Butare

Hello,

Not a whole lot to report. I gave an exam last week and was
busy with grading it. And a colleague was sick so I took his
game theory class. That was fun - hadn't thought about that
stuff since I took the class in college.

The week before I went to Butare - that's where the National
University of Rwanda is. It's a couple hours south of here.
Butare is a much smaller town than Kigali. It's also spread
over many hills but here in Kigali the valleys are filled with
slums. In Butare the valleys are mostly undeveloped. It's very
pretty. I finally got to go to a museum after two months here!
(Not counting genocide memorials.) I did once see a sign for a
Natural History Museum a couple kilometers from the guest
house at KIST and have twice gone to look for it, but I never
found it. Anyways, there's a nice museum in Butare (a gift from
Belgium to commemorate the 25th anniversary of independence).
Here it is:


They don't allow photographs inside, but there's a a botanical
garden behind it. I've put up a bunch of pictures of fauna in
previous posts. This is the flora edition.




Before going to Butare I went to Gikongoro (the city has a new name
now - I forget it) to visit a particularly sad memorial. It is in
an area very near Nyungwe National Park. The setting is stunning,
with steep hills that are terraced for farming. It's very incongruous
to think of what went on in this gorgeous place 15 years ago.

I saw this bird there. Click on the photo to check out its tail!