Blogs from Province de L'Ouest, Rwanda, Africa - page 2

After receiving our expensive Congolese visas we continue north towards Gisenyi. The road is good for the most part so it's a pleasant few hours, although quite humid in the rain. On the way we stop at a school to watch some traditional Intore troupe. The school had only just finished so the playground is full of children, we are the main attraction of course. As I step out of the car, they all scream 'hello' and 'how are you?' and hold out their hand to shake. I end up having to shake about 30 hands, it's like a red carpet experience. Then they all start to cling on, so I am suddenly moving in a surge of about 100 children towards the classroom, hilarious. The Intore troupe are half men and half women, the men ... read more

Jennifer is working for Manna Energy Limited, a company bringing clean water to Rwandan communities. The water is sent through gravity-fed gravel and sand filters to remove any large dirt particles. Although the water is clear at this point, it still contains some bacteria, so it passes through ultraviolet light to kill any remaining organisms. The ultraviolet lights are powered with solar panels. Since people are using solar power rather than boiling their water with firewood, the project reduces the demand for firewood which is very scarce and expensive. Manna is able to earn carbon credits as a result of saving Rwanda’s forests, and this is how we will generate income. The water treatment systems are scalable, so they can provide drinking water for 500-5000 people for free. One of Manna’s first water treatment systems was ... read more

Having been told yesterday by the guy who had previously volunteered at my project that he trekked for 15 mins to see the gorillas and then went home, we were all a bit deflated expecting a proper trek to find the 'wild' animals! So when we set off in our 4 wheel drive at the crack of dawn i got chatting to our driver and a guide we picked up about the different groups and how we were keen walkers and wanted a proper trek... there's no harm in putting in a plug (if that is even an expression!); if you don't try you won't get as they say. We were first to arrive at the tourist office and as more and more people turned up our chances of going to group 13 seemed slim - ... read more

it's been a great weekend, i got up at the crack of dawn on saturday to get the bus to Lake Kivu in the west.... which is apparently one of the world's biggest lakes by volume or something like that. anyway we managed to get a bus at 8am and what a journey we had!!! Rwanda is named the land of a thousand hills and seemingly the east where i'm living doesn't host many of them and they're all in the west! the bus trip was 2 1/2 hours and over two of them hurterling round bends in a packed bus in the heat. Needless to say we felt pretty rough.... and thought it was only us until the guy next to me got out his towel and proceeded to be sick!!! never have i been ... read more

Another day, another adventure! My goal today was to see Lake Kivu and I accomplished that. The lake is 100 km long and covers 2,200 km2 and it’s among the 20 deepest and 20 most voluminous freshwater bodies in the world. I took the 8:10am bus from Kigali to Kibuye, a two to three hour trip depending on traffic. I was a bit unsure about the bus since all of the ones I usually see are very crowded, but the ticket cost $8 round trip vs $150-$250 to hire a car for the day so I decided to give it a try. I got to the bus station area early since I wasn’t quite sure how I’d find my bus. All of the bus company run out of the same area and it’s often chaotic. I ... read more