rwanda – ToewsTravels

56 bus riding hours and 12 passport stamps later, i’m back in kenya. what a great weekend. lets go back to saturday…

i got up early to catch what was supposed to be a three hour bus ride from kigali to gisenyi, rwanda. like everything in africa, it took considerably longer. playing on the radio were recognizable gospel melodies in the vernacular, kinyarwanda, interspersed with french rap. gisenyi is a nice little town on the shores of lake kivu. apparently its where wealthy rwandans go for holidays, although it has its share of poverty too. apparently lake kivu has compressed gas under the water, that one day will rise to the surface and kill everyone in the vicinity. hopefully not in our lifetimes. went to the market and climbed part way up a mountain where i made friends with some local children. then i took a taxi moto to the border with the democratic republic of congo (drc).

the drc is unfortunately not in a great place right now. they’ve been embroiled in civil war for, well, basically since the europeans arrived, but especially the last few decades. five and a half million people have been violently killed there in the last decade, making it the deadliest conflict globally since world war two. gdp per capita is currently dead last in the world. very recently the infamous lord’s resistance army (lra) (brainwashed child soldiers on hard drugs) from northern uganda have been massacring entire villages in the drc. trying to get into the country was anarchy in itself – about 50 people pushing and shoving their way to one little immigration window. i was polite at first but soon realized that i’d be waiting there all day if i didn’t get aggressive. the change in road quality crossing from rwanda to the drc was almost as bad as crossing from alberta to british columbia (haha) – it went from fantastic to absolutely terrible. no garbage (rwanda doesn’t even allow plastic bags in their territory) to a veritable garbage dump. i walked the one kilometer into the city of goma.

goma is half mud, half lava. there is a huge volcano that erupted a few years ago that buried half the city (including the airport), so that half is still digging out. i only saw one mzungu (white person) all day that wasn’t inside an armored united nations vehicle. we ended up having quite the discussion. he works in conflict resolution, in close collaboration with the upper leadership (like presidents) of the surrounding countries. i got the impression that he doesn’t get to talk to mzungus very much. he seemed desperate to talk about american politics; i obliged. anyway, this guy told me where i could find the market, because literally no one spoke even one word of english.

so i got a taxi moto bike to go to the market. no helmets in the drc. in fact, no rules whatsoever, haha. the market was great. it started pouring rain so i hung out there for a while. used up my extra drc currency before leaving by taking the taxi motos to the far end of town and back. at one point the guy started going the wrong way and when i indicated to turn around he did so very abruptly, and we lost control and crashed into a woman in a yellow dress, knocking her into a huge mud puddle. he kept driving. so that was my half day in the drc. took the late evening bus from gisenyi back to kigali.

next morning i got up extremely early to catch the bus to kampala, uganda, a nine hour journey. decided to go just to kampala, and then get a ticket from there to nairobi later that night so i could hang out there a few hours. went to about four different bus companies before i found one that had a night bus.

i liked kampala. i went to the market which, anywhere in africa, is always sufficient to supply enough chaos for one day. then i went to a shopping center where, after searching for forever to find someone to change some money for me (i couldn’t use my debit card in uganda and all the forex places were closed) i had the most delectable indian food i have ever had in my life for dinner. even got to watch professional indian cricket on a big screen. made me seriously stoked to go to india soon, as if that wasn’t already the case! there were tons of asians in kampala. evidently many came back after idi amin made them all leave. then i caught the night bus back to nairobi.

i successfully completed the bus ride from nairobi to kigali rwanda. it was supposed to take 24 hours; it took longer. took the kampala coach – it reeked with an unimaginably horrid stench that made me nauseous for the first time in a really long time. after taking about 45 minutes to move the first 100 meters (nairobi traffic), i could tell it was going to be a long trip. the bus remained about 20 degrees hotter than the outside air all day (the outside air was perfect) – every time i opened the window the people in front of me promptly closed it. the guy beside me wore a winter parka the entire time. we stopped in nakuru and eldoret for some much needed air. somewhere in western kenya one of the back tyres (that’s how they spell it here – blame the british influence) started coming off. we stopped and, in true african fashion, it took about two hours to tighten it back up. i spent the time chatting with the only other mzungu on the bus – a british bloke with an afro who was about my age. at the ugandan border we got out and walked across a muddy no mans land before having to pay more than enough for a visa. got to kampala in the middle of the night for a short stop at kampala coach’s squalid headquarters in the industrial area. got held up for no particular reason at the uganda/rwanda border for a few hours, and for some reason they decided all the luggage couldn’t remain under the bus – it all had to be stacked in the aisles for the rest of the trip.

but the bus trip was more than worth it – kigali is an absolutely beautiful city! the roads are amazing (my cynical side suspects guilt money from the west for not stopping the genocide). there is a 24 hour nakumatt (african walmart) surrounded by a very pleasant mall downtown. for some reason i seem to gravitate toward the malls. i also gravitate toward the slums. the bus station is at the bottom of a huge hill, and when i got there it looked like the downtown was at the top of the hill, so i decided to hike up to it through the slums rather than the main road. the people’s response indicated that i might have been the first mzungu to ever do that. i don’t think i’ve ever felt as conspicuous. everyone just stops in their tracks and stares, and “mzungu,” “mzungu,” “mzungu” is the only word you hear. the kids yell it and run up to touch you which is great, but the hotshot young men say it angrily before spitting on the ground and the women mutter it under their breath.

anyways, at the top of the hill the aura completely changed. beautiful traffic circles with manicured gardens in the middle, numerous brand new glass skyscrapers, etc. rather impressive. just explored for the rest of the day. one can take these taxi motorcycles anywhere in the city for about $1. they give you a helmet that is about ten sizes bigger than anyone’s head, and the straps are invariably broken, so you have to hold on with one hand to keep it there. it would be a lot safer if you could hold on to the back of the bike with both hands and forget the helmet! its wonderful. found a cheap motel – turns out it had a tiny television in the room! so i got to watch tv for the first time in three months!

this morning i went to the genocide memorial center, a very impressive museum that just opened a few years ago to commemorate the infamous 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 – 1,000,000 rwandans. over 250,000 of them are buried right there on site. very sad story. clearly still a very central theme in every single rwandan’s life, as well as the national identity as a whole. also went to the hotel des mille collines – the impetus for the film hotel rwanda. if you haven’t, see it. even most of the modern music videos playing in the restaurants are centered on the genocide. interestingly, rwanda remains the most densely populated country in africa even with all those people, as well as all the refugees who left, gone. a few other random facts about rwanda before i peace out – lusciously green. very mountainous. they love their beer – at least half of every store is devoted to it, as are the vast majority of billboards and roadside stalls. the main reason a tourist would come to rwanda is to see gorillas. but a one day permit to the national park where they live literally costs more than i have in my bank account. everyone speaks french, no english. this makes buying a bus ticket (or anything you can’t just point at) challenging for someone like myself. recently rwanda has become known as a model for the developing world. stellar economic growth. minimal corruption. effective government. its almost as if it doesn’t belong in africa. wonderful place.

Category: rwanda

goma, democratic republic of congo

africa’s jewel – rwanda!