Looking for even more information and wonderfulness about Kigali and Rwanda? Each of the blogs and websites and newsy type sites listed below will give you an even greater glimpse into what life is like here for us foreign invaders. They all offer up a unique, personal perspective on life here and I think you should drop what you’re doing and go read them. All of them! There are some fine tidbits of information and insight and whether you’ve been living in Rwanda for years or are yet to arrive – you should find something useful and entertaining among the blogs below.
Oh and if you know of any blogs that I’ve missed, please let us all know about them in the comments!
Kate Hannon – Kate on the Road
Kate is a friend of mine and she’s funny and creative and her blog is a wonderful read. She doesn’t write as often as I’d like but when she does, it’s worth the wait. This blog is about all of Kate’s travels but Rwanda is where she happens to be at the moment and she’s written some great posts with (hopefully) many more to come.
Read this if… you like cartoons and laughter and Rwanda.
Graham Holliday – Kigali Wire
This is kind of a combination news and blog site with some fantastic photos intermixed. The site’s author, Graham, is also the Reuters correspondent for Rwanda and he links to the articles he writes which tend to be more in-depth than what’s found on his blog. It’s a really interesting mix of content (with links to Rwanda-related articles around the web) and if you want to stay on top of what’s happening in in Rwanda, you should really be reading this website. This dude seriously knows his stuff and is passionate about Rwanda and it shows.
Read this if… you want to stay on top of current events and news in Rwanda and look at pretty pictures.
Mark Darrough – Portrait Rwanda
This one is less of a blog and more of a photo journalistic type effort – and an amazing one! Mark is a talented writer and photographer and the topics he chooses are really interesting. He takes a journalist’s approach, constructing blog posts and stories that go beyond the surface
Read this if… you want great photos coupled with compelling stories about a range of topics.
Sunny Ntayomba – The Things Is…
This is a simple-looking site with some hard-hitting content. There’s no contact information or ‘About’ page so I’m afraid I can’t really tell you anything more about the mysterious Sunny Ntayomba. What I can say is that his site is political and seemingly well informed. I don’t know much about politics in Rwanda and the surrounding area, but it seems like this person knows their stuff. The lack of dates on the blog posts is a bit frustrating but, based on the topics of some of the most recent posts, it seems like this blog is updated fairly regularly.
Read this if… you’re looking for an opinionated blog about politics and policy.
Helaina – Helaina in Rwanda
Helaina left Rwanda in April 2012 but the posts are her blog go back to her arrival in August 2010 and are a great mix of posts about her personal experiences, opinion pieces and photo essays. She offers up a really thoughtful and well-written look at life in Rwanda.
Read this if… you want to read about a personal experience in Rwanda from start to finish.
Sean Jones – The Jones Experience
Sean has written a couple of fantastic tourism-related posts for this website while also managing to the Rwandan Orphans Project Center for Street Children (he and his girlfriend also blog about that experience on ROP Stories) which sounds like a handful! His blog is heavy on his personal experiences in Rwanda which make a great read, especially for people yet to arrive who are hoping to get a feeling for what it’ll be like. Each of his posts come with some really great photos to go with the interesting accounts of life in Rwanda as the manager of an orphanage.
Read this if… you want a personal account of life in Rwanda with some great photos.
Cindy – Enclos*ure Take Refuge
The focus of this blog is gardening with a wide variety of places and topics covered. The author is currently living in Rwanda, though, so there’s a lot of talk about life here mixed in with some general gardening posts, articles on agriculture in Rwanda, and a variety of garden-y type photos.
Read this if… you have an interest in growing things in Rwanda and gardens in general.
On the Sunny Ntayombya site you see the dates while moving your mouse over the star like logo!
Good sites! Thanks for the links!
Hmmm… for being one that knows a lot about Rwanda and Kigali, it’s a bit strucking that you don’t know that the ‘misterious’ Sunny Ntayomba is one of the top political columnist of The New Times, the main newspaper in English in the country!
Then you do say that you don’t know much about politics… it might do you some good to read a newspaper from time to time, while sipping your coffees in you expensive expat bars
I know! I’ve been saying that for ages. Read newspapers… my resolution for when I get back.