A Thousand Hills, A Thousand Smiles, and A Thousand Pictures

Ok... so maybe I didn't take a million pictures, 4,690 to be exact, but it sure feels like a million. So I've uploaded them into a flickr account so everyone can see all of my pictures. If you're on my facebook I'll also be uploading them there, but this was an easy way to upload them so everyone can see them. If there is one that you're wondering what it is, feel free to comment on it and I'll reply ASAP. Please know that if you want to use any of my pictures you need to contact me for permission, and you will need to give credit to me as the photographer. Enjoy!

Day 1: Kigali

Day 2: Kigali

Day 3: Kigali

Day 4: Kigali

Day 5: Travel & Butare

Day 6: Butare

Day 7: Butare

Day 8: Butare

Day 9: Butare

Day 10: Nyungwe

Day 11: Nyungwe

Day 12: Nyungwe

Day 13: Travel & Bisesero Memorial

Day 14: Boat Ride & Gisenyi

Day 15: Travel & Ruhengeri

Day 16: Ruhengeri

Day 17: Today I was sick and missed out on the activities

Day 18: Kigali

Day 19: Returned Home, no pictures during 20 hour flight.

Day 15: Boats, Cars, and Volcanoes

Today we got up early and had the most amazing breakfast. Sitting on the lake shore the workers brought out our food by the truckload. We ate it fast because we had another boat ride to catch. We rode out onto lake Kivu and stopped on a micro island for a group picture. From there we went to a natural hot spring where we were greeted by children that folks is by the hand to the spring. Once we got there the children each took a hand, rinsed it. Following the rinse they took leaves from nearby plants and used them to scrub our hands and then rinsed them again. After that we got back on the boat and went back to the hotel. We loaded up and hit the road. The workers at the hotel were awesome and sent us on our way with a surprise doughnut wrapped in a banana leaf. 

Along our way to our next town we stopped at a former orphanage, made famous from Gorillas In the Mist (where Sigourney Weaver goes to write her letter of resignation) and we got a tour. We also got to see more dancing, something the original owner enjoyed every Sunday. I got to go up and join the drummers, which as a former drum line member was awesome. From there we heard out to the next town near volcanoes national park. We stopped at a twa village after lunch and they sang and danced. We got to meet these people and have discussions with them about their life and culture. From there we did some more shopping and then dinner. Soon we will go back to our rustic hotel and hopefully get a good night of sleep. I'll add a couple pictures now, using my phone app, and I'll try to add more later. There isn't wifi at the hotel, so I'm probably going to use my phone for the last days here. 

Day 14: A boat ride, Travel, and Gisenyi

Today we got up early and took a boat ride on Lake Kivu. We went out to an island where we went for a brief hike and saw a bunch of fruit bats. They guide hit the trees and the bats went flying everywhere. Sadly poor Bethany got pooped on, which I’m sure was disgusting. Luckily we had plenty of wet wipes and hand sanitizer. We boated back to the shore and loaded up the cars. We then headed out for another 4-ish our car ride where we rocked around for a long time. We stopped at Gishwati, the field station started by Dr. Chancellor a few years ago. We stopped and met everyone, and got back on the road to get to Gisenyi. We checked into our hotel and then went right out to get food since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Then we went shopping and experienced the town. The local market where everyone from the town buys everyday items was a unique experience and many of us were shocked. It was a good experience, but it was a different one for sure. We bought a few things, and then returned to the hotel where some of us bought more stuff at a local shop outside the hotel. I’m glad I brought an extra bag just for the stuff I’m buying! Off to bed now, tomorrow is another early boat ride and then back in the car!

  

View from my hotel room this morning. You can see the sun rise and the fishermen sing as they come to shore from a night of fishing in lake Kivu.

View from the boat

The bats take to the skies!

Day 13: Travel and the Bisesero Genocide Memorial

Today was a long day. We got up early and left the hotel by 8am. After about an hour of driving on the highway the paved road ended and we spend several hours bouncing around the car on some wicked dirt roads. The views were amazing though. About 3.5 hours into the drive we stopped at the Bisesero Genocide Memorial which is currently under construction to see what was there. We were able to see the areas they had built, but not filled with anything, along with a  memorial to those that fought back against their murderers. The people, about 50,000 of them all hid there where men with spears stood guard to help protect. However, they were not able to hold off all of the murderers that had guns, grenades, and many hand weapons. Some survived the first wave of attacks, but the French arrived, and told them that they would arrange transport into a safe zone for them. The French then left to arrange transport, and when they left, the murderers returned and killed all of the remaining people, who thought they were under French protection. We were taken down to tin shed and inside was the skulls and bones of 1,040 victims. Below were coffins filled with as many as 50 people’s skeletons each. The plan is to move all of the remains into a permanent location where visitors can see the remains of all 50,000 victims. From there we drove a few more hours, getting lost part way, to our hotel which is right on lake Kivu. It is beautiful, and I’m sad that we are only here tonight, and leave in the morning. Below are pictures from the memorial.  I look forward to posting tomorrow!

The pictures of the bones in the genocide are not mine, but ones I found online. When we got there they said the government has to give permission for us to take pictures, and we didn’t know this in advance. But I wanted everyone to see what we saw today.

Day 9: Butare, Lessons in the Ethnogram

Today was a very short day in terms of things we saw. I also have to be very brief because I need to go to bed very soon. We have to leave the hotel at 5am sharp so we can get to the forest and start tracking the Chimpanzees. So we got up in the morning and ate breakfast. Then we loaded up the car so we were ready to leave as soon as we were done with our activity for the day. We went back to the campus and practiced our observation skills with the vervet monkeys. It was really cool. I have never had a chance to do something like this, and it was great to learn how it is done. I wasn’t sure what would happen, or what to expect, but everyone was really nice and took the time to explain to me how it worked and what to look for. So we followed the vervets around and noted their behaviors, social interactions, etc. We did that for about 30-45 minutes after a brief explanation and Q&A with Dr. Rundus. On our way out we stopped on campus at their genocide memorial for the students and faculty of the university that were killed in the 1994 genocide. They have what appears to be a grave as well as large boards with pictures of the students and faculty they lost in the genocide. Following that brief visit, we stopped at a co-op for some more shopping. Lots of fun things to take home were purchased. Then on to one more amazing lunch in Butare before we hit the road. It was a 3 hour ride through the country and one of the national forests. The roads were very curvy and many were one lane and many times we all made noises of surprise when we would come around a corner and a mac truck would be barreling down the middle of the road towards us. We made it safe and sound to possibly the largest, and nicest hotel ever. Compared it America it could use some upgrades, but it is massive! It has a livingroom and there are two twin bedrooms that each have their own bathroom. We were told our suite is where the president stays when he is in the area. Ok, well I have to head off to bed, I’m sure I’ll get a chance tomorrow after the chimps to blog some more. Goodnight!

P.S. I got an email from the student I met yesterday and he informed me that his final project for his undergraduate degree has been approved, and that he dedicated it to me, including pictures of me and him at the very end of it. It was very nice to hear that he was successful, and I was touched that he felt compelled to dedicate his undergraduate “memoir” or thesis, to me. So many amazing people here!

Mother with baby walking about 5-10 feet from me.

A pull off in the national forest. Words cannot describe how amazing it was.

Day 7: Our Lady of Kibeho & Tribal Dancing & Being a Muzungu

Hey everyone! Sorry for not posting like normal. I knew today was a smaller day, and I was so tired after being woken up 4 times the previous night. I'm happy to report the jet lag, or the worst of it, is over! I was able to sleep 8.5 hours tonight and feel great. It's amazing how much getting enough sleep can do for you.

So yesterday we took a long and bumpy ride to Kibeho, a hill where the there is a church to commemorate the visitation of the virgin mother in three vision to young girls. This is the only site in all of Africa that the Catholic Church has officially decreed the visions of the virgin mother to be real. We got to meet with the priest and a nun who gave us a brief history, and then we went to the shop and bought a few things. On our way towards the car we stopped into the newer church that is very large and got to hear two local people as they sang songs in Kinyarwanda and prayed. While I myself am not particularly religious, I do have a respect for other religions and do enjoy going to different churches and religious sites. This one was particularly interesting because one of the visions that one of the girls had was that of the impending genocide, more than 10 years before it occurred. This site has a lot of cultural importance for not just the region, but for all of Rwanda. The visit was brief, but it was an important one that I'm glad we got to experience.

A quick side note, since I haven't really talked much about what it is like meeting people and some of you may be wondering. The people here are AMAZING! I've never met people that are so nice, helpful, and truly interested in what I have to say. One of the things that I had to adjust to early on was being stared at. It never really bothered me, but from time to time I'd turn around and see a group of people giggle and quickly look away. It is completely harmless, and now we all joke about it in our group and like to say hello in Kinyarwanda and wave while we drive by. Everyone is always surprised that we are making the effort to learn some of their language so we can at least say hello, and thank you. Also, it is important to note that when driving around the country side you will here people, mainly children, shout "MUZUNGU!" and stare. The word is a mistranslation from Swahili, but roughly means white man. In its original language it meant traveler, but it was misunderstood, and mispronounced many years ago, so now it basically means white man. Yesterday on our return drive from Kibeho we were going particularly slow because of a massive rut in the road. There was a little boy about 5 or 6 standing outside of his house with his mother not far behind. He was staring so I waved and he waved back, then I said "Muraho" which is the formal hello. The kid stumbled back with his mouth hanging open and looked at his mother. She waved and started laughing. Just that one little moment was great, and every moment we are here we get to meet more people, and experience more things.

Ok, so back to what we did. After the church we went to the church's dining area where we had an amazing meal, and it was incredibly cheap. For a full buffet just for our table and a soda it was roughly $4.46! We took the long and windy road back towards the hotel. It is incredibly bumpy, but we actually liked it a lot. Our guide, Omar, joked that he was giving us a free massage, he is generous like that. ;-) When we got near the hotel we returned to yesterday's museum to see the one thing we missed yesterday... THE DANCING! Part of our trip included a paid professional dance group to show us their native dancing. We got to see a variety of different dances that come from many different parts of Rwanda. The dancing was one of the greatest things I've seen on the trip. We had a taste of it in the village of reconciliation, but this was professional quality, and was stunning to watch. I got a ton of pictures and some video too, so when I have reliable internet I'll post those on my facebook. At the end of the dancing everyone was taken onto the dance area and they danced with the dancers. Then they offered to pose with us and have our pictures taken with them. Once we did that they decided it would be great for us to dress in their dancing clothes and take a picture with them. So we did and then we made them all laugh when we started doing our own poses in the costumes. Manny and I posed like we were in gladiator warrior positions, fighting to the death and all of the dancers couldn't stop laughing. We got pictures of this to and it was absolutely amazing!

After that we went back to the hotel for a couple hours, and then most of us walked to into town and had a delicious dinner. We then walked back and hung out for a little bit before I snuck off to bed, which may be the best decision I've made, since deciding to come to Rwanda! Well I hope everyone is enjoying my blog, feel free to share it with anyone that you think might find it interesting. I'm very surprised and pleased to see that people are reading it and hear from people on the trip that their family members are reading it! You are all welcome to read it and I am grateful that you are enjoying it. All of my groupmates have been great and I am so happy that this is the group we have. We get each other, and help each other when needed. It is a great feeling to know that I have made friends so fast.

Below are some pictures. I have to head out for the day, but I have dancing pictures I will try to add to the bottom of this post tonight. Enjoy!

My netted bed. I've gotten used to it and kind of like it now.

Beautiful view of the day. Every turn reveals another beautiful view

The 2nd car bringing us to Kibeho. You can see the people on the side of the road staring.

Tea growing in a field. Yum!

Church on Kibeho

The WCU warriors

The fierce warriors go to battle

Day 6: Murambi Genocide Memorial & Butare Museum

After a decent night's sleep, though a little shorter than I would have liked, I grabbed some breakfast and rushed around to make sure I wasn't late for our tours today (I haven't been late yet, but I'd like not to be "that person").  We left around 9am and headed 45 minutes away to the Murambi Memorial. When you get about 2.5km away from the memorial you can see it perched on top of the next small hill. After a bumpy dirty road ride to the gates we got out and began our walk up the path. The cite of this massacre was chosen because it sat between many high hills, allowing militias to see anyone trying to escape. Tutsis were told to go there and hide to be safe, but it was all a plan by the Hutu militias to collect the local Tutsis in one place. There was a small tiki torch in a glass case as part of the torch ceremony in the country, presumably where they placed one at each genocide memorial, finally lighting the large torch in Kigali for the 20 year anniversary of the genocide. We approached the front and were met by our guide. He greeted us and showed us the way into the museum part of the memorial. The walls were filled with the timelines of the genocide, testimony, and many pictures of victims. It appeared that either someone had broken in recently and stolen all of the projectors, or they had removed all of the projectors for some unknown reason. The TVs for informational videos did not work and every projector, and floor-mounted screen were missing. Even though parts were missing, the museum was incredibly well put together and provided some good background, as well as a section dedicated to those that sheltered Tutsis, thus risking their lives in the process. Following the museum section we went outside and visited the mass graves. When we got there we all participated in a moment of silence, and a Rwandan man that was taking the tour with us offered to say a prayer in Kinyarwanda, which was a humbling experience to witness. The mass graves are left in a way that allows the top to be opened up so as more bodies are found, even 20 years later, they can be laid to rest with the others.

From the mass grave we walked around the main building and saw a series of small buildings, meant to originally act as housing for the students that were supposed to go to school there. Now the buildings sit in disrepair, no windows, few doors,  and bars over the open windows. Once we got to the rear of the complex of buildings we were told that we were going to see preserved bodies of victims that had been removed from mass graves farther in the back of the complex, and had been treated with lime to, essentially, mummify them. The first two rooms consisted of both male and female bodies, preserved and laid out on raised wooden racks. The bodies were contorted, some having not been killed before they were thrown in the mass graves were in defensive positions where they died, trying to suffocate under other dead Rwandans. Some were captured in their final position, begging to be spared. Many of the corpses were flattened due to the weight of the bodies above and the heat from decomposition. The following rooms were separated by groups such as women, children, women that were raped, and women with their children. Every room had the same sickeningly sweet smell, kind of like you hear described in books about death and murder. We were told that we would have had to write to a government agency to get permission to take pictures of the bodies, but at the end the guide informed us that he would allow us to take a couple of pictures since we didn't know and had come all that way. So we took a few pictures, though I did feel a little bit uncomfortable taking pictures of the dead, I knew that if I didn't, I would want to have them to show others within my program, and when I give presentations on my trip.

From there we walked around back where we saw the spot that the French troops had their flag during "Operation Turquoise."Billed as a humanitarian mission to the U.N., French troops entered Rwanda to defend what remained of the Hutu extremist regime. Claiming to provide protection, many of those they gathered up to protect, were left for a day and when the French returned, the Hutus had killed all of those they had saved. During the tour, the guide explained that not only did the French protect the old government, but they also shot Tutsis that had been brought to them for  protection. Additionally the troops put men and women that were still alive in bags that held their legs and arms together, loaded them into helicopters, and dropped them from thousands of feet in the air into the middle of the forests to the east. Additionally, the French built a volleyball court on top of a mass grave. Here they celebrated, partied, and drank above the bodies of those recently murdered.

So I had it all written out a 2nd time and it had another issue, so I'll be super brief because I've written the story out twice and it has failed to upload. So our guide told us that he and his brother are survivors of the gencide. We were very shocked about this and he told us the story of how he survived.

Below you will see pictures from today. A little warning, some of the pictures are graphic and while I feel that they are imporant for others too view, they may be too graphic for others.

We LOVE Rwanda!!!

Murabi as seen from an adjacent hill. It can be viewed from all sides

Standing at the gate

Signs on the front of the memorial for the 20 year anniversary of the genocide

Female rape victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide

Female victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide

Area that the French built a volleyball court on a mass grave

Mass grave that has been emptied of bodies, but left open to show the scale. There were 5 of these on the property

Me with our guide and genocide survivor. Amazing to meet such an amazing man, and have him explain what it was like

Day 5: Traveling & Butare (now known as Huye)

Today was a pretty light day. We got up and had breakfast, I was excited to find country potatoes, bacon, ickynumero fresh fruit, and ickynumero jelly. It was a great way to end our time at Chez Lando. We left around 9, stopped by the supermarket for a snack (jelly doughnut) and some cold bottled water. From there it was about a 2.5 hour drive to Butare, recently renamed to Huye, where we stopped at the King's Palace. The palace is a recreation of the hut the king of Rwanda lived in until a colonial palace was built by the Germans in the mid to late 30s. The two now sit next to each other and provide a stark contrast of Rwandan society before and after colonization. The hut was really interesting and showed the section for women, the section for men, and the bed for the king and his woman of the night. The king had as many as 40 wives, but only one was the official queen mother. We also saw the milk hut, and beer hut. Additionally, we got to see the ceremonial cows. they have massive horns that are as long as my torso is tall. They are trained by the herder to come out and present itself based on wistles and certain songs. The man sang to the cow while we got to pet it. It was crazy to stand next to this massive cow with massive horns and pet it. Then we got to see the calves that were not very old, the youngest was almost 3 weeks old.  From there we went to the hotel, which was a slight downgrade in quality, but I'm sure there is far worse out there. So then we had an amazing dinner in town and back to hotel to enjoy the worst and tiniest shower I've ever seen. It was best summed up by another student's father who said you can sh*t, shower, and shave all at once because it is all so close and there is no shower curtain. Tomorrow will be busier and I'll probably have a longer blog as we will be going to a museum and a genocide memorial.

Traffic Congestion

Rwandan Jelly doughnut for the road

View from the road

View from the road

Guy catching a ride up the hill

People walking down the road

King's Hut

Cow dug furnace

Tasting Sorgum, used to make beer

Grinding sorgum to make beer

Ceremonial cow

Me with the ceremonial cow

Herder singing to the cow

3 week old baby cow

Colonial palace for the king

Rwandan Flag