Day 8 - Genocide Memorial, Gisozi, Kigali (30/9)

Last Rwanda day already. After a week of seeing, and meeting, Rwandans and the heartfelt determination expressed everywhere :  "Never again" and "Always remember", proclaimed on lorry windscreen stickers, T-shirts, in graffiti on walls, and of course at the frequent memorials, it's time to pay our respects at the Genocide Memorial which is the resting place of 259,000 victims.

The museum runs of course through the historical timeline, the run up from 1990 when anti-Tutsi radio and printed propaganda (eerily echoing the Nazis) really got going, conspiracy theories about the shooting down of the presidential plane carrying the Hutu general (who'd in effect already masterminded the establishment and arming - in a deal with the French government - of the Interahamwe forces to conduct the genocide), and whose death (along with the president of neighbouring Burundi) was treated as the immediate trigger for the killing frenzy to begin.

Interviews with survivors give the unbearably horrific but still bald facts and stats real force; worse yet are the taped "trials" (which look to be along the lines of South Africa's truth and resolution commission) where perpetrators seemed to me still frighteningly capable of describing what they'd done, without very much evidence of remorse or belated realisation of the dreadfulness of it. 

But... how does a man punish his neighbour for, one day, suddenly murdering his family? And how does he continue to live next door to him afterwards?  You can only hope that the knowledge of rooms of cracked skulls and bones (displayed "so that no one can ever deny that there was at genocide") prick consciences every day.

But I found the worst of all was the last room, containing life-sized photos of fourteen children, with a short list for each of cosily banal facts : a favourite food or sport or song - but then... their last words and the way in which they were murdered. Unbearable.

Though shaken and subdued, we perked up for a lunch date with Marc (a friend of a friend of a friend who's been in Kigali for 3 years, working for DiFid) who had kindly given us some words of wisdom when we were planning our trip and put us in touch with our driver.

And then to the airport and adieu Rwanda. Gorgeously beautiful and chillingly shocking, endlessly smiling and crushingly sad, buoyantly optimistic while still quietly mourning. 

Hugely recommended!

Day 7 - Huye for the National Museum, and back to Kigali (29/9)

Great start to the day with breakfast in the sun outside our room.  The orange jam may've been of indeterminate origin (peach, perhaps?!) but tasty on toast, and the tea and coffee were as good as ever.  Shall definitely be exporting some...

To the splendid National Museum which told us about Rwanda's history and ethnography (though curiously not a whisper about 1994) beginning with the stone age

The Gatagama pottery which I'd then wanted to visit had just closed for lunch as we arrived, so we decamped to the nearest village for excellent goat kebabs and a refreshing Primus beer (we're still working through all Rwanda has to offer)

and returned to meet the various workers whose efforts made the mug I bought (I'd planned on a tea pot but they were all 3-pint-pots and jolly heavy); it had never occurred to me that you have to make clay but we met the chaps who collect and pound the mud, then those who filter it for pebbles and imperfections, the potters who throw/mould it, and the big bloke who delicately glazes and  fires everything for 24 hours in his, apparently hand-built, kiln.  I'll remember them all when I'm drinking my Rwandan tea at home from my new mug...

We stopped at Kabgayi cathedral (Rwanda's oldest)

before arriving back in Kigali just in time for rush hour.

Last Rwandan night already!

Day 6 - Through Nyungwe National Park to Huye (28/9)

Nyungwe NP is big - 970 sq km (having lost only 15% to deforestation between 1958 and '79 before it became protected as a national park in 1984).  It's very beautiful - and the road snakes along and through the hills

We caught the odd glimpse of L'Hoest monkeys in the verges before they scampered off

but sadly it turned out that the roadworks continued through the park, and nothing puts off wildlife and birds like a thundering dumper-truck!

There were however some storming views.

Huye boasts an impressive 1936-7 cathedral

thanks to the then-Queen Astrid of Belgium who had designs to make Huye her capital ("Astrida" no less!) of her colony, "Ruanda-Urundi (as was), but more poignant is the Genocide Memorial at the university, presently filled with flower tributes from the recent anniversary commemorations in Spring 2014

Day 5 - Gisakura and Nyungwe National Park (27/9)

The road due south of Kibuye, running through the hills close-ish to Lake Kivu,

has long been due an overhaul, and Chinese money is certainly now being spent.  We started with a rock-studded, pot-holed dirt track...

and progressed, along with the road, through all its phases...

until, eventually (and not before time - we heard thunder just as we smelled the bitumen!), we were onto smooth tarmac, bordered by freshly-built walls, just as the rain started.

And so we arrived at Gisakura, a tea plantation on the edge of the Nyungwe National Park

Tomorrow, we'll drive through the park to Huye, university town and site of the National Museum, but for today amusement with the local bird-life

and other inhabitants 

(some of whom were a wee bit too keen to make us welcome)

Meanwhile a minor domestic crisis: Lieven has toothache and a mercy-dash for molar extraction is apparently in order. Hopefully he'll rejoin us on Monday but his colleague Patrick has jumped on a bus to take over.

Day 4 - Gisenyi and South to Kibuye (26/9)

The Rwandan countryside is gorgeously Africa-meets-Tuscany (look at those tumbling vistas and terracotta-tiled roofs)-meets-Switzerland (valleys and ravines and blue waters). Endless slopes on rounded hillsides, often with industrious women working the red soil, with patchworked green terraces, often resembling an amphitheatre or a layered petticoat.

Added to which, carefully segmented green-velvet tea plantations (and I can attest to the tastiness of Rwandan tea)

A silted red river runs thickly through the hills, and there are dips and ravines,

and waterfalls adorn the rocks

Presumably in anticipation of the approaching small rains, workers ballast the roads against landslides, expertly filling rocks into mesh cages to make lining walls

PS did I say "approaching small rains"? This was the view over Lake Kivu when we arrived at today's lovely hotel

but half an hour later the view had turned into this (we scarpered inside for our belated lunch)

Day 3 - South to Gisenyi on Lake Kivu (25/9)

Another day shoots by, though not as quickly as a kamikaze cyclist, bearing a huge sack of potatoes, flew down a hill past us today (and we were doing 30mph!). Sadly I missed the best action shot of him but you get the idea...

Others took their health in their hands when grabbing a tow

while the majority plod on along the pavement

 
or bundle in, very close

We stopped at views of the mighty Virunga volcanoes (home of the gorillas which sadly we shan't be seeing),

tea plantations,

and admired the industry of Rwandan farmers, who build cane tripods as far as there's land to cultivate and look to grow cabbages enough to feed the whole of Rwanda.

We were headed west towards Gisenyi on Lake Kivu (fifth largest body of water in Africa), through which runs the border between Rwanda and the DRC.  The Congolese town of Goma virtually merges with Gisenyi, save for that pesky border, patrolled by machine gun-toting guards (of whom of course no photos!) Luckily there's another, less "formal" border where no guard seems much to bother, a place of bustle and activity where everyone comes and goes pretty easily ...

According to Lieven, you can tell the Congolese because they carry burdens on their backs, whereas any self-respecting Rwandan bears it on their head.

Hot springs (without any discernible sulphur smell) bubble and steam near to our hotel, the water so hot that I couldn't submerge my finger for very long. Hardier souls, however, bathed

We finished the day watching an equatorial sunset (sadly slightly underwhelming due to cloud) and pied kingfishers diving into Kivu; our lunchtime buffet was so filling that again we're skipping dinner in favour of bananas and passion fruit from the market.

Day 2 - Drive to Musanze (24/9)

A good night's sleep and we've now been collected by out driver Lieven for a week-long trip around Rwanda. 

We're starting by heading north towards the mighty Virunga mountains which border Uganda (in fact we saw a road sign for the border 35km away) and overnighting in Musanze (until recently "Ruhengeri" - confusingly road signs and maps still use both names... hence having a driver!). Having said that, we're finding getting around and making ourselves understood very easy. Lieven tells us he learned lessons at school in English (though mysteriously his French is probably better). I think having him is going to be a God-send - as well as driving (so that we can look out of the window), he's full of interesting little observations and stories about Rwanda and his childhood (today he told us about the "The One Cow Per Family" initiative launched by President Kagame - and sure enough :  http://www.unicef.org/equity/index_65274.html) 

The countryside north is unendingly hilly; bicycles tortuously wind their way up and down (we even saw one optimistic chancer cadging a tow from a lorry - only problem was that the lorry was going so slowly that the cyclist still had to pedal to stay upright!). Other locals were all very friendly

We'd forgotten just how red the African earth is - and, despite the "short rains" of the early autumn being late, the hills are bright green.

Impressively, not only do the Rwandans plant and work on the slopes, they also create terraces, looking a little like rice crops.

And finally then to Musanze. We made new friends in the market, where a lot of industrious work goes on, and a lot of chatter.  Lieven tells us that, as well as bananas, the region is famous for potatoes...

Day 1 - First impressions of Kigali, Rwanda (23/9)

To start - a few stats and impressions of Rwanda...

[1] It lies just south of the equator, bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the DRC - an old version of a guide-book which we looked out suggested a day-trip across the border in Goma but these days the FCO warns in no uncertain terms that it's not a great idea!

[2] A law was passed in 2008 making non-biodegradable polythene bags illegal.  We'd been warned about bag searches and confiscation of plastic at Kigali Airport but in fact no such thing occurred.  The city is very tidy and clean though - every last Saturday of the month, there's compulsory pitching in (including the President apparently) to clean up the streets ("umuganda" - "getting together") and it really shows.  Only disagreeable thing is that it's very fume-y, mainly from the dozens of motorcycle taxis which buzz about carrying passengers (wearing his'n'his/her helmets)

[3] 2012 population estimate was c11.6m (43% under 17, 97.5% under 65) and population density is amongst the highest in Africa (408 per sq.km.) And I imagine a growing population and jostling for lebensraum was one of the causes of the 1994 genocide, though the seeds were sowed a long time ago. The population comprises three ethnic groups: the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa (a forest-dwelling pygmy people and Rwanda's earliest inhabitants, forming a tiny minority).  Germany colonised in 1884 as part of German East Africa, and Belgium invaded in 1916. Each ruled through existing Tutsi kings and the Hutu population revolted in 1959, massacring numerous Tutsi and ultimately establishing an independent, Hutu-dominated state in 1962. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front fought back from 1990 but social tensions erupted in April 1994 in a genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed 1m Tutsi and moderate Hutu in just a few weeks of civil war - 20% of the country's total population and 70% of the Tutsi then living in Rwanda.

[4] Rwanda itself is very very bumpy - "Land of a Thousand Hills" : the swishest place in town is the Hotel des Mille Collines, (famous for its brave Hutu manager who shielded many Tutsis, who otherwise would have perished).  

Not an easy place to get around in the heat so we stuck to the main areas this afternoon but we'll try to get about a bit more when we're back on the last day, especially to the Genocide Monument to the north of the city. 

Anyway, we had some fun and games with South African Airways on check-in at LHR, when they refused to accept that the onward flight from Joburg into Rwanda was a codeshare or to issue us with onward boarding passes at LHR; notwithstanding that, they were able to put our bag through to Kigali!! (I thought it politic not to point out the discrepancy lest they thought better of it and made us collect our bags at Joburg too).  First thing when we get on the RwandAir flight, of course,  "Welcome to flight xxx, codeshare SAA".  Ah well, at least we and the bag made it. 

Kigali looked nice from the air and, on arrival at our little hotel, we rested over a nice lunch - you'll be reassured that Duncan dived straight in to trying the local cuisine, with piquant chicken and an impressive portion of ugali (a solid porridge made of maize and eaten with meat and a thick soupy sauce).  Needless to say that little supper has been required.

AUTUMN 2014 - A NEW ADVENTURE - day zero (22/9)

Summer is fading and we're waving goodbye to Blighty for a few weeks, heading tonight to southern Africa.  A week in Rwanda, two in South Africa (during which - recent army coup permitting - hopefully we'll drive through Lesotho down to Durban, northwards along the eastern coast, and back to Johannesburg), and then just shy of a month in Namibia.

We're lucky that cousin Drew is moving to a new job in London just as we leave, and he will be house-sitting for us while he looks for a permanent place to lay his head.

So ... tonight we catch a South African Airways flight into Joburg, then we need to do a super-fast run between terminals to hop 3 hours north to Kigali. The hotel is supposed to be sending a car to collect us, so, this time tomorrow (Tuesday) we should hopefully be mooching around, sampling locally-grown Rwandan coffee and getting our bearings in downtown Kigali...