I’ve been thinking a lot more seriously lately about buying land in Kigali and eventually building a little house. I still get asked the question: “So… you can live anywhere in the world and live here? Why??” by puzzled people fairly often which, before I left for the summer, really had me asking myself the same question. Since leaving for the summer and missing this place almost immediately after departure, I’ve come to the conclusion that, though it might seem strange to many people, I do really love it here and want to live here… at least for the foreseeable future. I’ve done a good job in surrounding myself with friends who also love it here and are here for the long term which makes my supposedly crazy life choice a little less crazy.
Many of the friends I’ve surrounded myself with here have started businesses. One has created The Office, an affordable shared office co-working space meant to also encourage entrepreneurship and collaboration in Rwanda. Another is about to start City Arts, Rwanda’s first art centre where children and adults can take visual arts and dance classes on a weekly basis. I’m excited about both of these projects and it’s getting involved in things like these and becoming friends with creative entrepreneurs who also love living here that make me excited about my plans to stick around for awhile.
Part of my plan for sticking around for the long term is to buy a piece of land somewhere in or near Kigali. Land prices in the city aren’t crazy cheap by any means, but they are affordable and I keep hearing rumours about plots of land on the outskirts of town for as little as US$2,000. Not sure if that’s the case still or where exactly I want my little piece of Rwanda to be located, but these are things I’ll be looking into in the new year.
One thing that I’m really excited about is the City Arts garden. A friend of mine has taken on the role of gardener guy and he’s got a large rectangle plot to work with. I spent yesterday morning helping him and a couple of Rwandan guys hoe up the weeds which was really hard work but it’s got me excited to be involved in this project from start to finish. Part of the reason I want to buy some land is to create an amazing garden on it and being involved in this will allow me to learn a lot. I have a little experimental garden at my house and a small nursery so it’ll be great to do things on a larger, more permanent scale. It’ll be a really fun project to be a part of and it’s these sorts of opportunities that make me really like it here.
I’m not sure if my dream of building a cob house in Rwanda is something the government (who are slightly obsessed with ‘progress’ which, in their eyes means concrete and steel) would allow but it’s another thing to check out in the near future.
So, all up, having a group of friends who choose to live here and do amazing things, getting involved in some cool projects, and just continuing to enjoy my life here means that I’m really comfortable where I am and ready to get a bit more settled by buying a hunk of land somewhere. It’s all kind of exciting and scary and confusing at the same time and I’m not sure what my next step is… but I guess I’ll be going land shopping in the near future! Bring on the gardens!
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