At the Iris Guesthouse...

At the Iris Guesthouse...

Lots of Muzungos come and stay at the Iris Guesthouse. 70 US$ a night does keep most Rwandans away. It also keeps all backpackers at bay. However, quite a few Rwandans come through the Iris Guesthouse... They come, sit down, share a drink or a meal with the Muzungos – most of whom working for NGO’s or part of a company doing business here.
What brings them together? What binds them? What do they talk about? The Rwandan visitors all look very ‘professional’ in their Western style clothes. They park their nice cars (often 4WD’s) in the parking lot in front of the hotel. They speak impeccable English or French, according to who their interlocutors are. They are well educated and are all instrumental to the building of modern, westernised Rwanda. They belong to a new social elite based mostly on academic achievements. They represent a new type of intelligentsia who is used to dealing with white men and women, who knows how they operate and they are not intimidated by them.
It is very much a form of ‘us’ vs. ‘you’ type of discourse and interaction. Often the Muzungos will ask a lot of questions to the knowledgeable, articulate local informants and will feed these information to the organisation they work for and then move forward from there.
This is exactly what I find myself doing at the Iris Guesthouse. It is nice to talk to knowledgeable, intelligent and friendly natives. It is good to have a hot shower, to have electricity and free access to internet in your room... However ,I have decided that it is not worth 70 US$ per night and I will now stay at the modest but clean accommodation offered by the sisters at the ‘Centre d’Accueil Saint Francois d’Assise‘, where Soeur Josephine stays when she comes to Kigali. I will only use the Iris Guesthouse to meet people.