Rwanda and things

Hello!!! (to the maybe four people reading this :) )

I can't believe it's only been a week since the group went home, I feel like I've done a lot in a short amount of time. Jessie and I rode with the group from Kampala to Entebbe where the airport is, but got out at this cute little hostel and then the next morning we took a ferry to the Ssese Islands which are a cluster of touristy, beach islands in lake Victoria. The place we stayed was just wonderful, it was called Camp Hornbill or something like that and was owned by this German and Dutch couple were just total hippies. The place itself was so, so relaxing and such a welcome break from Kampala. There were hammocks hanging everywhere and it was right on the beach, which the forest on either side, which meant that there were a lot of monkeys and birds around. I literally spent like half a day one day sitting on a hammock watching this family of monkeys play and bathe and stuff. There wasn't a whole lot to do besides walk around the island and explore and read and watch monkeys. You can't go swimming in the water because of bilhazia. But there was this other girl staying there who was also traveling alone and we had a really good time together.
I decided to take a different ferry to leave the Ssesse Islands and go to Masaka, where I stayed for one night and then went farther west on a 6 hour bus ride to Kabale, then I took a motorcycle to Lake Bunyonyi, and THEN I took a dugout canoe to the island that I was staying on. This place was amazing!! SOO beautiful and peaceful, and the food is probably the best that I've had the whole time that I was here, and the best part was that the water is bilhazia free so it's safe to swim. I planned on staying here for a couple days, but the truth is that after spending a couple of days just sort of relaxing and hanging out at the Sesse Islands, I was feeling a little bit restless, and then I met this couple that had just come back from Rwanda and they were talking about it with me and a couple other people, and saying how amazing it was. So me, a young couple from the UK, and another English woman in her 50s decided we just had to do it! I had just enough time at Lake Bunyonyi to take some pictures, go for a swim, eat some yummy food, and relax on the dock before we took a motorboat back to the lakeshore and then a taxi back to Kabale. Then the next day we crossed the border into Rwanda and made our way to Kigali, the capital city.

I don't even know how to describe how amazingly wonderful our short two days in Kigali was. I was so taken aback by how completely different it was from Uganda, and especially from Kampala. First of all there's the roads which are so good! They are paved as opposed to the red dirt roads in Uganda, which make Kampala a horribly dusty city which is very unpleasant to walk around in. Also the motorcycle taxi drivers all wear helmets AND have helmets for the passengers, there were also sidewalks...yeah, you get the idea. There is actually a ban on plastic bags in Rwanda, which also helps make things cleaner. It is also such a beautiful country. It's known as the land of a thousand hills and you can really see why. It is so, so green and hilly and it's really beautiful. Even in the city which is really densely populated and it looks like houses are just on top of each other, they are all kind of like terraces into the hills and it's really lovely.
Anways, we really had a jam packed two days. After checking into our hotel, (Rwanda is going for low density, high class tourism so there are no hostels or campsites, only hotels) we went to the Genocide Memorial museum which was really, really good, but obviously very sad. That night we went to this really yummy Senegalese restaurant for dinner. The next day we went to two different churches where massive massacres occured and that have been preserved as memorials. It was so chilling and awful really. Both of them were full of the clothes of people who were killed and also had the skulls and bones on display. It was very hard to see. Afterwards we went to the actual Hotel Rwanda (the movie itself was shot in South Africa). The hotel is really, really expensive so we each split a passionfruit juice, got a feel for the place, took some pictures and left.
The best part of the experience we fell upon by pure luck. In one of the taxis, this guy with really good English asked where we were from, and when I said I was from the U.S he started listing off all the differet cities he's been to in the U.S. When I asked what he was doing traveling around so much there he started telling me about the incredible work that he does and he could tell that I was really interested, so he invited us all to his house to talk about it more. Later in the day he met his at the hotel and then walked with us to his home where he showed us the powerpoint that he presents in the United States. He is working with a couple different organizations that are doing work for genocide survivors - both the victims and the participants - helping them get over the trauma and fear that they have so that they can not only move on with their lives, but so that they can forgive the people that have done these horrible atrocities (which are often their neighbors and sometimes even relatives) so that Rwanda can move forward. It is so hard to believe, but he talked about and showed us pictures of people who had experienced awful things and then met and forgiven the same people that had caused them so much harm and suffering. The program is all based on living in the present and eliminating the damaging thoughts from your head. He said he talks to people and says, "what would it be like if you didn't have this horrible thought about your neighbor killing your husband." And the people then respond, well then I could carry on with my life. Then he talks to them about how everytime they think about their husband getting killed, they are killing their husband in their minds. Then he talks to the participants of the genocide and asks about their biggest problems and they say that they are living in fear because they are neighbors with this person whose husband they've killed, and so they may be just hiding out in their house and not living at all. Anyway, through a long process, he helps these people meet and forgive each other so that they can get on with their lives. Usually this also will involve the participant doing some huge favor for the person whose life they harmed. Like one man burnt down the house of this woman and also killed some of her family members and is now building her a new house. It was really, really moving to talk to this man. It's also so amazing how the genocide was only 15 years ago and Rwandans are already not identifying by Hutu and Tutsi anymore but just Rwandan. They just seem so determined to put that horrible time in the past, and they really seem to be succeeding.

It's funny, I've been in Uganda for a month now and it's been really great and I've really enjoyed it but I still don't LOVE Uganda. I think I could have really loved Rwanda if we had been able to stay longer. I will have to come back...

Tomorrow morning I am in for another horribly long bus ride from Kabale to Kampala. 9 wonderful hours on bumpy roads. can't wait! After that I have to get to Gulu, so I'll spend the night in Kampala and then go for another 4 hours to Gulu.

I miss you all!!!!
lots of love!
shelly