The Expo

Each year there is an exposition in Kigali. I'm not sure for how long this has been going on, but I know in the recent past its been here. I had first heard about the Expo from one of my students since I had complimented her on a top and she told me she bought it at the expo. The expo was the first week of August, and luckily since school was moved back students were able to attend, and my student invited me to go with her. I accepted.
I met my student and her older sister(which I had already met before) in town and we took a bus out to the expo. It was located on what we might call a fair grounds, or something of the like. We had gone in the early afternoon which I was informed was not a busy time to be there, but there was still a good number of people around.
There were huge tents and stalls set up. All the major companies in Rwanda had a booth. Then there were all the random merchants from leather goods to jewelry to irrigation equipment to the super chopper(something you would seeon infomericals). Some of the stalls were even separated by what African country they were from. It was a good time to just browse and walk around and look at everything. Then there were all the food and drink stands attached to the concert area, where they had DJs playing music. At this point in time it really was a family atmoshere. There were children dancing and winning prizes, and children dressed out in their finest. Overall a pretty fun time. As I was walking around with my student we ran into another student of mine who was working there and I got a free hat from the booth she was working at. score for me.haha.I love free stuff, who doesn't.
In terms of shopping I wasn't doing much, only browsing. But still it wasa great time, and I was really happy that I had gone.
The expo went on for about 2 weeks. The first time I went it was the beginning of the expo in the afternoon. The next time I went was the second to last night of the expo, the night before students had to go back to school, and it was night time.
Wow. The expo was crazy packed. I loved it. I loved the crush of people, the way you have to walk with the crowd, you go where they go..It felt like I was in a city..haha.I'm serious. And oh, the people watching. It was so good. Even at like 9pm the mix of people was so diverse. From families with newborns to friends and couples. If you can imagine it, most likely those people could be found. My friends I was with were not too keen on it, they just wanted to sit around, but I enjoyed walking in the crowd. I will admit that like any fair, what happens in the evening, heavy drinking, which leads to what, drunk people. Now me being white sure draws some attention, so I did have a few runins with some dunk men wanting a kiss but no harm, no foul.Plus my friends protect me..haha.
After we had walked around for a while we found a nice place to sit and watch people[one of my favorite activities]. Not only had we found a comfy place to sit, but we also were at a perfect place for watching. The booth that we were sitting next to had a camera set up to a big screen TV, so if the people were paying attention and looking at the TV they would see themselves walking past the booth. This obviously yielded great results. The faces and actions they did once they noticed they were 'on camera' were priceless. And to make it even better, from our vantage point the people didn't always notice me so I was able to do some of my own staring without always being stared back at, aka perfection.haha.
Overall the Expo was a good time and I was happy that I was able to go twice. Next year I will totally go back. I'm not sure if I will buy anything, but purely for the sense of crowdedness and people watching, it would totally be worth going.