Rwanda is a beautiful country; clean, structurally sound, but with a tragic past. The 1994 Rwandan genocide left close to 1 million people dead and thousands more injured and orphaned. Years and years of the west pitting Hutus and Tutsis against each other and their unknowing/unwilling to learn how to emerge from the dark past at independence became the perfect storm for one of the most horrific events in human history. We thought we had learned from the years of the Holocaust but now we hope to have learned from the Rwandan genocide.
Brian and I left for Rwanda the evening of August 21st. It was our last day in the TechnoServe office and a sad day saying goodbye to the wonderful people we'd come to know and work with over the past couple of months. Rwanda was the beginning of our treat to ourselves for our upcoming 1 year wedding anniversary. Having about a week's time to travel before heading to Ghana for the second phase of our Africa excursion, Brian arranged for us to visit Rwanda for 5 days followed by a surprise trip to what would be Lamu - Shela, Kenya for another 5.
In the capital, Kigali, we spent our first night at the historic Hotel des Mille Collines. If you've seen Hotel Rwanda you know this place, it became a place of refuge for over a thousand people during the genocide. It was kind of eery looking around and recognizing scenes from the film. The following day our driver took us around the capital and to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center. We both knew that it was important to learn more about the 1994 civil war. We've seen Hotel Rwanda and have heard about the UN's inaction but what would it be like to hear it from the Rwandans?
It was hard.....very hard. The museum walks you through the timeline of occupancy by the Belgians, forced tribal division, independence, revolt by the Tutsis (RPF), civil war, mainstream hate propaganda by the Hutu run government, all leading to that horrible day in April, when road blocks were set up all over Kigali and the rest of the country, whereby Hutus had names of Tutsis to kill by whatever means necessary. It was horrific....
It is essential to know this history as is the same belief of the current president. Know your history and learn from it so you shall not repeat it. Today people do not introduce themselves as being either Hutu or Tutsi, it is highly discouraged, they are all Rwandans.
The next day we made a couple hour drive near the Volcanoes National Park in preparation for Sunday's main event of treking what is some of the last gorillas in the wild. We spent the better part of the afternoon winding through villages, banana tree groves, viewing lush countryside on the way to Gorilla Mountain View Lodge.
We woke the next morning to a eye full of mist covered mountains, giving visual representation to the country known as the land of a thousand hills. We ate an early breakfast and headed to the Volcanoes National Park entrance awaiting the much anticipated gorilla trek. Each day the park only allows 40 permits to view the gorillas. We were so fortunate to have gotten two permits available by recent cancellation just two weeks prior. We were grouped with 6 other people, an older couple from LA, a guy from Seattle, two high school students from Orange County, and a judge from the Hague. Interesting demographic.....
We were going to see the second largest group of gorillas in the park; 26 in total called Group 13. To actually get to the park border you must first trek through some small villages and farmland. The park's border used to be much closer to where we first congregated but years of habitat loss taken by farmers for their crops has endured. The park has been working with the local people to ensure their land is protected against animal destruction form the likes of buffalos and elephants and the awareness of forest habitat conservation.
Before we entered the dense green thick of the forests edge, our guide gave us the low down on what to do in the presence of the gorillas. We were advised to always stick close together, stay in a single line, go no closer than 7 meters, and to not use a flash when taking photos. I couldn't believe that we were actually going to see the gorillas. I had to stop and pee a couple of times....
It took a little over an hour up some steep hills when we finally came upon the trackers. A group of trackers (some former poachers) set out each day to track each gorilla group and they radio back to the guides to let them know where they can be found. We were to leave any large bags, food, water with the trackers. We set off. A few moments later we spotted our first gorilla. We kept moving down the hillside and came upon about 12 or 13 out of the group, the silverback was sitting in the middle. My heart was pounding I wanted to cry. Happy tears of course!
We were only allowed one hour with the gorillas. We all just stared in amazement by the enormous size of the silverback, the growling and playfulness of the babies, the human-like creatures sitting before us. For the first half hour the group stayed in the location where we found them. It seemed as though the silverback got bored with the tree he was feeding from, so he moved over to the other side in more of an open grassy area. The others followed but we didn't see all 26 as we were told they scatter about the area. But we did see the silverback sitting stone-faced, resting from recent lunch consumption. A couple of baby gorillas were wresting on the ground nearby. The silverback turned over on his stomach where we could no longer see his face. The babies saw this as an opportunity to climb all over daddy. They were now wrestling on top of him.
Just before departing these magnificent creatures, our guide asked us to devote a minute of silence. This was to recognize how at risk these gorillas truly are. They are endangered and hunted, and we may never have another chance in our lifetime to witness such beauty again.
I felt as though I had been holding my breath the whole time, trying so hard not to disturb the peace that surrounded the gorillas. As we headed back down back to the park entrance, Brian and I felt so blessed to have had such a wonderful experience in witnessing one of God's amazing creatures in the wild, in the mist.
That afternoon we ate lunch nearby then embarked on an hour drive to our next resting area, Lake Kivu. We stayed at a lovely Serena Lodge, nicest place we've stayed in Africa, along the beach of Lake Kivu. The shower rocked!
The next morning, we did a bit of a repeat: ate an early breakfast and arrived at the Volcanoes National Park entrance. This time it wasn't gorillas we were seeing but rather golden monkeys. For a much smaller fee and lesser hike you can view these bright-eyed, fast moving monkeys for an hour. Not as breathtaking as gorillas, but supercute nonetheless.
We returned to Lake Kivu for another night and chilled out at the hotel (i.e. I took a nap and Brian stared at bats living in the trees just outside the hotel entrance). I remember watching the National Geographic channel in the hotel room and there was a show where actor Ewan Macgregor and his pal biked throughout Africa and that particular episode showed them biking from Kenya to Rwanda...............my next thought.......Brian and I need to get some hogs asap! (j/k)
Our return to Kenya was the next day so we packed up our things and headed back to Kigali. Along the way, Brian noticed some kids chewing on what looked to me like a large stick but it turned out to be a large stick of sugarcane! Yum! Brian asked our driver, oh our driver's name by the way was Petit, he was not small but actually quite tall, anyway, Petit hooked us up with some sugarcane. 4 sticks of it to be exact. Brian gnawed away at his, consuming all of it, I just chewed and sucked out as much sugar as I could. It was a nice treat :)
Before the flight we stopped at a market to buy some Rwandan goods. I won't get into details here because we bought gifts for folks - just know they are cool!
We caught our flight back to Nairobi around 3pm and got back to Kenya around 6pm (lost an hour on the return). That night we had to pack for the surprise trip which flew out the next morning at 10am.
Rwanda was beautiful and there is a bright future for this country. Oh and there were these really big worms in the forest and Brian made me pick one up........
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