Final thoughts on Rwanda; Re-entry into Tanzania

Hi everyone,

First I'd like to share a few final thoughts on our visit to Rwanda.

In addition to historical information and photos about the country's colonial period and events leading to the genocide, the museum in Kigali contains gruesome memorabilia: Photographs of the carnage, display cases of clothes found on victims' bodies (washed and suspended as they would've been worn), displays of recovered bones, and portraits of many of the dead, including an entire room dedicated to the lost children, who "should have been our future."

Part of the top floor of the museum is dedicated to education about other genocides, past and ongoing: Jews during WW II, Serbs and Croats, Armenians, the peoples of Namibia, Darfur, and others.

Later I saw t-shirts for sale in the museum gift shop with a new take on the quote "Those who forget the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them. " Their logos read "Those who forget the lessons of Rwanda ( written above "history" which was crossed out) are condemned to repeat them in Darfur" (added at the end of the quote).

Outside, the beautiful park-like setting and cemetery of mass graves provides a peaceful place for visitors to reflect. When I rejoined the boys later (they had taken a tour conducted in their native language), Sondra was sitting on a bench with his head in his hands. "I never want to come back here", he said.

In our search for how to best help him and Eric, Dave and I also connected with the Rwandan national directors for both Rwanda and Kenya of the Christian organization World Relief. Celestin and Jean Paul, also genocide survivors who lost many family members and friends, know each other well and offered further insight into the complexities of rebuilding the country. (By the way, World Relief has a website and offers opportunities for volunteers.)

We left Rwanda by bus to return to Tanzania and once again rode through gorgeous scenery of green rolling hills and small villages. It haunted me to think that the genocide had happened everywhere we passed.

Next Dave and I traveled by train for 3 days and 2 nights across all of Tanzania to Dar es Salaam on the coast. It was a memorable trip in a lot of ways - most notably the long delays - but also a great chance to see how average Africans live and travel. Definitely not the Africa seen by most tourists! As the only non-blacks on the train (until a Chinese couple got on a day later) we were a definite curiosity. People wanted to know who we were and why we weren't flying. Good question, I thought a couple of times myself, especially at one point when the run-down train came to a halt for no apparent reason.

During what turned out to be a 6 hour wait, I sought out other new friends from Rwanda further back in the train. I got a French translation for the Swahili explanation given over the loud speaker for the problem: Broken tracks that needed to be repaired! Laetetia from Kigali and I had met on the bus earlier that day after crossing the border into Tanzania from Rwanda near the dramatic Rusomo Falls intersection of the two countries. I had asked her for information (in English) about train schedules since Dave knew from reading our Lonely Planet guidebook that the trains ran somewhat infrequently. Laetetia had said she spoke French but not English so we struck up a conversation in French. I later learned that she and several women friends were also en route to Dar es Salaam where they planned to investigate small business opportunities for themselves. "It's impossible to save for the future when you only make a hundred dollars a month," she said. The women were exploring micro-enterprise and other opportunities for exporting women's hand-made clothing to foreign places. I wished them the best and said I'd be happy to help if I could as a U.S. contact.
On the train we also met another wonderful and intelligent Rwandan named George (wearing a "George of the Jungle" t-shirt!). He had learned to speak good English in Uganda after escaping the genocide. Now at 27 , he, too, was seeking better job opportunities in Tanzania, perhaps work in the tanzanite mines. His education (like that of so many others) had been interrupted during the war and he had been unable to return to school for lack of funds.

This seems to be a recurring problem throughout the world.

Even public secondary schools in many countries require tuition payment and uniforms. Though the amounts are small by US standards, they present insurmountable odds to often large families(or orphans) living on less than a hundred dollars a month. In Rwanda as of November, bank loans for university students have begun to be available for the first time. But that still doesn't help anyone who hasn't yet completed high school. I know firsthand that education is key to upward economic mobility. Without a degree, especially in developing countries rife with complex political problems and fewer economic (and other) opportunities, the cycle of generational poverty continues, sometimes resulting in despair and crime.

I mention this because later in Zanzibar, I was the victim of a major theft by someone who had turned to drugs and theft as a recourse to his probably pathetic life. At least that thought has helped me deal with my stolen bag containing my passport, a considerable amount of cash, my new Canon 5D professional digital camera and 28-105 mm lens, 3 memory cards full of photos taken from Rwanda onward, my eyeglasses, my travel journal, and all my cosmetics!

To be continued...

4 days in Rwanda

Hello again,

We've spent several emotional days here in the land of the mille collines (thousand hills). Observing the beauty of this verdant, lush, and peaceful countryside makes the atrocities of the 1994 genocide of Tutsi people by their Hutu neighbors, friends, and sometimes relatives, seem unimaginable. In just 100 days, 1 million people - including children and babies, as well as people of all ages - were tortured, bludgeoned, shot, or hacked to death. Thousands of women were raped by men with HIV to ensure that any possible future generations would not survive.

Every person living in Rwanda today has been affected in some way by the genocide. The word didn't even exist in the native language (Kinyarwanda) ; it had to be borrowed. The whole country still suffers to some extent from post traumatic stress disorder as counseling is not widely available.

We attended a church service at an organization called Solace Ministries, an NGO committed to serving orphans and widows of the genocide. We were privileged to hear several survivors' gruesome eyewitness accounts of horrific murders of family, friends, and strangers, and testimonies of faith and survival by God's grace. The experience was powerful and moving. It humbled me when they told us that because of our visit to them in Rwanda, we were close to God's heart, that our presence assured them that they had not been forgotten by God. Afterwards, a young Rwandan praise band/choir sang (including Refiner's Fire in English) and danced and the whole mood lifted.

The international community is now pouring billions of dollars into the reconstruction of this devastated place. There are areas of Kigali that look sleek, modern and high tech, much more so than any of the other places in East Africa we've visited on this trip. Hope slowly seems to be appearing, like a Phoenix rising from its ashes.

We were also able to connect with John Sondra and Eric, the two orphans Dave befriended 2 years ago, and we were welcomed as old friends. We are working to help them know how to best proceed with their university educations. They are wonderful young men, now aged 22 and 23. We visited the impressive (and grim) Genocide Memorial with them. Eric had been there before but not Sondra or myself so it was pretty overwhelming.
We are currently in Zanzibar, at an internet cafe with a terrible connection. So I'll sign off for now and try to continue again soon!

Happy Thanksgiving this week!

Love, Judy

Update from Uganda

It's Saturday afternoon, Nov. 10th, 2:30 p.m., Ugandan time. Dave and I are having a restful day back in Kampala after spending 2 days away . We ventured out once again by bus, this time to the colorful town of Masindi, 5 hours away, which we used as a base for our visit to Murchison Falls.

Murchison is home to hippos, crocodiles, pumbas, chimps, elephants, birds, and giraffes! This place was a highlight of Dave's trip here 2 years ago, something he enthusiastically recommended that we recreate. We were able to hire Sam, the same driver Dave used on that last trip here, a local who has had his own business driving foreigners for the past 4 years. Sam lives just outside the park with his family of 5 children and 5 siblings. As he skillfully negotiated the remote roads, he shared some stories of his life here. A couple of years ago, the Lord's Resistance Army (the Lord is the rebel fighter Kony - not Jesus!) was a huge security threat to visitors in the park. Civilians, not military personnel, were being targeted and murdered. And shortly before Dave's last visit, a Brit - Steve Willis- who had lived and owned a restaurant and safari camp in the park for years, was shot and killed. That same day, Sam was driving visitors around the park and encountered a very distraught giraffe. The agitated giraffe stopped the car and motioned his head in the direction of Steve's murder. One of the tourists had binoculars and looked through them at a distance. He saw the murderous rebels advancing by foot. Thanks to the giraffe's warning, Sam was able to make a quick getaway and escape any harm. (Security in the park is excellent now, and the rebels have since moved to the Sudan, much to everyone's relief - except the Sudenese, I'm sure).

Another story Sam shared was how during dry season, poisonous snakes have entered his home! He has a sharp "snake stick" to kill them! (And the whole family knows how to use it!!) A neighbor's 3 year old baby was killed a couple of days ago by a snake he tried to pick up.

Traveling is always such a revelation. I am continually awed and humbled by the difficult lives our friends in developing countries lead and am always grateful to be a part of volunteer efforts to help. On that note, I look forward to sharing volunteer opportunities with some of my high school students next year when I return to teaching at the end of my sabbatical. I'm excited to have been selected for a new program called O Ambassadors - O standing for Oprah - which is a new collaboration of the Angel Network and Free the Children to encourage concern and volunteerism in the world by U.S. and Canadian elementary and high school students and teachers. The goal is to help alleviate poverty and promote peace in the world, part of Millenium Goals. Before I left Santa Barbara, I applied to be a teacher/mentor for a club program at San Marcos and was pleasantly surprised to be selected! O Ambassadors attempts to teach students (and teachers) about the lives and cultures of various people of the world. It encourages ways we all can help the global community. I listed West and East Africa on my application as first areas of interest and have been consciously scouting possibilities for future volunteerism - especially in orphanages and in cross cultural situations.

Many of you are aware that I traveled to Ghana in June with 4 other members of Goleta Presbyterian Church to begin a long term relationship with a church in the remote town of Patriensa, encouraging micro enterprise and solar initiatives. And in Tanzania, Dave and I connected with a number of Masai tribes and a brilliant young Masai director named Eli who heads an organization called Ilkidinga which needs volunteers to work in Masai villages. Through Eli, we attended church services at his Catholic church which seeks a sister church relationship with an American Catholic Church. We also met Dora, the director of the Living Water orphanage which also seeks volunteers, especially teachers. Any interested adults out there?

Sorry to get sidetracked! Anyway, we did have a wonderful time at Murchison Falls. First Sam drove us to the head of the beautiful and powerful falls on the Victorian Nile, the source of some of the best river rafting in the world. The gorge the water passes through is only 6 m; Lonely Planet guide says it may be the most powerful surge of water in the world. We were also treated to a view of the bottom of the falls from a 4 hour ride on an aging tourist boat full of foreign visitors (many Dutch, Steve H. , so you could've "talked the lingo" - though they all speak good English!)

I was thrilled to see many birds, crocs and hippos from the boat, though disappointed that the new driver didn't go as close to the animals as the driver of Dave's boat 2 years ago. I consoled myself, however, with memories (and photos) of our outstanding week long Tanzanian safari, where we saw ALL the "big five" in the various parks we visited - black rhinos, elephants, a leopard, a cheetah, and many lions (including 2 up close after mating, where they were hanging out lazily near the road!!) - plus hundreds of beautiful giraffes, zebras, baboons, monkeys, and rare birds!! Truly an awesome experience.

I have yet to fill you in on the details of the Kilimanjaro climb but will later. Some of you already know that I made it to the top of the crater's edge, became mildly hypothermic, and was forced to call it quits without reaching the "true" summit. I did, however, receive a silver certificate from the park since Gilman's Point is considered a worthy achievement, the first of the 3 highest points on Kilimanjaro. It's only a couple of hundred meters short of Uhuru Peak, which Dave, of course, reached. I must say under the difficult circumstances, I was thrilled to make it to Gilman's. I saw many people turning back on the way up from altitude sickness (and could hear people puking in the dark; the climb begins at midnight while the scree is still frozen). I actually stood at close to 20,000 feet - the highest I'd ever climbed - at the edge of the highest point on the African continent! And a bonus is that I've lost at least 5 pounds without trying as part of Dave's "boot camp"!!

More later. Thanks to those of you who responded to my last log! I loved hearing from so many of you. Please continue to write to me and to keep us in your prayers. Thanks! Off to Rwanda tomorrow.

Love,
Judy

Greetings from Uganda

Dear family and friends,

I got the idea of creating a blog using this host from a young friend we climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with a couple of weeks ago. She assured me it was an easy site to use. So far so good!

I hope you'll enjoy reading occasional logs about the 5 week trip Dave and I are making in East Africa. 2 and 1/2 weeks have already passed since we left Santa Barbara on the 18th of Oct. - and a lot has happened! Since we've had limited access to internet (and slow, sketchy connections at that) I've only managed to check mail and jot off hurried notes to a few of you. Thanks to those of you who have responded and kept me informed about happenings at home. Those of you who travel know how welcome personal news can be when you're far away and in remote places.

I guess I'll start from today and work backward, making our news more current.

We are currently in an internet cafe in Kampala, Uganda. We arrived here yesterday afternoon after a 14 hour, all night bus trip from Nairobi, Kenya. It was kind of an eery trip, undertaken on extremely bumpy roads, some unpaved and most unlit, into the heart of dark Africa There are few street lights anywhere here, except in major cities. Our driver would follow big trucks with bright tail lights so that our way was paved into the night.

Dave had purchased the last 2 reservations on the bus, which happened to be two seats in the rear, over the tires. (So we went big-time "bump in the night"! ) Arriving in Kampala around 1:30p.m., I was more than ready to find a place to stay, get a hot shower, some food, and a good rest while prone. This did happen a few hours later, but not until we had checked rates of the U.S. dollar against the Ugandan shilling, changed money, and hiked around town with backpacks
for a few more hours. Finally we took a shared taxi to the "Backpackers Hostel", a lovely and quiet spot maybe 5 or 6 miles outside of the center of this bustling, modern city. ( Dave had stayed here alone on his trip 2 years ago after climbing Mt. Kenya and venturing off on his own after Bar and Dave returned to the U.S. ) Anyway, after checking into a private bungalow and cleaning up, we headed back out for supper. We were so tired that we only ventured a couple of miles from the hostel where we found delicious grilled food stands run by a young local boy named Moses. We also drank some icy Bongo, a favorite local yogurt drink, like cold, thick kefir. It was delicious.

After a good night's sleep, we made a plan to do internet today plus a bit of sightseeing before visiting Murchison Falls tomorrow, where we'll see lots of hippos, crocodiles, and elephants. (More later about our previous week-long safari in Tanzania!). We've hired a driver to take us to the park. First, though, is a 3 hour bus ride to the town of Masindi, where we'll start.

To be continued!

Best to all,
Judy and Dave