Rwanda with Clear Air

As we flew above the thousands hills on our way from Rwanda to Tanzania, we both breathed a slight sigh of relief. Our time in Rwanda was excellent: clean cities, superb food (even the airline food was delicious, delicious choma) and easy internal transportation. We'd relaxed in the jungle, by the lake, even in the city... what more could you ask for?

But underneath it all there were a few anxieties. Many of the people we dealt with were amazing, however people we passed on the street, tended to glare and if we happily said hello, they might grunt a response. The best we got was stiff politeness in return. It was one of the few places we've been to so far where we felt strongly disliked. The children were the most demanding, ('Give me 100 dollars!'), and it was hard to shake the reality that when we were sitting in a crowd of middle-aged men at a restaurant, that in all likelihood, at least one had brutally murdered someone, and all had likely experienced terrible things.

To top it off, while we were sitting at our hotel in Kibuye looking across the lake at the DR Congo we were in contact with Canadian Foreign Affairs because of a possible conflict brewing between Rwanda and the Congo, a mere 80 Km North of us (though we were still in a 'safe' zone). Rwanda alleges that the Congo fired shells into their territory, killing some civilians and as such had started a military build up at the border.

Then probably the most relieving thing for us was actually being able to talk openly about what we'd experienced because we knew to be extremely careful about what we said while in the country as the government is always listening (we heard stories of men showing up at a hotel to tell someone he had 24 hours to leave the country). We think we're safe now!

It was certainly the most powerful experience we've ever had traveling... being completely immersed in the past and present of a country. We were constantly surrounded by reminders of what had taken place, like people with missing limbs, or scars on their faces. There were genocide memorials in practically every town we passed on the bus, evidence that there had not been a single safe place in the entire country.

The rudeness or disdain that we'd see on people faces wasn't reserved just for us. People would act politely to each other, by opening a bus window for their seatmate, for example, but then shut it in as little as a few seconds later.

During the genocide as many people as who were killed in 9/11 were hunted down and slaughtered every 440 minutes (the amount of time it takes to watch the original Star Wars Trilogy if you take 30 minute breaks between films), continuously for 100 days until 20% of the country was dead. It was difficult to comprehend how an entire nation could recover from such a travesty, Some justice was served, but you can't put the entire population in jail (Rwanda has done a better job than most other genocides in bringing people to justice). What about those with post-traumatic stress? Thousands of children who witnessed their parents being dehumanized and horribly murdered in front of them, women who'd been raped, citizens who themselves had been tortured. Then, of course, there's the aftermath of feelings towards the opposite ethic group. On the surface, the image is, 'we are one nation,' but that will take time and education (see our previous post) to be accomplished.

Then there's us. Really, why wouldn't we be stared down? Are we not there to gawk at their horrible (and recent) past? Plus, should we not be resented for standing by and doing nothing to help when it happened?

Considering this all, we had an amazing time. We would highly recommend visiting Rwanda. The country is beautiful and you'll surely be impacted.

Lasting impressions:

* The 'sss' noise to get your attention is still prevalent here, as with the rest of East Africa
* Communication is challenging in most places - sometimes English is present, sometimes French, often neither
* The country is in the process of building a new national identity. This means that French is no longer the official language, and the names of towns have been changed. People use the old names and new name so interchangeably that they might use both in one sentence!
* You'll never noticed how often you use plastic grocery bags when you're traveling until they're illegal
* Erin loves the idea of umuganda, three hours of mandatory public service the last Saturday of every month
* The women are always dressed very beautifully there
* The food was outstanding (we did stay in really nice places, but it was consistently excellent everywhere!)

Day 41: Learning from the Past: Building the Future

For our last day in Rwanda, we went to see one more genocide memorial, the Kigali Memorial Center. We arrived at 8:30 and were the first people to walk through (evident when they turned on the lights for us). It was great to have quiet and space while wading through the intense subject matter of the exhibit.

Beautifully written panels in Kinyarwandan, French, and English took us through the lead-up, the genocide, and the events that followed. The exhibits were poetic and emotionally written, often from the perspective of Rwanda. There were more personal details and stories added to historic events than at Murambi. Videos of survivors accompanied the panels and some images and footage were very graphic and unsettling.

The most positive thing to be said about Canada or
the West comes from one of the victims T-shirts.

After going through the events and seeing the photographs, bones, and clothes of victims, we headed upstairs for an interesting addition. To put the Rwandan genocide in historical context, they have dedicated an exhibit to other genocides the world witnessed in the 20th century.

Then the last room was the most difficult of all... the children's room. There were photographs of children with descriptions of what they were like: favourite foods, activities, and best friends. Some included their last words, and they all listed their cause of death. After the first child, who liked fries with mayo, had his last words listed as "Mama, where can I run?" we were having a hard time holding it together. He was chopped to death by a machete. It was absolutely heart-breaking.

At the end of the long and winding room the path led us outside through the gardens to the mass graves where we took a moment to try to compose ourselves in the midst of the final resting place of over 250,000 victims of the genocide. We took comfort in the program that is run here where youth are brought for a day workshop where they learn about the causes of the genocide and are taught the lesson of moving on called, "Learning from the Past: Building the Future". Having read about bad influences passed down from parents to the younger generation and feelings of hated being carried by both groups, we really like the sound of the program that is so far receiving positive results.

We had decided prior to our trip that one thing we would do when we return is start donating to a charity in each country that we visit, targeted towards a cause that hit home with us while we were there. We know it will help us stay connected to the communities we travel to and help subside the guilt of knowing what terrible conditions people are living in around the world without giving money to people who approach us.

If you feel particularly affected by the genocide and are also looking for a way to help, then we would encourage you to look further at this program that we feel is a worthwhile charity. (We couldn't find a working link for the charity or the memorial center; if you do let us know.)

Article about the program (from a newspaper we were sold on the street that was dated mid-April)

Interview with the man behind the program

"If you must remember, remember this...

The Nazis did not kill six million Jews,

Nor the Interahamwe kill one million Tutsis,

They killed one and then another, then another...

Genocide is not a single act of murder,

It is millions of acts of murder."

-Stephen Smith

"When they said 'Never Again' after the Holocaust, was it meant for some people and not others?"

-Apollon Kabahizi

Day 40: Back to Kigali

A slow-paced morning and a four-hour bus ride made up today. It was so nice to take a bus back to some place we knew. We could confidently bargain with the taxi driver and felt at home when the water went out in our hotel again.

We found a tasty dinner at a tea house and enjoyed listening to the rain on the roof. Erin had a crazy mixed juice drink like Craig's from Ethiopia, but we sadly discovered we'd left the camera back in the room.

Day 39: Paying Our Respects

Can you think of \a better place to catch up on the latest cat videos?

After a relaxing day of interneting the day before, literally 12 hours straight (while enjoying the views of the lake), we were ready to do a bit more around Kibuye. We choose to spend three days there because of its relaxing location on Lake Kivu, but also because Erin had read the book, 'The Bone Woman'. It's a book written by a forensic anthropologist who worked on exhuming mass graves in Kibuye and Kigali to help prosecute perpetrators of the genocide.

Her first on-site experience was at a church just outside Kibuye's town center. It was a place where Rwandan Tutsis sought refuge but were found and slaughtered. 11,000 people were killed in and around the church in brutal ways. The church continues to hold congregation today, which we happened to witness as we visited on a Sunday.

We had asked the hotel receptionist for directions and it didn't sound too far, so we set off on foot up the hillside along the coast. It turned out we made a wrong turn and ended up on the other side of the lake, but after a nice healthy walk we arrived. The service was going strong and sounded beautiful and joyous, a perfect fit for the surroundings but a stark contrast against the atrocities we knew had been committed there.

Not wanting to intrude, we found lunch at the cute hotel down the road, Home of St Jean, then returned after our goat and fish skewers to take it all in. Now vacant, it seemed haunting. A little memorial out front read 'Never Again' but it was hard not to picture the devastation that had occurred. After a difficult few moments of reflection of all the stories we know of from this site, we walked back out on the peninsula. We were glad to bargain for a short water taxi ride to take us the last half of the way.

Day 38: A Faithful Friend

This entry is not about gorillas or genocide memorials or anything of real significance. But it's a quirky little story that I want to remember because it shows one of the reasons why I'm so lucky that Craig is in love with me.

Before we left, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to eat much on our 17 hour plane ride to Ethiopia. (I don't know why I hadn't thought to call the airline to request a dairy-free/gluten-free meal, but I thankfully later did.) We were in Shoppers getting some last-minute things and Craig picked up a bag of Crispers for the plane. I looked longingly at all the forbidden snacks that I love so dearly and felt sorry for myself. So I found a bag of popcorn instead - the only size they had - extra large. It was a little excessive and super bulky, but I figured it'd be worth it if it was my only nourishment for a day. In the end, I took lots of snacks of fresh fruit, nuts, gluten-free banana bread, and called the night before about a special meal that ended up being perfectly edible. So that left us in Addis Ababa at a reasonably nice hotel with a restaurant, and an unopened bag of popcorn. It seemed silly to eat it right away when we had food in our lodging, and we knew Ethiopian food was fairly bread-based, so it seemed smarter to hold on to it a little while longer in case we found ourselves in a situation where I couldn't eat anything.  So we brought it along with us.

Since Craig's day pack is much larger than mine, he offered to carry it. Then he ended up caring it in a plastic bag with other odds and ends when his bag was too full. We were finding food easily enough, so we thought we'd save it for our safari because that might be a place where options would be limited. Safari turned out to be the best food we'd eaten in all of Kenya and our cook was amazing at preparing extra rice dishes just for me that were way tastier than everyone else's sandwiches. So we laughed and said 'we'll probably want it when we're camping before gorillas' and so we continued. All this time, Craig was faithfully carrying this huge bag of popcorn, never complaining and always insisting that he would carry the extra bag. I would suggest opening and eating it but Craig would say, 'No, I'm happy we still have it because it means you're finding enough to eat.'

Then one day I ended up with the popcorn bag, when we got separated on the bus, I left it behind accidentally. I got off the bus, saw a guy walking by with a massive garbage bag full of popcorn (because we ironically saw popcorn stands EVERYWHERE in Kenya AND Uganda), and realized I'd left it on the seat above me. At that point, Craig finally said, 'just leave it,' but I figured we'd carried it all this way and it was 'kettle corn,' not regular corn, so it was worth it to get back on the crowded bus, go all the way to the back, and find it.

So, I'm sure you can see where this will take us. Little did we know, our gorilla accommodation would be luxurious with full meals included. So it was on a regular evening, with a fantastic restaurant on hand sitting outside our geodome when I guiltily opened the bag. On Day 28. Twenty-eight.

And even then, I felt like it was a terrible waste because we weren't for wanting of good food. So I only had a few handfuls, packed it back up and said, 'We'll want it when we're camping in Rwanda in a couple of days with no services close by!'

So we continued our dedicated pilgrimage with our faithful friend. And still, Craig's patience never waned. He joked that we'd never actually eat it, but instead take pictures of us with it everywhere like a garden gnome.

As you well know, our plans changed and we found ourselves lounging poolside at a five star hotel instead of camping. No popcorn was needed for chimpanzee tracking. So it was on Day 38 (38!) that I said 'Enough is enough; the bag is open, let's enjoy it!' So we dove in, had a few handfuls and played some cards. We haven't finished it yet, but I expect by the time we leave Kibuye the bag will be done (update: it is not). The popcorn will be gone, but I'll try to hold onto the great memory. A silly example, maybe, but the true heart shows underneath it all. I'm a lucky girl.  And I even let Craig have a few handfuls. :)

Day 37: Experts of Public Transport

 

Today was rather uneventful. It was a travel day so we got up, ate breakfast, and were on the bus at the reasonable time of 7:30. We'd slept well in Gisakura, so it was hard to leave, but we had high hopes for our three days of lake relaxation ahead.

We took Impala coach this time due to the encouragement of K.Sam. He said it was the VIP minibus and it did turn out to be a more sophisticated crowd. People even got up to give us the seats we had reserved! It seemed that there was a lively discussion taking place, perhaps at one man's expense, but it was a nice change for us to not hear 'muzungu' whispers or be given more than a moment's notice. We did have to sit with Craig's big backpack in our laps but it wasn't so bad.

We drove back through the forest, past Huye, and most of the way to Kigali before we changed buses in Gitarama. Another two hours and we were in Kibuye. We hired the only car taxi in town to take us the 3 km to our hotel at the extraordinary cost of 5000 francs, and then we were really there. Altogether, we felt like pros because the seven hour travel day had been super easy (and Erin didn't pee once!).

Day 36: Third Ape of the Trip

It was an early start to go Chimpanzee tracking, at 4:55, five minutes before our scheduled departure, our driver was already waving us up to his 4x4 (which we were told repeatedly by expats, locals, guide books, and guides is completely necessary to reach the part of the forest with chimps). As the sun started to rise (in Rwanda the time zone is behind the rest of East Africa so the sun rises and sets quite early), the drive became quite beautiful looking out over the hills through the mist/smoke and the endlessly sprawling tea plantations along the edge of the forest. By the time we had arrived we had passed over roads that only the hardiest of 1976 Ford Fiestas, or maybe a Model T with a flat tire could have possibly traversed.

We had been told that the best time to see chimpanzees is early in the morning, so we weren't upset by our early start. We quickly realized that it had the added benefit of more comfortable hiking weather. Chimpanzees spread out and cover a lot of ground throughout the day, especially during the dry season (now) because a single tree doesn't have a lot of fruit. With that in mind, we came prepared for a full day of hiking through rough terrain.

It seemed altogether more non-chalant than tracking gorillas. We tried showing them our permits and they shrugged and said they didn't need them (much different from the scolding we got for only having one COPY of our gorilla permits in Bwindi - so much so that it seemed momentarily that we wouldn't get to go!). Unlike gorillas, renting gloves, sticks or hiring a porter seemed like an unenthusiastic after-thought rather than a necessity, and our orientation lasted two minutes rather than thirty.

Our guide was friendly and reinforced our knowledge of chimp tracking. He laughed when he told us that chimpanzees move quickly, so we have to be faster! With that, we hit the trail. We had driven up quite far, so our initial walk was a gradual descent. The forest was drier, the trail more existent, and we weren't inhibited by thorny vines every two steps. But it still felt adventurous as we dodged through and ducked under the brush.

We had been hiking for about twenty minutes when our guide's radio starting crackling. As he converesed with our trackers, we grew worried as it sounded like the other end was under attack! They must speak quite passionately in Kinyarwanda because our guide didn't seem all too concerned. He smiled after the conversation and told us we were lucky: the chimpanzees had decided to come our way!


So we waited a few minutes, then began walking again, this time off-trail and through denser forest. We soon met up with the trackers and they led us around some large trees motioning 'quiet quiet' and 'slowly slowly' with their hands (at least, that's what we think they were saying - they also might have been telling us to 'get down' and showing us some groovy dance moves).

We could see one guide looking in one direction as he twisted around the plants. He found a clearing and they were there - a family of five up in a tree.

Chimpanzees are much shier than gorillas (or more easily disturbed). Like gorillas there are habituated and non-habituated groups, but even the ones used to seeing people often run away, climb high in the trees, and turn their backs on people.

From our little clearing, we were able to watch them swing on branches and eat fruit. The coolest part was watching them walk on the thin branches mainly on two feet. They used their hands to steady themselves, but they looked so much like humans! They turned away from us a lot and moved quickly, so it was hard to get a good picture.

You could hear other families of chimpanzees from the same group calling to each other with the famous "pant-hoot" call. The ones we could see would get excited and start shrieking back and forth and jumping up and down on the branches.

At times we could see rustling in the bushes beneath the tree, but it was too dense to see whatever action was taking place.

That family moved on after about a half-hour and we followed, pleased that we had seen so much already (and that our guide said we could continue tracking). We soon found another two chimpanzees in a tree, but they were hard to see. It was interesting watching them climb to the fruit (figs), stuff their mouths full of as many as they could, then climb back up to the top. At the top of the tree they would chew and swallow what they had taken in that load.

A special treat came when we were all watching these two chimps and the guide suddenly whispered "Behind! Behind!" We turned to look and a huge chimpanzee was walking on the forest floor right by us, barely making a sound! It happened so fast that we couldn't take a (good) picture, but it will be a great memory for us.

By 9:45 we were back at our guesthouse, feeling elated from another ape encounter. The rest of the day was spent at the deserted, and oddly named, Top View Hill Hotel. Although it didn't compare to the Forest Lodge for atmosphere it was still a lovely place to have a drink and admire the views both to the forest and down to the southern end of Lake Kivu.

Now we will likely have to wait until Borneo at Christmas to see our next ape!