Short: Walk around downtown and run errands, Have lunch at “Hotel Rwanda” – Hotel Des Mille Collines, Visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial, Take a wrong turn (First time on the trip!), Drive to Kibuye, Have dinner overlooking Lake Kivu
Long: After last night, the decision to drive to Lake Kivu today was made a little easier. After a morning spent walking around downtown Kigali, and using the internet, we headed to Hotel Des Mille Collines for lunch. Hotel Des Mille Collines was made famous in the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” as the location where thousands of Rwandans took refuge during the genocide in 1994. As many of you can remember, in 1994 Rwanda experienced one of the worst ethnic genocides in human history. In a period of less than one year over one million people were killed as the majority Hutu’s launched a campaign to cleanse the country of the minority Tutsi. We were surprised to learn that the movie was actually filmed at a different hotel in South Africa. As we had our poolside lunch, it was hard to envision that this hotel had been packed with refugees only a little over a decade ago. After lunch I went to use an ATM, but found out that Rwanda is still lacking an international banking network. Luckily, I avoided bankruptcy because the larger banks process cash advances.
Shortly after midday we packed up the car and began driving out of Kigali. After stopping for fuel, we began navigating to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, but had a terrible time finding it. We must have asked four different people for directions, and all gave us a different answer. It didn’t help that Rwanda is the worst “signed” country we have been through. We drove all throughout the city and saw less than five street signs. After half an hour, we pulled into the parking lot of the memorial and spent the next hour inside. It was a somber hour. Outside, the heavily manicured grounds of the memorial enclose a mass grave containing approximately 250,000 genocide victims. Inside, the story of the genocide is told and victims are remembered. The Memorial is very well done, and for those that have been, it bears a striking similarity to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. As we walked through the memorial, Nikolai and I kept saying the same thing: “I can’t believe this happened in the 1990’s”. Here we were walking through a memorial for a genocide that only occurred fifteen years ago. As the memorial points out, when you walk around Kigali you no doubt see both the victims, and the perpetrators, of the genocide living side by side. The country, originally divided along tribal lines, is in a period of healing, and the government is doing its best to create a new “Rwandan” identity. Over 100,000 people have been arrested for atrocities, and are currently awaiting trial. In the aftermath of the genocide, countries flooded Rwanda with what some people call “guilt money”. Foreign AID can be found flowing throughout the country, from the Memorial itself, to the roadways we drove in on. Personally, I never realized how much of a blind-eye the international community took towards Rwanda in 1994. The U.N. commander on the ground in Kigali at the time requested only 5000 U.N. troops to put an end to the killing…what he received was far too little, and far too late. It is clear that more should have been done, and that hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved. This is further evidenced in the apologies that later flowed from leaders around the world.
We ended up spending more time at the memorial than originally expected, and we left Kigali late in the afternoon. As we drove out of the city, we experienced a first for the trip. We had taken a wrong turn. Since many of the cities lack proper signs, we always stop and ask directions. This was no different as we left Kigali, only this time the city we were asking directions too, Ruhengeri, also sounded like Rubengera, another city in a different direction. Having already driven thirty kilometers, we decided to head to another lakeside town, Kibuye. It turned dark shortly after leaving Kigali, and we didn’t pull into Kibuye until around 8 pm. Luckily, we encountered very little traffic and the roads were excellent. We were also lucky to quickly find a decent hotel in Kibuye. As the staff stood around silently watching hokey African music videos, we and had an odd dinner (An Italian salad is a pasta salad in Kibuye!), and a drink at the hotel, before heading off to bed.
Long: After last night, the decision to drive to Lake Kivu today was made a little easier. After a morning spent walking around downtown Kigali, and using the internet, we headed to Hotel Des Mille Collines for lunch. Hotel Des Mille Collines was made famous in the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” as the location where thousands of Rwandans took refuge during the genocide in 1994. As many of you can remember, in 1994 Rwanda experienced one of the worst ethnic genocides in human history. In a period of less than one year over one million people were killed as the majority Hutu’s launched a campaign to cleanse the country of the minority Tutsi. We were surprised to learn that the movie was actually filmed at a different hotel in South Africa. As we had our poolside lunch, it was hard to envision that this hotel had been packed with refugees only a little over a decade ago. After lunch I went to use an ATM, but found out that Rwanda is still lacking an international banking network. Luckily, I avoided bankruptcy because the larger banks process cash advances.
Shortly after midday we packed up the car and began driving out of Kigali. After stopping for fuel, we began navigating to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, but had a terrible time finding it. We must have asked four different people for directions, and all gave us a different answer. It didn’t help that Rwanda is the worst “signed” country we have been through. We drove all throughout the city and saw less than five street signs. After half an hour, we pulled into the parking lot of the memorial and spent the next hour inside. It was a somber hour. Outside, the heavily manicured grounds of the memorial enclose a mass grave containing approximately 250,000 genocide victims. Inside, the story of the genocide is told and victims are remembered. The Memorial is very well done, and for those that have been, it bears a striking similarity to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. As we walked through the memorial, Nikolai and I kept saying the same thing: “I can’t believe this happened in the 1990’s”. Here we were walking through a memorial for a genocide that only occurred fifteen years ago. As the memorial points out, when you walk around Kigali you no doubt see both the victims, and the perpetrators, of the genocide living side by side. The country, originally divided along tribal lines, is in a period of healing, and the government is doing its best to create a new “Rwandan” identity. Over 100,000 people have been arrested for atrocities, and are currently awaiting trial. In the aftermath of the genocide, countries flooded Rwanda with what some people call “guilt money”. Foreign AID can be found flowing throughout the country, from the Memorial itself, to the roadways we drove in on. Personally, I never realized how much of a blind-eye the international community took towards Rwanda in 1994. The U.N. commander on the ground in Kigali at the time requested only 5000 U.N. troops to put an end to the killing…what he received was far too little, and far too late. It is clear that more should have been done, and that hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved. This is further evidenced in the apologies that later flowed from leaders around the world.
We ended up spending more time at the memorial than originally expected, and we left Kigali late in the afternoon. As we drove out of the city, we experienced a first for the trip. We had taken a wrong turn. Since many of the cities lack proper signs, we always stop and ask directions. This was no different as we left Kigali, only this time the city we were asking directions too, Ruhengeri, also sounded like Rubengera, another city in a different direction. Having already driven thirty kilometers, we decided to head to another lakeside town, Kibuye. It turned dark shortly after leaving Kigali, and we didn’t pull into Kibuye until around 8 pm. Luckily, we encountered very little traffic and the roads were excellent. We were also lucky to quickly find a decent hotel in Kibuye. As the staff stood around silently watching hokey African music videos, we and had an odd dinner (An Italian salad is a pasta salad in Kibuye!), and a drink at the hotel, before heading off to bed.
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