Holidays - the Rwanda part.

Hello everyone!

I'm currently back in good old faithfull Jinja for a couple of days of mid-placement training so thought I'd best grab the oppurtunity to tell you all about my travels over the last 2 weeks. I've been exploring the SW of Uganda and Rwanda with 4 of the volunteers.

The holiday officially started on Saturday the 24th March with a crazy night of dancing in Jinja untill 6am with Cat to celebrate having made it to the half way point! I've found the cure for hangovers - just don't go to bed! Then essentially you need a massive Ugandan breakfast of lots of chipaties, pineapple and eggs!

On Sunday we headed to Kampala - my first trip to the capital. Can't say that I liked it all that much. It's just a big, bustling, dirty city. It was very odd seeing so many cars and high rise blocks and offices after so long. We were only there for the night though as Monday morning we caught our coach to Kigali - the capital of Rwanda. The epic 10 hour drive was surprisingly good fun. For starters we had a full size coach and a whole seat each which doesn't happen with public transport in Africa! So I was pretty content with my music, lots of biscuits and watching Africa go by. The scenery was amazing. The change in landscape from the rolling hills of Kampala to the mountains of the SW was pretty dramatic. Then there was the border crossing. As soon as we set foot in Rwanda it felt and looked really different! Its a pretty wealthy country for Africa and it was really noticeable. The roads were actually good, the cars looked new and even the mud huts have tiled roofs! We stayed with a friend of Ian's from America doing an internship with the Rwandan government I think?! (Anyway she was working on a genocide awareness and prevention training programme. One of her housemates was interning with UNICEF!!! And her other housemates had set up their own 'project' going around Rwanda filming the good work of others. You should check out their website www.80percentangel.com They've come out here as volunteers and are trying to find an audience for some of the amazing people they have come across trying to help Rwanda rebulid itself. I thought it was such a great idea as Africa, and Rwanda in particular are shown in such a negative light in the media). Kigali's a beautiful city, though I didn't feel as if I was in Africa! Its all so new and clean, with fantastic mountain views. Being a French colony the French influence is really noticeable, so I felt as if I was in some European lakes and mountains resort!! Apparently you are supposed to be able to 'feel it in the atmosphere' that there has been a genocide but none of us would agree. Yes the place was so clean it felt a little sterile at times but the people are lovely and very friendly. We spent a one day at the genocide merorial centre, which was done really well explaining before, during and after the genocide. It got a little draining though reading all the personal tributes and I couldn't bring myself to go in the room full of skeletal remains - glass cabinets full of skulls!

So after a couple of days in the city we traveled north to Lake Kivu to stay at Gisenyi. This was a pretty wierd experience!! We arrived after dark and wanted to find somewhere to eat but there was no power so finding the town was pretty difficult! So reliant upon the Lonely Planet travel guide as ever, we headed down to the lake shore where all the good restaurants were reccomended. It was an absolute ghost town - barley a soul about! All the hotels were shut up. The only place with lights on was the Sereena Hotel (big posh place) so we ended up eating there, with the whole place to ourselves. Apparently its quiet Mon-Thurs!! The next day was no better! We headed down to the lake to picnic on the beach which again was pretty dead. 5 muzungo soon draw a lot of attention though and it wasn't long before lots of Rwandans were walking past. Soon feeling pretty edgey with all the attention we were drawing we thought we should leave, but one of them was demanding we pay him cos he told us to be careful with our stuff. We told him to get lost of course (very nicely) but he proceeded to follow us back to where we were staying and wouldn't let it go. The guard at the hostel said he couldn't do anything about him .... but that all changed when he nabbed my bag with EVERYTHING in!!! Not to worry tho - I chased him and created a distraction by aimlessly grabbing for the bag while Ian surprised him from behind and snached it out of his hands, followed by a stern warning!!! Then the guard was conviced we were telling the truth and got us a police escort to the bus station!!

Think I've typed quite enough for one day!! I'll save the adventures of SW Uganda for another day.

Happy Easter!! Hope someone has a cadburys cream egg in the post to me!!!!

Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

---

---