Dealing and Wheeling in Kigali

Here I was at 5.00 pm seated at the terrace of my hotel waiting for my dinner. The servings are so big, that I decided to have one meal a day at around this time. The terrace has around 10 tables 3 of which were occupied including mine.

This was on Monday 20 July 2009 in kigali the capital of Rwanda in East Africa. Kigali has the same time as the European standard Time in summer.

At the occupied tables, each had a laptop since wireless internet is available for customers. On my table I was the sole occupant. On my left was also a single occupant. However, on the 3rd table 5 men were seated all staring at the screen of the laptop.  Suddenly all of them rose up fast and ran out of the hotel premises. They left the laptop unattended to.

I could see them through the hedge outside. They sorrounded a vehicle and sort of talked in loud whispers. I could not get what they were saying. They returned as suddenly as they left. They were all smiling. One of them had huge wads of Rwanda francs!

From my experience with Rwanda currency it could have been around 8 million francs, the equivalent of around 10,000Euro. They first argued, then one of them made some calculations on the laptop and they divided the money amongst themselves. I don't know whether it was in equal proportions or not. Soon they were all smiling and laughing. 4 of them left and only one with the laptop remained.

It left me wondering, what deal they could have cut today!