Rwanda Recap Day 9

The next day was a busy one indeed. Most people in our group were headed off to the airport in the morning right after breakfast. They were going to ride a helicopter around the country and visit a couple different locations.

Myself, Liz, Tom and Christine had some other appointments set up so we did not make the trip. Our first stop was a 10:00am meeting with the U.S. Ambassador there in Rwanda. It was walking distance from the Serena so we headed off for our appointment. After getting cleared by the guard we were escorted into this little waiting room kind of like a doctor's office except packed with people waiting to try to get visas. There's also this big security window on one side of the room with a marine watching over everyone. Pretty soon we were ushered into the embassy and went through another super thick security door. We were informed that the Ambassador was not available, but that Danny, his economic guy (the same one that talked to us at the hotel), would be able to meet with us. Here's a picture of Danny:

Of course this picture was at the Serena since there are no cameras or cell phones allowed in the Embassy. We did have a good conversation with Danny. He was very frank and honest about the current situation in Rwanda. We asked him about some concerns we had regarding security and political stability and his answers were quite enlightening.

Basically...Rwanda is very safe and they are taking our advice seriously on how to rebuild their government. Reforms are happening, but there's still a long way to go.

We asked him about the growing ex-pat community there in Rwanda and what their needs might be to which he replied "Everything!" I think a little American style hamburger joint would really fly there in Kigali, especially after seeing how well Bourbon Coffee was doing after being open for only 2 months.

We rescheduled to meet with the Ambassador himself later that day (4:00 or so) and headed back out to the streets of Kigali.

Our next appointment was with the Governor of the Rwanda Central Bank. (same thing as our FED....well, not exactly the same but you get the idea) We talked about what it would take to start a bank in his country, both commercial and micro-lending. We talked about what the biggest needs were in Rwanda. For example, there are no long-term loans/mortgages for real estate. If you want to buy a house, you have to pay cash or borrow the money from a commercial bank that will charge 20% interest and only loan you the money for 3 - 5 years. Wow, that's expensive! Want to be a pioneer / extreme adventure entrepreneur? Take $10M to Kigali and start lending out money for 20-30 year loans at 10% interest. Get someone like OPIC to help manage the risk and hire someone who knows how to run a bank. You'd be the only game in the entire country that has a rapidly growing middle class.

I wish I had a picture, but the Governor had the sweetest office. It must have been at least 1500 s.f. with this nice outside balcony on 2 sides. We sat in the living room area on nice leather couches while discussing the financial hurdles he is trying to overcome.

Afterwards we get an interesting phone call. Kira (one of the coordinators for our group) called us to say that the President of the country would like to meet with our group at 1:00. Nice! So they cancelled the rest of the helicopter tour and we all convened back at the Serena as soon as we could. Luckily we were already dressed up from our previous meetings.

We all pile into this bus and head over to the Presidential compound or offices or whatever they call it. We were again put through security where they actually let us keep our cameras but not our cell phones. (I tell ya, all this no cell-phone stuff is really funny. I'm thinking about instituting the same policy at my house. "You're welcome to come in, but you'll have to leave your cell phone outside.")

Before we know it we are all standing around this large circular conference table that has maybe 20 or so nice leather chairs and each station has a microphone and a laptop. It's either a nice place to have a meeting or the most decked out LAN party setup you've ever seen.

We waited in this room for about 20 minutes. And then someone came in the room and we all stood up....false alarms. It was just one of his aides. We all sit back down. Williams, one of the RIEPA guys, who is with us and helped to set up the meeting, just says to watch him. If he stands, we should stand.

Another minute later, H.E. Paul Kagame walks in the room. He goes around the table and shakes all of our hands. He takes a seat and welcomes us. We all get to say a few words quickly about who we are and what we do here in the states. I thought about saying "I'm Cyrus Uible and I'm a blogger." just to see what his reaction would be, but I chickened out and just said something about real estate which is mostly what I do anyway.

After that Mr. Kagame told us about what they are trying to accomplish in Rwanda and what they are looking for from the outside investment world. Again, to be brief, he said that the world has given Africa over $500 billion in aid...where has that money gone? His country is not looking for aid, they are looking for investment. They want people to come to Rwanda to do business. Then David, our fearless leader, said a few words about what we are doing and 3 people got to ask questions including Liz. Way to go Liz! I don't even remember the question she asked. I just thought it would so cool that she was asking the President of Rwanda about something important.

The meeting lasted for about 30 minutes then we went outside to take this photo. Liz and I almost got cut out but you can still see most of our faces.


What a day. And it wasn't even over. Tom and I had an appointment to go back to the U.S. Embassy for our 4:00 appointment with the Ambassador. We rush back and get there either on time or a few minutes late. We are taken again through the security hurdles and we are in another conference room with the Ambassador. This conference room was not nearly as nice. More like something you would expect in a regular old federal building that didn't directly belong to Congress.

We asked the same questions that we asked Danny earlier in the day and got roughly the same answers with a different twist. Overall it was a good meeting. Another first for me personally. (meeting with a U.S. Ambassador overseas in his embassy) We then headed back to our hotels to wash up and get ready to go out for dinner. On the schedule was a place called Repulika. It serves traditional East African fare and at night becomes a popular night club. The food was excellent and we were all so excited about the day we just had. We talked and laughed and retold stories. I sat next to Ed and had a chance to really get to know him and what he was working on in California. Did I mention the food was excellent. See if this doesn't make you hungry (assuming you're not a vegetarian):


Yes, I do take pictures of the food I eat.

Stuffed, we called it a day. Tomorrow...more high adventure awaits. Coffee...Lake Kivu...and entire village comes out to greet us!