Rwanda

A long drive day passing through the capital, Kigali, and stopping off at the Kigali Memorial Centre. It honours 250,000 people who were buried here in mass graves after the genocide in 1994. In the 100 days, a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered by the Interahamwe and army (basically Hutus killing their good friends, neighbours and family members). It seems so wrong that this could be allowed to happen in our recent history, when people had warned it was going to happen. A country that was let down by many European countries and largely the UN.
Today was our final full day in Rwanda, a country of many surprises. The landscape was the biggest surprise- very hilly, National Parks of forest and volcanoes. Every spare patch of land was farmed, irrigation and terracing covering the hills. Since their new constitution, plastic has been banned, making a big difference to the lack of rubbish. The country has alot of pride, people paid to keep drains clear, trees trimmed... People's drinking water is mainly collected in yellow buckets from the rivers in rural areas and water stand pipes in towns then carried back home. Bikes have more purpose than just riding to get somewhere, they are used to haul water, produce or as a taxi with the passenger sitting on the rack.Lue lisää