This February, I had the incredible opportunity to spend about 10 days visiting the East African country of Rwanda. Indeed, you may have already seen my previous story for AirlineReporter about my flights to and from the country. But what I wasn”t able to do in that story was talk about my impressions of Rwanda itself. As someone who had never travelled to Africa before, I immensely enjoyed my trip to Rwanda and would highly recommend visiting to someone curious about the region.

I spent most of my time in Kigali, Rwanda”s capital, and biggest city. Kigali left an interesting impression on me because it felt very much like a city of contrasts. Some neighborhoods (like those around government buildings and foreign embassies) have a lot of new development. I saw impressive glass office buildings, luxury hotels, new apartments, and shopping malls.

That said, other parts of the city show that many Rwandans don”t enjoy these luxuries. On my first day there I had the chance to take a walking tour of Kigali”s Nyamirambo neighborhood, run by the Nyamirambo Women”s Center, a local charity. This was a great way to see what seemed to be a more typical Kigali neighborhood.