Kigali through the glass

Living in Kigali can be pretty boring once you’ve been here for a long period of time. There is that overwhelming feeling that you have seen it all. Every evening seems like a repeat of another. The feeling of confinement is obvious especially if you are visiting from another country. However, one thing I have learnt about this country is to always be open to new surprises. With the speed of development at hand in the country I would not be surprised if I woke up in the kind of Kigali I dream of. So the other day when a friend encouraged me to visit the spectacular golden Top Tower hotel, I thought “why not?” I have been there but maybe this time they have a new thing for me to experience. They have a casino don’t they and haven’t seen one of those anywhere here. So when I arrive at the hotel I am expecting a surprise and that’s what I get. Like I said I have been here but nothing has ever taken me further than the first floor and so when a waiter welcomes me to a bar 8 eight floor above I raise my eyebrows and embrace the chance gladly. What welcome me here is deem coordinated lighting that gives the room a somewhat elegance that I had not imagined. And the open full wall windows promise a view they should charge for. They say that Rwanda is the land of a thousand hills but the truth of the saying is only felt when one comes in a clear view of the breath taking Landscapes. Here eight floors up I encounter the full beauty that is in Kigali. For a moment I forget I haven’t made an order yet and I carefully walk to the windows. Behold is the magnificence of multi-coloured lights adorning neighbouring homes. Road side lights showcase the beautifully aligned road network. People can be seen going about their work across the city, some walking hurriedly while others are just leisurely while chatting with their friends you can’t help but smile and get a little more into a reverie of the moment. The moment can only be described as a sanctified one; this is where dreams are born. For a moment am lost of this world and am captured by the sight I crave to behold. The hills, the light, the people, the buildings all together in a picture of perfection. The bar man smiles and welcomes everyone as they come in and the waiters are only too glad to serve another new customer. As soon as a person walks in they immediately move to the windows speaking earnestly about how it is easy to spot places from here. “That’s my home” a man says while pointing to a house he seems to be the only one who can see it. Suddenly my reverie comes to a halt and a waiter’s smile urges me to sit for a while and enjoy a glass of wine or maybe a cup of coffee. Filled with beautiful furniture the bar is is nothing less of inviting. The prices of my drink seems so little in exchange of the experience but silently I sip away thinking of how wrong I have been about Kigali if places like this exist and I still haven’t graced them But then it is Rwanda a land of surprises. Ends