Kigali Imagery

This is my first Saturday with absolutely nothing that I have to do. The air is still and everything is quiet in a comforting sort of a way. It is odd how sounds here lend so much to my comfort levels. Any of you who have seen Hotel Rwanda are probably aware of the use public radio in the genocide. For months leading up to and during the genocide, a radio station based in Kigali broadcasted urging people to cleanse the nation of the Tutsis, and during the genocide, it directed participators to find specific people and neighborhoods. Every once in a while, there are cars that drive around the city with a huge loudspeaker attached to the outside, blasting some sort of radio station. I don’t actually have any idea what they are saying, but the tone and abrasive volume reminds me of the Interahamwe sponsored radio.

That’s actually not what I’m thinking about at all this morning, though. One of my housemates was telling me yesterday about a writing assignment she has to describe the experience of Kigali. Given, that is a very broad topic and could be taken to mean just about anything, but we both immediately knew what we would chose to write about. Margot wanted to describeof the mixture of cultures through clothes – often you see women carrying Nike backpacks on their heads, or wearing a traditional Rwandan skirt paired with an American flag t-shirt with the caption “Support Our Troops”. Make of that what you will. To be honest, that is not what has struck me most about Kigali. For me, it’s the vegetation - the flowers and trees and grasses – that make this place what it is to me.
Growing up in San Francisco, my bedroom windows looked out into pine and eucalyptus trees. Everyone I knew hated the eucalyptus because of how invasive they are, and their leaves and scent permeate just about everything. When I moved to New York, for the first time I really missed the scent of the trees and the crunch of their oblong leaves. Of course, no one I knew in New York had any idea what I was talking about (I don't think that they grow in that climate).
Being in Kigali, there is a strange familiarity of a lot of the flowers. Some of the plants like Avocado trees and Passionfruit vines remind me of Berkeley, although everything here is richer and more lush. At the same time, there is a certain sadness that seems to be carried even in the vegetation of this place. It is like this exotic beauty that has grown from soil that was once fed by decomposing bodies. Or even just that most of these trees are over fourteen years old and have seen everything.
All of these images are from photos that I took during a walk this morning. The bottom one is of a typical wall that surrounds houses in the wealthier parts of the cities. Many of the walls have barbed wire lining them, but most are sprinkled with broken glass. It is very welcoming and fosters a warm sense of community . . .