Rwanda

My trip to Rwanda was in one word, epic!

I was very fortunate to be traveling to Rwanda with my friend, who lived there for three years. This meant I got more of the local experience (bucket showers included) and that really is the best way to see a country.

I landed in Kigali on Friday around lunch time and was picked up by my friend, who had arrived a day earlier, and her local buddy. The three of us went for lunch and then back to his place to settle in, where we would be staying while in town. When we arrived I got to meet our second roomie for the week, my friend lived we these guys when she was a resident. These guys are such total sweethearts and made us feel right at home. Then we popped over to see another buddy and former co-worker and her two children. They were such a delight - everyone I met in Rwanda was so open and welcoming. We capped off our night with dinner and drinks at a great restaurant where I was able to meet two more amazing ladies who we stayed out with drinking into the night. I feel like I met and saw the whole of Kigali on day one - amazing!

The crew's old house in Buguma

The next morning we were up early for the drive to Nyagatare. It was a stunning three hour drive through the countryside up North. With all of the lush greenery and rolling hills, Rwanda could not be more beautiful. We made sure to stop along the way for amanzadi, hefty donuts, that are pretty common in different parts of Africa and oh so good. After arriving in Nyagatare, we were greeted by an old colleague of our little crew and headed up to Buguma where they used to live together. We visited the house they lived in, the school they worked at and the bar they owned! It was really neat to see all the places they had been telling me about and also to see them reliving those days. Then it was time for us to make the trek (over some pretty terrible dirt roads) back to Nyagatare for a traditional Rwandan meal. We had ubugali which is made from cassava flour and water, whipped into a sticky starch. We had some goat stew, root veggies and chapati, a flatbread. Wasn't a huge fan of the ubugali (served with peanut sauce), but the rest was very good. We made our way back to Kigali, unfortunately part of the way in the dark, which was a bit worrying because so many bikes and pedestrians walk on the roads and there are no streetlights to help see them. But we survived and once we got back into town we went out for a nice dinner with a crew of expats who were being hosted at a new restaurant opening - more good food!

On the way to Nyagatare

"Muzungu!!"

Standing in front of wild mountain gorillas

The next morning we went to see the local market which was chaos but I was able to get some nice fabric which I'll have made into a skirt as well as a small traditional painting that they still use cow dung to make; I couldn't resist. After that madness it was time to relax so we headed to the Hotel des Milles Collines (famously known as Hotel Rwanda). We spent the day relaxing by pool, which was lovely but also felt a bit surreal to be enjoying a swim in this pool that people had to famously drink the water out of to stay alive when being sheltered during the genocide. My friend was leaving that day to fly back to Joburg so we parted ways and I took a bus up to Musanze for the night. When I got off the bus, I was fortunate enough that I had been the only muzungu (white person) because my guide was able to spot me right away and took me to the hotel. I got very used to hearing the word muzungu as I traveled about, especially in the more rural areas, because the children don't see many white people and they get very excited and call out muzungu and wave when they see you. At one point I made the mistake of giving one child a high five and got swarmed by a group of school children wanting me to touch their hand too. Anyways, the next morning my guide picked me up and took me to the starting point for my trek to go see mountain gorillas. I was put into a little group of tourists with a local guide, who brought us into the Parc National des Volcans. It only took us about 30 minutes to get to the point inside the park where a family of gorillas was hanging out; lucky us. Ironically, the family was named the Hirwa Group, which means "lucky group". The family has one silverback, a few females, some adolescent males, a pair of 4 year old twins (which is very rare for gorillas - only seven documented cases to survive since the 60s) as well as 6 month and 4 month old babies. It was absolutely unreal to be so close to these powerful and stunning animals. They pretty much just went about their day, hanging out, eating, playing with each other and walking around, while we watched from a couple metres away. A few of the gorillas were playing together just right in front of us, which is a little scary when they are beating their chests, biting each other and rolling around, but they had no interest in us, just wanted to play together. Just before we left we went to take one last look at the silverback who was doing his own thing in another area. As we were standing there all of a sudden we could hear some of the other gorillas coming closer. One of the female gorillas started running down towards our group and I was on the edge so I turned in to get tighter to the others and out of her way when I felt a pound on my back like a kidney shot (although lighter than what I recall receiving from my brothers back in the day). The others in my group just looked at me incredulous and said, "you just got hit by a gorilla!" It was wild. She was obviously just being cheeky though because she could have really hurt me and she just hit me as she ran by, not using much force. So that was the end of my gorillas experience and although it was expensive, it was well worth it! I ended up hanging out afterwards with my two guides. We went for lunch, headed up to a nice garden and lookout point above the city and I decided to stay in Musanze for the night, getting a lift with my guide back to Kigali the next morning.

I had one final day in Kigali so I hung out a bit with the boys. We walked over to the Genocide Museum/Memorial. It was at times hard to see the graphic images, artifacts collected from mass graves, and to read the descriptions of horrific events, but it was a well-done exhibit. There was a second floor exhibit dedicated solely to the impact of the genocide on children, but just walking up the stairs made me start to cry so my friend very graciously said, "We don't have to go through that part." Which is kind of ridiculous, that I was tearing up just at the thought of children during the genocide as I was standing with someone who bravely survived the genocide as a child. I know he is too kind to have been thinking this, but if I was him, I would have been like, "Bitch, please. If I can walk to Tanzania in 1994, you can walk through this exhibit."

Eventually I had to head to the airport and say goodbye to Rwanda, which had been so good to me. I met fantastic people, was touched by a gorilla, had yummy food, saw incredible views, even the weather was amazing for me the whole time and we are in the rainy season - so lucky!

Rwanda, I will be back to see you again, I'm sure.