Rwanda

Rwanda is a breath of fresh air compared to Uganda. I'm sure its 'the grass is always greener' syndrome, but it sure was beautiful and clean. First, some facts...

Rwanda, popularly known as the land of a thousand hills, is home to five volcanoes and twenty-three lakes and is landlocked by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It's a Presidential Unitary Republic based upon a multiparty system that deals with corruption seriously.

With it's paved roads and traffic lights (and driving on the right-hand side!), helmets and limits to one passenger per moto (boda/motorcycle), beautiful terraced hillsides, availability of good food and new beer, and great company, I'd definitely visit again.

Got a ride over the border with a guy that delivers Ugandan newspapers to Kigali, Rwanda's capital

Made it to my seventh African country

From the window of the car

Outside the taxi park in Kigali. Paved roads, stoplights and crosswalks!

Our 'breakfast beers' were bigger than we bargained for

Made it to Lake Kivu in Western Rwanda

 

And we made it back to Kigali. Yum... this had real cheese

Rice fields

We visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial museum where over 259,000 people are buried. Mass graves are still being discovered and bodies are laid to rest here.  One million people were murdered during the genocide with little to no aid from the international community. The cruelty that people can inflict on one another is unfathomable to me. Even young children were not spared. The museum did highlight a few stories of those that risked their lives to harbor Tutsi families. 

Some of the stories recounted at the museum were similar to stories I heard at Peace Camp in Northern Uganda. These aren't easy topics to learn about or understand, but important to be aware of in order to prevent them from happening again and again. Rwanda's genocide occurred in 1994, and the violence in N. Uganda ended in 2007. It's terrifying to know that this is still happening in modern times.

Mass graves at the memorial

The wall of names that's still unfinished 

After that super depressing leg of our vacation, we decided to visit Hotel Des Mille Collines, better known as 'Hotel Rwanda.' During the genocide, over a thousand Tutsi people were hidden here and saved from the violence going on all over Kigali.