Le Pays Des Milles Collines

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The Land of Thousand Hills
So I took a little detour on my way home...For those of you who don't know I changed my return date to the US to allow for a visit to Rwanda. After attending the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda a couple of times the idea emerged and it seemed like a difficult possibility to pass up. The decision was the right one.
Our flight with Rwandan Air was beautiful and fromt he moment we stepped off the plane we knew it was going to be an incredible experience.
Rwanda is spectacular and one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. It is so different from Tanzania in so many ways. For starters there s no flat land to be seen, and the terraced mountains are gorgeous. Aside from that everything is different. Kigali feels like a young Europen city and construction is happening everywhere you look. The food, the gender roles, the language, the people and of course the history.
We spent all day yesterday visiting different genocide memorials both in Kigali and out in the countryside. The Memorial in Kigali is incredible and a true representation of the horror and hope that fills this country. To think that 1 million people were killed here in 100 days is unfathomable. And only 13 years ago. We also hired a driver to take us to visit two chuches about 35 km. outside the city in Nyamata and Ntarama. Both were the sites of some of the worst massacres during the genocide. There are 40,000 people buried outside the church at Nyamata, mostly in mass graves. The church at Ntarama is still entirely entact from the end of the genocide save the bodies which have been buried, meaning all of the blood stained clothes and possessions still lay on the floor of the church. Our driver spoke no English so it was a real test of our Swahili. It was an extraordinarily emotional and powerful day and I have still not really processed everything we saw.
Today we took the bus to Ruhengheri in the northwest of the country near the border of DR Congo and Uganda. We treked here to visit the Parc National Des Volcans, home to the late Diane Fossey and the last remaining Mountain Gorillas in the world. We made our way up to the park entrance, which is as far as we knew we would get given that the cost to visit the gorillas for one hour is a little over $500. Not this time. Anyway we met some rangers and other travelers and then walked back down the mountains 14 km. to Runengheri. Our walk led us through several small villages, and children were running out of the fileds in masses at the site of Muzungos...walking. The few who spoke English kept asking why we were walking, I am not sure the young ones have seen any white people walking through those villages before. After about 2 km. we had an entourage of roughly 20 children following us. This evening we are taking the bus back to Kigali for our last night in Rwanda.

I have had trouble uploading photos, as just about every USB port in Africa does not work. But I will add some as soon as possible.

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