27th - 28th April: Rwanda

Many years ago I applied to VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) to do voluntary work in Rwanda. In the end, I decided it wasn't the right time for me to go and I withdrew my application, but Rwanda has been somewhere I have wanted to visit ever since that time, so it was amazing to finally get there - even if just for a couple of days.

Despite being right next door to Uganda, there were some very obvious differences as soon as we crossed the border; the most obvious being that we were driving on the right-hand side of the road - and very smooth roads too! The landscape was as hilly, green and lush as Uganda, but much of the land was neatly divided into plots and full of crops, even on the steepest slopes.

Our first stop was Kigali, the capital city, where we visited the Genocide Memorial Museum.  

The museum is a living memorial to the 800,000 men, women and children who were murdered over a period of just 100 days in 1994, while the international community (including the UK) looked the other way, despite having prior knowledge that the massacre was going to happen. 

To read a short summary of the genocide, click the following link: 

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm

The museum is an incredibly moving tribute to all those who were killed as well as to the survivors who lost countless family and friends. It is also the site of the mass graves of thousands of the victims.

Since the genocide, a process of justice and reconciliation has been taking place in Rwanda with the aim of all Rwandans being able to once again live peacefully side by side. 

It is impossible to visit Rwanda, or indeed write about it, without considering the genocide - it is such a tragic and horrific time in the country's very recent history. But the justice and reconciliation process has offered people the chance to rebuild their lives and move forward and it is truly humbling to see how people are doing just that.

After Kigali we made our way north west to Ruangheri, a small town not far from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, where we stayed.  It was a really friendly little town where I spent a day wandering around, drinking coffee, exploring the market and having a new skirt made by one of the market tailors!

Sadly my time in Rwanda was all too brief, but it is somewhere I would definitely like to return to one day.  

Interesting facts:

• Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in parliament of any country (63% of women in the equivalent of our house of commons - compared to 29% in the UK)
• Rwanda is sometimes known as the 'Land of a Thousand Hills'
• Rwandan lions were also victims of the genocide. People displaced by the genocide moved into national parks and the lion population was eventually reduced to zero 15 years ago. Last month, the first lions were re-introduced into the country to Akagera National Park. Amazingly, two of the lions introduced were from Tembe in South Africa where I spent two weeks and this is one of them!:

:)
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