Uganda, Africa

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We crossed into Rwanda from the border town of Kabale (where I had my hair butchered by a barber who had never cut a white man’s hair before). The border here was a little more tense than most of the others. People were literally being thrown out of immigration for pushing in the queue.

Rwanda had a similar sort of scenery to Uganda, but more impressive. We stopped in Kigale on the way to Musanze. Kigali is a beautiful city that clings to the side of the hills. It’s main streets have manicured gardens and there’s hardly any rubbish - a far cry from any other African capital.

Musanze is the starting point for visiting the mountain gorillas. The viewing of the gorillas is heavily regulated and very expensive. Only 40 people per day are allowed to go and a maximum of 8 people can go to each of the gorilla families. Our allotted family was the ??? group which consisted of a silverback male, 6 females and 5 babies. We trekked for about 90 minutes through thick undergrowth with our guide and two armed soldiers. Apparently the soldiers were there to protect us from the wildlife, but given that we were 2km from the DRC (Congo) border, I suspect there was another reason. Trackers spend most of their time on the mountain following the gorillas and so our guide was able to radio them to find their location.

It’s a fascinating experience standing right next to a gorilla and seeing the intelligence in their eyes. Officially we have to stay 7 metres away from the gorillas, but that’s impossible when they come and sit next to you. Two of the babies were play fighting and some of the adults eyed us with interest. We spent an hour with them, but it seemed like five minutes.

From Musanze we headed back to Kigali and went to the genocide museum. It’s a really interesting place which tries to explain why it happened rather than trying to make people sorry for Rwandans. The memorial also dedicates a floor to explaining other genocides from history. Some were familiar (Germany/Poland, Bosnia, Cambodia), but others I was shocked to find that I’d never heard of before. 1.2 million ethnic Armenians were killed by the Turkish government in the 1900’s and the Germans committed genocide on Namibia.

It’s really interesting to look at all these cases and see the international reaction in each case. In every case the response was too small and too slow. The current genocide just a few thousand km from here in Sudan is a case in point. Here in Rwanda they believe that if the international soldiers sent in to rescue their respective countrymen had instead been used to defend the Tutsi population then the genocide wouldn’t have happened.
Coming out of the genocide memorial it’s amazing to see how far Rwanda has come since 1994. The people have by far the strongest work ethic I have seen in Africa. They want to achieve something and are genuinely proud of their country.

I suspect that the money pumped into this country by a guilt-ridden international community is partly responsible for this positive outlook, but it’s certainly not the sole reason. We met some Rwandans in a bar in Musanze. Generally in Africa our experience is that the locals will ask tourists to buy them a drink. These guys insisted on buying us a drink in thanks for taking the time to visit their country. They wanted our views on what they could do to improve their country. Most of all they wanted us to tell everyone we knew that there was a lot more to Rwanda than a history of killing each other.

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