Rwanda

Our time in Rwanda was limited, varied and incredibly enjoyable. We arrived in the late afternoon and our hotel arranged a transfer for us. It is such an enjoyable perk to have someone waiting on you when you arrive in a foreign country rather than having to figure it all out in your first “boots on the ground” minutes.

I usually do lots of research to find hotels that are in central, walkable locations. Absolute Africa, who was picking us up in thirty six hours said they picked up from two different hotels. One of them stood high above from the other, so Yambi Guesthouse was an easy choice. It was an oasis in a busy city with comfortable rooms and a vast porch surrounded by greenery and outlooks across the city. If I were to complain about Yambi, my only two complaints would be that its location was not central, so it made getting around difficult. Along with this, I’m afraid that Yambi made us feel too comfortable and too at home, so we really didn’t want to leave. While I felt perfectly safe, there was not necessarily something that was high on my list that I wanted to visit, nor was there really a great place to walk around nearby where we were, so we settled in and enjoyed some chill time on the back porch. The chef was amazing and always provided us with way too much delicious food.

Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills, and even its capital city of Kigali is evident of that! One reason we didn’t want to walk too far was the steep hills that surrounded us! Kigali has a population of nearly two million amongst these hills. The population of Rwanda is nearly fourteen million and it is about the size of Massachusetts.

Early the next afternoon, Yambi helped us organize a ride to our food tour. Now, remember, we love a food tour! I’m very glad that we did this food to her, but I will be honest that it disappointed me a bit. Our food tour consisted of a couple from Barbados and our young guide. He was amazing! In two weeks time, he is traveling to London, as he was in the top three in an international contest where people, typically at the university level, were sharing their ideas on how to best support refugees. His idea had to do with how best to support refugees in Rwanda being successful in higher education.

Our first stop on the food tour was three different types of rice along with some beans. All fairly simple, but all enjoyable. Our next stop was a ginger lemonade drink. It was delicious! I incorporate a fair amount of ginger into my food during the holiday season, but I really should use more ginger throughout the year! Next stop was some thing that I tried openly, but did not at all enjoy. There were fried anchovies. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten an anchovy hole. To be fair, the smaller ones were quite delicious. The larger ones were very fishy. Alongside this was something that resembled a large roll, but had a consistency closer to play-dough. It was red in color. We were to takeoff part of this ball and dip it into the cooked greens (cassava?) that resembled a bowl of green mush in front of us. I’m afraid I hated both the greens and the red ball. Our fourth stop was by far my favorite! We had some small skewers of beef roasted over a grill and chapati bread (very similar to naan). Our last stop was some fresh local fruit, including passionfruit, a tree tomato (which has no taste resemblance to a tomato), and pineapple. Usually, after a food tour, I feel like I won’t be able to eat for days to come. However, when we returned back to Yambi, after this one, Jessica and I split an entrée from our divine chef.

On our way to and from Uganda, we passed over many of these “hills” at an elevation similar to Denver’s mile-high status. The roads in the city were teeming with people. The majority of people walked everywhere they went. Another large portion are on motorbikes (which are also local taxis). The roads in the rural areas were well-paved, steep, curvy and also full of people walking. Some people were walking, often carrying some produce to sell high on their heads with ease and confidence. Many people, on these rural, twisty, climbing roads were sweeping the sides of the roads. Sometimes with a broom, sometimes with a branch, but all along the busy road they were just sweeping.

I must admit the Rwanda roadsides are pristine. There is no trash, and I mean none. But these people (mostly women) were sweeping up leaves and sometimes even pulling weeds. I asked Nash, our guide, about it later. He said, “Yes, they’re keeping it clean.” When I asked if it was a government paying job, he laughed. Sure, sometimes people must perform this as an act of community service, but most people do it because of the pride they feel for their country. Nash said that on the last Saturday of the month, all Rwandans get outside and clean-up together. Can we take a second here? This is the most beautiful, community-minded idea I believe I’ve ever heard. We have a lot to learn from this country.

As a large group, we visited the Rwandan Genocide Memorial. I will admit that I only knew about the slaughtering of one million people just thirty years ago because of recent research, not because of anything that I had learned before. Of that, I am ashamed.

I hope that you who is reading this knew more about this than I did, but I will give you a summarization as best as I understand it. Before colonization, Rwanda had been a seemingly peaceful place with a culture that united the people. When Belgium colonized this country, they labeled people as two hierarchical groups. The Tutsi people were ones that owned more than ten cows and the Hutu had less. This identity was passed down and included on an identification card that separated people by groups. As you can imagine, the Tutsi were the minority. After the Belgians left, the Hutus started gaining power and resentment toward the Tutsi grew. Extreme media began spreading lies and convincing Hutu that they must murder the Tutsi (the cockroaches). While horrific killings happened for years before this, it was during three months in 1994 that one million men, women and children were brutally slaughtered. The details we learned about these deaths in this gut-wrenching and thought-provoking museum were nothing short of utterly disturbing, so I will spare you the details. Rooms full of photographs of the loved ones who perished, items that belonged to loved ones, even a room full of skulls and femurs drove home just how many people were killed and how horrific the killings were. It was the room dedicated to the children that were lost that broke me. Their photos hanging along with information about their favorite foods, sports, their last words and how they were murdered. 

Even today, thirty years later, they are still finding bodies and giving them a proper, final resting place at the Memorial. This is why the outdoor space of the Memorial resembles a Botanical Garden. It’s a place where loved ones can come and spend time with their family members in quiet moments of reflection.

Another part of the museum included history on other genocides that had happened in the twentieth century. This part was showing us how decisions about genocide had changed policies at the UN, and yet, how these changes did not stop a genocide from happening in Rwanda in the 1990s. Of course the Holocaust was mentioned, along with the Khmer Regime in Cambodia, the events in Bosnia and one other that I was ashamed I had no recollection of. It took place in the early twentieth century when Germans killed many of the Herero people in what is now Namibia.

I’m so thankful for my time in Rwanda! Not only did I get to meet warm, welcoming people, and see stunning landscape, but I saw a nation who was broken just thirty years ago, who now, because of intensive work, can come together once a month to show pride in their country by cleaning it, together.