Day 16 Saturday, January 27 Rest Day in Kigali

by Henry

Our first hint that Rwanda would be very different was the strict entry requirement that no single use plastic bags be brought into the country. They reserved the right to go through our bags at the airport and remove any such bags found. We were happy that Ziploc bags were allowed.

We had six new segmental riders, and some additional TDA staff, join us in Kigali. Some are going all the way to Cape Town, but others are doing a shorter segment. So we've had some new people join our little traveling community.


Gorillas are their national treasure, and varying depictions of them are seen everywhere.




Views of completely empty Kigali streets on Saturday morning. We happened to be there on the fourth Saturday, which is Umuganda, a national holiday every month. From 8 to 11 AM, there is mandatory community service for everyone aged 18 to 65. Everyone honors this commitment. Service can be in the form of street cleanup, homebuilding for the vulnerable, or any other community improvement project. A local told me that neighborhoods organize themselves into groups of 10 households. Each group then carefully plans their monthly project. Kigali has won the award as Africa's cleanest city. We saw a few vehicles appear after 11, but traffic was completely back to normal by 1 PM. It is really amazing that the whole country can row together in the same direction in this way. 

Similarly, Kagali has "Car Free Days" between 7 and 10 AM on the first and third Sundays of each month. Certain major roads are blocked off to allow for safer walking, running, bicycling. 


After breakfast, we went on a self-guided Rwandan genocide historical walk. Our first stop was the Belgian Peacekeeper Memorial, where 10 Belgians were massacred right at the beginning of the genocide on April 7, 1994. There are huge bullet holes in the wall.


Hotel des Milles Collines (Hotel of the Thousand Hills) where 1,268 took refuge during the genocide. This event was made famous by the movie " Hotel Rwanda". 


Sainte-Famille Catholic Church, where thousands of Tutsis and Hutus tried to take refuge. However, many ended up being raped, tortured, or killed here, with the priest being complicit.


The Rwandan Genocide Memorial proved to very sobering; no surprise. An estimated 1 million Rwandans were killed. There was an auxiliary exhibit on other genocides through history. Vicious cruelty is apparently an unchanging human trait.


Good use for old tires.


From the Genocide Museum, we took an 80 cent moto-taxi ride back to the hotel. These yellow and red-helmeted motorcycle taxi drivers swarm the city and are incredibly efficient at getting from point A to point B. Rwanda's helmet law is strictly enforced, and when there is no passenger, the driver simply carries the extra helmet on his arm.

We had a 5 PM rider meeting at the hotel, after which our bikes and permanent bags were loaded onto the truck.

Jeff had made an appointment with Sam Joseph's good friend, Emmanuel Mainevent, an extremely talented multimedia artist with worldwide clients. We were picked up by his driver at 6 PM, and whisked away to his art gallery/restaurant, which used to be the former Belgian Embassy in Kigali. Many famous people have visited the gallery, including Prince Charles in 2022 prior to his coronation as King Charles. U2's Bono has also been here, which is not surprising with his activism against AIDS in Africa.  All of the displayed artwork was very impressive.


Amethyst rocks in a metal cage.




Recycled computer motherboards and other hardware components.


A larger project, again with recycled computer innards.


Hard to see, but each light is in a basketball hoop/net as Emmanuel is an NBA basketball fan. The embassy property is on a hillside with an all encompassing view of Kigali.


Dinner was extravagant and delicious, all courtesy of Emmanuel. Dessert for me was watermelon carpaccio with mango sorbet.

It was a delightful and memorable end to our short stay in Kigali. We have an early wake up tomorrow with a bus ride out of Kigali by 6 AM (to beat the heat). We haven't ridden now for six days, so all of us are looking forward to getting back in the saddle, even though it is going to be a challenging ride with significant elevation gain, and a rough unpaved stretch of road.