A week in Rwanda

Very stiff legs from the nine hours of walking up and down Mt. Sabino but it's time to head to Rwanda. We take a motorbike Boda to the border and walk over into Rwanda.

Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills - as you can see by the photo...

First stop in Rwanda is Gisenyi. A town on the side of lake Kivu where you can see an active Congolese volcano smoking in the distance.

We have dinner on the lake (it's almost like being on the beach!) and watch some cultural dancing.

Two days of checking out the town and the shores of the lake and it's a local bus ride down the lake to another beautiful spot; Kibuye. We hang out for the day and swim in the lake as the sun goes down.

The next morning it's another long bus journey to Cyangugu at the far south of the lake.

Now the first thing we noticed about Rwanda were the roads in and around the main towns. Uganda roads are generally dusty and full of pot holes, Rwanda on the hand has immaculate paved roads. That is until you get on a local bus and journey through the back roads. A 70 seater bus squeezes at least 150 people on board – you couldn't get more people on them if you vacuum packed each person! Add in some hair pin bends on the road, a six year old child on our lap, an old lady squashed onto the tiny gap of seat next to us and a whole lot of bumps for 7 hours and you've got one of the worst bus journeys ever. But I guess this is Africa!

The next leg of our travels takes us through the beautiful forest Nyangwye. We attempt to stop for a self guided walk but after just a few kilometers we're picked up by the local vet and reprimanded for being in the forest without a permit – ooops!

Saturday night is spent in a little town called Butare. In a local bar we get chatting to some Rwandans and try to keep the conversation going with the GCSE French we can remember. Apparently though the more beer I drink the more I sound like Del Boy – mange tout Rodney!

Liam with some new Rwandan friends.

Final stop in Rwanda is the capital Kigali. It's obviously busy with traffic and people but in comparison with Kampala it's very clean and a bit more cosmopolitan. The cleanliness of Rwanda is down to a monthly event called Muganda. The third Saturday of every month all communities come together to clean. People clean their homes, compounds, offices, streets and then the community chief calls a meeting where everyone discusses any issues in the community and how they can be resolved. An excellent idea if you ask me.

The clean towns, paved roads, community coming together is a big step forward from where they were in 1994. We visit the genocide memorial in Kigali which documents not only what happened during the genocide but also try to explain how and why it happened (Belgium colonialist meddling one of the main reasons!) with an aim to never let it happen again. Very harrowing and graphic but really makes you think about what Rwanda has been through and what scars must be left with the people. Some statistics: 1,000,000 people were killed, 300,000 children lost one or both parents, more than 80% of children thought that they would die, two thirds of the population were displaced. A very somber but interesting and informative way to end our visit.

Christmas in Kampala

Just before Christmas we leave Rwanda to catch the bus back to Uganda, stopping to stay with some friends in Mbara on the way. Christmas day is spent in a fab hotel (Christmas present from Ma and Pa Le Vannais) in Kampala with 20 VSO friends and generally involves stuffing ourselves with the eat all you can buffets. We ring in the New Year with some friends in a Kampala night club until 5:30am and use the Christmas holidays to say farewell to some good friends we've made. It's sad to be leaving everyone behind and we've really enjoyed our time living in Uganda – I'm sure we'll be back – but we're also excited to be starting the next bit of our travels. Ethiopia here we come!