"Pays Des Mille Collines"

"Land of a Thousand Hills."  Rwanda.

My vacation to Rwanda was relatively short but required a lot of traveling.  An 8-hour bus ride to Kampala, a 9-hour bus ride to the southwest border of Uganda, and another 2-hour bus ride through Rwanda to Kigali.  My friends and I spent a day in Kigali, then took another 4-hour bus ride to Gisenyi (in the west) to stay on Lake Kivu.  After a day and a half in Gisenyi, we took the 4-hour ride back to Kigali and then the 11-hour bus to Kampala.  Ugh!

 

Kigali

Rwanda is a beautiful country with green rolling hills everywhere.  Our first stop was Kigali – there’s not a whole lot of activities to do, but plenty of museums and historic sites from the 1994 genocide.  We visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial (which was an intense day) and afterwards decided to get a drink at Hotel de Mille Collines, aka “Hotel Rwanda.”  We spent the day wandering around trying to find restaurants that other PCVs recommended, only to find that they were closed on Mondays.  We settled for delicious Chinese food instead. 

                    

Hotel of a Thousand Hills, aka "Hotel Rwanda"

 

View from our hotel balcony in Gisenyi

I really wanted to spend a day or two near Lake Kivu, so I booked a hotel in Gisenyi (a tourist-y town on the western border).  It turns out our hotel was only 200 meters from the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo – so we had some fun with the border guards.

                   

Tried to sneak across the border . . . but they caught me.  "Ah-ah!  It is forbidden!"

 

View of the Congolese side of Lake Kivu

The next day we ventured out for a hike on the Congo-Nile Trail and found the local hot springs.  We brought our bathing suits, but the water was literally boiling out of the ground and way too hot to tolerate.  (The locals had already taken the sweet spots in the springs.)   *The Nyriagongo Volcano is an active volcano 40km away on the DRC side, so hot springs are common.  After the springs, we wandered around town and stumbled upon a beautiful restaurant called Paradis Malachide.  The service was incredible, as was the food.  Once we left, we discovered that restaurant is highly recommended in all of the guidebooks.  :)  We indulged in some dessert at the fancy hotel, the Serena, and went for a walk on the beach.  It had been raining for almost 24 hours, but cleared up by Wednesday evening.  We were particularly excited because we were told that on a clear night, you can see the red glow of the Nyriagongo volcano.  Sure enough, we walked out onto the streets at night and saw the red glow in the distance.  It was so cool.

 

Katie and me at the hot springs.

 

Dorothy walking around the hot springs.

 

Mass grave with flowers on top.  Burial sites are scattered everywhere across the country - no region was spared in the genocide.

We went back to Kigali for our last day, and made it to the burrito place everyone was talking about.  It was exactly like Chipotle, which is very exciting when you’ve been living in Uganda for 2 years.  Ha ha.

Notable Rwandan Tidbits

Rwanda is directly south of Uganda, yet it’s a different time zone.  (???) There’s a 1-hour difference.

Rwandan people speak French, not English.  Sure there are some who speak English, but for the most part it was a struggle to talk to the local people.  Also, signs and restaurant menus are in French, and local currency is the Franc.

There are no plastic bags in Rwanda.  This may not seem like a big deal, but in Uganda plastic bags are everywhere.  You get used to using them to carry dirty clothes, or shoes, or snacks, etc.  but in Rwanda, no plastic allowed.  Supermarkets and restaurants give out paper bags.

Rwanda is expensive (compared to Uganda).  Food can cost up to 4x as much there, not to mention crafts, transport, hotels, etc.

Rwanda is clean!  There is no trash on the side of the road.  People hold onto their rubbish and throw it away when they reach a bin.  In Uganda, people chuck everything out the window with no regard.  Plastic bottles, food wrappers, everything gets thrown on the roadside.

Development in Rwanda has far surpassed Uganda.  Rwanda has smooth, paved roads (even in the mountains), there are stoplights all over Kigali, and the cars/buses/motorcycles are newer and well maintained.  There are no thatch-roof huts – all houses have tin roofs or clay shingles.  It looks great.

My friend Katie said it perfectly, “Rwanda is almost too nice for Africa.”  :)