Back in Kigali we
returned to the Step-Town Motel. Located very central and at a bargain price of $55pn with
clean rooms, a good hot shower, beautiful views from the balcony and by far,
the loveliest staff we’ve come across, this place was a winner. So much in fact
that we stayed in Kigali for a week; it was the perfect place for a bit of
R&R.
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| Houses in Kigali all set on mountains |
I found Kigali and
Rwanda for that matter, to be quite an amazing place. It is so organised, so
clean and the people don’t necessarily feel (dare I say) as African. The houses
all have clean and tidy gardens, there is no rubbish on the streets and (get
this) every month on the last Saturday there is a compulsory clean up in the morning
for all citizens. If you can’t make the clean-up in your community without a
legitimate reason you must pay a small fine. And after the clean-up everyone
attends a community meeting to discuss community issues. Amazing and it works
because we saw it in action. Rwanda seems to be onto something; somehow they
have built up respect and pride amongst their population and it was really nice
to see. As we assumed, this initiative came about after the 1994 genocide, and
from what we could see and were told, it has helped to rebuild communities. The
president, Paul Kagame, and the government of Rwanda have recently been criticised
a fair bit for being a bit on the authoritarian side of things, but clearly
they must be doing something right!
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Me with a shopping bag. Notice its paper as plastic bags
are "illegal" in Rwanda. Seems to be working |
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| Buzzing Kigali |
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| The view of Kigali from Step-Town Motel |
Kigali itself is a
thriving little metropolis. Traffic was quite hectic, especially with all of
the motorbikes and there is obvious ongoing development with lots of new
buildings being constructed. Kigali also has a great range of restaurants,
cafes and shops, and while there was the usual expat crowd hanging out at
these, there was also a number of Rwandans enjoying lattes, wi-fi, electronic
gadgets and upmarket clothing. What really shocked Mike and I was the presence
of Apple, both by Rwandans and expats. It seems everyone now has an iPad or
Macbook. Clearly we’ve been away too long and are no longer one of the cool
kids.
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Unfortunately not the best photo, but I was trying to show the traffic lights
in Kigali, all with timers so drivers no how long they have to wait/ go. I haven't
even seen these in Australia! |
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| Dinner at Republica: The yummiest fish fingers I think I've ever had |
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| Republica: Chicken and beef brochettes |
A few days into our
time in Kigali our overland Swiss friends Monica and Martin turned up and also
stayed at Step-Town. We hadn't seen them since we went our separate ways in
Southern Tanzania and it was great to catch up and swap stories. We had a great
night out, having drinks at the Hotel Des Mille Collines, a.k.a “Hotel Rwanda”,
followed by dinner at one of Kigali’s buzzing restaurants. Disappointingly “Hotel
Rwanda” was nothing like what we had seen in the movie, so I can only assume
the movie took some “creative license”. The hotel is very much a business hotel
and no mention is made of its role in the 1994 genocide.
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| Beer of choice at the Hotel Des Mille Collines |
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| Enough said |
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| Very much a business hotel...not at all like depicted in the film |
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| And the pool which featured in the movie; also where we had drinks |
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View from Heaven restaurant where we had dinner. Virtually all of the
restaurants in Kigali have awesome views being set on hill sides |
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| Dinner with Monika and Martin at Heaven restaurant |
Apart from
just relaxing in Kigali we also took some time to see some of the genocide
memorials and sites and TRY and understand more about it. I’ve read many books*
on the topic and had a very good understanding of the events that took place,
but still have never been able to understand how so many people could be convinced
to become involved in murder. It turns out that 30 years of brainwashing will
get you a long way, although I still don’t fully understand it. I guess I never
really will.
Anyway, we
visited the Kigali Memorial Centre which was by far one of the best museums I’ve
ever been to. It was really well put together and takes visitors through the
entire story starting from the beginning of the nation of Rwanda. It also has a
section on other genocides that have taken place in history such as the Jewish Holocaust,
the Armenian Genocide, the Namibian Herero’s and sadly many others. The site is built next to mass graves with
approximately 250,000 buried there and numbers growing as more and more bodies
continue to be found.
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| Kigali Memorial Centre |
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| One of the mass graves at the memorial centre |
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| Another mass grave; all up around 250,000 people are buried at the centre |
Also in Kigali city
centre was the site where 8 Belgian soldiers were killed and dragged through
the streets by the Interahamwe within the first week of the official genocide
(as the killings started long before April 1994 and the president’s plane being
shot down). Most of what was there was in French however there was a nice
poster with a history of the different genocides; I'm ashamed to say that
Australia made the list for its attempt to eliminate the Australian Aborigines.
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Bullet holes and grenade damage are still very much evident at the site where the
Belgian soldiers were killed trying to protect those hiding inside |
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| 8 stones to honour the 8 soldiers who died |
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List of genocides, including Australia on the bottom
right hand column |
Another day we headed
out to Ntarama, a church site 30kms from Kigali where around 5,000 Tutsis were
murdered in approximately 6 hours. The killings were completed by machete,
guns, grenades, pretty much whatever method worked. Children were apparently swung head first into walls, with the blood stains still there to show it. The guide at this site
was very good and honest that although Rwandans have moved on it will take
another couple of generations to fully move on from the horrors of the past. In his words ”we
need the old people to die off” to fully move on. He also told us that around
90% of Hutu males were involved in the killings in some way, a number that
really had us thinking as we walked around the streets and saw many older men.
Ntarama was a very touching site and haunting, the church still with skulls and
bones that have been left on display.
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| Ntarama Memorial site |
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| Inside the church |
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| Skulls from just some of the 5,000+ people that died on that day |
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| Heading into the memorial site |
A week in
Kigali and we knew we must move on. It was a struggle as we really enjoyed our
time there, everything was just so easy! Nonetheless we had the hills of Rwanda
to see and now had to catch up to Monika and Martin who had left us behind!
*For
anyone wishing to learn more about the Rwandan genocide I can’t highly
recommend enough, the book written by Lieutenant General Roméo
Dallaire, the commander of the UN peacekeeping forces called “Shake
hands with the devil”. A disturbing story of how the people of Rwanda turned on
one another and the failure of the international community to stop it when they (we) had the power to do something.
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| Black and burnt suspension, courtesy of the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti NP road |
