Day 13 - Kigali, Rwanda
Saturday, September 19
At the Genocide Memorial, Kigale
Yesterday (Day 12 - Friday, September 18) was our travel day from Tanzania to Rwanda. It was uneventful…we had a slow morning at our lodge, a 1½ hour drive to the airport, 3 hours in the airport, two flights (connecting in Dar es Salam), a late arrival into Kigali, a half hour+ drive to our very fancy hotel, and a late dinner, before enjoying a good night’s sleep.
We had an early wake up (6:30) for a 7:30 breakfast to meet our guide, Jovia, to begin our time together in Rwanda. Rwanda is a small country about the size of the state of Massachusetts; and Kigali, the capital, is a bustling cosmopolitan city of nearly 2 million people. And it is CLEAN! Evidently, the last Saturday of the month, from 8 - 12noon, every community (city, town, suburb) spends the morning cleaning it’s outdoor spaces. They take great pride in their communities and this is a priority and part of their life.
Little motorbikes are everywhere for taxis!
Before leaving the city and heading north to see the gorillas, we would visit two significant Memorials to the genocide of the 1990’s.
The genocide erupted in April 1994, but the training in hate had been building for years. Belgian and German colonizers had ruled the region and divided the people into rigid ethnic groups that hadn’t existed before. First the Tutsi were favored and later the power shifted to the Hutu.
On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi (both Hutu men) was shot down by surface-to-air missiles, and immediately the Tutsi were blamed. A UN peacekeeping organization (UNAMIR) immediately sent 10 Belgian soldiers to the Prime Minister (next in the line of succession) to transport her to Radio Rwanda to address the nation. However this never came to pass. They were overtaken by Rwandan soldiers and citizens, and forced to surrender their weapons. The Prime Minister and her husband were killed and the soldiers were taken to the Camp Kigale military base where they were tortured and killed. By noon on April 7, the moderate political leadership of Rwanda was dead or in hiding, and the next day the genocidal killings began in earnest.
Camp Kigale Belgian Memorial
The memorial consists of 10 granite columns with notches in the side indicating how old they were (most were in their 20’s) and their initials carved at the bottom.
And the building where the the soldiers were tortured and killed.
Genocide Museum and Memorial
These grounds and museum are dedicated to telling the entire story of the history of the genocide, honoring the suffering of those who died, and giving the survivors a place to mourn. In this way it is an important place for present day Rwandans. The team that created Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem consulted in the building of this Museum and it is evident in the effectiveness of their storytelling and the overall experience of being there. We were not allowed to take photos of anything inside the buildings (which was most of our time there). There were several short films to tell the history, and art installations, and photos, and news reports. All of it taking us into the story and the history of this terrible time in Rwanda’s life. There are 250,000 people buried in the massed graves on the property here.
Then we went to lunch at a cute pub like place where we got to try a wide array of Rwandan dishes. I was so hungry I forgot to take photos of it! And it was a LOT of food! Then we were on the road, heading north for a 3 hour drive to where we’d be staying to see the gorillas.
It didn’t take long before we were out of the city and winding our way through hills and valleys. Motorbikes became less prevalent and old bicycles became the norm…still serving as taxis and hauling stuff using the seat and the riders’ backs to carry their wares. The weather was quite overcast so there wasn’t a lot to photograph. Mike and I both took naps, until we stopped at a lovely rest stop with a coffee shop where we got a coffee and a slice of lemon cake.
As we got further north the hills became mountains. We passed through the city of Musanze which is the second largest city in Rwanda which has grown up around the gorilla tourist industry. We got to Amarembo Lodge around 5:00pm, greeted as usual with a hot wash cloth and juice. We checked in and were taken to our little hut. We learned that laundry services are included and that they can have a load of laundry done by the time we finish dinner! Such good news since we the clothing we’ll need for the gorilla hiking is some of the same stuff we wore on Kili. It will feel good to be here for 3 nights! (I also discovered that the inside of my hiking boots were still wet from their post-Kili cleaning - yikes!) I got those in front of the fire place right away. Dinner at 7:00pm: we both had the filet mignon!
Tomorrow - We hike into the National Park to see the Mountain Gorillas!!!