Mountain Gorillas

When we were in Rwinkwavu, I couldn't figure out how that part of the country could be considered "flat." But within only a few minutes of leaving Kigali on Sunday morning and driving north, what had only a day earlier seemed like giant mountains felt like rolling hills. As we drove through hairpin turn after hairpin turn, the city seemed to fall beneath us. Amazingly, no matter how steep (or verticle) the hill, every inch seemed to be farmed with bananas, irish potatoes, sorghum, and even tea. Kigali is the only really metropolitain area in Rwanda, and while it contains about a million people, that only makes up 10% of the population. The other 90% live in rural towns and villages. Sunday's plan was to visit the town of Butaro on Lake Burera. We spent an hour of driving northwards on paved roads, then two hours of driving on unpaved mountain roads, that despite their rural-ness seemed to be lined by an endless stream of people walking, carrying any variety of objects on their heads, or riding motorcylces and even the now illegal wooden bicycle (due to the fact they have no brakes). Eventually we reached the hospital at Butaro where we met a number of Kate's colleagues, as well as some friends we had stayed with from Kigali who drove up in their own car. We spent the rest of the morning hiking in the beautiful hills, where were finally able to catch a glimpse of Lake Burera.


The PIH staff at Butaro were so excited that they had a number of people an cars, because it meant the chance to bring their new inflatable Kayak down to the lake for a spin. While it took a while to get down the mountains to the water, it was well worth it for the relaxing afternoon on the beach, and the view we had out over Lake Burera. The PIH staff even decided to take a dip in the middle of the lake from the Kayak, as schistosomiasis apparently lives only at the lakes edges, leaving the middles safe for swimming. While the hot weather made it tempting, I had no interest in taking the risk of having microrganisms dig into my skin, lay their eggs in my blood stream and eventualy grow into worms in my stomach and liver! Ok. On to the pretty picture now...


After having a lovely afternoon, we once again climbed up the mountain (via car) to the Virunga Lodge, for a very fancy dinner and cocktails, before heading to Ruhengeri for the night in order to see the Gorillas in the morning.

I have spent that past two days trying to figure out how exactly to blog about gorillas. I honestly can't come up with words to describe them with. After 2 hours of hiking through stinging nettles and bamboo bush, we were able to hear the cracking and moving of these enormous and amazing creatures. I can't really describe what it felt like to be just feet away from them. Awe, honestly a little fear, amusement - some of the things they do are just so human. I especially loved it when the babies would just roll down hills or start climbing around branches only to accidently break them, then look up as if embarassed.


So tomorrow morning at 6am we will be leaving Rwanda for Tanzania. I do not know when or if I will ever be back here, but the 5 days I have spent in this country have been beautiful, and seem to be just enough to come to love it while still feeling that there is so much left to see and do and learn.

Rwanda

After 4 flights, including a 12 hour layover in London, spent entirely browsing the wonderful Borough Market, Lizzy and I arrived in Kigali at 1pm on Friday! Wow, it seems like that was ages ago already! The land of a thousand hills is no exaggeration here - in fact, I think it may be an understatement. I have yet to see a flat stretch of land here, and that is including in Eastern Rwanda which is considered the "flat part." Kate greeted us at the airport, where she had arrived along with a driver from PIH (Partners in Health), which was great as it afforded as a chauffeur for the rest of the day. After spending a few hours in Kigali - drinking coffee and running errands, we headed out to Rwinkwavu, the town in Eastern Rwanda where Kate has been working for the past 6 months.

After the shock of the 85 degree and humid heat during our layover in Dar Es Salaam (at 7am) and the relative relief of the 70/75 degree weather in Kigali, one of the first things that impressed me upon landing here was the familiarity of the smells and sounds that are long forgotten. Of course, they have quickly become unnoticable again, normal instead of different, still the beauty of the rolling hills covered in leafy green banana trees and dotted by houses and terraces continutes to bring smiles to my face and keep my eyes glued out the window on every car ride we have taken.

Rwanda is a beautiful country, and it is hard to imagine that anything as evil and destructive as the 1994 genocide could ever have occured here. In Kigali itself, there are obvious references to it - the stadium where thousands of Rwandan's took refuge, the neighborhood where Romeo Dellaire, the Canadian head of UN peacekeeping forces lived, and the parliament building, that while most rebuild, has one side that was left intact covered with small and large bullet holes, evidence of not just a gun fight, but a massive and lengthy war. Additionally, each village in Rwanda is required to have a genocide memorial. In Rwinkwavu it is a large white stone with a simple statement of rememberance on it. Perhaps I will go into more later on what I have heard and read about the genocide, but I do not wish to give it more than a paragraph here, because I find it sad that this country is known by the rest of the world only for the crimes that were committed here, and not for the many wonderful things it has to offer.

Tomorrow, we will head to the northern town of Burero, where PIH has another hospital site that Kate has done some work at. The point of this visit though will be to spend the day hiking in the hills around Burero and then join friends for drinks at a lakeside (lake unknown, but apparently beautiful) resort bar and restaurant. On Monday, we will be famously hiking with the Gorillas in the Virunga Mountains, where Dian Fossey studied some of the same gorilla troups of decades before she was assassinated, presumably by poachers.

Hopefully, I will figure out how to post some pictures soon, but until then, think green and hilly.

My Life is an 80's song...

So I decided to buy myself an MP3 player yesterday. While I continue to struggle to figure out how exactly to get rid of the over 500 pictures that have been inadvertantly added to my player (and are taking up an inordinate amount of space on it), I have been struck by how many songs seem to perfectly describe what my life is like right now. From Whitesnake's "Here I go again on my own" to "I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane" the 80's seem to perfectly define who I am right now and where I'm going (although I'm not going down to "Kokomo" as the Beach Boys might have thought).

One way or another, at 9:20pm this evening, I will be boarding a plane with my dear friend Liz. I'm not sure when my next update will be, but by then I will likely have landed in 3 African Countries, and 1 European one, finally touching down in Kigali, Rwanda where Kate's lovely and smiling face will greet us steps away from our luggage pick up. We will then have to catch up on the 6 hours (or more) of sleep will have lost in transit. Monday will bring us to the Volcanoes National Park in the Virunga Mountains where we will meet face to face with Mountain Gorillas before we leave Rwanda for Tanzania a week from today.

By the time we get to Tanzania, I hope to be able to post a new entry, and perhaps even send a few postcards out. If you haven't already given my your mailing address, please do so that I can send some love your way! Until Next time, keep on Livin' on a Prayer!

Happy Wednesday,
and bye for now