Time for another!
There are some stories to catch up on here. First, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol lives up to its ranking as the second-best airport in the world. It is wonderful. I cannot stress that enough; all of the gates are arranged around a single main hallway (called “Holland Boulevard”), and between the gates are a host of interesting things to do: there is a museum, a library of Dutch culture, a children’s play area and a whole bunch of very interestingly designed seating areas. They also designed the whole place along a “Holland” theme, which is fantastic: directional signs and lampshades made of blue-and-white porcelain, tulips everywhere, cafés where the tables are inside of teacups… I really loved it. They even had luggage storage lockers (alas, charging by the day so too expensive for me) and quick, two-hour tours of the city tailored to mid-length layovers.
Another interesting thing was that all of that seemed to be before security—unlike J.F.K., which puts all of its duty-free shopping and attractions on the other side. The consequence of this was that I had to empty my pockets onto another conveyor belt before getting on the flight.
The flight itself was very nice. I am impressed with KLM. They served good food, and more of it than I had expected, and both of my flights went through without a hitch. The Amsterdam–Kigali leg had what looked like about an even mix of Rwandans and Western tourists/idealists. Some of them clearly didn’t speak English (and thus had trouble getting through security), and it was less than encouraging to hear that our flight was being briefly delayed so security could check through one passenger’s hand-baggage “exra-carefully.” That all worked out, though.
Our descent into Kigali was interesting; it was about 7:00 p.m. and the sun was long gone, but the city’s lights illuminated the contours of the many hills on which it is set. I saw the altitude reading falling on the seat-back screens, but had forgotten that the airport itself would be on a hill so I was surprised when we touched down despite being a few thousand feet above sea level.
Kigali International Airport is certainly smaller than Schiphol and J.F.K.; its location on a hilltop surrounded by residential zones restricts its potential for expansion, so the Rwandan government is contemplating construction of a new one in the near future. The current one does what it needs to, though: I walked from the plane to the passport control area, then downstairs to the baggage claim and out to the arrivals hall where a woman was holding a sign with my name on it—all smooth and without a hitch.
We had a fairly lengthy drive from the airport in Kanombe to the house in Nyakabanda (Nyarugenge); I got at least a little bit of a feel for the city on my way. From the quality of the pavement, it could almost be in a developed country; what gives it away is how people drive. Motorcycle taxis (motos) are everywhere, and use ability to get through as a much stronger guiding principle than the rules of the road in their driving. Navigating streets with large numbers of both small motos and rather large minibus taxis (matatus), looked very difficult—especially in a stick-shift like our driver was using.
I am staying with a Rwandan family that consists of a husband, wife and two small children. The husband is away on a business trip for a few days, so the wife came with a driver to meet me at the airport. I was very happy to find that she does not speak much English. This will force me, at least when talking to her, to speak Kinyarwanda and understand what she is saying.
Over dinner (which was very good), I did my best to find words complex enough to communicate my ideas, and she tried valiantly to find simple ones to convey hers. For the most part, it worked; I speak slowly, and often had to ask her to repeat herself, but now I feel better about saying on my résumé that my Kinyarwanda is “conversational.” If this is any indication, I managed to figure out the word for “diarrhea” (by asking what you call it when there is water in your poop), and then successfully communicate that “it is possible I will get diarrhea after eating this food, but it is all my stomach’s fault and I don’t want you to think there is a problem with your food, which is really good.”
On that note, it has been four-and-a-half hours and no adverse reactions yet. Fingers crossed. Tomorrow, my host-mother (as I will call her from now on) says she will show me around the city a bit and bring me to buy a new phone. Now, off to my first night ever slept under a mosquito net!
Vocabulary Words for Today
- inda: stomach
- índâ: louse
- isákû: high tone
- ínkôko: chicken
- inkooko: bean-flipping thing. (My host-mother couldn’t figure out how to explain what this was, so she went and got one. Having seen it, I still don’t know how to explain what it is.)
- guhitwa: to have diarrhea
- ni u bwa mbere: this is my first time
- kwíipfuna: to blow one’s nose
- ibimyiira: mucous
- gukórôra: to cough
- kwíitsamura: to sneeze
- itasa: teacup
*Vowels with an acute accent (e.g. á) have a phonetic high tone. Vowels with a circumflex (e.g. â) have a phonetic falling tone. Vowels with no accent have a low tone. Vowels that are doubled are long.
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