We arrived at Zanzibar airport around 9:00am and checked in, only to find our flight had been changed to 1:00pm! We had been warned often about ‘African time’, with this sort of change without notification not being uncommon. We were however proactively offered seats on the next flight at 10:00am, which we accepted because the airport in Zanzibar was basic to say the least.
After a short 20 minute flight to Dar Es Salem and going through security just to enter the airport’s check-in area, we then discovered we couldn’t actually check in until 3:00pm, so settled in for the wait in a non air-conditioned waiting area, 35 C temperatures and plenty of humidity.
After 2 more security checks before even reaching the gate, we boarded our sleek and comfortable Bombardier jet for a 2 hour flight. The flight also foretold the sort of weather to expect as the jet deftly ducked around soaring thunder heads before finally landing into the ‘land of a thousand hills’.
We had arrived into Kigali International Airport, Rwanda, and were met by Rama, our guide for the next 6 days, and were soon also joined by Catherine from Jambo Tours. It was immediately clear as we drove into the capital Kigali, there was something very different about Rwanda, compared to Tanzania.
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| flight path from Zanzibar to Kigali, Rwanda |
Raymond had told us whilst game driving in Tanzania, that Rwanda has a fiercely protected reputation for being virtually free from corruption, something many/most other countries in Africa cannot claim. In fact, there were signs in the arrivals hall reinforcing the Rwanda focus.
A second observation that stood out, ignoring the greenness everywhere compared to dust, was how clean the place was. Catherine proudly explained that on the last Saturday of every month, every community spends the day cleaning up around their local areas. It was very obvious it was working.
We were only having one initial night in Kigali and checked into a very nice boutique hotel called Flame Tree. In Africa, there is a certain process you go through at check in. First they usually bring you warm face washers to refresh with, followed by a drink of some sort. Here we were provided with the washers but no drink… no big deal but a little odd! Next, the staff took us through a briefing which cannot be rushed, and finally Catherine wanted to walk us through our agenda for the next 6 days in the ‘land of a thousand hills’.
Having spent most of the day sitting in hot, humid and sweaty airports, we weren’t overly keen for all the briefings, preferring to have a shower. But as Catherine finished her briefing, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted someone carrying some drinks our way. Behind him was a blonde person carrying a small camera and obviously videoing as she went.
My eyes looked at both people and recognised who they were, but the brain just didn’t accept what I was seeing. It made no sense, it couldn’t be, it was impossible!! Over what had seemed a long time which in reality wasn’t, my brain finally accepted what it was seeing. “Rob, have a look, turn around, quick”. Rob first looked the wrong way then swung around and went through exactly the same reaction. It just couldn’t be.
But it actually was, Jarad, our eldest son who lives in London, carrying the drinks towards us and daughter in-law Rachel, sporting a huge grin doing the videoing. What an amazing surprise, quickly followed by a few tears from the both of us and hugs all round. Many months previously they had asked about joining us in Rwanda but had later decided not to.
Only 3 weeks ago due to Rachel’s insistence, they had changed their minds and would now be joining us, just truly wonderful. All of the hotel staff were in on the surprise, as were Rama and Catherine, so there were beaming faces everywhere.
We had heard about the genocide in Rwanda, especially through movies like ‘Hotel Rwanda’, but it wasn’t until we visited the genocide memorial site next morning and learned much that both shocked and impressed us during our time there. What was impressive was how well the memorial had been done to share the facts and remind people this simply should not happen again.
What really shocked us were some of the facts. First, the genocide happened in 1994, a short 20 years ago and next we learned that in a mere 3 months after it started, nearly 1 million people had been massacred including friends, neighbours and family turning on each other. It was very brutal and included women and children also losing their lives.
The seed for the genocide was when some well meaning European anthropologists in the early 1900s decided to segment the population of Rwanda into 3 ethnic groups, the Hutus, Tutsis and Pygmy and ethnic identity cards were issued. Eventually the largest group and traditional peasant Hutu class turned on the more privileged Tutsi class.
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| 250,000 people buried under the concrete slabs here! |
At the memorial there are a number of very long and large concrete slabs, some with fresh flowers on them. I had great difficulty in comprehending that buried underneath these slabs were around 250,000 people! More bodies are still being interred there as they find them throughout the country.
Rwanda is a very small county compared to most in Africa, and Kigali its capital surprised us by being a very modern looking city and the people were extremely welcoming and friendly, especially the kids.
No matter where we were during our time in Rwanda, kids could often be seen running towards us yelling out things like, “hello” or more amusingly, “see you tomorrow!”. Adults everywhere would quite warmly saying things like, “welcome to Rwanda” or simply “hello”.
We were in Rwanda for a very specific purpose as we drove 2.5 hrs north west of Kigali, but our agenda had us doing a few warm up activities before we got stuck into what we were all here for. We reached the lodge, went through the check-in process and were handed umbrellas as we headed towards our rooms, more like independent units studded throughout the large gardens. The umbrellas were soon needed as we walked back to the dining hall, a thunderstorm reaching us after forming up above the extinct volcanoes in front of us.
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| about to enter the Volcanoes Nat. Park |
Our first warm up activity was a short trek into the jungle to try and find golden monkeys.
We were joined by 2 Rwandan army soldiers armed with AK47s as we entered the national park and they were with us to protect us from cape buffalo and occasional elephants that wander around.
We were all aware of reports of people who cross the border from The Democratic Republic of Congo either looking for gold or poaching, but our park guides would not admit to this being another reason for the Army’s presence, albeit quite discreet.
It took about an hour, with many pauses, following various paths, ducking around some mud and water from the previous nights storm, when we were asked to leave our back packs and only take our cameras with us. The path led us into a forest of bamboo, a favourite food for golden monkeys, we could hear them, but where were they?
Well… they are not shy let me tell you, as the first one I saw almost stood on my foot as it walked past me. For the next hour, our group of 8 ‘trekkers’ tried to follow and photograph these beautiful looking monkeys as they climbed and swung around above us or walked around occasionally on the forest floor.
We learned much from others in the lodge for our first foray into the jungle, and by the way, it really is jungle.
At the lodge, we had rented gaiters helped stop the mud getting over our pants and reduce the stinging nettles driving us mad as we brushed past them walking along the tracks. You are offered the free use of timber trekking poles before you start, they are very useful. They help with climbing up/down rocky and slippery, muddy tracks.
Next morning we were met by a local guide who lives in a nearby community, a very personable guy who spoke excellent english. After a pleasant walk down our ‘african massage’ road from the lodge we started our visit of a local village and spent 4-5 hours learning about how Rwandans live and their culture.
We had already been told by Catherine that a large proportion of our Culture Tour fees actually go into the local community and I must admit to a touch of cynicism when first told this. Our guide also described exactly the same thing to us and added that during the tour, we would be meeting some of the poorest families in the village, would be going into their homes and seeing first hand how they live. Each of these families would be given cash directly from the guide and the kids in the village would receive school writing books and pens, also funded directly from our tour fees.
That was exactly what happened! “Hello, hello” was the constant greeting from all the kids we met and soon their numbers grew as they started following us to every house we visited.
Of surprise to us when we landed into Kigali, was the significant presence of eucalyptus trees, they were everywhere, including all the way from Kigali to where we were in the village, gum trees as a far as you could see. Only in the National Parks were there no gum trees.
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| eucalyptus reinforced walls |
During our village visit, we learned how important gum trees are in Rwanda. The original forests had been decimated over time as population grew and fires, their main source of heat for cooking, and housing reduced the naturally slow growing forests.
So with a high rainfall, they introduced eucalypts which grow faster and re-shoot when lopped.
The guide and villagers showed us how eucalypts are used for building houses, fires for cooking food along with the very popular maize and banana beer, making beds and other furniture, the leaves used to make mattresses. Like us, they also infuse the leaves in boiling water to help clear the head and nose. The villagers knew where these trees originated from and were pleasantly surprised when they learned where we had come from.
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| the local 'pub' sells banana beer |
We visited their ‘shops’ and small ‘pubs’ and joined them inside their tiny homes with only dirt floors to be seen everywhere. Again we were impressed by how clean everything was, no rubbish visible anywhere, no matter where we walked and we were free to walk anywhere and photograph anything.
With about 20 or so small children now following us everywhere, we had a lot of fun with them by taking their photos and showing them the results on the camera screens, huge smiles and giggles the usual outcome. Jarad was constantly surrounded by them, especially when he showed them their own faces live and moving on his iPhone screen.
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| 'the pied iPhone piper' |
It was palpable how grateful these poorer but proud families were for the money and education aids they received because of our tour, and we were constantly warmly greeted with huge smiles and hugs. We have been on cultural tours before, but this had been the most encompassing and sincere experiences of this type we had ever been through.
To return back to the lodge, our guide and the four of us each boarded our individual postman sized motorcycles ridden by a local ‘taxi driver’ and headed off a few kilometres up the road until the rocky roadway to the lodge was reached. The locals in the community who saw us go past were either shocked or highly amused, constantly waving to us or still yelling out the now very familiar “hello!”.
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| local taxi anyone? |
That night, yet another and very large thunderstorm formed up around the volcano shaped mountains in the distance, spread out across the sky towards us, the rumblings of thunder joining its progress until it finally disgorged itself across the lodge with both torrential rain and hail for a few hours.
Little did we realise what impact that thunderstorm would have on us the next day!
If you want to see a few more photos, just click on the link(s) below.
