By Sarah Nabakooza
While having my Christmas healthy vacation with my elder sister Patience in Kigali city in Rwanda, a driver that we had hired to drive us around asked for my hand in marriage.
My love for taking pictures and recording videos drew the driver who picked us from the bus stop and was responsible for driving us around closer to me without my notice only to end up being offered a house and Land in the land of a thousand hills.
It was on day two of the trip when the driver confessed his feelings to me as we drove to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre at Gisozi in Kigali.
He said he was ready to start a new life with me and promised to love me passionately, build me a house and take good care of me if I agreed to marry him and stay in Rwanda.This handsome driver almost got me up in the clouds with all the praises and promises.
Although the day later ended in sad moods after visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial center where were learnt that it shelters remains of over 250,000 people that who fell victim to the 1994 genocide.There is a short four-minute video of survivors recollecting events that happened before their eyes in the genocide that you watch before proceeding to the museum.
The museum is a home of tools and weapons used in the destruction and it constitutes three permanent exhibitions, the largest of which documents the genocide which help in giving Rwanda’s nightmare a historical context of before, during and after the genocide.As you finish the tour in the museum, there is a children’s memorial which has photos accompanied by intimate details about their favorite toys, their last words and the manner in which they were killed which you read with tears rolling down.
It’s later that you move to the graveyard where you notice a few banquets of flowers where the curator told us that the bereaved families and friends come to remember the victims and they believe their souls are resting in peace.
After the genocide Memorial, we drove to the Kigali convection Centre in a somber mood but still experienced beautiful scenery and Christmas, new year designs at the Centre and we coupled our memories with photos and memories as the driver continued to throw love lines and promising my sister to take care of me.this was end of day two of our two-day Christmas vacation in Kigali that started the previous day with a drive around town coupled with different stories and history of Kigali and an extensive lineup of meals to whet the appetite of the most sophisticated palate washed down with various drinks outlined in the carte du jour of the hotel where we were sleeping at.
We passed via the Kigali Genocide Memorial gate unfortunately we found the place closed like many other happening places it being Christmas day. We had no choice but to go back to our hotel and rest. We passed via the Bank of Kigali which is next to the president of Rwanda’s home as the driver narrated then to BK Arena and Kigali city hall while the driver took pictures of me and my sister.
As we moved around, you could notice a few brands that were familiar back home in Uganda like KFC, Rubis petrol stations, among others and also noticed each motorcycle (boda boda) carries one passenger and both had mostly red helmets.
Keenly observing the streets of the clean city Kigali, the other means of transport used in the city included cabs where most of them branded ‘yego cabs and buses with majority of them branded KBS and a few Costas.
It’s a month now after I returned home to Ugandaand I am wondering if I should say yes to the amazing driver because all the memories of Rwanda are still stuck in my mind and it’s obviously a place I would love to stay for the rest of my life.
