Gisenyi

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5th April

Today I wanted to leave Kigali so I got a motor taxi to the bus station and got on a mini bus to Gisenyi on lake kivu. The drive was ok the roads are usually in a good shape, it took about 2 hours via Ruhengeri.
When I arrived I got another motor taxi to the a hotel on the lake shore when we got there it was closed which im sure he knew so he took me to the only other place that I know in Gisenyi which turned out to be across the road from where the bus dropped me off! Later that after noon I went down to the lake Kivu and when I arrived a group of street hawkers surrounded me trying to sell masks and skins I really didnt want anything but then they wanted to show me more so they took me to some abandoned house where im sure they live, I really didnt want anything but then more people came so i thought if i just buy the cheapest thing I could go.So I bought 2 masks apparently from the congo, I eventually managed to get away! The lake front seems to popular with the locals as there were many kids swimming in the lake.
I continued to walk along the lake front and once again I got lost I ended up at the border crossing into the DR congo then I ended up in some dodgy area so I just got a motor taxi back.Gisenyi as with many other towns in Rwanda and Uganda is mainly on main road and that is about it so there wasnt anything else to do.

6th April

I wanted to go to a town called Kibuye today but first I wanted to go back down to the lake to take some pics, this time a guy came over to me and started talking to me I thought he wanted money so I gave him some but he refused it.It turns out that he is a guide called innocent and we ended up spending the whole morning chatting. He explained to me how he survied the genocide of 1994- his mother was a Tutsi and his father a Hutu, his father was told to kill his family but he didnt so he ranaway innocent and his 3 brothers and 2 sisters had to run away to Goma in the Congo. When they reached Gisenyi there were bodies everywhere even on the road that we were walking on as well as in the lake. They managed to get to Goma and his family was reunited but because they did not stay in a refugee camp the Aid agencies wouldnt give them food so he had to go in the camp to get food for his family. The camps were horrid lots of people dying from malaria,cholera and killings going on in the camp. As he tried to leave he was caught buy the interahamwe and was kept hostage as they thought he was a Tutsi spy!! He was tortured and finally escaped a few weeks later his family managed to leave goma and return to Rwanda. All this at the age of 10!!!
Innocent showed me around Gisenyi he took me to the 2 border crossings which were just mad there were people everywhere selling fruit, veg and fish. Families were taking radios tvs into the Congo aswel as cattle. There was also a a group of UN soliders and people from the red cross, its quite weird seeing them you always see them on the news or in movies!
He then took me through the villages were you can see the Nyiragongo volcanoe near goma (which erupted in 2002) once again everyone is looking at me and shouting mzungu. We then went back to his house were we had Rwandan tea and bread, he introduced me to his sister who showed me family pictures, he then took me back into town. It was nice having some one to show me around I would of never of gone through some of the villages and neighbourhoods on my own!
Anyway I went back to the guest house got my stuff and went to thre bus station I couldnt find the right bus no one speaks English so one drivers sends me to another guy then he sends me to some one else I got so annoyed why cant they have Names of the places they are going surely it will make things so much easier! Anyway innocent turned up and he helped me find the right bus. It was a big bus but we were all still cramed in like sardines, we then waited like 2 hours for the bus to fill up, while we were waiting people were selling stuff through the windows, you can buy almost anything, bras, sweets, clothes, fruit, veg, rice, sugar, bread, toys, posters and much more!
We finally left and we were on our way to Kibuye, the scenery was fantastic once agian tea plantations and villages. But it took forever to get there I was told it would take 3 hours well after stopping in nearly every village it took 5 1/2 hours to get there, I arrived in the dark and had no idea where to stay luckily there was another mzungu ( her name is Jessica from New Zealand) and we stayed at the same place.We stayed at great place right on the lake!

7th April

Well I woke up early to take some pictures of the lake which was amazing. I wanted to go to another town further south called Cyangugu but after being in Gisenyi thought there was no attraction so Jess and I decided to walk round Kibuye then head back to Kigali. Today is the 15th anniversary of the genocide so everything is shut, We went to another hotel for breakfast and we were followed by 2 kids who then wanted there pictures taken. We walked through the town centre and everyone seems to be going to the church or the stadium for the memorial. We then waited for 2 hours for the bus which went quite quick the little kids were amazed at our pictures of africa. Just before we arrived in Kigali Jess gets a call to say she left here passport and money in Kibuye so she had to head back and I stayed in kigali.

8th April

I meet up with Jess again when she arrived back from kibuye, we wanted to go to Bujumbura in Burundi so we booked tickets. In the afternoon we headed to a town called Nymata about 30kms out of town. We went to the genocide memorial site, the church was quite disturbing all the bones have been moved to a underground grave. All the clothes were left in the church on the benches they all still had blood stains on. The alter was covered in blood stain and on top were weapons that were used such as clubs, spears and machetes. On the floor, ground and roof you can see gun shot holes and were the granade blew up. Our guide explained to us that there were 10,000 people hiding in this church and on the 11th April 1994 the Interahamwe arrived and began shooting and throwing granades in. They then began to kill, it took them two days to kill almost everyone, children, women and men.She then took us down to the cellar where there are some bones and skulls on display, she explained to us how they were killed she then began to cry and told us that she survived but everyone in her family died here. I felt really insensitive taking pictures but she wanted me to she even wanted me to take a picture of her! We continued walking outside past mass graves and into cellars where all the bones and coffins are kept there were thousands of skulls and you could even see how they died either by a gun shot or hacked to death. There was one coffin on its own which contained a women who died a horrific way.
The interahamwe raped her then put a gun up her vagina and shot her, she bled to death! Overall it was quite moving, we then left the church and wanted to go to another one about 5km away so we got a motor taxi to the church but they just closed so we went back to kigali.

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