Rwanda

Bonjour! Andrej and I are currently spending our last day in Rwanda. We have enjoyed one week here, and it has been a good experience.

Not too long ago, Rwanda wasn't a place anyone would want to visit. There was a lot of political and ethnic strife, which culminated in the 1994 genocide. However, the Rwanda of today seems to be moving forward and has turned out to be a nice place to visit. It also has a lot to teach.

I am intending to share what I have learned in this blog. Some of this might be unpleasant. If you would rather not hear about the atrocities of the genocide, please stop reading.

We arrived by bus from Uganda. The bus ride was about 10 hours, but was fairly uneventful for once. The border crossing was slow, but again, no problems. We arrived in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Rwanda is the 'land of 1,000 hills,' and like Minnesota being the land of 10,000 lakes, its very true to its name. The city of Kigali is sprawled across rolling hills. The city itself is one of the nicest African cities we have been to so far. Granted, we have not seen terribly much of the city, but what we have seen of downtown is very nice. First of all, its much easier being a pedestrian here. In other African cities, pedestrians do NOT have the right away. There are usually no crosswalks, and traffic lights where pedestrians can cross are few and far between. However, they have crosswalks here. And to our delight, they will sometimes even yield to pedestrians! They even have the occasional walk signal. Its been a relief after fearing for our lives crossing other streets in places like Kampala, Arusha, and Dar Es Salaam. They also have a number of well maintained sidewalks, which can be hard to find around here. Otherwise, the city has a number of nice buildings and stores, and well stocked supermarkets. Public transport between other cities in Rwanda also tends to be much nicer than elsewhere, and fairly inexpensive.

Anyways, our first priority in Rwanda was to learn. We wanted to learn more about the genocide and its effects. So, on our first full day in town, we went to the Kigali Memorial Center. We were greeted by a staff member who first took us through a walk in the gardens before going in to view the museum part of the center. The gardens were large and meticulously maintained with beautiful landscaping. There were all kinds of flowers, some fountains, and statues. Inside the gardens, there are over 250,000 people buried in about 15 mass graves. Each of the mass graves is rather deep, and contains a number of coffins filled with bones of victims. Many of the graves had wreathes and flowers laid on them. Near one of the fountains were elephant statues. The staff member told us they were chosen because elephants never forget, and the genocide should never be forgotten. This was a sobering experience. In a country as small as Rwanda, with a total population of about 10 million, its very hard to wrap your mind around the fact that 1 million Rwandan people were killed in the genocide.
A couple of the mass graves in the gardens.

After touring the gardens, we were taken to the museum building. Downstairs is all about the Rwandan genocide. You can find much of what I learned at their website here: http://www.kigalimemorialcentre.org/old/index-2.html. I will try to give a summary of some of what I learned about the background of it and what happened. I will try to be as accurate as my memory recalls.

The genocide was a result of a conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. Back in the beginning of the 20th century, Rwanda was colonized by the Belgians. The Belgians decided in the 1930s that they needed to classify the people in Rwanda and form a ruling class of the native people. The native Rwandans had some of their own classifications, but they were socio-economic classifications, which could change in ones lifetime. The people spoke a common language and had a common culture. 2 categories in the socio-economic classifications included Hutu and Tutsi. The Belgians decided to use that in their classification system, and they said that anyone who owned more than 10 cows would be a Tutsi, and anyone with less than 10 cows was a Hutu. And you were that for life, as were your descendants. Seems a bit arbitrary, no? The Tutsis only comprised about 10 percent of the population, and they became the ruling class as dictated by the Belgians.

When you have an almost exclusive minority rule and privilege, that will lead to problems. When the Belgians pulled out in the 60s, the Tutsi minority was overthrown by the Hutu majority in terms of power. The Hutus has some resentment towards the previously favored Tutsis, and the Tutsis were likely none to happy to have their privilege revoked. Conflict was brewing.

Fast forward to 1994. The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were shot down in a plane and died. From then, the planned genocide of the Tutsis occurred. The Hutu military had death lists of Tutsis. If you were on it, they went to your house and killed you. They set up road blocks in the city so no one could leave. If you were stopped, and you were Tutsi, they killed you. If you were Hutu, but known to be friends with or married to or otherwise associated with Tutsis, they killed you. Media propaganda for the extermination of the Tutsis was prominent and effective. There was no discrimination between killing men, women, or children, innocent or not. In the first days of the genocide, 10 Belgian UN peacekeepers were killed, and the small amount of international troops that were in Rwanda, left. The international community seemed to turn a blind eye to Rwanda and left them to work it out alone. A Belgian colonel had even asked for assistance from the UN months before. No action was ever taken, something which the UN leaders came to regret.

In the end, about 85% of the Tutsi population was killed.

Also downstairs, there were personal exhibits. One room housed family photos of the victims. It really put a personal feeling and a face to the genocide. Looking at those pictures, I realized that they reflected things in people that I know and their photos looked very similar to photos in my own family albums. There were pictures of children standing outside of their school with their buddies. A man on his new motorcycle, cigarette in mouth. A woman in her new dress. Multi-generational photos outside the grandpa's home. A young boy near a banana tree. A couple on their wedding day, cutting the cake. There were lots of photos like that. Of regular, everyday people, murdered because one of their ancestors had 10 cows 60 years ago. And these photos were mostly in color. Not black and white relics of something long ago, that could have only happened long ago.

Another exhibit was of clothing taken from some of the mass graves around the city. Not the mass graves in the garden. The mass graves where people were left after they were mass murdered. The clothes were like anything you might buy in the store around here today. Bright clothes for the wrap around skirts the women wear. Men's t-shirts and pants. A torn sweater of a young boy, with a Superman bed sheet next to it.

Another room was another grave site. Only this one was viewable- behind glass cases were piles and piles of bones. A number of the skulls had obvious fractures. The machete was a weapon of choice, and it seemed that many died by a machete to the head.

Upstairs were two exhibits. One was a children's exhibit. Here again, there were many small snapshots of children who were murdered. There were also large blown up photos of a number of kids, as well as some personal facts about each one. Age, favorite food, best friend, hobby, favorite toy. And, how they died. This had to be the worst part of the genocide. The exhibit had young kids, but also babies. One who was featured was 9 months old. Not old enough to have a favorite hobby or a best friend. Certainly not old enough to be a threat to anyone. I believe that particular child's cause of death was being thrown against a wall. The other frequent causes of death of the children were machetes and bludgeoning. I still can't imagine how so many people were committing these acts and thought it was OK. I thought of those kids, and how many of them would be about my brothers ages. Making their way through high school.

The last exhibit was on genocides throughout history. For example, in Germany, Namibia, Yugoslavia, Cambodia, and Armenia. It was another thing that made me wonder how in the world this can keep happening, over and over all throughout the world.

We left the museum having learned a lot about the past of Rwanda. I really don't know how the people who went through this and witnessed all of it can move on. But they do. Occasionally you see reminders of the past- people without limbs, people with large scars, etc. But otherwise, life has gone on here, and people seem to be looking toward the future and living quite peacefully. I guess when your past is that bad, there isn't anything else you can do.

The next day, we headed out to a smaller town called Butare. Its about 2 hours from the capital, and a nice college town. It was graduation weekend while we were there, and we saw many proud graduates in their robes celebrating with their friends and family. There is a national museum in Butare, and we spent an afternoon there looking at the exhibits on Rwandan culture. It was a beautiful, well done museum. This town seemed to have a rhythm of its own- opening late on the weekend, seemingly whenever they felt like opening. We found some nice restaurants in town and soaked up the culture.

One morning, Andrej went out to a genocide memorial in Gikongoro. During the genocide, many of the people sought refuge in churches, schools, and the rural hills. Usually the refuge was temporary, and they were mass murdered. This memorial, as like many all over the country, was the site of on the these places. It was a former technical college. They buried many people in a mass grave outside the college, but they also preserved many of the bodies with lime powder (for the sake of preservation for the memorial) and left them as they were in the classrooms. Andrej said many of them were children. He was shown around by a man who was a survivor. He had a big hole in his forehead where he had taken a bullet. That man was one of 4 who survived. Out of 50,000.

We spent one last day on a little lighter note. We attempted to go out to a national park where we could take some nice hikes and see a lot of monkeys. Unfortunately, our minibus we took out their broke down and we got there much later than we had hoped. When we arrived, the rangers told us the price had gone up considerably from what our guidebook had said. He also said that public transport home was sparse. So, we decided to just have a picnic, and turn around and try to get the 2 hours home. In Africa, you can stand at the side of any road and try to hail a bus or minibus. So this is what we tried to do. But we waited 15 minutes, and no cars came in our direction. We were about to give up hope when a full bus sped by, but stopped a bit down the road. Two passengers got off, and we were able to take their spots! We felt very lucky. Riding back, I noticed a lot of military personal along the road. That's when I realized that we were not far from the DRC, and that this was the road leading between the 2 countries. And a huge forest would be a great place for guerrillas to hide. I felt a little better when I thought back later to the military man who was standing outside the park entrance gate watching us try to hitch a ride, and how he smiled at us when we managed to get one. He didn't seem too concerned!
A view of the forest from our picnic table.

We made our way back to Kigali the next day. We have been doing a lot of planning for our future travels, and we decided it was once again time to get moving. Tomorrow, bright and early, we fly out to Malawi. Until next time from Malawi, take care everyone!

Jill

A map of our travels

I have been working on putting together a map of where we have traveled. It has taken me a while, and I am sorry I haven't gotten it up sooner. So, for those of you who are wondering where exactly in the world we are, this should help. You may need to click on the link to see the whole thing. Also, I have once again added some photos to some old posts that didn't get them the first time around. Enjoy!


View Larger Map

Mityana, Uganda

Andrej and I spent 5 days in Mityana, Uganda. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of our whole trip so far. I will do my best to tell you all about it, but I am afraid that my words won't do it justice.

A little background: As I mentioned before, I had met a man named Patrick at a Rotaract meeting last winter in Minneapolis. Patrick is a Ugandan Rotarian, Pastor, school director, and parent. He talked a little bit about the schools he runs in Uganda, and I thought that it would be fun to visit his schools if we went through his area. It turns out worked out for us, and that is what brought us to Mityana. We were strangers outside of our brief meeting in Minneapolis, but that didn't seem to matter much once we arrived.

I will do my best to describe the situation around the schools and the churches. I apologize if I get any information wrong, but I will do my best with the swell of information I received over the past week. At the center of everything is Patrick and his wife Eva. Patrick is a generous and friendly man with an easy smile. Eva is a confident, warm, and outgoing woman. They both have theological training and work as pastors (or other duties within the church) in Mityana. Soon after their marriage, they were called to be pastors in a new church in this small town. Their main church began quite small, but has grown considerably over the years. Somewhere around a decade ago, some of the church members began to die of AIDS. Unfortunately, this began to leave a number of children as orphans. Patrick and Eva were approached by these members of the congregation who were worried about the futures of their children, and they were charged with finding a way to take care of them. Between family members and the church, the children were looked after. However, education here is not free, and these children were often turned away from schools because they were unable to pay their own school fees. So, Eva decided they needed to start a school to help these children. The school started in the garage with Eva as the teacher. Word got out that these children were getting taken care of and we learning and succeeding. Soon, there were many more who wanted to be a part of it.

To make a long story shorter, they have, I believe, 4 schools now- 3 primary and 1 secondary school. And these schools are growing fast. They have around 1000 students total now. The students come from the local community. The students who have parents or relatives to stay with commute from home. However, they were recently able to build a dormitory, and now I think there are over 100 students who board at the school.

The mission of the school, outside of providing a quality Christian based education, also includes feeding the kids. They are fed porridge for lunch every day, which is made in a huge cauldron over an open fire.
The school cafeteria.

Once a week, they also get beans or eggs to supplement their diet with some protein. If need be, some students also take breakfast and dinner at the school. For those students, the school can become their home. Also, they seem to be involved in the health care of the students. Students with HIV/AIDS are taken once a month to a British hospital in the capital for treatment. So far, it has been quite beneficial.

Now that you have the background, I will tell you a little about the experience:

In our communication before our arrival, we tried to decide when it would be best to visit. Patrick told us that another group from the U.S. would be coming to help build a classroom block at one of his schools on March 18th. It seemed like a fun project, and we thought it would make things easier for him if we joined in with the group, so we decided to tag along. We ended up with some wonderful comrades for the week. Andy and Arik (father and son) are from Colorado. Their friend, Chris, from D.C., was with them. These 3 people are some of the most generous and genuinely kind people I have ever met. Just being around them was very uplifting and inspiring. Also joining us on occasion was Brian, a volunteer from California. He is interested in starting his own NGO for missionaries in war torn countries, such as Sudan. Right now, he is in Mityana helping Patrick out.

The first day we were in Mityana, Patrick took us to the schools at Mizigo- a primary school and secondary school. Their main church is also on that campus. Patrick seems to make a point to greet all the children in a way that makes them feel loved and special. It was after school, but we got to see some kids practicing drumming and dancing for a school competition- they were really good! We also got to take a tour of the new dorm, which looks great. The kids there have nice toilet and shower facilities as well. Afterwards, we were invited into Patrick and Eva's home for a wonderful dinner (or feast more like it) with lots of great local foods.

The next day, we wanted to get to work. Patrick took us out to the primary school in Kigalama, a small village. That school has exploded population wise, and desperately needed more buildings. Andy's family had raised the money for the building of a new classroom block (quite the feat if you ask me, but its not the first time they have done this), and we were hoping to get the chance to work on it. We found out the construction had already started, and they were moving really quickly! It is all brick, and the walls were almost done! After getting introduced to each of the classes, all of them with wonderful welcomes, often including songs, we put ourselves to work. We weren't sure how the 'real' workers felt about this, but they tolerated us at least. We mixed mortar and laid some bricks. I mostly did a little bit of brick laying. I was very slow at it, and probably didn't lay more than 15 bricks :-)
Jill the brick layer.

Afterwards, we got to visit the Nkonya primary school. This school is on a lake in a small fishing village. The school is smaller there, as the locals don't value education as much as they feel that they can just make their livings fishing. The children who do attend school however are very sweet and quite motivated. We met one child who is struggling with AIDS but desperately wants to become a doctor so he can help other people with AIDS. His father died of it, and his mother has it as well, so I would say he knows the tragedy of AIDS better than anyone. Patrick said this little guy comes to school whenever he can, even if they think it might be better for him to stay home and rest. He said that when he is in the hospital, he always somehow makes a recovery, and when he wakes up, the first thing he always says is that he can't die, because he needs to become a doctor someday. In my opinion, I think his dream might just come true.

That evening, we attended a staff meeting of the Mizigo primary school teachers. They did a short Bible study, then discussed the students. Each teacher reported if there were any students missing or sick. If they didn't know where they were, they were told to find out. These teachers really are like parents to these children!

The next day (still full from another great meal at their home the night before), we headed back to Kigalama. Andy, Arik, and Chris had all brought toys and gifts and candy for the children at the school. So, we spent much of the morning distributing pencils and candy. The kids were SO well behaved. They patiently and thankfully received their gifts.
The kids showing off their new pencils.
Andy and Arik handing out candy.

Later, during recess, they broke out the new toys, including balls, bubbles, and jump ropes. The kids just went crazy. When they started blowing bubbles, you would have thought they had never seen a bubble before, the way they laughed and squealed! Maybe they hadn't.
Chris blowing bubbles.

I was trying to stay out of the chaos and watch from a distance, but I soon found out that one wallflower attracts other wallflowers and I had about 20 kids surrounding me. Many of them just wanted to look at my hands and touch the skin on my arms and laugh at the freckles on my shoulders. It was pretty funny- I guess they must have thought something was wrong with me.
My funny, white hands got a lot of attention.
Yep, still white. You can't rub it off.

After a while, we got around to playing and I enjoyed having races around the school with them and swinging (and jumping!) the jump rope. The patient headmaster let them have an extra long recess, and we all got to play for a couple hours.
Playing in the school yard.

Once the kids went back to class, we tried to get another hour or two of work in. The workers had gotten so far with the brick laying that they were almost done. I scooped and delivered mortar that day.
Chris mixing mortar with the crew.
Andy and a crew member laying bricks.


The project nearly completed.
Posing for a group photo in front of our work.

After dinner as a group, Eva took us to a great little organic farm in town. We got to see all kinds of plants, mostly fruits growing here. I was really excited because they had strawberries! Those are hard to come by around here. I was so happy, and I left with enough strawberries for 3 days.
The next day was Saturday, and the work crew didn't come to work on the classroom block because they had finished the brick laying the day before. So, there was no work for us, either. Therefore, we took a slower day. We walked through town to Patrick's house in the morning. Once we got there, Eva and a friend drove us out to a plot of land outside of town in another village where they are hoping to build another school. They have a small church out there, and next to the church is a plot of land with a small tea plantation on it. The lady who owns the plantation is looking to sell her land. In this particular village, there is a lack of good primary schools. Apparently the villagers in this area see the value of a good education, and many children will run 5 miles in the morning just to go to a good school. This location would significantly cut down on the distance the kids have to run, which would be good, considering if its bad weather, they sometimes can't get to school when it is that far away. The plot of land for this school would cost about $3000, which they would have to raise.
Eva showing us the land for the (hopefully) future school.

The last day we spent with them was Sunday. Andrej and I decided that we would like to go to Patrick's church for the Sunday service, to see what it was like. The rest of our group had another commitment at an orphanage. We arrived with Patrick at the church a little after 10am. The service was already in full swing (apparently starting around 9:30). We walked in a door that led to the front of the church, and Andrej and I were seated up front with the pastors for the whole service. The service was quite the ordeal. First of all, it was the longest church service I have ever been to (including CinCC for all you Gustavus people). All in all, it was 4.5 hours long. It started with lots of very energetic music. No hymnals or programs here. They have a small band with a drum set, African drums, and a keyboard. They have a couple singers with microphones, and often a choir or dancers as well. Clapping and dancing was the norm, and there was no Lutheran shyness in their singing! Following the praise, there was a number of announcements and prayers. The sermon was long (probably because Patrick translated it the whole time), and after there were more prayers, a 'dedication' of children (like a baptism, but not), and then there was some business to take care of. Apparently a couple members were getting married, and the congregation puts in donations to go towards paying for the wedding. They played some elaborate auction-type game for this that lasted quite some time. Eventually they took the offering, and church was over around 2pm. Apparently no one has football games to go home and watch on Sunday afternoon around here.
Our group ready for church on Sunday. Andrej, me, Arik, Andy, and Chris.

We stuck around for another wonderful meal at their home. While there, I got to chat with their daughter Cathy who also translated for me during the service. She is 24 and recently married and teaches young children at the school. She is very motivated, and is working hard at further studies in fashion. Some interesting things of note that I learned from her are that primary school teachers here tend to make only $50/month. That is not enough to cover basic living expenses, and that is why she is studying for a different career. She also told me that about 15 out of her 50 students have HIV/AIDS. It really is just a huge problem here, and she told me she is worried about the future of her country considering how many children have AIDS and how many of their parents also have it as well.

All in all, this was a very rewarding experience. It is wonderful to see what Patrick and Eva and their friends are doing here in Uganda. It seems that there is always more to be done, however. For example, the school where we built the classroom block is in an area with no electricity or running water. They have to pay someone 25 cents (US) per jerry can to ride in jerry cans of water 2km on his bike everyday. That adds up when you need enough water for around 400 people for cooking, drinking, and washing hands and eating utensils 5 days a week. They are also hoping to get solar panels installed someday so they can have electricity. Other examples are buying the land and building a new school, building more dormitories, digging wells for easy access to clean water, buying text books and supplies, etc. If you would like to learn more about what Patrick and Eva do, or if you would like to help, please check out their website and contact them: www.maranathauganda.org .

Just for fun...Jill and Andrej eating sugarcane outside Patrick and Eva's house!

Kampala and Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda

Hello everyone, and sorry for the long delay in posting!

Someday, I will get Andrej to post on this blog again. But right now, he has more important things to do when we find a decent internet connection (file his taxes), so once again, you get to hear from me.

So, once again we had quite the transportation adventure. It really was quite memorable, so I might go in to a bit of detail (how unusual, I know...)
To get from Arusha, Tanzania to Kampala, Uganda, you can take a bus. It seems that all the bus lines run their route through Nairobi, Kenya and were supposed to take about 17 hours. We were planning to use a company that we had used before which has on-board toilets (unheard of in these parts, but oh so important) and air conditioning. Of course, we come to find out that company stopped their route to Uganda 2 weeks before. So, we went with another company they recommended. The bus was nice by Tanzanian standards, but was lacking in a toilet or a/c. Anyways, since we bought the tickets the same day as we were travelling, we didn't get the greatest seats. They were in the back of the bus, and the ride was incredibly bumpy. Many, many, many times we flew at least a foot off the seat. The road out of Tanzania was pretty much all under construction. Which means sometimes you are driving on a road, sometimes not, but you are always on a dusty, bumpy, gravel, one lane track (for both directions...). At the border, our bus driver told us we had 5 minutes to go through the Tanzanian side of the border crossing, and 5 minutes to go through the Kenyan side of the border crossing, and we should be back on the bus in 10 minutes. Well, if you have a bus full of people, and other people are also at the border crossing, and the officials issuing your stamps and visas are in no particular hurry, 10 minutes is totally impossible. So, while we were in no-mans land (between borders), we saw our bus pulling away. Andrej sprinted after it, and I just kept walking, mouth open, trying not to cry. But, lucky for us, we were just confused and our bus was just going to park at the other side of the border. Seconds after we got back on the bus, it pulled away and we were in Kenya.

The rode in Kenya was much smoother, which was awesome. Nairobi seemed to be quite a nice city. The highway even was divided and wide enough for about 3 lanes on each side. However, they didn't seem to see the need for putting in actual lane markers, so it was just a really wide road with a hot mess of cars. We stopped at a small cafe in Nairobi to use the toilets and get food, and we were off towards Uganda.

This was an overnight bus, and we left Nairobi around 10:30pm. African countries seem to like having police checkpoints on all their rodes, but Kenya was especially fond of them. We were stopped about every half hour the entire way through Kenya. I was glad we were on a bus and not driving ourselves, because I would have been terrified being stopped by multiple guards with rifles every half hour all night long. We weren't sure what they were checking for- they only came on the bus a couple times and poked their flashlight around at the luggage, but didn't actually inspect anything. Anywways, it being a night bus, we had hoped that we would sleep on the bus. ha. HA! We soon realized how foolish we were. After leaving Nairobi, we were soon in the middle of never ending road construciton, much like in Tanzania. There were a number of times where I swore we were tipping over or that we had popped a tire. But we never did, and we kept plowing through, stopping every once in a while for the men with their big rifles. We also stopped once for a bathroom break. Which, in these parts, involves the men going out to the field at the side of the road, and the women going behind the bus, on the highway, hoping that no one comes along on the road. At one point, somewhere around 1 am, Andrej and I started laughing uncontrollably because we couldn't believe how bouncy the ride was. I have been on wooden roller coasters smoother than this bus ride.

We made it to the Ugandan border around 5am. We seemed to have a little extra time (either that or everyone was just too tired to care) and we made it through pretty smoothly. Once we were in Uganda, the road was actually quite nice, and we managed to get a couple hours sleep. About an hour or so outside Kampala, we went through Jinja and passed over the Nile River. The source of the Nile is apparently in Uganda. It was cool to see. Anyways, about 18 hours after leaving Arusha, we arrived, very tired in Kampala.
A monkey in the tree on the grounds of our hostel in Kampala.

We spent the rest of that day resting, and the next morning we decided to do a low key day trip to a nearby town on Lake Victoria called Entebbe (also home to the international airport). The goal of this trip was to go to the Wildlife Education Center, where the guidebook said they had a wildlife refuge for animals rescued from poachers and trafficing. It turned out to pretty much be a zoo, but it was still neat. We got to see a lion up close, as well as chimps, crocs, otters, snakes, rhinos, and others. There were also a number of monkeys and cool looking large birds (can't remember the name) that seemed to live in the park and roam free. There was a small playground that the monkeys took over later in the afternoon.
One of the neat cranes wandering around the park.
Another crane. This type is seen all over the city, especially at the garbage heaps.
Andrej at Lake Victoria.

The next day, we took off for a little rest and relaxation at a beautiful lake near the Rwandan border called Lake Bunyonyi. I think you have heard enough about our transportation adventures, so I will spare you that this time around, but I will just say that it wasn't what we expected or hoped for. Anyways, we decided to stay in a rustic cabin at a small budget resort on an island in the lake. To get there, we had to take a dugout canoe. So, we piled ourselves and our bags into a canoe made out of a hollowed out tree, and set out for the island (along with a 'driver' to show us the way and do a lot of the paddling).

About 45 minutes later, we arrived.

Our cabin had a nice view of the lake, and its own bathroom and shower. Although, it was rustic. The bathroom was a compost toilet outside, and the shower was also outside (but mostly enclosed, no one outside could see anything but a shower head) and lacking hot water. But, it was incredibly nice, peaceful, and simple.
Viewing our cabin from behind.

The island was small and very rural, so there were no stores on the island, so we always took our meals at the lodge restaurant, which was good and dirt cheap. The weather there was quite cool- probably in the 60s most of the time. We were apparently 6,000 some feet above sea level. We went for some walks around the island- enjoying the local birds and nice footpaths.
Andrej enjoying a walk around the island.
A school bus, island style! We came across this on a walk.
This is what a dugout canoe school bus looks like.

We also rented a dugout canoe a couple times and paddled around the island. One morning, we canoed to a neighboring island with the intent of attending a church service. We ended up going at the wrong time, but we had a pleasant walk on that island, and we enjoyed seeing the church.

Another highlight of our time there for me was learning to play backgammon. Andrej taught it to me, and it was so much fun! I wish we had a small travel board to take with us.

Other photos from our time on the island:

We also decided we wanted to spend a couple of days on the mainland side of the lake, because we heard you could rent bikes there. Unfortunately their bikes were broken, but we had an enjoyable time there still. We went to a small market on the lake one morning and bought fresh pineapple, sugar cane, and bread for lunch. We also hiked in the hills a bit around the lake. This was a little more grueling than I hoped for, so it didn't last all that long. We also got a little sunbathing in, although it was just a little too cold to go swimming.

We had arranged to visit the schools of the Rotarian I mentioned before and do a little volunteering starting on Wednesday, so we ended up leaving the lake after about 5 days and headed back to Kampala.

The International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda

I thought I would just put in a short note on the criminal tribunal that we visited before we left Arusha for those who were curious...

We did make it in to the ICTR that Monday. We never did get 'pre-approved' to visit with the form we filled out, but they just took our passports and had us sign in. There was only one trial going on that day, and it was the first day of the trial. We were not allowed to take any photos, but it is all probably best described in words anyway.

The public is allowed to view from a soundproof room at the back of the courtroom. Everyone is given headsets, including the people in the courtroom (lawyers, judges, accused, etc). That way, you automatically get it translated into the appropriate language. The courtroom itself was really not what I expected for an international court. It was nothing fancy, more or less a large room inside a large building. The room was very narrow. There was really nothing remarkable about it. The judges and lawyers wore robes, and everyone else was in business clothes, sipping coffee, etc. It was all very low key.

Since it was the first day of the trial, the defense was supposed to give their opening statement. However, the lead defense attorney (from Canada) was really, for lack of a better word, annoying. She first refused to let the trial begin because she claimed 2 of their witnesses had been called last week by the Rwandan government. The witnesses are supposed to be protected, and therefore that should apparently not have happened. She claimed that it meant that all her witnesses were compromised. She argued (quite disrespectfully in my opinion) with the judges over this and would not let this point go. When they moved on, the judge pointed out that she had 19 witnesses, and was told previously that she could only have 10. Again, the lawyer through a fit saying she could not ably defend the accused man without all 19 witnesses. After much arguing and eye rolling, the judge adjourned for the next two days and said everyone should come back then, prepared. All in all, we were there for about an hour.

We were still glad that we saw the ICTR, even if it was for such a short time. However, we were not willing to wait around again until Wednesday to hear the Canadian lawyer stall some more. So, we decided it was time to press on.

Arusha, Tanzania

Hello again friends and family!

We have spent almost a week in Arusha, and although we were still here, I thought I would write a blog post about it since I always seem to get a lot of positive response when I post :-)

Arusha is one of the largest and wealthiest cities in Tanzania. Its on the northern side of the country, near the Kenyan border. Its about an hour or two drive from Mount Kilimanjaro, and tends to be the starting point for many safaris to all of the famous national parks. Like Lushoto, it has a pretty high elevation, which means that it stays relatively cool here. Considering how close we are to the equator, I am still amazed that we don't need air conditioning or even a fan to stay comfortable in our room.

Besides the safaris and mountains, Lushoto has a political draw for this part of Africa. They seem to hold a number of international conferences and courts here- there is an East African Human Rights Court currently in session here. The International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda is also located in Arusha. That means that people charged with committing war crimes in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda are tried here. As we are planning to go to Rwanda next month, we thought it would be interesting to sit in on some proceedings. It seemed like a good educational experience. The Lonely Planet (guidebook) made it sound like you could just show up and watch. We found out that is not so, but with some help from a few very friendly U.N. staff members, we figured out what we have to do to get in, and we are going to try again this week. (It turned out that their computer system was down last week and everything was held off until further notice).

Anyways, since this is the safari capital of Tanzania, we thought we would look into going to the Ngorongoro Crater or the Serengeti. However, we were disappointed to find out that the government has made the entrance fees and vehicle permits astronomical, so we decided not to go. To go to either of those, it looked like it would cost a minimum of $300 per person per day with a tour company. That is much more than our backpackers budget can handle if we still want to see much more of Africa!

So, we decided to do some more cultural tourism like we did in Lushoto. This time, we took a trip to the small village of Ngirisi just outside of Arusha. Its up in the hills, and while there we got to take walks through the farms, learn about the different crops and trees, and learn about local life. We learned a little about their home life by going into a villagers home. Apparently they think that cows do so much for them, like provide milk, meat, and consequently money and well being, that they allow the cows to sleep inside. Not in a barn, but in their house. The traditional house is packed mud and bricks. No electricity or water. No beds. No walls, just partitions made of sticks. The cows sleep in one partition. The man of the house sleeps by the door (like a guard), the mother and girls sleep in another partitioned area, and the boys sleep where they can, most likely by the cooking fire in the center of the house.
The fire for cooking inside the house.
The woman of the house displaying her large gourd she uses as a container.
It was very interesting to learn about. We also saw the outside of their schools and went to their 'holy tree'- a great big tree in the shape of Africa. It was pretty cool.
The Africa tree.

Another little trip we did was a canoe trip on a lake nearby. It was an average sized lake, but seemed to be on a reserve. There was absolutely no one else on the lake, so it was quite peaceful, and we paddled around for a few hours.
Andrej enjoying the canoe.
Andrej was fascinated by the papyrus.

We saw lots or unique birds and some really large lizards on the banks.

After canoeing, a guide took us on a walk to the village market. On the way, we learned a lot about different types of medicinal plants and what they are used for, as well as everything you could ever want to know about bananas. The market we went to was huge and bustling. People were selling fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, etc. It was like a gigantic farmers market, and organic food lovers dream. There is certainly no shortage of food in this part of Africa. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen that many fruits in vegetables in my life.

One other little interesting note- our hotel in Arusha is in an area of town that seems to have all the mosques. There appears to be 2 on either side of our hotel, and you can hear them broadcasting their call to worship (often simultaneously) on their loudspeakers. I have no idea what they are singing, but I still think it is a really neat sound, and I actually like listening to it most of the time. In the quiet of the pre-dawn hours (5 am) they wake me up every morning. However, it seems that the one at 5am is always haunting and beautiful, and I find that I don't really mind that it wakes me up. I fall back asleep soon again anyways. Today was Sunday, and around 7am, the noise became mingled with church bells, and it was fun to listen to.

Other than that, we have been enjoying city life in Arusha- going to movies, eating good food, using the internet, and planning our further adventures. This week we are planning to press on to Uganda. Uganda sounds like a fun and beautiful place. We are also hoping to put ourselves to work- it looks like we will be volunteering and building a classroom block at a school for orphans and underprivileged children at a school run by a Rotarian from Uganda who came to speak at one of my Rotaract meetings last year. We are looking forward to a change of pace and to meeting a lot of new people!

Bye for now!

Lushoto, Tanzania

Back on the mainland! After we left Zanzibar, we headed back to Dar es Salaam for a day, then took a bus up to the mountains in Northern Tanzania. We ended up in a small town called Lushoto, in the Usambara mountain range.

We had read that there was a lot of good hiking in the Lushoto area, and that's why we went there. Thanks to being in the mountains, Lushoto enjoys a quite cool climate despite it's proximity to the equator. That makes it much more pleasant to be outside all day, and with the mountains, there are numerous winding footpaths between the villages.

Our first day there, we signed up for a one day guided hike to a rainforest, farm, and lookout point for the next day. I requested a woman guide, as I felt like so many of the people we meet in the tourism industry here (and especially the street touts) seem to be men. So, I thought this would be a good opportunity to speak to a local woman and ask a lot of questions about life in the area. There was one woman guide available, and she turned out to be absolutely fantastic. She was very talkative, honest, and intelligent. The tourism office was sending her to university to get a degree in business so they could make their office locally sustainable (it had started with the help of a Dutch NGO). And the best part is, the tourism office is non-profit and donates all of their proceeds back to the community. So anyways, we were very happy with the whole situation. The hike started off very nice. It winded through green mountain hills and we encountered lots of locals going about their day and even the occasional monkey. The forest held a lot of dense vegetation and involved a somewhat more intense uphill hike.
Andrej in the forest.

We made it to the top around noon and we were both very tired. We rested there for a while and got the chance to enjoy a great view of all the surrounding mountains.
A view from the top.

Andrej and our guide, Mwisho going down the mountain.

We continued on to the farm (followed by school kids most of the way) where we had a wonderful organic lunch. However, we were very tired and ended up going back to our hotel after lunch.
The rest of the week in Lushoto was very low key. We enjoyed staying in a nice, lodge style hotel because it was the low season and we could get a very cheap room there. We even had our own fireplace! A lot of time was spent reading, wandering around the market in town, and exploring the mountain paths on our own.
One of the paths I found.
A view of the town.

We also enjoyed some very cheap local meals. My favorite was the pilau. A staple here is called ugali. Its a rather tasteless food, which I believe to be pounded and moist white rice in a giant ball. You eat it with a sauce or veggies. Andrej ordered it one night- it was alright, but not our favorite.
We went on one more tour while in town, this time by car. We went to a nearby waterfall and this time made it to the view point near the farm. The view point had magnificent views from the edge of the mountain range looking over cliffs and the plains below.
Us at the waterfall.
At the viewpoint looking over the cliffs and plains below.

After a week there, we got on the bus again and headed to Arusha, the largest city in Northern Tanzania. More to come soon on Arusha!