In the Land of a Thousand Walls

I live in a walled city.  But not the cute, ancient kind you find in stony, charming, European cities, where a crumbling wall surrounds the quaint village with cobblestone streets, and you can walk through tiny alleys lined with gorgeous, tiny stone houses with colorful shutters and flowers in the window box.

No, my walls don't surround this hilly city, but rather they surround every house, restaurant, and business here.  So driving down the street, or walking around your neighborhood, all you see is walls and walls and walls.  You can wonder and wonder about what is inside there - what kind of gorgeous abode, what kind of perfectly manicured garden, or interesting vegetables may be growing in the yard, or cute dogs laying in the driveway, or nice family enjoying a barbeque.  You can wonder, but you will never know.

Fortunately, Kigali is also a city of hills, so while up close all you can see is walls - there are also sweeping views of the opposite hills, with their walled compounds and pretty gardens visible from a distance.  There are also stark contrasts (as Africa is riddled with) like bougainvilla weaving in and out of barbed wire, avocados dropping on glass shard covered walls.

The greatest contrast ot all, and one of the things I am most puzzled about in Kigali, is the number of walled compounds compared to the number of "normal" houses that regular Rwandans live in.  I don't know how to be p.c. about this - I'm brand new here and basically understand nothing.  But these walled compounds are everywhere, literally covering - idk- maybe 80+ percent of the city?  At least that's how it appears.  Where do the regular folk live???  And who lives in all the mansions????

Kigali is expensive, in so many ways.  Rent ranges anywhere from $400-$6000+ (at least that's the range I've found.  Perhaps if your more of a veteran, or know where to look, you could find better?).  But usually the lowest you see advertised for a self contained house is $600.  We consider ourselves extremely lucky to have found a tiny one bedroom house for $420 (more on that when we move in...).  I don't know what the average salary is in Kigali, but I know it ain't enough to afford $400+ in rent, plus other expenses.

Aside from the walled compounds, there are also little settlements of more traditional houses - mostly made of cement, that are snuggled into hillsides and valleys.  But they seem to be few and far between, and I just don't understand how there's enough housing for everyone who makes a regular salary, and how regular Rwandans aren't infuriated that such a vast amount of their land is taken up by these massive compounds.  All the expats live in compounds (with poorer, younger, NGO workers and volunteers sharing a big house with a bunch of roommates - usually $400-$700/room, and with better paid professionals living in fancy mansions all to themselves and their families).  But there are way more compounds than expats, which indicates there are many well-off Rwandans, which is great.  But are there that many?  

A stinky pic of the more normal houses...will get a better one.

Where do all the moto drivers live?  The restaurant workers?  The shop employees?  The guards (who make about $50-$100/month)?  The housekeepers and nannies (same salary)?  The many, many unemployed?  It's a mystery.

I have never lived somewhere like this before - being separated from my neighbors by walls.  And a guard at every house.  I do not like it very much.  Actually, I don't like it at all.  But we must build community in other ways - by being friendly with the shopkeeper, by smiling on your evening walk, and.... other ideas?  This is something I am struggling with, but hope to learn.

It makes me miss Derrick, my neighbor in Bed-Stuy, who so often was sitting on his stoop with various friends, enjoying a smoke or a beer.  He'd bitch about work (installing A/Cs), or his back (he threw it out), while I told him about teaching, or we joked about Cat (who he claimed was definitely keeping the rodent population down in his building).  Or the other neighbors - the opera singer, his wife, and two cute kids, who would always ask about the chickens.  It makes me miss my neighbors in Belize and Thailand, who were a rather intimate part of my life - chosen or not.  So often, I'd wished for isolation and disliked sharing the necessary pleasantries with neighbors when I was exhausted coming home from work. Now, I crave them.

We will also soon be moving into our own walled compound, but we hope to meet some of our neighbors.  Every last Saturday of the month here is "umuganda".  Which is when everything shuts down, and everyone is required to work with their neighbors on a common task - cleaning up, helping build someone's house, cutting back plants, etc.  We haven't participated yet (it's not expected of foreigners) but hope to in our new neighborhood, in hopes of sharing something common, of working together, of feeling something other than isolated.  Behind a wall.