Blogs from Ville de Kigali, Rwanda, Africa - page 3

The first association most "westerners" make upon hearing the word "Rwanda" is the 1994 genocide, and the collective guilt of the whole world for not stopping it. Many nations sent troops to evacuate their own citizens. These troop numbers would have been sufficient to stop the slaughter - had they been given that mandate. Or, if the UN higher ups had not stopped the UN Peace Keeping commander on the ground, who having learnt about a large weapons cache intended for use in the upcoming planned massacre, requested authorization for him to go and confiscate those weapons... or if the Belgium government had refused to be pawns in the game when they pulled their paratroopers out of the UN forces after 10 of them were killed at the start of the slaughter ... or ... the ... read more

Today is my final day in Rwanda, so what have I learnt about the place? Travel-wise, the North - Musanze and the Parc National des Volcans are well geraed towards the independent traveller, it is easy to get to by bus and easy to get around, although it is expensive by African standards, Kigali is alos an easy place to get around although it can be confusing as it lacks street signs and the roads wind back and forth around the hills. There is a big push on to improve the roading and singposting in Kigali. The south of the country is much harder to travel independently although with time and patience it can be done, expect to pay the same price (5200 Rwf) for a bus from Gisakura to Butare as you would from Gisakura ... read more

This time it was only a 4.5 hour bum-numbing journey back to Kigali with the driver making good time on the newly paved road through the forest. The road is being ealed courtesy of the Chinese Government and there are a number of Chinese Engineers overseeing the work. Can't believe how hot it is in Kigali now. I booked my ticket to Musanze as soon as I got in. I had a coice of a 5.30am bus of midday, which was a little puzzling given how often buses usually run until the lady at the bus station explained that tomorrow is Umuganda. In Rwanda, there is a mandatory community service day from 8:00am to 11:00am, on the last Saturday of each month called Umuganda meaning community service. The day is called umunsi w’umuganda, meaning “contribution made ... read more

It's an awful long flight from Auckland to Kigali but it all passed without incident and I landed about 11.00am this morning. Kigali airport is small, almost quaint, but it all runs well. My pack had been checked right through from Auckland and it came trundling off the conveyor like it hadn't been gone more than a minute. I grabbed some Rwandan francs from an ATM at the airport but after 25 hours in transit my brain wasn't up to much so got 30,000 RwF. sounds like a lot, but is only about US$60. Got a taxi from the stand outside the gate for the standard fare of 10,000 Rwf. The guy drove like an absolute lunatic but so does everyone else around here so got his number so he can take me out to the ... read more

Well now it's been some time since last, and I will try to recollect as best as possible. Also I will try to keep thing chronologically ordered but well see what happens and I should also tell you that you’re in for a long read... Burundi First of after my time in Tanzania me, Johanna and Christian travelled to Burundi heading for Bujumbura. Not much to say about this country except that it's really tiny. Beautiful hills though, but even these were soon to be matched in Rwanda. However we spent two nights in Bujumbura, hanging around local markets and eating ice-cream. I also decided that it was time to get some nice tourist diarrhea before it was time to head of to Rwanda. The extremely short stay was not only because of the small country ... read more