Goodness in Rwanda: The Documentary: 3:00 am in Kigali

3:00 am in Kigali after a smooth process through the airport. All of our luggage has arrived. "That NEVER happens", says one member of the crew. We are lucky so far.

We load up our luggage, equipment and humanity into three vehicles and drive the hills and curves of Kigali. It is dark, we've paid our money and we have no idea what is going to happen to us. We check into The Hotel Des Mille Collines to find that our rooms hadn't been paid for. Volcano's Production Manager, the intrepid Rick Banville, puts the actors' rooms on the company card but finds out that the rate is not in American funds (as expected) but Euros. Hmmm.

Up in our rooms sleep surprisingly escapes us so we open up the duty free for a night cap standing on the balcony listening for the threatening buzz of mosquitoes. Looking at the night sky and the moon, we realize collectively that we are below the Equator. 10 people cram into the tiny WC to flush the toilet. Does the water swirl the opposite way than in Canada? Yes, it does.

In the morning, the logistics. Phones, Currency. The Volcano Fixer, Laurette Kabanyana, herds the company out of the hotel to the UTC - the new mall located next to the Milles Collines. An MTN Pay-as-you-go cell phone in Rwanda costs the equivalent of $19 CAD , quite a change from Canadian cell phone costs. A phone card with 6,000 credits costs 5,000 Rwandan francs, roughly $10 CAD, which gives you about 2,000-3,000 minutes of calling within Rwanda. SMS's are widely used here - they cost half the credits of a call.

The group winds down brick sidewalks to a money changing shop, fondly referred to as the "Hole in the Wall". There seem to be as many currency exchange shops in Kigali as there are Starbucks in Vancouver. Each member of the group enters the small office behind a locked door and sits down to do business with the owner, but our fixer has taken us to the nearest shop with the best rate of exchange from USD to Rwandan francs. The personal touch here in financial matters reminds one of banking as it was done 1900-1950 - person to person, over a desk. (Incidentally, crisp bills of high denomination are more highly valued, and if you have USD issued in 1996 or previous, they will not be accepted).

There are two framed Million dollar bills above the wicket - one with Obama's face, one with Kagame's face. Just below the ceiling in the centre back wall, far above every other object on the walls, we see a framed photo of President Paul Kagame. This is something we will notice in every establishment as we spend time here; the photos is always placed at the highest point of the room, just below the ceiling.

Money and phones in hand, we take breakfast at the hotel (the best coffee we've had in days), and load up our bus for Butare.

It is one o'clock pm, and the road trip is just beginning.