Kigali - first fortnight

 I’ve been in Kigali for a fortnight now, suffering in the heat and avoiding the mozzies, so I think it’s high time to write things down so I don’t get lost down the memory hole in the ravages of time.

When I thought I was coming to Rwanda, originally scheduled for May 2020 before the world closed down, I had contacted various networks, not necessarily for academia but just so I would know some local people there who I could meet for a coffee and could tell me the lay of the land. Informal fixers, if you will.

My first stop was, of course, the Rwandan branch of the Overseas Liverpool FC Supporters Club, or the Rwandan Reds as they’re known. After all, I was going to need somewhere to watch the end of the potentially historic 2021/22 season – League Cup already won, FA Cup, League title and European Cup all there to be claimed.

Once contact was made, I decided to chance my hand with the Rwandan Green Party. When you’re a Green, you’re part of a global family – the Global Greens, in fact. So I just contacted the info@ address on their website, and the next day got an email back from Frank Habineza, founder, President and current MP in the Rwandan parliament. Which was unexpected. He has a mighty and terrible story to tell, which I'll post about later.

I was also in touch with Germaine Hirwa, an academic a fellow member of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. Germaine has been brilliant in helping me negotiate the bureaucratic maze that foreign academics need to negotiate in order to conduct research here.

 It’s hot here, as you’d expect, but not excessively. Even though it’s an equatorial country, Kigali is 1.5km above sea level. Which keeps the temperature relatively cool all summer (mid 20s), but also makes exercise really hard! Plus, we’re at the end of the rainy season heading into summer, but occasionally the heavens still open and a 30 minute downpour erupts.

I’ll do separate posts on each, but here’s a brief overview of the nonsense I’ve been up to so far: so far I’ve been for dinner with the President, Vie Pres and Treasurer of the Democratic Rwandan Green Party, am fully installed with the Rwandan reds at the Iwacu +250 bar, nicknamed the Anfield Road/Kigali Branch, been out running up and down the Kigali hills (much to the general bemusement of the locals, seeing a sweaty, red-faced, blue-eyed white bloke charging around the neighbourhood!) and took part in the Kigali 5k Night Run, and affiliated myself with the University of Rwanda, in the Centre of Excellence in Biodiversity and Resource Management.

 And, you know, done a bit of PhD research, too.