Rwanda

...and the travelling begins. This past weekend, we and the other interns took a trip to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. The other interns came to pick us up, having hired a minibus - with leopard print seats! - and greeted us with cries of "Eh muzungu!" (hey white person!) out the window. It was a fun ride - lots of stories shared.

Everything was relatively smooth at the border, except for a random plain clothes, self-proclaimed "customs officer" who wanted to see all of our passports.. luckily, he didn't walk off with any!

Rwanda was beautiful. Very lush and green with flat valleys surrounded by cultivated hills - it is the land of the thousand hills.

Kigali as a city is very developed compared to Kampala, and very clean. When we arrived, we checked into the Castel Hotel. Nice and clean, but a little steep once we discovered some of it's hidden eccentricities... the water was turned off each night, em got stuck in the shower, our toilet didn't flush, and if you didn't show up for the complimentary breakfast promptly at 7, there wasn't any left. All this aside, it was a secure and safe hotel with a fantastic view. We just maybe could have done without the street party outside our window the first night..

A few shots of Kigali

Saturday, we woke up early to get a good start on the day, only to discover we were in fact up brutally early, as there was a time change. Who knew there was a time change between Uganda and Rwanda?!? To add insult to injury, it was a national holiday, so there was no one on the streets, and absolutely nothing open. It was quite a contrast to the bustling Kigali we had ventured into the night before.

We checked around to see if we could find a better deal on a hotel. We didn't. But we came across some interesting deals... the most amusing being a place that said they would charge us 50% more if we didn't take the rooms in "couples"....

We then headed off to find the Gisozi Genocide Memorial. It too was closed. It's alright. The 2 hour walk to find the place was good for us. Luckily, Joel was able to negotiate a special hire back to the hotel for us - speaking french to a translator, who then spoke to the driver. It was uphill on the way back, so who knows how long it would have taken by foot..

We decided it would be a good day to take it easy, so we visited the Hotel des Mille Collines (if anyone has seen Hotel Rwanda, this is where it happened) to relax beside the pool.

Mel, Ty, John, Graeme and Joel taking it easy at the Mille Collines.

On Sunday, we headed back to the Gisozi Memorial. It was impossible to wrap your head around what happened. There were mass graves c0ntaining the remains of 250 000 people, 50 to each coffin. There were wall plaques listing the names of people that died - entire families gone. There was also a very good display describing the genocide itself, events leading up to it and repercussions, as well as some powerful tributes to the people that died (particularly one to some of the children that were killed). It was sickening to hear what a huge role the colonists played in dividing Rwanda, and shocking to read about neighbours and friends turning on each other. There was also a display about other genocides from other parts of the world, created in the hope that we can learn from history and stop repeating it. The centre is hoping to eventually be the site of educational programs for school children about the tragedy of genocide.

Mass grave at Gisozi Memorial

From Gisozi, we headed out to a rural area to visit another memorial at a church where many people had been killed. During the genocide, many Tutsi took refuge in churches. In some cases, like this one, the church was attacked, and eventually the Interahamwe got in with grenades and killed everyone. In other cases, church leaders betrayed their own congregations. Inside the sanctuary were shelves containing the skulls and bones of the victims. It was unreal really. Most of the skulls were broken, suggesting the horrible ways in which these people had died. The hardest to see were the children's skulls. A separate building still contained the victims' clothes and belongings, it was in this building where the bodies were also burned. It was a quiet bus ride back into Kigali, as we all took time to reflect on what we had seen that day.

church memorial

Our last night in Kigali we all ate at the restaurant at the Mille Collines. It was tasty, but the general concensus was that "Ice and Spice", the little Indian food restaurant we'd eaten at the night before was better value for your franc (except for the 'chocolate ice cream' we had for dessert).

Our last morning...somehow we managed to miss the early bus back to Kabale. Having previously arranged to meet the restaurant staff from Bushara in Kabale early afternoon...we found ourselves in a bit of a bind..tight spot..time crunch...dilemma..pickle. So, we headed off to the mini-bus taxi park - on our first (don't read this mum and dad) motorcycle boda bodas (which were awesome ps.) We were pretty unsuccessful at bartering a decent rate to the border...had some guys try to rip us off (ie. pay for 15 people to get to the border), but eventually we ended up renting a Special Hire for a reasonable rate. And what a Special Hire it was! White hatch back...large JESUS letters across the windshield...horn that sounded like a siren...and a somewhat distracted driver.

John sitting in our very special Special Hire to the border....note how the rear view mirror is holding up the sun visor, and the writing on the windshield..

While John slept in the front seat...we were both in the back...somewhat fearing for our lives. (just kidding mum and dad) With only a few close encounters...we arrived safely.

John agreed to come back to Bushara with us for the night to look at our water filter...which seemed to have been malfunctioning. Sure enough, after his inspection - we were encouraged to get new filters.

And so ends our first "off".... more travels in a month!