Rwanda

I have a few great places to blog about, and I'll start with Rwanda (with Egypt and Jordan coming soon).

Steve and I went to Rwanda for a few days leading up to Christmas. As you can see from my previous post, the reason for the trip was to see the very rare mountain gorillas that live only in Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC.

As you may know, Rwanda is a tiny country- about the size of Massechusets I'm told- and is home to about nine million people. You certainly know about the genocide that happened there in 1994, but what you may not know is that Rwanda is the most beautiful country on Earth. It's true. I challenge any country to a beauty contest with Rwanda.

There's no flat land in Rwanda. You are either on a hill looking out at the blue sky and down at a sparkling stream, or you are in a lush valley looking up at sienna and emerald hills. Most people's small stone or mud-brick homes are ringed by banana trees and lined with red and pink flowers. Their fields are full of any number of towering plants that grow easily from the black soil. Around every bend in the road, at the top of each hill, are vistas that are almost difficult to take in for their beauty. For eyes that are accustomed to concrete and skyscrapers, it takes an extra moment to believe what you are seeing. And it is so, so good.

Our first stop in the country was Kigali. We spent an afternoon at the Genocide Memorial Centre, which we wanted to see but dreaded seeing at the same time. I'm of the mind that it's almost disrespectful to visit the country and not go to the memorial, but if I had to do it over again, I probably would have saved it for the last day of the trip. The images from the memorial had a very strange effect. Human skulls lined up in rows, video clips of machete slayings, taped interviews with survivors, photos of little children labeled with the monstrous way they were murdered- these things don't easily leave you. For the next three days, anytime I saw a farmer out in his field cutting plants with a machete, I half expected he was slaying a neighbor. When I saw a group of young men walking together, I imagined they were part of a roving youth gang of killers. I physically braced myself to see a corpse when I saw people leaning over something on the ground. I know it sounds crazy, and it caught me very unaware, but the whole time I was in Rwanda, I felt like I at any moment I might witness some of the things that I saw in the museum.

High tech traffic lights in Kigali. 

Of course, the country is now fully at peace and ethic violence is not taking place. From what I've heard and read, the country is seeing incredible acts of forgiveness between victims and perpetrators (check out "As We Forgive" by the amazing Laura Waters Hinson). At the same time, Rwanda lost about a million people in about 3 months time, and there was hardly a single person that wasn't either a killer, a rapist, a victim, or a witness to gruesome and inhuman acts. Virtually no one was spared from playing a part. We didn't talk to anyone about it, that just wasn't our right as in-and-out visitors, but we couldn't help but notice that the genocide was mentioned each day in the newspaper in some form. We got the sense that it's "over" but it's still very much a part of the nation's daily consciousness.

From Kigali, we drove a few hours out to Virunga Park. Gorilla trekking starts at 7:00am. Only about 150 passes to the park are sold (for a handsome price) each day. You reserve your spot well in advance and pay upfront. On the day of the trek, a driver with a big safari truck picked us up from the hotel at 6:00am. We immediately learned that he spoke not a word of English, but undaunted, we used my rusty Haitian Creole and our collective understanding of French (um, about 50 words) to muddle through. 

He dropped us at the trekking spot where tea and coffee was being served in a pavilion and a local performance troupe was singing and dancing for the largely European and American crowd. It was a lovely way to start the day. I've posted a video here: http://vimeo.com/36239907

We were happy to find that our trekking group was just the two of us and a family of three from Denmark. Our guide gave us a briefing on the day- we would visit a family of 14 gorillas, aged between one-year and 25. So they don't get stressed, we can only visit them for 1 hour, and we should stay 7 meters away from them at all times, and no flash photography allowed. Of course, through no fault of my own, I would eventually violate the 7-meter rule, and by accident (ahem, 3 times) Steve would flash the camera directly in the eyes of the 600-pound alpha male.

The hike was breathtaking. The Denmark crowd probably thought we were terribly out of shape because of how often we stopped, but the scenery was screaming- "slow down and LOOK AT ME!" After about an hour uphill, our guide stopped, listened, and said "they are here." And sure enough, a few steps later, we were standing in the middle of a family of gorillas. After a few minutes of "oh, look at the momma carrying the baby" and "that one just looked at me!" (all in whispers, as instructed), we heard a crunching  sound and a massive beast of a primate stepped out of the underbrush and into my personal space. "Ooooh, OK. Ooooooh my," I breathed as Steve started snapping photos. Next thing I know, his silver back is brushing up against my leg and I am grinning like a fool. Scared, yes. But the dominate thought was "This moment, Leah. Take this one in." It was over in a flash but it still makes me happy when I think about it.

Walking up to me to say good morning.

You can understand why I got nervous.

Our fearless leaders.

This is the fellow hanging out above me in the photo below.

For the rest of the hour, we got to walk around and watch the family eating, resting, and playing. The most entertaining member of the family was the baby. He spent the better part of the hour making a nest of leaves and twigs on the back of the poppa gorilla, who didn't seem to even notice the baby was there. I posted a video here: http://vimeo.com/36237343

We didn't shoot this video (someone called National Geographic did) but it's a good representation of what we did: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/mammals-animals/apes/gorilla_mountain_hanging.html

The hour flew by and all too soon it was time to trek back, with big smiles on our faces. Rwanda- the beauty, the gorillas, the history, is unforgettable.