Rwanda
Kinunga

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    • Day 118

      Kigali

      January 12 in Rwanda ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      Culture shock. That’s how I describe Kigali after having been in poorer towns, and especially having spent so long in Tanzania. Kigali is busy, booming, business, and bars. There are so many young people working in coffee shops, startup hubs and co-working spaces, restaurants, that I just forgot I am still in Afrika. Plus sometimes really excellent (rwandan-sourced) coffee. Cars mostly behave here, it’s a lot less hectic than Dar es Salaam, but definitely more polluted with seriously disgusting trucks and busses sometimes. And very, very, very hilly. But all in all, it is the most European and modern city I have visited during this entire trip, excluding maybe Austrian cities.

      I stumbled on the prime minister’s office next to the hostel Im staying in, and it’s nothing short of a palace. Pictures not allowed. There is virtually no chance of political opposition in this country (usually tortured, imprisoned, or otherwise silenced, from what I read online), but mister Kagame did have an important role to play in stopping the genocide in 1994.

      Now I cannot possibly give a full account of the genocide and history in a travel blog, so let me give it to you in a dumbed-down version:
      - Rwanda is a former colony of first the Germans, and then the Belgians. The Germans already started in amplifying the pre-existent distinction between Hutu’s and Tutsi’s, which was formerly a distinction between economic classes (mostly; the Tutsi’s were also mostly the ones in powerful positions), but the Belgians divided everything by making it purely racial, and forcing everyone to have their “race” in the identity cards.
      - First Belgium missionaries and the administration only educated Tutsi’s, then they left after Hutu’s started an independence movement, and sided with only the Hutu’s. Suddenly.
      - Hutu’s were,due to the racial distinction imposed by the Belgians, convinced that all and only the Tutsi’s were to blame for their status, and full on attacks, and deportation of Tutsi’s, started after about 1962.
      - The Belgians and French fully backed the Hutu’s against the Tutsi’s, who were fighting against being deported or killed.

      And then in 1994 possibly the cruelest genocide in modern history began, with Tutsi’s being killed on the streets, in (claimed “safe”) churches, in stadiums, raped and worse, children killed so that the entire bloodline would be wiped out (all Hutus had tutsi blood because previously also cross-class marriages and children were very common, but hatred makes blind), etc. Churches full of bodies, streets full of bodies, which lasted about a 100 days. (Go and watch Hotel Rwanda; based on the account of a guy who turned into a opponent of the current regime and is now imprisoned…)

      I visited one of the churches, in Nyamata, and the huge memorial site in Kigali; while looking for the latter I found myself closer to a museum of Rwandan history in the Kandt house, were I also got to hang out with some deadly snakes and stand within a meter of a crocodile. Way better than a safari.

      In the church of Nyamata you still see gunshot-holes everywhere, holes from Granate explosions, and they also preserved some of the skulls for display of the traumas caused in the genocide. Really, really disturbing.

      Ok, finishing on a better note: I am heading to national parks and am going in search of some monkeys and coffee. I won’t leave Rwanda until I have a picture of me hugging a coffee tree. (Brought by the Germans by the way.)
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    • Day 2

      Touchdown in Rwanda

      May 24, 2018 in Rwanda ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Arrived! And the bike's here also! Safely at the Scripture Union guest house rooming with Simon.
      Bike built and ready to go - except that my tiredness and diet of airplane food probably isn't condusive to any sort of exercise, let alone riding.
      Rwanda is really full of hills! On way here came down a 1:4 cobbled Street - thankfully don't think we're cycling that one.
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    • Day 3

      Getting acclimatised

      May 25, 2018 in Rwanda ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      A day in Kigali, no proper cycling today although we did set the bikes up and have a little ride out - the cobbles certainly have a way of checking all is tightened well - it wasn't, but is now - hopefully!

      After we took a trip into Kigali, starting with the genoide memorial. Difficult to fully describe, over 250,000 people are interned there, no words really suffice. 24 years on and it's still raw. We came to Rwanda for a night in 1996 and looking back I don't think I understood the full magnitude of what had happened.

      After a great lunch at the Ubunwe Grande Hotel with amazing views over Kigali, it was a spot of shopping- African style ! Great fun and great people. Have to say we avoided the ‘clean meat place’ - so no Sunday roast I am afraid!

      Tonight had a talk by an amazing visionary who was behind the project to replace Burundian cows with friesian cows that produce loads more milk, lifting families out of poverty. His latest project is to produce organic stevia- a natural sugar substitute- and giving the producers free chicks to fertilise the land, a brilliant but simple idea. Lots of opposition from sugar producers and GM stevia seed manufacturers, but he is persevering and succeeding! Tomorrow we cycle!

      Psalm 67 1-2
      May God be gracious to us and bless us
      and make his face shine on us—
      so that your ways may be known on earth
      your salvation among all nations.
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    • Day 10

      Back to Kigali

      June 1, 2018 in Rwanda ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

      The final countdown. Up for breakfast at 6am 80 miles ahead of us. The first group (who were taking it at a slightly slower pace) left leaving 6 of us (including Kiki, team Rwanda and our mechanic) to enjoy a Rwandan coffee at a coffee shop next to the guest house. We set off in peloton formation - something we hadn't done all week as normally the terrain was steep hills. This was different - gently undulating hills allowed good peloton riding - and we soon picked up the pace. The group came back together after about 30 miles which signified the start of the annual 'race' - the rules simple those that want to race start about 10 minutes after those that don't. The first group cycle and wait at an unknown point to the racing group and that is the finish. Five of us raced. A rolling start, Kiki took off - in fairness there was only ever going to be one winner so it was really a race for second place! The course was short and kind to the heavier rider finishing on an uphill after a down hill, so after clinging on for dear life at the start with the advantage of extra momentum I managed to finish in the middle after Kiki and Wesley thank goodness for those extra pounds!?!

      However my legs after that were shot and as hard as I tried I could not keep up with the faster riders any longer. While the scenery was perhaps not as breathtaking as in previous days - familiarity was perhaps a factor the roads were much kinder with none on the long brutal climbs we had had before. We all regrouped about 15km from Kigali to ride in together. This was potentially the most risky part of the day as we came into a busy city. Riding in was straight forward and fairly flat, although this was Rwanda and hills were always present and coming into Kigali there were some steep climbs as we made our way back to the finish of our guest house.

      We all rolled in, tired but exhilarated. We had made it. A really hard week, with a number of individual days being the hardest days most had ever experienced. Eric's chips and sausage awaited - a perfect end to an 80 mile day and a 500 mile week.

      Chips, brochettes and beer at a nearby hotel was the evening fare, exhaust but happy we lasted until about 9.30. An amazing week, great riding, great friends and a great God.

      'But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.' (Isaiah 40:31)

      Remember you can still give to the work of GLO. The work they do is amazing, it literally changes and saves lives. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/hughwells

      Thank you to Tallis Woomert (instagram @talliswoomert) for the amazing photos - you'll imediately see which ones! Do go to his instagram for more you won't be disappointed!

      Thank you to Simon Guillebaud www.simonguillebaud.com) for organising - an amazing trip.
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