Rwanda - Part 2

Thursday, 24^th January

After my amazing experience with the Gorillas we left our camp in the foothills of Park the Volcanoes and headed south along Lake Kivu. Like all the lakes and just about everything in the Great Rift Valley, Lake Kivu is no ordinary lake. It is known as the ‘exploding lake’ which has in the past experienced violent eruptions. This rare event occurs when volcanic gases, which are trapped deep in the lake, suddenly erupt, suffocating all life in the vicinity. The last recorded eruption occurred in Lake Nyos (Cameroon) releasing over 80 million cubic meters of CO2 and killing 1700 people. Lake Kivu is constantly monitored and currently the water pressure exceeds the gas pressure so all is well.

We camped at a nice lodge (Paradise Lodge) right on the edge of the lake with amazing views of the mountains in the DRC in the distance (too dark to see them in the picture below).

From here we headed inland towards Kigali, the capital. The main purpose was to see the Kigali Memorial Centre which we visited yesterday.

It is a deeply moving experience and despite having read a fair bit about the 1994 genocide beforehand, some of the facts are simply incomprehensible:

• 1,000,000 people were murdered in 100 days, that is 7 people per minute

• Ordinary people turned on each other, neighbour on neighbour, friends on friends and even family members on their own

• 30,000 children were orphaned.

• In some areas only 1 in 10 Tutsies survived.

• As the genocide neared its end, it is estimated that over two thirds of the population of Rwanda was displaced. 

• The number of refugees was over 2 million (about 10% of the total population at the time). One of the difficulties facing humanitarian personnel in the refugee camps was the fact that many ‘refugees’ were in fact perpetrators fleeing from what they feared would be reprisals.

There are many more gruesome facts and images but the exhibition also pays tribute to some acts of heroism.  Many survivors offered to take orphans into their homes and it is not uncommon to find homes with large numbers of young people living with what were then complete strangers.

And then there is the story of Paul Rusesabagina, which is told in the film ‘Hotel Rwanda’. As the situation in Kigali reached its boiling point, and the streets were littered with bodies, Paul risked his own life and that of his family by allowing fleeing Tutsies and moderate Hutu to take refuge in the ‘Hotel des Mille Collines’, which is right in the heart of the city and where he was left in charge after the hotel’s European managers were evacuated.

The final message is that ‘Rwanda is determined to work towards Reconciliation’ but as an outsider, one is left wondering how that can be achieved given that many families alive today have someone who was either a victim, a perpetrator or a collaborator.

Sunday, 27^th January

We left Kigali and continued south along Lake Kivu.

Rwanda is beautiful, a country of hills, mountains, forests and lakes.  It is also tiny, some 26,000 square km of land and one of the most densely populated places on earth. It is frequently referred to as ‘The Land of a Thousand Hills’ and driving through the country side it is obvious why. You very rarely find yourself on a horizontal road, you are either on the way up or down a hill. There are even hills sticking out of the lakes like in this picture:

The soil is very rich and like Ethiopia, every bit of land is cultivated (except for the National Parks). The whole country looks to some degree like a gigantic garden and everyone is busy attending to their crops. The main things growing here are tea and coffee and you will see very neat, almost manicured, tea plantations stretching over several hills and valleys.

We headed east towards the Burundi border and passed through the Nyungwe National Park but decided not to stop due to the large fees. The park is an ancient rain forest, is famous for it’s biodiversity (it claims to have survived the last ice age!) and is home to around 500 chimpanzees.

The 100 km road passing right through the park was nevertheless a pleasure to be on, surrounded by these ancient tall trees.

Our next planned stop was the Gikongoro Genocide Memorial, which is a former technical college where 50,000 Tutsies fled but were brutally murdered within a few days. Due to the sheer numbers, hand grenades were thrown through the windows in order to flush the people out who were then killed, mostly with machetes. The bodies were then dumped in the college ground in mass graves.

Many of the bodies have been exhumed, preserved with lime and are displayed on the floors of the classrooms and appear exactly as they did when they died with the marks of machetes still visible on many bodies.

Needless to say it is a totally overwhelming sight, especially with so many children and babies amongst the bodies.

I will remember Rwanda for the best and worst moments of this trip.