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Published: February 18th 2010
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So to start this update, let me quote our favourite book of the moment - The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski - “Our subject is Rwanda. It is a small country, so small that in certain maps of Africa it is marked with only a dot. You must use the accompanying explanatory notes to discover that this dot indicates Rwanda.”
It is fair to say that Rwanda is a very tiny country, less than half the size of Ireland, and when you look at it on a map it is very hard to understand how it ended up being a separate country at all, and not part of one its much larger neighbours: Uganda, Tanzania or Congo. The answer is immediately apparent after you cross the border from Uganda. In Dee’s words “Rwanda seems very hilly!” The irony is that a “hill” is probably a word invented by an Irish person due to the lack of any decent mountains while Rwanda is a country with little or no land below 1,000 metres and therefore being almost entirely mountainous has no hills at all.
And it is this landscape that has earned Rwanda the title of “The Tibet
of Africa” whilst maintaining it as a separate country with an interior that no foreigner or colonial power was able to successfully conquer. But we gave it a go!! Needless to say, we did not succeed and just ended up holding on for dear life as we careered around bends both up and downhill whilst staring at cliff edge drops and maintaining an altitude of about 1,500 metres above sea level.
The Genocide
But unfortunately for this beautiful country, it is not for their amazing scenery and picture postcard landscapes that they are most well known. It is for the genocide that took place here while the world stood by in 1994. Over 1 million people were killed at the hands of their friends and neighbours when the Hutus killed Tutsis in their hundreds and thousands. The fact this took place so recently is incredibly haunting for any tourist to the country and you cannot help but see it in everyone’s face and silently ask yourself the question “Are they Tutsi or Hutu, victim or aggressor?” We can only guess at the guilt that these people must carry with themselves on a daily basis. But we
also felt a sense of guilt. We easily remember Rwanda being in the papers not so long ago. We, and the governments that represent us, let this happen. How? Why? These are the questions we inevitably have to ask ourselves. And while in Kigali, the capital city, it is evident that many foreign governments have asked similar questions of themselves. The city is by far the richest and most cosmopolitan that we have seen in Africa, and the guilty foreign aid money dripping from every new bank building and muti-storey office block is marked.
While in Kigali we visited one of the many genocide museums which outlines the facts behind the lead up to the 1994 genocide, and enables locals and foreigners to learn more about the background and causes of Genocide. The location was also a burial ground for about 250,000 bodies. The chilling thing about this burial ground is that, as the events are so recent, bodies are still being recovered today and are being brought here for burial on an ongoing basis. The sad tales presented at the museum are very real and recent and leave a lot of food for thought. Mass genocide has taken
place at least four times in the 20th century: Germany, Cambodia, Yugoslavia and Rwanda. A lasting question for us was what is to stop a genocide happening again elsewhere in the world?
Lake Gisenye
In Lake Gisenye we were reunited with our Gorilla smitten mates Stylo who had plenty of stories to tell. I swear we were not jealous at all, like not even in the slightest!! There we spent a few days staying in a place called Paradis de Malahide. For those Irish amongst you, yes there is a link to Dublin, with the hotel owner calling it after their favourite place in Ireland where she had spent a whole year. Little strange to pick Malahide, but our eyes are open for Paradis de Fermoy in Tanzania, or maybe Paradis de Ballygarvan in Malawi!!
The lake here is beautiful and the accommodation pretty flash in comparison to the rest of Africa. But we brought ourselves back to ground level by arranging to camp in the gardens lakeside for a fraction of the price instead of one of the amazing villas.
Kigali
So with its slick modern feel, imported western brands
and swish wifi internet connections the only thing lacking in the modernity of Kigali and its buzzing cosmopolitan streets is that you probably could be anywhere in the world…. That is not to say we did not enjoy it. Actually, we really liked being able to drink nice coffee and eat some western food. As they say a change is as good as a rest, so we took full advantage of the ability to stock up on Mocha’s and BLT’s. Yum.
The Cube
One of our favourite quotes of the trip so far came from Miss Estefania - aka the better half of Stylo - who turned to Mylo one day and said: “You did not hear what I said because you were with your cube!” It is only fair that I mention Mylo and his Rubik's Cube at this stage as I am sure he will not mind me telling you all it has become a bit of an obsession for him. And after many hours, no days and days of hard work whilst travelling from both Mylo and Niall (who remembered completing it previously but then strangely could not remember how to do it
again) I am pleased to announce that it is now complete. Roll on the Rubik's Cube World Championships 2011!
So there you go a snippet of our tales from Rwanda. Apologies for a slightly more sober blog entry, but we have tried to be honest with what we have seen and felt. We are just about to make a beeline for Tanzania where a 3 day journey awaits us over to the Serengeti to catch up with travelers of a four-legged kind in the massive wildebeest migration. So Tanzania is the next update.
All the best everyone,
Dee & Niall
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Sally
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love reading your blog, it all sounds amazing! hope you continue to have such a fabulous time xxx