1) I can't believe the people I saw could be the same people who at one time in recent history were capable of genocide. They seemed so gentle and non-confrontational compared to the people on the street that I've encountered in Benin and Nigeria, for instance.
2) What a beautiful city! Kigali is one of the cleanest African cities I've ever seen. The last Saturday of the month is reserved by law for community clean-up. It has large traffic circles enclosing beautiful flower gardens, wide boulevards, and new shopping centers. Not to mention, the moto taxis are all four-cycle and not the noxious 2-cyle motors we have in Cotonou, and all riders must wear helmets (see below).(I can't imagine seeing the streets lined with bodies and flowing with blood, but that was what this city looked like only 15 years ago.)
3) I could not believe the number of foreigners flying into and out of Kigali on Kenya Airways. Must mean lots of development going on.
4) I did not know Rwanda grows amazingly good coffee!
5) I did not realize the Mille Collines Hotel is so small. It was the focus of the film Hotel Rwanda and the novel Sundays at the Pool in Kigali.
6) Hard to believe there is only one local language: Kinyarwanda. Most African nations have more than one. Benin has 52 languages and dialects. Many times language is a divider and barrier for discrimination.
7) English is spoken by almost every person without gray hair and American dollars are readily accepted.
8) Below is the Nazarene Center in Kigali on a main boulevard between the airport and downtown.
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