Earth from Above

I loved the book Earth from Above.  It kind of felt like I was photographing a sequel to it on my flight from Kigali to Dar Es Salaam, which included a quick touch down in Bujumbura, Burundi.  I wasn’t hanging out of an open helicopter with a massive camera to capture these images, I was able to snap them with my point and shoot from the comfortable Rwandair flight.  Awesome!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Murabeho (goodbye) Rwanda

Hard to believe my three months in Rwanda are over! My colleagues at Urwego Opportunity Bank worked really hard and tried to surprise me on my last day today by posting the bank’s first ever Kiva profiles.  Unfortunately there were some issues that couldn’t be resolved, but I was really touched that they tried so hard.  They really wanted me to have the satisfaction of posting a loan before I go. I’m sure they will succeed soon (keep checking Kiva as these clients are amazing -they are taking loans to add rechargable lights to their village shops; this will bring safe and affordable lighting to remote communities that lack electricity).

After some afternoon rain, I was treated to a beautiful street-scene on my way home:

My street in Kigali. My house is behind the metal gate (front left)

This evening I shared a delightful dinner with new friends from my short time here, and was again touched by their thoughtfulness and warm send-off.  On the way home, we formed a five-strong motorcycle gang, racing the streets of Kigali with the sparkling lights in the valleys below. It was a fitting final ride. Now I’m just about ready to go.  While goodbye is always somewhat bittersweet, I’m mostly feeling excited about the next phase of my work and travels.  I’ll keep you posted from Tanzania…

Go-Go-Gorillas

With just a few days left in Rwanda, I finally made it to the country’s #1 tourist attraction, the famous mountain gorillas.  The morning of the trek was quite stressful – I wasn’t sure how my body would handle things, since I’m recovering from my latest stomach bug; it was pouring rain; and I also  managed to misplace the gorilla permit that I had purchased in Kigali the week before.  This led to much confusion at the office, frantic calling to Kigali (where the office was closed due to a shotgun local holiday), and eventually, agreement that I could still trek.

By the time Liz (my travel buddy) and I made it to the assembly gazebo, dozens of people were already formed into 7 groups, and were being briefed by guides on the treks and proper gorilla etiquette.  One guard started yelling at us, wanting to know why we weren’t in a group yet.  He went off to find us one and came back 20 minutes later, only to yell at us again and ask why we weren’t with a group yet…  Anyhow, after many discussions and misunderstandings, Liz and I had no choice but to join separate groups.  None of the groups had fewer than 7 people, and the max is 8.  It was too bad we couldn’t share the experience.  Luckily, my group was pretty nice, and we set off on the thirty minute drive to the start of the hike. Like many places I’ve visited in Rwanda, we drove on little dirt paths, past farmland with small homesteads and storerooms, built with mud, tin and thatched roofs.  Kids in rags were waving at our Land Rovers.

Farmland near Volcanoes National Park

The first part of the hike was through wet fields (mostly potatoes), and  we entered the park through a pass in a massive stone wall.  It was built by local communities and runs the length of the park, from the Congolese to the Ugandan border.  The wall keeps buffaloes inside the park and out of the crops which they quite enjoy.

Crossing the wall reveals a different world.  The bamboo forest is dense and dark and extremely muddy.  Aided by useful gorilla-carved walking sticks, we trekked uphill through the bamboo, stinging nettles, and elephant tracks. This was one of the easier hikes, but it was no joke! An hour later, we joined some trackers, who hike to the gorillas at sunrise, and stay with the group until evening when they create nests for the night.  This allows the park to monitor each group’s location, so that people can visit every day.  Their presence also discourage poachers, who are still active within the park , and whose traps had caught one of the gorillas we saw, and cost her two fingers.

Trackers and Guide

We met Group Thirteen (named for the order that groups were discovered).  This group has one silverback, nine females and a bunch of kids and babies.  I have to admit that seeing them was surprisingly amazing!!

215 kilo Silverback!

Chilling with the Family

At the beginning of the visit, the gorillas were feeding, grooming and some of the kids were playing.  Then it started to pour rain again, and the gorillas hunkered down, moms protecting their young.   The park says people should stay at least  7 meters away from gorillas, but due to terrain and the group’s arrangement, we often found ourselves within a couple of meters (for better or for worse).

An amazing/surreal place to find myself

It was crazy to be watching gorillas in front, turn around, and then see a bunch more behind.   The sixty minute visit flew by, and I wished we could stay longer because we were just getting started.

That said,  I even felt a bit weird visiting the gorillas, like we were infringing on them (they seemed quite ambivalent towards their human guests).  I had no such reservations seeing Akagera Park’s savannah wildlife and was surprised that I found this visit both extremely awesome and a bit disconcerting. I guess gorillas look and act a lot more like humans…

Mama and her one year old

Anyhow, I understand tourism isn’t perfect, but it has helped balance the often conflicting requirements of gorilla conservation and the needs of local communities.  It’s been an honour to visit both of them during my stay in Rwanda.

Park Life

I’ve visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park a couple of times, and have found the savannah tour quite magical. This weekend, some friends and I headed to Akagera Park in the far-east of Rwanda to check out the real deal. We started our day at an ungodly hour, in order to arrive in the cool of the morning, when most of the animals are around. Consolation for the early start was enjoying a great sunrise over misty valleys along the way. We also made excellent time because for once the roads were empty – most people were at Umuganda.

During a jam-packed three-hour game-drive we saw the home where buffalo roam, along with all sorts of wildlife: giraffes, zebras, impalas, a single pumba warthog, hippos, velvet monkeys, baboons and birds aplenty.

You drive around in your own car, and the park gives you a guide. Our main man James was excellent, and explained some neat things about our new friends. For example, impalas can drink through their legs (the black patches near their ankles). This allows them to keep their heads up and watch for predators at communal watering holes

.

James also explained that Akagera Park runs almost the entire length of Rwanda; however, it’s now only a third of its original size. After 1994, when thousands of refugees began returning from neighbouring countries, Rwanda faced an enormous problem. Refugees wanted to return to their land, but the land had been resettled by other families in the interim years (up to fifty). To avoid further conflict, the government offered returnees parts of the park instead, which have now been converted to farmland. This obviously affected the park’s ecology, wiping out most of its lions and elephants. The park is working on an ambitious fencing and survey project, hoping to reintroduce some species in the coming years.

From Akagera I had my first glimpses of Tanzania, my next destination.

I’ll be heading there next week for the next part of this Kiva Fellowship – albeit about 1000km further, to Dar Es Salaam on the Indian Ocean, (if you have tips or contacts there, please send them my way!). During my time in Tanzania I’m hoping to check out some other parks.  Akagera was a great introduction to the savannah. While it lacks the seguay tours and delicious ice-cream available in San Diego’s park, the landscapes and animals make up for it (even the lack of ice-cream, which says something!). It’s hard to believe this world lies just a couple of hours from Kigali, and we made it home in time for diner.

Big Business, Rwanda Style

On Sunday morning, Claude (fellow Kiva Fellow) and I decided to take a drive towards the volcanoes in Rwanda’s north, in search of a good lunch and a great view. We actually only made it to a rest-stop about an hour out of Kigali. I’ve stopped there many times on my trips to Gisenyi, and have always enjoyed the brief break from a crammed bus. But on the road again, once I’d finished my roasted nuts and passion fruit juice, I’ve never given the stop a second thought.

Rest-stop

A Story from the Field, but from a Distance

As promised, I wanted to share a bit more about working with Hekima, Kiva’s field partner based in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.  Feel free to check out my latest post on the Kiva Fellows Blog.

Lakes and Skies and Drives and Thoughts

This weekend I headed to Lake Muhazi, which is a couple of hours east of Kigali. Relaxing on the shores reminded me of weekends spent camping and at friends’ cottages.  Armed with a Fanta Limon and my book (Virunga-The Passion of Dian Fossey by Farley Mowat) I was all set.  The sky provided an amazing show – here’s a couple of pics which I took just a few minutes apart.

Surprisingly, we didn’t see rain all day, and on the way back to Kigali all the villages and valleys were glowing in the late afternoon’s sweet sun.

I’ve now travelled north, south, east and west in Rwanda. I have yet to find a road that isn’t stunning. I was especially blown away on Monday evening – I’d arranged a last-minute meeting in Gisenyi (three hours north-west of Kigali) to do some follow-up training with Kiva’s new Field Partner Hekima (see this earlier blog for an account of the original training session conducted last month). Descending from the Rwandan highlands, I was treated to one of the more awesome sunsets I’ve ever seen, even though I enjoyed it from the confines of a squished bus. The sky was bright red and on my right were towering volcanoes. Mt Nyragongo was smoking a bit. Several hundred meters (and about 30km of windy road) below, Lake Kivu was reflecting the surrounding hills, with a few small islands dotting its waters.

As striking as the natural beauty were the signs and impacts of people in this landscape. Beyond the roadside villages were hillsides covered in banana and corn fields. The road’s shoulders reminded me of endless Brownian motion, with kids running all directions, and people walking, biking, and generally milling around. As the sun was setting, we passed a roadside memorial site, where a few hundred people had gathered to commemorate a massacre that took place at the church in 1994. My description doesn’t do this whole scene any justice, but it was pretty amazing/humbling.

I also got to thinking that on the one hand, I’m passing memorials for a genocide (just) 16 years ago, and on the other, I’m going to meet with people working in Eastern DRC, which doesn’t have memorial weeks or candle-light vigils to comfort survivors of war and terror. The Region remains consumed by corruption and violence. Due to ongoing security concerns in Goma, Kiva can’t even allow its staff or Fellows to visit, although Kiva’s Field Partner Hekima works there every day, trying to empower women of Eastern DRC. This is a pretty amazing organization, and I’ll try to write about them again soon. In the meantime, enjoy getting to know their clients on Kiva’s website.

A Walk to Remember

It’s Genocide Memorial week in Rwanda, and yesterday I attended the official ceremony at the soccer stadium.  I wrote about this, along with some other reflections, on the Kiva Fellow’s blog, so please check out my posting there.  Thanks!

Took this picture as we were walking into the stadium, which later filled to capacity.  Rwandan youth formed a ‘circle of unity’ around the field, and when the sun set, there was a candle ceremony followed by lots of singing.

A Walk in the Woods – Visiting Nyungwe Forest

This long-weekend I headed to Rwanda’s south-west corner, to check out Nyungwe National Forest with my new friend Mara (who is volunteering for a year at Aghazo-Shalom Youth Village). The five-hour bus ride was crazy – picture driving for hours through some of the world’s most beautiful landscapes, accompanied by the sounds of Celine Dion’s greatest hits at full volume and on repeat. The road itself was quite good until we drove into the National Park, at which point there were hairpin turns, and at least a dozen spots where one lane was washed out by landslides. We passed a couple of crews working on road repairs, and they must work full time just to keep the road passable.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Through all of this, Mara had the seat next to the door, and beside her were huge suitcases that belonged to a Belgian woman in front. Every time someone needed to get on or off the bus (which was frequent), Mara had to contort herself and haul the suitcases onto her, in order to clear some space to open the door. It was like a game of tetris inside the bus, trying to make all the pieces (and bodies) fit – Mara managed quite well, and eventually (and awkwardly) we excused ourselves from this game, hopping off the bus at a lovely guesthouse in the park.

After settling in, we took a stroll around a gorgeous tea plantation that borders (and crosses into) Nyungwe Park. There’s a brand new luxury lodge on the grounds, with its own helicopter landing pad so that its patrons can avoid a bus-ride like ours!  On the way back the mist cleared and we caught amazing views of Lake Kivu, and its surrounding volcanoes.

The next morning, after an enormous breakfast and a visit from some sneaky monkeys, we did a lovely little hike. We crossed the tea plantation and then into the dense forest, on the way to the park’s tallest waterfall. With impeccable timing, we finished the hike just moments before a downpour. The other people on our hike generously offered us a lift to Cyangugu, a town about an hour’s drive west, on the southern tip of Lake Kivu. We stayed at the Peace Guesthouse, and looked across the lake to the Congolese city of Bukavu, which is right next door and spreads on the hills surrounding the lake. We strolled down to the lakeshore and after some searching, found a patio for beers and fries. After returning to the hotel we watched the fishing boats on the lake for a bit and then enjoyed another enormous dinner – soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and the piece de resistance – a tasty but unconventional pizza of pie crust, cabbage and carrot.

We asked the manager about the bus schedule to Kigali the following day. He not only arranged our tickets, but also got the driver to come pick us up the next morning from the hotel, so we wouldn’t have to make our way up to the bus station – so sweet! My favourite part of the ride was the quiet section though the rainforest, where the hillsides were covered in amazing trees which blend together and look like a dark green carpet covering the landscape. Unlike anywhere else I’ve been in Rwanda, there was not a single person around, though I did see a few monkeys on the sides of the road. Exiting the park, the contrast is sharp – the hillsides are light green, terraced with banana, corn, and bean crops. Eucalyptus trees line the road; imported from Australia, these trees were planted because they grow really quickly and stabilize the land. The roadside transforms into a semi-continuous village where people were strolling in their fine church clothes, heading to and from Easter services. The Rwandan pop and hip-hop tunes on the bus stereo made a fine soundtrack for the drive. We arrived in Kigali just in time for me to enjoy a Sunday afternoon ice cream with my roommates, deliciously capping off a lovely long-weekend.

Graduation Season

There’s been an excitement around the office these last few days – it’s graduation season in Kigali, and four of my colleagues are receiving their Bachelors of Finance degrees.   One of the new grads popped out one afternoon to pick up her robe and gown.   Luckily my camera was around for her return, which turned into a great photo session of the beaming new grads.

- Portraits of Rosine, Sarah and Felina.

My colleagues have every reason to be proud of earning their degrees! Each of them has come a long way.  Two grew up as refugees in neighbouring Uganda, while the other two hail from tiny villages a few hours away.  They all came to Kigali alone to pursue university studies.  Each of them have funded their own education and between them, they already have a total of 13 years of work experience at the bank.  My colleagues work long hours (at least 8am- 6pm), and for the past four years they have also attended classes from 7pm – 10pm, five nights a week.  They dedicated weekends, holidays, and most of their salaries to studying.  I don’t know how they did it! Two of the new grads are already discussing options for Master’s degrees, in Rwanda and abroad.  Many of my other colleagues, some married and with children, are following similar paths.  They see university as a step towards better jobs and better futures.  My glimpse into how hard they are working to get there  has been pretty impressive!