More Rwanda

More Rwanda

After visiting the gorillas Herbert took us to some craft shops nearby. Locals are making articles to sell to the tourists who visit the gorillas.

This lovely lady makes T shirts and other things with her old Singer treadle sewing machine and this man below was doing some intricate carving.

On the rough road on the way down from the gorillas the school children were on their way home for lunch.

Several of them followed our car and the one in front.

Bob put out his hand and did high 5s with them. Some got very excited and started getting very close to the moving car. Herbert told them to stop which they did immediately.

Others just looked and were happy to have their photo taken as we slowly passed. I was struck by how clean they all were - particularly compared to others we've seen in Africa in Kenya in particular. Some of them have so much character in their faces even at this young age.

We drove back to Kigali and reflected on an amazing day.

27/9/13

Herbert picked us up to take us on a city tour of Kigali.

We drove around and saw some of the sights. Kigali has a population of nearly 1 million. It is built on hilly country with four ridges and valleys in between. As you might guess the main city buildings, government buildings and larger houses are on the ridges with the poorer people living in the valleys.

We stayed in the Kigali Serena Hotel which we liked a lot. In all the city hotels we stayed in in Africa there was security going into the hotel. In Nairobi a staff member used a hand metal detector. In Kigali our luggage also went through a metal detector so we felt very safe although had no reason to feel otherwise.
Many of the lodges and hotels we stayed in in Africa were owned or managed by Indians so there was an Indian flavor to the food.  This was so at the Kigali Serena. The buffet breakfast at the Serena Kigali was a buffet with amazingly fresh food and a huge variety. It was included in our tariff so I was quite cross that we had to leave the hotel very early 3.30am on our last day and missed out on the beautiful breakfast!

On Herbert's tour we drove past some nice fairly spacious houses – some of which were embassies. We saw some slums as well. There are basic but new houses also that the government is building with plumbing and water nearby to replace the slums. Some of the slums are vulnerable to landslides in heavy rain.

We visited the genocide museum which was confronting and incredibly moving. There are 250.000 victims of the genocide buried in the grounds. It is very well set out with a historical section, tributes to some of those killed and an area on other genocides in recent history.
They are doing research on the background to genocides in the hope of preventing them in the future.
We visited the old President's Palace where the plane carrying the President went down which triggered the start of the genocide. The building was not overly interesting but the area clearly has huge emotional significance to Rwandans and was interesting because of this.

Throughout Rwanda we saw these Tico signs frequently. It is a telecommunications firm that is trying to establish itself in Rwanda. They approach locals and offer to paint their houses as long as they can use the Tico logo and colours. It must be a good deal because lots of people are doing it.

                                           Tico also sponsors these motorbike taxis.

Herbert took us to a craft market. I bought two woven bowls. We had been warned to be careful with buying basket weaving as they would need to be declared going into Australia. The ones I chose seemed fine because they had been coloured. I thought they'd be great to store fruit in and match our colour scheme at home. That was until the customs officer in Melbourne tapped them and lots of tiny insects came out. We relinquished them forthwith!

Rwanda was an amazing experience and a country we really felt comfortable in. It was amazing to see the gorillas and they lived up to expectations. It was a real privilege to learn so directly of the country's troubled past and the efforts that they are making, largely successfully, to develop from poverty to a middle income economy by 2020. Under Kagame's presidency there has been an emphasis on political stability, well functioning institutions, a rule of law and zero tolerance for corruption. This makes it one of the top countries in the world to start a new business. This is really remarkable when you consider that the genocide was less than 20 years ago and the country was in chaos for some time after.