Rwanda update no. 3

Gorilla trekking

Friday we took the bus to Musanze, which is a 2,5-hours drive North from Kigali. The bus ride is an experience in itself with packed buses, cars and trucks from the opposite direction taking our lane, so our lane stops, until the other cars are back in their own lane.

We had booked a hotel in Musanze from Denmark, as this is here our Gorilla trekking tour begins. We didn’t book a tour, but just bought the passes to the national park and hired a driver to pick us up from our hotel, as it is a bit complicated to get to the Volcanic National Park.

6.15 am the next morning our driver picked us up and drove us to the meeting point for all groups going trekking. Only 8 people per group and app. 10 groups per day are allowed to trek. It is of course to protect the gorillas.

First we saw some traditional Rwanda dances and then everyone was split into groups. As there are only two of us, we joined an American group, who had done the trekking the day before (7 hour trek uphill). So they were quite eager to do a shorter trek today. No one knows the length of the trek, as it depends on where the gorillas are. They move around all the time, but via the rangers who work with them every day, the guides know where to find them.

There are 18 groups of gorillas, of which 10 can be visited and 8 are used for research matters. They live in the national park between Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo. The largest group has more than 60 gorillas.

The American group had asked for Francois, who is a known guide here. He worked for Dian Fossey, the famous zoologist who undertook an extensive study of gorilla groups, and devoted her life to the gorillas and got killed her in the 80’s. Lucky for us we got him, and he was a GREAT guide. He knew everything about the gorillas, he could “talk” like the gorillas (different sounds) and showed us different leaves and plants that the gorillas eat, which he then ate too..so funny this guy.

Francois took us up to see the second largest group, which has 30 gorillas, including one Silverback (male gorillas are named Silverbacks when the reach the age of 12), who is the leader of the group. We walked for app. 1,5 hours before we found the group. It was a very steep trek up through the jungle and a lot of mud. Helle was especially muddy with her short legs going through the mud. It was a very beautiful view from the mountain. Rwanda is called the land of the thousand mountains and indeed there are many mountains. And everything is very green.

Finally we found them..just walking out in an open area of the jungle, there was the big Silverback. He is 30 years old and weighs 200 kg. Such a beautiful sight. He was sitting there so peacefully with two minor orphanage gorillas, who had lost their mother.

Suddenly, he made an aggressive sound and we got a bit afraid…it was not against us, but clearly there was something on the other side of where we were sitting, which he didn’t like. The group of 5 gorillas all looked passed us to see..but fortunately nothing happened.

We could go in more details, as this was truly an AMAXING experience. Being about 2 meters from him and less than a meter from some of the others..wow. Such beautiful animals and so gentle and sweet. One mother had an only 8 days old baby..so cute and hardly any hair on that one.  You really just wanted to cuddle one.

They were moving a bit around, so we followed them closely and again were close to them. In total we saw around 20 out of the 30 gorillas. You are only allowed to have one hour with them a day, of course to protect and not stress them.

 It is difficult to understand that man have killed these great animals and unfortunately still do..though less than 1% today. The gorillas are not hunted today, as they are protected, but they get injured or killed through the traps that are put up for other animals. It has helped that the local community is very involved in the protection of these wonderful animals.

Hot shower

Jubiii…a hot shower two days in a row…what a wonderful experience :-)..especially after a wet and muddy experience with the gorillas. The feeling of hot water, which runs constantly, and which enable you to really get all the dirt off..wow what an experience. But this was probably our last normal “showers”, as we are now back in our house again where the shower does not work so good. Anyway you learn to appreciate the basic things in life.

Genocide memorials – so terrible – never again!

We left Musanze Sunday to visit two other genocide memorials south of Kigali (45 min. bus ride). Again what a bus ride. When we thought the bus was full..think again..after one stop, of course 3 extra people got in the already full bus…haha…Thomas’ knees was being pushed up against the metal in the seat in-front of him..poor him and his long legs. The bus took off, as the music played. In all the buses you hear Rwanda and international music (mainly dance and hip hop) quite loud. This is something the Danish buses could learn from..a bit more atmosphere :-).

Both memorials were churches where people had come in the hope of protection. But people were slaughtered and tortured to death. It is SO SO SO horrific what has happened. These churches were less “commercial” than then big centre in Kigali, and did not have pictures or a lot of description in writing about the genocide, but instead they showed what actually had taken place in these two churches.People were locked into the churches and killed. All the clothes of the killed people are still there in piles across the floors, gun shots wholes in the roofs, broken walls as the militia was breaking down the walls to the churches, and grenade wholes in the stone floors.

One building was set on fire even though people were still trapped inside. The remaining of the building was still there.

Also stacks of skulls in multiple rows, even baby skulls, where you could see how the skulls had been crashed or destroyed by a machete. The remaining skeleton parts, the coffins of some whole bodies and others including the skeletons of entire families, the identity cards, which identified whether they were hutu’s or tutsi’s, the weapons (machetes, hammers, sticks, etc. )etc. are still on display there.

In one of the churches where they they used to have Sunday school for the children, the blood stains on the wall was still there, as they had swung the children up against the walls to kill them. …so terrible. We both got extremely emotional during these visits..and even now by writing about it.  

Also they had used a long wooden stick, which was formed as a spear, to kill the women, but hammering it up through their vaginas and all the way up to their skull. WHAT MADNESS and EVILNESS!!!!!...we just don’t’ understand how can man be SO SO evil…what makes people do such horrible horrible things to people they loved only a minute ago, who they used to play with and lend sucker from???? This is not just about killing, but about torturing people.

In the first church nearly 46.000 were killed and in the other about 5.000.

Again we are amazed about the country’s ability to recover from this extreme genocide. How they have managed to forgive each other for so horrible actions. We doubt we would be able to forgive, if we had experienced this to anyone we loved. So this is truly amazing that they have been able to do so to get on with their lives. Incredible!

Never again!

It is not easy to end this blog today with this terrible telling. But this is reality and reality is far from ideal and loving. We should never forget, but learn, so it will never happen again. Fortunately the world offers a lot of good and by the acts of good people, the goodness survives.  So think about that when entering 2013 soon. What good can you do for people around you and in general.

Happy New Year to you all and your friends and families!