help me rwanda‏

---

well, i've been here a week now and so far it's been quite an experience. rwanda is a strange mix of ambition on africa time. so things get done and there's a drive to get things done, but it takes a lot of pushing, service in most places is terrible, and miscommunications are the norm and can lead to a lot of frustration (mostly for me, doesn't seem to bother them). there are frequent power outages in the cities and if your hotel doesn't have a generator, which mine does not, you can be in the dark for hours, which i have. but cell phone reception is incredible. i can't use my cell phone in my living room in brooklyn, and here i am in the middle of a village with no electricity, barefooted kids running around asking me for empty plastic bottles (they love those) and not a paved road for miles, and the driver's cellphone rings! it is also now one of the safest countries in the region. theft is minimal and you in no way feel threatened at anytime. people are very friendly and in the rural areas are still excited to see a white person, but i sense a sort of skepticism towards foreigners and you are not treated special in any way. everyone here is equal. i think there is no more stomach for hierarchy. but the rwandese hate the french, so that warms me up to them quite a bit.

while the country has come an impressively long way since the genocide, it is still very prevalent
in the society and has really made a big impression on me and my trip here. it's weird to drive
along the roads and imagine them littered with bodies murdered by machetes. people
actually paid to be killed by guns. you see mass grave sites that have 10s of thousands of people
buried in them that are now memorials.

there are still people imprisoned and being tried for their crimes of 10 years ago. the really
major high up criminals are being tried in the international courts or are still in hiding in congo.
but b/c of the amount of people who played some hand in the genocide (they say up to 80% were involved in some way), they have "kangaroo courts" to try the majority. these trials are done in open courts where people are accused by community members. those accused are held in prison until their trials and you often see prisoners working on the side of the road in their pink uniforms (I asked the guy I work with if part of the punishment is that they have to wear pink. he didn't really get it). a guy i met from the human rights course went to a trial and told me about one of the big shot prisoners who was being tried was not only in his pink uniform, but also had pink socks and shoes to boot - the sock's by the way, were fashioned by barbie herself. i'm going to try to coordinate a visit to the courts to see it for myself.

as far as my work goes, they want to expand the tourism market here by developing other products besides the gorillas. they goal is to keep tourists in the country longer and so that tourism money is more distributed. they are trying to attract high-end tourists who have the money to pay $600+ per day to see gorillas and would extend their trip to see other sites in the country. i haven't yet seen any sites that would work in that capacity, but there's a national park in the southwest part of the country that has 25% of the monkey species found in africa, and they are easy to see, so they can really promote a primate tour. i will be visiting that region at the end of the week, so i'll give you a full report of what i see. they also have/had a game park in the eastern part on the border with tanzania, but most of the antelope who played there were killed for food during the war and the rest of the animals moved to tanzania in protest, so there is not much to see there now. i will also visit there at some point to see it for myself.

well, that's all for now. i hope all is well with everyone. i'm sorry for the group emails but my
internet time is usually limited so i compose these offline and then send. but please write, it's
great to get emails from home - it really makes a difference. and i will write back individually
when i can.

---