Rwanda - memorials and the present

After four weeks in Uganda I crossed the border to Rwanda. The border procedure was absolutely unproblematic. Germans even do not have to pay for a visa for Rwanda. Stamp in the passport and ready! Astonishing!
After well one hour I reached by bus the capital of Kigali. Here there was even more astonishing: the motorcycle taxi drivers do not try to get a higher price from tourists, the motorcycle passenger gets a helmet, and all drivers have a uniform and are registered by number!
Moreover, it is very quiet on the streets, only little horning, there is zebra crossing and the motorized road users stop for pedestrians! This is new! There is a ban on plastic bags; all people carry their buys in paper bags. The western world can learn quite a bit here!
And the best, there is French tick – as a former Belgian they speak not only French, but also food has a french air! Very pleasant after all these mostly untoasted toast breads of the last nearly 3 months…
At my hotel in Kigali I got to know Hans from Switzerland. An interesting type. Comes from the construction branch and has sold everything at home after an illness and travels the world for 6 or 7 or more years by motorcycle. The good thing is, that he covered the African countries I am going to and he is going towards Uganda and Kenya…. One can imagine, that our conversation material did not find an end!

Ntarama Church Memorial

With Rwanda everybody has certainly still the genocide in memory, which has taken place here in 1994. Within 100 days about 1 million people were killed here. It was a conflict, steered by the government to which mainly the minority of the Tutsi, but also moderate Hutus fell victim. UN has failed then pitifully, particularly as the whole has happened with announcement, and the commander wanted to extend the mandate, but unfortunately, received no approval for it.
The Rwandese are considerable quite far in the processing of their past, there is in Kigali a big memorial with many photos, films, exhibition pieces and a garden with common graves in which 250 000 dead people lie. An urgent monument, particularly as it reminds not only of the genocide here in Rwanda, but also of Nazi Germany, former Yugoslavia, Armenia, Namibia and the Hereros and Cambodia under the red Khmer.

Naymata - clothes of the murdered people

Here I have also met Audrey from Canada again. I met her first in Murchison National Park in Uganda. She works for two months in the commemorative site and could give me of course a good insight into the history, but also in her work.
On one day I have visited with Hans the commemorative sites outside from Kampala. This was quite a kind of travelling – well, I sat on top of a 300-kilogramm-motorcycle…. However, climbing this high motorcycle is another issue. Thankfully enough, there are many little walls, high stones and the like in Rwanda, which I could use to climb this huge bike….
The memorials of Ntarama and Nyamata are very distressing. Basically, these are 2 churches in which 6,000 and 10,000 people were killed. The skulls and bones of the victims are accommodated in the churches in shelves, the clothes lie on the benches. It is not easy to visit these places, but on the other side it is important to see them.

Murambi genocide memorial

It is astonishing how many monuments of the Genozids there are here in the country, above all if one thinks of the discussions with us in Germany. It took us a lot longer than 15 years for our memorials. Here, there are already many of them. Besides, there is a trial for the really big guys during the genocide in Arusha, other have to go to court in the country and there are village trials for the ones, who took part but are seeking for forgiveness. Besides, people try to create school programmers to show of the today's ones and the following generations how all that happened and how one can hopefully avoid a repetition.

Lake Kivu

One afternoon I visited Pierre. He works for the organization mission de la Criox Glorieuse. This organization looks after orphan's children, HIV infected people and others in need. It is important to note, that this organization distributes not simply money to the poorest, but tries to give work to the people or to train them on jobs, so that they can search a work for themselves. The orphan's children live in groups per 6 or 8 children with a so-called mother together. The groups exist either of boys or girls of different age, so that the whole reminds of a family. The separation after gender is a must be, because the children of a group sleep in the same room. The system reminds a little bit of the children's villages SOS where also a woman is responsible for a group of children. More than 80 orphan's children live here and are supported by different organizations. There is a school for children from 3 years and one elementary school.
A fantastically controlled and well functioning organization with own cows, pigs and chickens as well as workshops to the education of carpenters and tailors.

A couple of days I was traveling together with Hans in Rwanda, actually, he was travelling on the motorcycle, I by bus. We agreed always the next hotel to meet again and went from there to day trips by motorcycle. First we went from Kigali to Butare. This is close to the border with Burundi. Some 25 kilometers away, there is the school of Murambi. Here many thousand Tutsi and Hutus fled, but the militia found them and killed everybody. The corpses lie even today in the former classrooms and have been preserved with pulverized lime. It is a memorial hardly to be endured. The bad one is that here also very small children and babies were killed brutally, and one sees all that already very exact. I was glad that I was not here by myself and could discuss the seen with Hans.

On the next day we drove further on to Kibuye, a wonderful place directly at Lake Kivu. This was a real holiday feeling here. A mountain lake at an altitude of 1500 meters, surrounded by mountains, in the lake many small islands, clear water, a good hotel and a restaurant with very good food with view of the lake – what else one needs?
By bus it is easier to come from Butare on the inland route to Kibuye, however, is not so exciting and does not have the nice views like the route along the lake, which Hans did by the motorcycle.

So, the next day, Hans put me on his big motorbike again to take me parts of the way he just came from the other day. It was simply great. Not the road, for sure, as this one was very bad, but the views were just spectacular!
Here at this point again thank you very much to Hans, who drove part of this track even three times just to make me see all these beautiful things as well!
From Kibuye we went to Gisenyi, which is also at Lake Kivu. This road was in bad condition as well, as it took me 5 hours for 115 kilometers by bus. Gisenyi faces a lot of dust at the moment, as all streets are torn open just at the same time and renewed. Because here also the border traffic with Congo goes through, the whole place is dusty, dusty, dusty – so at the moment this one does not win the price as a pearl of Lake Kivu, rather a gigantic dust flag! From there we went to Ruhengeni, where then our ways separated. Hans went further to Uganda, I back to Kigali. These were very nice travel days with an uncomplicated travel partner. I hope very much that he can realize his travel book project and that he will find his dream place for a hostel somewhere in the world. Also, the world is a village and another meeting somewhere in the world is not unlikely.
My last day in Rwanda I spent with Tobi and Barbara from Austria. Barbara is working in Kigali for Unifem, her boyfriend was visiting her for 2 weeks. They offered me a seat in their 4 wheel drive just for the share of gas for a daytrip to Akagera National Park. There is not an abundance of wildlife as in Masai Mara, but it was very nice to see giraffes, antelopes, zebras and hippos. Besides, I had a beautiful day in nice company out in the bush. The landscape is very dry here, so it is an interesting contrast to the rest of Rwanda, I have seen so far.
The evening I spent with Uwe and Andrea from Switzerland. They adopted a little boy from Rwanda and this was the first night he spent with them in the hotel. So, there was something to celebrate, even more, after he fell finally asleep. I am pretty sure to meet them somewhere again, no matter, whether Switzerland, Germany or anywhere in the world.
So, tomorrow, I will leave for Tanzania. But this is another story for another time. Thanks god the world is still big enough for many more adventures.. Let’s go and see them!