7. RWANDA BEDSIDE READING

A few weeks prior to my trip to Rwanda there was a used-book sale at the mall and I found a Time-Life book on Africa's GREAT RIFT VALLEY, the area that includes Rwanda:


Rift Valley


I used it as bedside reading (it never failed to put me to sleep) because I wanted to be able to recognize the geographic features of the land we'd be flying over.

For the first several days in Rwanda I didn't have anything to read (not having brought a book with me). But during the final day of the Conference I met the lady who edited IKAZE, the In-Flight Magazine of Rwandair Express. The word IKAZE means "We Welcome You".


Magazine


Isabelle had been living in Rwanda since a year after the genocide and we had an interesting conversation about the changes she had witnessed in the past twelve years. However, it didn't take long to read every article in IKAZE and then I was stranded with nothing to keep me going except the daily NEW TIMES newspaper and a new one I discovered named FOCUS.

But FINALLY I learned of the existence of the KIGALI LIBRARY which also had the best bookstore in Rwanda, and before leaving on our road trip on Sunday we went there and stocked up:


Thousand Hills    Murambi Bones    French Rwanda


I found three books I'd been wanting to read and the dvd of a film by Rwanda Cinema Center produced by Eric Kabera:


100 Days DVD


I gave Kevin the book about Murambi to read (because we'd be visiting there on our road trip) and I started in on LAND OF A THOUSAND HILLS which is described on the inside cover as "like sitting down for a long chat with a good friend who's been away - it's satisfying conversation well worth waiting for."

By the time I got back to Canada I'd read all three and they're much-valued additions to the Rwanda bookshelf of my library.

A week after arriving back home we watched "100 DAYS" which brought back memories afresh of Rwanda where all of the movie was filmed.

go next to 8. KIGALI CHURCH & MEMORIAL or back to INDEX

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

email: orwelltoday@gmail.com
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