Our apartment and environs

The apartment we've been provided with is in a modern complex called Kacyiru Executive Apartments and is very comfortable - roomy with three bedrooms, a study and two bathrooms. It's about 5 km northeast of central Kigali or about 15 minutes by taxi. We're on a street called Boulevard de l'Umuganda. 'Umuganda' means 'community work' or can, I believe, also mean a Ugandan person (although that is more commonly 'Umugande') so I can't be sure which our street refers to. But just for interest, umuganda happens on the last Saturday of every month - between 7am and 12 pm everything closes and the whole country takes part in community work such as building, digging, clearing, gardening etc - what an amazing idea!

But back to our street. It's quite a large well-constructed street with the very latest in traffic signals which tell you exactly how long you've got to wait before they change and flashing cats-eyes. In this area it's lined with government ministries, banks, a number of embassies, modern apartments and hotels. The Parliament building is not far up the road, the Presidential offices are just up the street on the other side, and the US Embassy is also down the way. The DGIE offices are also a few minutes down the road. There is a strong security presence along here (as in all of Kigali, I understand) - armed police, security guards and soldiers every 200 or 300 metres along the street. So I feel very safe. The security guards on our apartment block are very friendly, and helpful if you need a taxi.

Our street runs along a ridge (one of the many ridges in Kigali - it's pretyy hilly) and as soon as you move away from the top of the ridge everything quickly becomes much less modern, and the roads that go down the hill are anything but well-constructed. There are signs that some of the older little shops, bars and houses down the hill are being torn down and replaced with modern structures - and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.


Next door we have a largeish hotel which has a very nice French-style patisserie which is very useful for Sunday breakfast. It also has a very nice bar. On the other side of that is a little shopping plaza with a couple of small supermarkets where we can get the basics - i.e. beer - and a little cafe called the Havana Klub which makes pretty good pizzas. So far this is the only restaurant I've experienced here, but I'm looking forward to trying some of the huge number of good restaurants in Kigali once I get time.

We cater for ourselves quite a lot and have been doing pretty well. My contribution has been chook (note - not "chicken") in red wine which I slow-cooked for four hours - the only way to prepare meat here, since animals and birds only make it to the table after having lived long and useful lives. We haven't been cooking much in the way of vegetables as we haven't had a chance to get to the main market, which I'm assured is quite amazing. We'll manage that on Saturday. You can get some veges at the supermarkets but the choice is very limited. Fortunately the lunches that DGIE have been providing us with at the workshops contain a lot of vegetables.

Washing our clothes takes a bit of an effort - washing machines aren't common so it's done in a big bucket in the bathtub. By the time I get to do mine I've been on the road for two weeks, so it's a big job and takes up a large part of Sunday.

We're on the third floor so we have a nice view from our balcony across to the next hill - very pleasant for breakfast ....

View from our balcony

.... or for a cool beer after work!