Off Road Bus'sing to Kigali
I like Mwanza, Tanzania despite the flow of arms and Nile Perch through it. Plus, the dirt roads out of the city is the shits. Rough and bumpy, made for 4X4 vehicles and... our bus. With people and bags stuffed to the limit, heads knocking and elbows jabbing into bodies, the bus finally coughed and heaved it's way to Benacco after ten hours and getting stuck in the mud once. Then it was a short shared taxi-ride to the Rwandian border and a four-hour mini-van ride to Kigali.
Coming late at night with the street kids begging and the residential street lights dotting this spread-out city, I realize how hilly Kigali is. Rwanda seems a bit more orderly and cleaner, and the roads better than Tanzania but it is a whole lot more expensive. There seems to be more street kids and moms carrying babies asking for money. There is also a lot more motorbikes zipping around. A bit hair-raising as you ride on the back of one of the motorbike taxis at night wearing you big backpack. I'm heading out to Ruhengeri this afternoon to see the Gorillas at the Parc National des Volcans tomorrow.
If you are ever in Kigali, I highly recommend you visit the Genocide Memorial Museum. It's very well presented and poignant. I struck up a conversation with a friendly local woman and she brought up the subject of the 1994 genocide. She feels the people were healing and forgiving one another and saw themselves no longer as Hutus or Tutsis but one people. She believed the root cause of the hatred that fueled the genocide could be traced to the Belgium colonial rule in making a distinction between the two.
I found out from the museum the Belgiums crazily distinguished the Tutsis as those owning 10 cows or more, and Hutus as those owning less than ten cows. The Tutsis were than given more priviliges in exchange for loyality and the rift was created. Jump forward to the 1990's, the civil war erupted and then a flimsy peace accord was signed in 1993 between the Tutsis' RPF and the Hutu government. But then in 1994, president Habyarimana's plane was shot down as it was about to land in the Kagili airport. In a purely planned and calculated fashion the Hutu majority began killing innocent people identified as Tutsis. Road blocks were immediately set up and house to house searches conducted and the Interahamwe militia began killing. Young, old, babies, children, men, women, were hacked by machettes, shot, burned or clubbed to death. Pure madness. Almost one million people were killed in three months and often were mass buried or allowed to rot on the streets. Neighbours, co-workers, friends, and even family turned on one another incited by hate and propaganda. One day laughing, eating or talking together, the next day hunted or part of a mob on a killing spree. Walking around the city, it is hard to imagine what happened and what brought people to this madness. Very sad indeed.
Coming late at night with the street kids begging and the residential street lights dotting this spread-out city, I realize how hilly Kigali is. Rwanda seems a bit more orderly and cleaner, and the roads better than Tanzania but it is a whole lot more expensive. There seems to be more street kids and moms carrying babies asking for money. There is also a lot more motorbikes zipping around. A bit hair-raising as you ride on the back of one of the motorbike taxis at night wearing you big backpack. I'm heading out to Ruhengeri this afternoon to see the Gorillas at the Parc National des Volcans tomorrow.
If you are ever in Kigali, I highly recommend you visit the Genocide Memorial Museum. It's very well presented and poignant. I struck up a conversation with a friendly local woman and she brought up the subject of the 1994 genocide. She feels the people were healing and forgiving one another and saw themselves no longer as Hutus or Tutsis but one people. She believed the root cause of the hatred that fueled the genocide could be traced to the Belgium colonial rule in making a distinction between the two.
I found out from the museum the Belgiums crazily distinguished the Tutsis as those owning 10 cows or more, and Hutus as those owning less than ten cows. The Tutsis were than given more priviliges in exchange for loyality and the rift was created. Jump forward to the 1990's, the civil war erupted and then a flimsy peace accord was signed in 1993 between the Tutsis' RPF and the Hutu government. But then in 1994, president Habyarimana's plane was shot down as it was about to land in the Kagili airport. In a purely planned and calculated fashion the Hutu majority began killing innocent people identified as Tutsis. Road blocks were immediately set up and house to house searches conducted and the Interahamwe militia began killing. Young, old, babies, children, men, women, were hacked by machettes, shot, burned or clubbed to death. Pure madness. Almost one million people were killed in three months and often were mass buried or allowed to rot on the streets. Neighbours, co-workers, friends, and even family turned on one another incited by hate and propaganda. One day laughing, eating or talking together, the next day hunted or part of a mob on a killing spree. Walking around the city, it is hard to imagine what happened and what brought people to this madness. Very sad indeed.
posted by Louis at 2:02 PM
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