Muraho! We have been in Rwanda 25 days today.
Our new home, as we expected, is beautiful. The garden is filled with wonderful plants and mature flowering shrubs that are familiar to me from previous posts in Africa and Latin America, although I have forgotten a lot of their names. Some time on the internet should help with that.
The beautiful shrubs are filled with a variety of birds. Unfortunately, some of them seem to live in the time zone we left behind. We have the birds that sing at 2 a.m., those that sing at 3 a.m., 4 a.m. and so forth. Ending with the ones who tap insistently on our bedroom window for several minutes every morning at 6.
Kigali has changed so much since we lived here 10 years ago. It’s much bigger, but it’s also more attractive. Many more roads are paved; the potholes are mostly gone. Amazingly, there are sidewalks almost everywhere. The many new office buildings and homes now also landscape the areas outside their walls along the streets, and it is rare to see a bit of trash.
Beyond the prettier facade, the general atmosphere seems far brighter and more optimistic than when we last arrived — time has naturally played its part (it’s 17 years since the genocide, not 7), but also the results of 10 years of good governmental management are tangible and impressive. The levels of crime and corruption are rated pretty low and basic health care is becoming more available to all.
The city is now implementing an ambitious urban master plan, which will be very interesting to observe over the next few years. And in December, a remarkable public library will open — possibly the largest in East Africa and the culmination of work initiated by Kigali’s Rotary Club about 11 years ago.
Hugely better now (the proof is that you’re reading this) is the commercial internet service, which was generally lousy 10 years ago — I would not have had the patience to upload blog pictures then. Now, our home service is not far behind that we had in Washington.
This was always a nice place to garden since the weather is so mild and the (two) dry seasons are relatively short. But before, there were no plant nurseries in Kigali (that I ever discovered anyway). Now I’m told there are a few really good ones, so I’m looking forward to the paperwork on our car purchase going through so I can go out shopping and exploring.
I’ll be sharing more photos soon.
enclos*ure 
Awesome!! Thanks so much for the photos. It’s nice to see you back online and blogging!:)
I think that plant with the long red flowers is a Chenille plant….it was one Maria saw long ago and was amazed that there was a plant that looked like her favorite play thing!:)
xo
Hi, that certainly sounds like it would be the right name.
What a beautiful place! Dolores is correct—that pink fuzzy-fingered plant is called a Chenille plant.
Your ‘gorgeous’ looks like a cycad. You can transplant them, but I would ask someone who knows, when is the best time etc.
Beautiful pictures and amazing story. On another note, I doubt you can judge the performance of Rwanda based exclusively on Kigali. There are talks of a fast rising inequality which automatically simmers ethnic/political tensions. Good luck in our beautiful country!
Absolutely beautiful. i look forward to hearing more about your time there.
Cindy, the azaleas look lovely. It looks like you might have a few banana trees, too and some birds of paradise.
We do have some tall birds of paradise, but unfortunately their leaves got absolutely shredded the other day in a hailstorm, so they look a bit ragged. But I noticed today that some blooms are emerging.
I miss those adorable Love-in-a-Puff plants you had at your Kigali home 10-years ago. So beautiful.
I’d love to hear more from you about how Kigali has changed.
Cindy, congratulations for your first post from Rwanda! Your new place looks spectacular by I knwo ti tkes tme to adapt to a new situation, more to a new garden. I can help you with the “palm tree” in one of the images, it is a cica revoluta, I had one for some years in the South of Spain and it was very tough I moved it from original site to a better position in the garden and did not suffer, but it was smaller when I did it. I have seen many in Mallorca this summer, they an grow inmensely. This a link to wikipedia for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycas_revoluta.
Thanks! Interesting to read on the link that it is so poisonous to pets. We had one in Niger, but happily our dog never paid any attention to it.
Cindy, It’s great to see your beautiful new garden and to hear that you are getting settled in. -Jean
Dear all,
Thanks so much for your comments and for the plant IDs. (Sarah, it’s so good to hear from you! I am going to order some Love in a Puff seeds so they can grow up through the rosebushes.)
I am going to post something new soon. We got very social last month, and I’m also missing working on our Mac, which is sitting in a crate in Antwerp at the moment.
Take care, Cindy