Riyad and Sarah's Travels

Volcano National Park, Rwanda

Mountain gorillas are extremely endangered – according to the latest census just 786 remain in the world, found in localized areas of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Conservation efforts are underway – each gorilla’s health and well being is monitored and poachers are kept at bay by armed rangers – and their population is slowly but steadily increasing.

Gorillas are Rwanda’s primary tourist draw, even appearing on the country’s currency.  Only fifty-six tracking permits are issued each day; we were fortunate that there was availability for us.

A driver picked us up in Rwanda’s capital Kigali and brought us to the entrance of Volcano National Park by 7 AM. 

The entire operation for gorilla trekking was very well organized – after signing in and presenting our permits, we were served tea and coffee and entertained by traditional dancing.  Other people were gathered for different treks in the park – including one to the burial site of famed conservationist Dian Fossey.

Habituated gorillas form groups consisting of silverbacks (older males named for the silver hair on its back), blackbacks (younger males), females, and babies.  Not all groups are equally easy to find – one is a half hour walk from the gate, another was rumored to be five hours away.

All of us were assigned to track a group by perceived fitness level.  Sarah and I joined a Canadian couple, two American men, and a Japanese woman to find the Amaharo group of 18.  An advance team of trackers had been sent ahead and radioed us their location – about two hours from the gate.  Before heading out our guide let us know the rules: Because gorillas are highly susceptible to human diseases, we were to stay at least seven meters away from them at all times and if we had to cough or sneeze we would not do so in their direction. 

We drove from the lodge to the start of the trek, were joined by an armed scout, and set off on the decent but muddy path.  We tried to stay out of the mud but after one bad step filled our shoes we cared much less.  What was more annoying were the ubiquitous branches of stinging nettle, appropriately named because any contact stings like hell for five minutes. 

The walk was scenic against the backdrop of mountains and our guide pointed out interesting flora along the way. 

After an hour and a half we caught up to our advance team of trackers; rounding a corner we found the Amaharo group.

I don’t think I’d ever seen a gorilla in person before (definitely not a mountain gorilla as there are none in zoos) so our first impressions of having one right in front of us was surreal.  They were huge - males weighed about 400 pounds – but were very passive, moving slowly and methodically.

We all stopped talking when we saw them and kept our voices low the entire time.

Sarah and I each posed for pictures – but were slightly nervous about turning our backs to them.

A few gorillas stared, but most paid us no attention and went about their business eating celery or lounging about unperturbed. 

They clearly didn’t care to follow the seven meter rule and surrounded us.

Our guide hacked away at brush to make room for us.  A few times we had to brush up against stinging nettle and grit our teeth silently while the pain abated.

Time passed by quickly as we watched the group; we were only given an hour with the gorillas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Towards the end our guide started counting down the time we had left - five minutes, one minute, then we had to go.  The gorillas didn’t notice as we turned our back on them, bid adieu to the trackers who were to stay with them until nightfall, and made our way back.

Kigali, Rwanda

Just seventeen years ago, eight hundred thousand Rwandans were systematically murdered.

The genocide was quick – lasting only three months – but its roots dated back to colonial times.  Occupying Belgians had exploited differences between Rwanda’s ethnic groups to divide and conquer the country, putting minority Tutsis into positions of power over Hutus.  Previously the two had lived together without regard to tribe. 

During the push for independence in the 1950s, Hutus took power and asserted their dominance by limiting government and education opportunities for Tutsis. Acts of violence ensued and Tutsis were killed or expelled from the country.  Tutsis rebel groups in neighboring countries fought back causing thousands of deaths over the following thirty years.  A civil war between Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) fighters and the Hutu government ended in 1993 with a fragile cease fire overseen by UN peacekeepers.

Extremist Hutus rejected the agreement and began calling for a final solution to remove remaining Tutsis.  Radio propaganda dehumanized Tutsis, labeling them as cockroaches and a blight on society.  On April 6, 1994, Rwanda’s Hutu president was killed when his plane was shot down – both sides blamed each other – and Hutu militants known as the interahamwe immediately began a methodical campaign of mass murder.

The militia rounded up and killed Tutsis, going from house to house and setting up road blocks.  With mob mentality, thousands of Hutu civilians of all ages joined in.  Some Tutsis were shot, most were hacked to death with machetes.  Children were not spared.  Women were gang raped. Hutus who stood in the way or shared physical characteristics of Tutsis were also killed. 

UN peacekeepers didn’t have the mandate to intervene; after nine were killed their numbers were actually reduced.  The rest of the world did not respond. 

Only rebel Tutsi RPF forces invading from neighboring Uganda were able to stop the slaughter.

In one hundred days over ten percent of the country’s population lie dead.

Compared to other African countries we have visited, Rwanda seems like the last place such violence could have occurred.  Upon arriving in its capital Kigali, Sarah remarked how nice it was to be back in a developed city.  Kigali is on the top of mountains with scenic views in every direction. 

 

There was no trash in the streets, stores and supermarkets were modern, and internet was the fastest on the continent.  Traffic was orderly, and motorcycle taxis actually carried a spare helmet for passengers. 

We had no fears walking around late at night, although that was probably because of the guards toting large guns on every street corner.

While Rwanda is now calm, the genocide remains on everyone’s radar.  Visitors to Kigali make obligatory stops at the various memorials before moving on from the capital to see gorillas or chimpanzees.

The genocide memorial in downtown Kigali opened ten years afterward.  Bill Clinton has maintained that his biggest regret during his presidency was not intervening in Rwanda – the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation is now listed prominently as one of the memorial’s largest donors.

The museum describes the history of the genocide, from colonial history to current war crimes trials. 

Personal narratives add to its somberness.  Children whose parents were killed are shown recovering from knife wounds on their heads.  Survivors describe how they escaped death while their entire families were killed in front of them.

Large concrete slabs outside the museum cover mass graves of 250,000. A wall is meant to list the names of the dead, but because many were unidentified the list is incomplete.

During the genocide, Tutsis had fled to churches seeking protection, but were instead turned over to the interahamwe.

The brick church at Ntarama has been preserved as it was – the floor is covered with clothing, shoes, and wallets; one side has bones stacked on a shelf. 

 

A smaller building has visible blood stains on the walls where children were killed. 

The church at Nyamata is larger and has been been cleaned up somewhat to serve as a memorial.  The doors still bear bullet holes and a crater from a grenade attack.  Inside are clothes from the victims stacked on the pews. 

Behind Nyamata are two cellars – we descended down a steep staircase to find ourselves in the dark with coffins and bones stacked to the ceiling.

On our way back to Kigali we stopped at the Nyanza monument, which when completed will represent the abandonment of Rwanda by the international community.  There didn’t seem like there was much here – only a nondescript office building and concrete ditches. 

We took a look around and were going to leave when a construction worker ushered us into the building to a room upstairs.  A man came by and introduced himself, explained the site’s purpose and took us around. We were very surprised when he opened a door on the first floor to a large open room full of bones, separated into large stacks by part. Today, nearly 20 years after being killed, human remains still being found are collected and brought here for burial.  

That evening we visited Hotel des Milles Collines, made famous by the film Hotel Rwanda.  During the genocide its Hutu manager Paul Rusesabagina, sheltered Tutsis while violence raged outside its gates.  We saw nothing at the hotel which identified its historical significance; people sat poolside sipping $9 martinis.

As part of the reconciliation process the titles of Tusti and Hutu are no longer used – everyone identifies themselves as simply Rwandans – and we didn’t ask anyone their tribe nor did anyone volunteer to say.