Blogs from Rwanda, Africa - page 6

This morning was the long-awaited gorilla trek and it did not disappoint! We made our way through the forest to reach the location of one of the gorilla families (the second largest family in Rwanda.) It was a completely different terrain than yesterday's volcano trek, but just as muddy. Good thing the hotel staff cleans our boots! Anyways, back to gorillas. There were 23 gorillas in the family, including one silverback, some adults, some juveniles and some babies. First thing we saw was two gorillas doing the hanky panky. I guess they wanted to put on a show for us, so I filmed it and Tyson called me a pornographer. Hehehe. We stayed with the gorillas for a full hour. While we were there, our guides kept communicating with them to let them know that we ... read more

Today Anne climbed a volcano and I received an armed escort out of the park. After arriving at the Volcano National Park and conducting a brief meet-and-greet with the guides and 5 other hike-mates we set off to the base of Bisoke. On the way we were treated to an extensive Rwandan massage (getting repeatedly tossed out of our seats) and joked about how small the volcano was in relation to Kilimanjaro. We joined up with our armed escort (for protection from the 'wildlife') and set off at a rocket-like pace. After the first hill, I was breathing heavily and shortly thereafter regreted making fun of Bisoke's height. When we stopped for our first 'break' we had been climbing for about 1.5 - 2.0 hours with myself and another woman from the UK (coincidently another engineer) ... read more

Saturday September 29 I took no photos in Kigale. There was so much to digest after the obviously heartbreaking Genocide Memorial and reminders were everywhere in the shape of amputees, some begging. Men on crutches with one leg. A woman with only one finger. Boys whose ages I can match to children I know with only one arm. I felt myself unconsciously cringing at the sight, tears welling in my eyes that I had to rapidly blink away. Our driver, William, tells us as we drive over a bridge that the river below us is where bodies were thrown. I pass boys playing football on a dirt field and wonder how old they are. Who they are and what their childhood was like. I would've been in my mid teens when Rwanda descended into chaos. I ... read more

Saturday 8 september Finally weekend! Today we could sleep a little bit longer, but not that long because we said to 'tantine Myliam' we would come to her match (football). At 7u30 we woke up, washed us and took a breakfast. The match would start at 9u (altough that was what Myliam said). When we arrived at the stadium there were other people playing a friendly match and others were training. At 9 o'clock they kept playing and at that time we knew the match wasn't really at 9 o'clock.. lol (but at 10 o'clock). To kill some time I took my camera and started to change my settings to be prepared when the match of Myliam started. Suddenly a guard came to us talking in 'Kinyarwanda' (the local language) saying we were not allowed to ... read more

Welkom opnieuw bij een nieuwe blog .. Het heeft weer een tijdje geduurd, maar je weet wel waarom ondertussen. Ik zal er direct invliegen met het vervolg op de voorgaande blog. Dinsdag 4 september: Na ons dagelijks ontbijt vertrokken wij (Tante Myliam, Eve en ik) richting Gisenyi hospital om Eve af te zetten. We namen de moto omdat het sneller zou gaan. Een moto is hier het meest gebruikte verplaatsingsmiddel. Een ritje kost 300 RWF (+/- € 0,40). Het kan ook 400 RWF zijn, maar dit is dan voor de langere afstanden. Eens aangekomen op de stage en één man (of in dit geval: vrouw) minder stapten Tante Myliam en ik terug naar het project. Dit was mijn eerste voormiddag die ik daar ging spenderen. Het project heet IREBERO, een 'training school'. Het richt zich op ... read more