing, and celebrating the red white & blue last Friday, Jessica and I were two of maybe 10 white people packed into a stadium of thousands of people watching…gosh, what to call it…theatrical military? Interpretive boot camp? Since the announcers all spoke Kinyarwandan, I really have no idea what it was, but it was pretty cool. Since Rwanda celebrates their Liberation Day from the genocide/dictatorship on July 4th, Gitarama hosted a big celebration featuring President Kagame speaking, several hours of parading and traditional dancing, and a bunch of military exercises. The military was definitely the coolest part since they had hundreds of soldiers demonstrate their abilities by mock-fighting. Every different exercise (there were dozens) was perfectly timed. My favorite was when a government vehicle drove out into the center of the stadium and then a bunch of soldiers in uniform encircled it, forcing the driver and passenger to stop. Out came a man and a woman, both well-dressed and looking very important. The soldiers started to ambush them, but the two politicians took off their shoes and took on all the soldiers at once! It was SO tight! And then when they’d floored every one of the soldiers, they put back on their shoes, straightened their blazers, dragged the bodies out of their path, and drove away. The crowd ate it up. I was cheering too, but I didn’t really get the point haha. Maybe it was just for entertainment value, but it surprised me how a country trying to show how devoted it is to recovering from a genocide implemented by a corrupt government and military would be so determined to show off its military prowess rather than its efforts to maintain peace.
Saturday we spent the day in Kigali with Olivier, Gaston (a friend of Epiphanie’s who offered to be our driver for the weekend), and the President of the Rwanda division of the YWCA. We went all over town – visiting shops, going to popular spots like Bourbon Coffee and Novotel...The best came when we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch and I got to eat the first pizza I’ve had since May! It was HEAVENLY. A good cheese pizza is one of many things I took for granted at home. After saying goodbye to the YWCA President, we drove an hour east and spent the night in a motel so we could wake up early and go to the game park for our one-day safari!
The safari was absolutely unbelievable. You can ask Jessica, I was flipping out the entire time. At first I thought it was silly to wake up at 4:30 am, but it definitely made a big difference because we saw so many animals SO fast! Within five minutes of heading out from the lodge, we came across a whole herd of antelope grazing. Five minutes later, a herd of impala. Fifteen minutes later, a herd of zebras chillin on the plain. You would think I would’ve gotten used to seeing groups of exotic animals one after the other, but I freaked out just as much when we saw the giraffes, hippos, snake, monkeys, cool birds, and other antelope-like herds too. We got SO close to the giraffes! I couldn’t believe how they would look at us but seem completely unperturbed that a big jeepful of awed tourists was gaping at them and snapping one picture each second (props, Dad?). I was kinda nervous about seeing hippos because apparently they kill the most animals out of any animal in Africa…and this park had the highest concentration of hippos IN Africa! But they stayed off-shore and just came up to get some air and wag their little ears.
The craziest moment came when we were walking along the shore looking at a pair of the biggest birds I’d ever seen, when suddenly some dude walks out of the bushes carrying a huge python. We couldn’t believe it! He wasn’t a park guide or anything. He just walked into the bushes, grabbed a python trying to escape into the water, and walked out like “what’s up? Check this out. I’m the man.” Haha he didn’t ACTUALLY say that – it kinda went without saying because we were all stunned. It turned out that he was a Rwandan wildlife specialist and did his PhD about snakes, which sounded pretty legit. Probably not legit enough to let him drape it around our necks, but we did anyway :)
Afterward we went to an amazing Indian restaurant that everyone was raving about, and rightfully so. It was very fancy – waterfall, golden statues, rugs, waiters wearing turbans… I felt mildly out of my element wearing hiking boots, zip-away pants, and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. But I was so hungry for food other than rice, beans, and fries that I didn’t care.
I wish it didn’t take like 10 minutes to upload one picture to this blog due to the slow internet speed here, otherwise I would. I’ll to put up a couple if I muster the patience. Also, I want to thank those people who have commented on my blog but unfortunately I can’t view the comment or let it be posted unless you’re a member of “vox”. So please drop me an email if you want to comment on something and I’d really appreciate it!
~Maddie
