Escaping Kigali for the Day

Saturday, Taran and I had our colleague's car, so we drove down toward Butare, which is in the southern part of Rwanda near the border with Burundi. We only got as far as Nyanza and the national history museum there because we got a late start due it being community service day.

Just outside Nyanza was where the Mwami (king) during the late 1800s decided to build the first permanent royal capital. Previously, kings had 50-60 dwelling throughout their lands.

The existing museum is a few kilometers away from the actual 1899 settlement.

We weren't quite sure what the museum was or where the King's Palace was in relation. After circling around a one-way loop twice, we just decided to park and turned up at an official looking building looking very confused. Did I mention that there are pretty much NO signs for anything here (including streets and major roads) so its easy to be confused or at least that's what we told ourselves? Turns out the history museum is in the last King's palace, which was built by the Belgians for the Belgians' hand-picked king in the early 1930s. The history information is inside this building. Of course!The building itself is in a beautiful location on a bluff overlooking pretty gardens and, of course, more of those thousand hills. Some pictures of the palace and environs are below.

So, after we figured that out, we got tickets for the palace and the "huts", which are reproductions of the original kings huts that they have started building on the palace site. In all, there would have been 15 and the king's hut, but they've only gotten 3 done so far (the king's hut, the all-important beer hut, and the milk hut). We basically got a private tour by a lovely woman named Mary, whose husband actually supervised the building of the huts in the traditional manner. She's in a couple of the pictures below. Eventually, they will build all 16 on the site. It was a fascinating perspective of Rwanda's history.

The King's Hut

The ceiling of the hut and the inner sitting room for the king. The first four rings on the ceiling represent heaven, thunder, earth, and the netherworld.

Mary showing us a woven grass "straw holder" for the wooden beer drinking straws. She said that of course now they don't share straws...everyone must have their own straws because of diseases.

Wood milk jugs with woven grass tops and fired clay pots for holding beer. The beer taster and the milk taster were very important as they were responsible for picking the best of each for the king. These jobs were passed down through families.

After our tour, we had to head back to Kigali so that we'd get back before dark. I did take a few pictures of the landscape on the way, including a picture of some guys playing soccer in a distant field.

Sunday, we had a wonderful brunch at the Serena hotel. It was a bit crowded as the WHO African regional meetings are this week, so all of the ministers of health and their staff are in town and have filled the hotels. After, we went to an artist's village and bought some baskets, wood carvings, and cow dung painting (they are really cool, actually). The government gave the land to the vendors and they built the stalls.

A very good weekend!

(PS - sorry about the bad formatting - still trying to figure out how this darn thing works!)