Rwanda Part 1

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I met up with Alan and his teammate Patrick at the bus station in Kampala and boarded together. I was sitting next to Alan. He warned me when we got on the bus to put on my seatbelt. I thought that to be a bit ridiculous. The only time I had ever worn a seatbelt on a coach bus was in Australia because it's the law (and yes if they catch you without it on they will kick you off the bus). I asked him why I should put on the seatbelt and he said it's because the roads are very bumpy and it'll help to keep me in my seat.
He was right. The bus to Rwanda was extremely bumpy. I'm not even sure if bumpy is the word to describe it though. Had I not worn a seatbelt I would have probably fallen out of my seat. There were large bumps that would send a majority of the bus passengers into the air. When we didn't have the massive catapult bumps we would have the pleasure of extreme rumble strips. It's a word that I use to describe the combination of rumble strips and speed bumps.
After some time the driver stopped and said "we stopped for a short call". I learned that the term "short call" means a bathroom break.
I got back into the bus and continued to sleep while getting a message from the bumpy ride.
We got to the border around 5:30 am and it was cold (sun was not out yet). The border is near the mountains of Rwanda and the outdoor temperature and the shock of waking up both added to the cold.
We got through the border without much of an issue. The great thing about traveling to Rwanda is that there is no visa fee for Americans (Uganda is $50, Kenya $24, and Tanzania $100). After getting my stamp I then waited outside of the bus as customs searched all of our bags. When entering Rwanda your bag must get searched for plastic bags. For environmental reasons plastic bags are illegal in Rwanda. It's probably easier to get drugs into the country than plastic bags.
We stood there with our bags in hand as the guy searched us before entering the bus. One of the passengers I guess didn't really get the message beforehand. He had all of his things in a plastic bag and went up to the person opening the bag ready for inspection. He was a bit surprised when the customs official told him that everything in the bag is fine but the bag itself cannot enter. I'm not sure what he did with his stuff.
We got back in the bus and headed for Kigali (the capital of Rwanda).

We arrived around 7:30 in the morning and then got a special hire taxi from the bus station to the rugby club house. Negotiating the taxi was a bit difficult. I was told that French was the language of Rwanda but I found that it's as helpful as knowing English. Most people speak the Rwandan language, Kinyarwanda. On the way to the place I immediately noticed that they drive on the right side of the road (Uganda it's left) and the roads are really nice and the streets are very very clean.

I got to the rugby club house and surprisingly there were a couple of people awake. They greeted me and each said "we're glad to have you here". It was a bit of a relief since I felt out of place not being a rugby player. We all just sat around. I took a shower (still cold) and then we sat around and ate a small breakfast. After breakfast we just played some cards and then ate lunch at the house. They had someone cook them their meals and clean up which was really nice. I didn't have to do anything. I just hung out and ate meals. I told them I wanted to go to the genocide museum and that was the only touristy thing I knew to do. One of the players, Jimmy, took me there after lunch before their team practice.

We took a boda to the museum. In Rwanda they have a law that all of the boda drivers must wear helmets and provide helmets for their passengers. I took a video of me riding one with my stylish helmet. It's funny because the helmets are usually the same style and color as the drivers so it looks like your a family or part of a team.

We arrived at the genocide museum and had a walk around. I then realized that this was the third site that I had been to where mass genocides had happened (Auschwitz in Poland, and the killing fields and S-21 in Cambodia being the others).
I had been very interested in learning about it (it was portrayed in the movie Hotel Rwanda). The museum was very well done. It went through the history of the country and the events that led up to the genocide. To me it's one of the greatest tragedies. I keep on trying to find the right word to describe it but it always sounds wrong. I will have to explain myself when I say that the even was just unreal and to an extent fascinating. Not fascinating in a good way but just remarkable that something that terrible could happen. The whole country just turned on itself and in 100 days they murdered over 700,000 people. People were hacked to death by machetes, shot, burned. It just seems like absolute horror. I think one of the worst parts is that it was normal people who were committing the crime. the In the museum they showed interviews with some of the survivors. They talked about how family friends had turned against them. They would talk about how they would invite these people over for dinner, their kids would play together, they had even lent them money when they were in need. It was these people that they had been friends with and helped that ended up murdering them. A survivor described it as "it seemed that not everyone but most people were evil, 5% were good, 5% were neutral, and 90% were evil". On the top floor was probably the most disturbing part of the exhibit. There were pictures and stories of the children who were killed in the genocide. They would have a picture and say their name, age, favorite food, favorite sport, then last words or last sight, and how they were killed. Most were hacked to death by a machete. One talked about how the boy was forced to kill his family before being shot in the head. Outside of the museum they have a mass grave and some gardens. The person that I went to the museum with always kept a little bit of a distance. He said the he didn't really feel too comfortable there. He wasn't there when it happened he was in Burundi but he said that it still made him feel uneasy.

After the museum we headed over to the rugby field for the team's practice. Near the rugby field there was a crafts market so I was able to spend my time in there while the team was busy practicing their plays. The crafts market had many of the same things as in Uganda so I didn't buy anything thinking that I would just buy it in Uganda.

After the practice we got a ride from the team president back to the house. When we got back I went with the teammates who live in the rugby house to get some fresh milk. It's a tradition for them before and/or after the game to go for milk and samosas. I was a bit confused then I saw that yes there is actually a place to go and get milk. Throughout the city you can find small places where you drink fresh unpasteurized milk. I was a bit skeptical drinking it at first. We don't really trust unpasteurized milk in North America and you can't really trust many things in general in Africa. I decided to go for it anyways. The milk was actually very good and had much more flavor than regular milk both due the fact that it was unpasteurized and whole milk.

After that we headed back to the house, played some cards, ate some dinner, and then went to bed.

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