Sim Centre Opening: birds, goats and vuvuzelas

Michelle and I joined Bona today for a three-hour hike in the hills around Nyamirambo. One doesn’t have to walk far to leave behind the busy streets – shops, motos, trucks and oodles of people – to enter a completely different world. The surrounding hills resemble rural Rwanda far more than urban Kigali. Birds are abundant, the air smells of eucalyptus and people live simply as they have for years. The exception to this is the new developments near the hilltop where large houses are sprouting up for the emerging middle and upper classes. Bona described these houses as "cut and paste from North America".

This is a walk of contrasts: old and new, rich and poor, rural and urban. It is reassuring to enter this natural environment only a short walk away from our apartment.

Michelle has gone off with Christophe to the first game of the African Cup in Amahoro Stadium. It is a huge deal for Rwanda to host the cup. Games will be played in Gisenyi, Butare, Nyamirambo and Amahoro. As much as I would have loved to beam in for 10 minutes, I just couldn’t face 6 hours of vuvulezas, dodgy toilets and close quarters with 25,000 of my best friends. And then there’s the traffic to get there. Michelle was told that you must arrive early as they shut the gates 2 hours before the game. She’s all decked out in her Rwanda team t-shirt. We are not sure if cameras will be allowed in, so you may have to rely on a verbal description when she resurfaces tomorrow.