“I want to help you”

This morning I woke up and decided to visit the King’s palaces in Nyanza. The Kings palaces are the main/only tourist attraction in my town. The guidebook said it was 2km from the town so I set off on my walk. The trouble with finding things in Nyanza (and most towns in Rwanda) is that there are no street names and the signposts for attractions are quite vague.  But, because one musee/palace is on a huge hill, as long as I kept that in my sights I felt reasonably okay that I was on the right path.  After 10-15 minutes of walking I started checking in with people along the road in KinderFrenGlish that I was in fact on my way. All of the sudden, a man comes up behind me and says“I want to help you”

Maybe its because I am from New York or maybe its some deep internal damage, but I am pretty sure that everyone who: a.walks behind me, b.speaks to me and c. offers to lead me somewhere is plotting my murder and subsequent chopping up of my carcass into little pieces. I tried to tell him that I was fine, but he insisted and we walked along the road together chatting in English. Derek is a University student of veterinary medicine and speaks Kinderwanda, French, English, Swahili and a little Ugandan. I made the Rwanda faux pas of asking about his parents and he told me his father had died in the genocide. He moved on from that topic and onto American music seamlessly and soon we arrived at the King’s Palace. Then he shook my hand and walked off to my repeated shouts of “Murakoze Cyane! Thank you! Asante Sana! Murakoze!”

Traditional palace

Now for the history lesson. There are 3 palaces in Nyanza. The first is a traditional one. Kings lived here until 1931 when the Belgians deposed King Musinga for refusing to convert to Christianity. They installed his son Rudahigwa as King and built him a new modern abode. In 1957 the King decided he wanted a new, bigger and more modern home and began building a new palace on a hilltop nearby.  The King died before it was finished in 1959 and never lived in it. For 1000 RWF ($2) you get a guided tour around the first 2 palaces and then sent off along the road to the third.

Door to King’s Bedroom

Ceiling of traditional palace 

Palace constructed by Belgians in 1931

I was walking along the road on my way to the last palace, that is now an art museum, when a bus with 2 men pulled up beside me and asked me where I was going. They said they would take me to the museum. I got in thinking they probably weren't going to kill me but that they might try to charge me an exorbitant amount for the short journey. But, when I got out, they wouldn’t let me pay at all! So, the lesson I learned today was that it seems possible not everyone is actually trying to kill, rob or maim me. Apparently, in Rwanda sometimes people do just actually want to help you. This doesn’t mean I am going to start wandering down any dark alleys with strange men (ahem…Michelle) but still a nice lesson to keep in mind.

Palace finished in 1959

View from Balcony