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Published: October 19th 2008
Kigali
Veiw from the Genocide Museum Apologies for the long absence, I was in the DRC for the past 5 days and the internet there is abysmally slow and the charger for the laptop stopped working.
Last Thursday was Yom Kippur and seeing as there are no synagogues in Kigali, I thought that going to the genocide museum would be a good place for reflection etc. The museum is really amazing and incredibly moving. It is split into three sections inside and then there are gardens outside and mass graves of about 250,000 people that overlook the city. The downstairs of the museum documents the history of Rwanda from the start of colonialism and then goes into the history of the war and the genocide. Everything is written in English, French and Kinyarwanda and throughout there are movies that have facts and testimony from survivors. Upstairs there is an exhibit dedicated to eduction about the other genocides of the past 150 years, which was also accompanied by video. The last exhibit was dedicated to the children who were killed in the genocide. There were 5 rooms that had 3-4 blown up pictures of children on the walls with plaques underneath which detailed their names, favorite foods,
Kigali
Veiw from the Genocide Museum personality, and the way they were killed. It was so simple yet heartbreaking at the same time. The gardens outside are beautiful and feel very calm, it is hard to imagine that 15 years ago it was the site of massive killings.
Last Friday my cousin and his roommate started the process of brewing their own banana beer. Don't be fooled, this stuff is not for the weak, it tastes like bananas, drinks like a beer and is 16%. Bad hangovers are pretty much a given when drinking it. Anyway, we spent Friday afternoon driving around the Rwandan country side bargaining with locals to buys an obscene amount of bananas and a umuvla which is pretty much a hollowed out tree (kind of looks like a canoe) which you bury the bananas in so that they ferment into alcohol. A bunch of people came over to their house to start the process. After burying the bananas we consumed a lot of banana beer to celebrate, a good night.
Saturday was accompanied by an unfortunate headache and waves of nausea. Note to self, just because it tastes like juice, doesn't mean I'll feel peachy the next day. Being the
Genocide Museum
Plaque in Genocide Museum on the mass graves troopers that we are, J and I hopped on a bus to Gisenyi which is on Rwanda's western boarder with Congo. Four hours and many winding turns later we arrived feeling worse for wear. We went to the Serena for dinner which was very nice, the waiter recognized J from when he sang at a concert in Kigali which was quite amusing.
We spent Sunday on the beach in Gisenyi on Lake Kivu, it was really relaxing and beautiful. We met a few interesting people who worked for NGOs in Goma, the city on the other side of the boarder in the DRC where we were heading the next day. We also met a bunch of soldiers from MONUC (the UN mission in Congo) when we went for coffee at 10am, all of whom were pounding back beers like it was their job. We walked around the town for a bit that night and walked up to this huge church on a hill that overlooked the city where we were surrounded by kids who wanted us to take their pictures. They we so excited by the camera and being able to see the picture right after it was taken.
Genocide Museum
View of Kigali My internet is running out so more to come on the 5 days I was in the DRC to come.
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noxybrown
Noxybrown
sounds realy great. Im heading that way in december and I am travelling on my own. are there any real good backpackers? any other things i should consider? what is the cost of the gorilla trip?