Rwanda Recap Day 8

First, some technical issues. I changed the site around last night. Dropped the burgers bit for the plain 'ole Cy Blog. Also, the old link should continue to work, but the new link is http://blog.uible.com

After settling in for the first of what ended up being 6 nights at the Hotel Gorillas, we headed back to the Serena Hotel for a morning prayer service headed up by Beverly Sallee. Then a huge breakfast buffet. Then orientation at 9:00.

The group with which we were travelling was suppose to include Diane Kennedy, who is one of the founders of Maui Millionaires as well as the author of several books. Late into the planning stages she found out that she would not be able to make the trip. Bummer. I know she and her son would have loved it. The plus side is that her other partner, David Finkel, who happens to be a friend of mine, would go and through Bevely's contacts they found this guy named Forrest who has led 10 trips of Americans to Rwanda, to be the coordinator for the trip. Forrest is the former youth pastor for Saddleback Church (Rick Warren - Purpose Driven Life) in California.

After some formal introductions Forrest begins to tell us about the country and what we will experience and the people we will meet. I was still drinking coffee trying to stay awake after such an awesome breakfast. I did get to sit next to Beverly for most of it and it was really fun to get to know her better. Plus, I really like the name of her philanthropic organization.

With the orientation over, a representative from the US embassy came over and talked to us a little about the country and all the investment activity going on. He basically said the country is very stable and very safe and that there were a lot of international companies coming here to look for opportunities.

After his talk it was time for a beautiful buffet lunch. (I'm really starting to like this place.) Then, we were off to the Genocide Memorial in Kigali. It was a much more tourist friendly place than the one in Gikongoro, but it was just as meaningful. This is a picture of a mass grave there followed by a stained glass window inside the memorial.

We go back to the Serena where we have a follow-up discussion with a minister of the Rwandan government named Antoine. In the post genocide era the Rwandan government has set up a Ministry of Reconciliation, whose main job to help the country move forward from such a terrible disaster. It was a very passionate and spirited discussion, but afterwards we were quite exhausted from such an emotional day. We headed back to our hotel to take a nap before the big dinner.

The organizers of our trip had set up a nice dinner at the Serena in the evening and had invited the President of Rwanda to come. The President's office informed us that he would not be able to make the dinner, but there would be several people at the minister level who would attend. (same as cabinet level here in the states).

I think I lucked out. I got to sit right next to David and Paul at a small table with the minister of foreign investment along with his right hand guy, a director named Williams. We had a really fun dinner discussing every aspect of investment in Rwanda. See their website here.

I talked a lot with Willams through the meal and by the end of it he was telling me that all I had to do was go out and pick the most beautiful spot on Lake Kivu that I wanted to build a vacation home on and he would take care of procuring the land. What service! Now that I've seen Lake Kivu, I may take him up on that offer. It's incredibly beautiful...and there's absolutely no one one it. Though I suspect that one day there will be many.

With full bellies, David made a speech, the ministers made speeches, and we headed off to bed dreaming about all the possibilities of doing business in Rwanda.