Thursday, August 27, 2009

Rwanda - memorials and the present

After four weeks in Uganda I crossed the border to Rwanda. The border procedure was absolutely unproblematic. Germans even do not have to pay for a visa for Rwanda. Stamp in the passport and ready! Astonishing!
After well one hour I reached by bus the capital of Kigali. Here there was even more astonishing: the motorcycle taxi drivers do not try to get a higher price from tourists, the motorcycle passenger gets a helmet, and all drivers have a uniform and are registered by number!
Moreover, it is very quiet on the streets, only little horning, there is zebra crossing and the motorized road users stop for pedestrians! This is new! There is a ban on plastic bags; all people carry their buys in paper bags. The western world can learn quite a bit here!
And the best, there is French tick – as a former Belgian they speak not only French, but also food has a french air! Very pleasant after all these mostly untoasted toast breads of the last nearly 3 months…
At my hotel in Kigali I got to know Hans from Switzerland. An interesting type. Comes from the construction branch and has sold everything at home after an illness and travels the world for 6 or 7 or more years by motorcycle. The good thing is, that he covered the African countries I am going to and he is going towards Uganda and Kenya…. One can imagine, that our conversation material did not find an end!

Ntarama Church Memorial
With Rwanda everybody has certainly still the genocide in memory, which has taken place here in 1994. Within 100 days about 1 million people were killed here. It was a conflict, steered by the government to which mainly the minority of the Tutsi, but also moderate Hutus fell victim. UN has failed then pitifully, particularly as the whole has happened with announcement, and the commander wanted to extend the mandate, but unfortunately, received no approval for it.
The Rwandese are considerable quite far in the processing of their past, there is in Kigali a big memorial with many photos, films, exhibition pieces and a garden with common graves in which 250 000 dead people lie. An urgent monument, particularly as it reminds not only of the genocide here in Rwanda, but also of Nazi Germany, former Yugoslavia, Armenia, Namibia and the Hereros and Cambodia under the red Khmer.

Naymata - clothes of the murdered people
Here I have also met Audrey from Canada again. I met her first in Murchison National Park in Uganda. She works for two months in the commemorative site and could give me of course a good insight into the history, but also in her work.
On one day I have visited with Hans the commemorative sites outside from Kampala. This was quite a kind of travelling – well, I sat on top of a 300-kilogramm-motorcycle…. However, climbing this high motorcycle is another issue. Thankfully enough, there are many little walls, high stones and the like in Rwanda, which I could use to climb this huge bike….
The memorials of Ntarama and Nyamata are very distressing. Basically, these are 2 churches in which 6,000 and 10,000 people were killed. The skulls and bones of the victims are accommodated in the churches in shelves, the clothes lie on the benches. It is not easy to visit these places, but on the other side it is important to see them.
Murambi genocide memorial
It is astonishing how many monuments of the Genozids there are here in the country, above all if one thinks of the discussions with us in Germany. It took us a lot longer than 15 years for our memorials. Here, there are already many of them. Besides, there is a trial for the really big guys during the genocide in Arusha, other have to go to court in the country and there are village trials for the ones, who took part but are seeking for forgiveness. Besides, people try to create school programmers to show of the today's ones and the following generations how all that happened and how one can hopefully avoid a repetition.
Lake Kivu
One afternoon I visited Pierre. He works for the organization mission de la Criox Glorieuse. This organization looks after orphan's children, HIV infected people and others in need. It is important to note, that this organization distributes not simply money to the poorest, but tries to give work to the people or to train them on jobs, so that they can search a work for themselves. The orphan's children live in groups per 6 or 8 children with a so-called mother together. The groups exist either of boys or girls of different age, so that the whole reminds of a family. The separation after gender is a must be, because the children of a group sleep in the same room. The system reminds a little bit of the children's villages SOS where also a woman is responsible for a group of children. More than 80 orphan's children live here and are supported by different organizations. There is a school for children from 3 years and one elementary school.
A fantastically controlled and well functioning organization with own cows, pigs and chickens as well as workshops to the education of carpenters and tailors.

A couple of days I was traveling together with Hans in Rwanda, actually, he was travelling on the motorcycle, I by bus. We agreed always the next hotel to meet again and went from there to day trips by motorcycle. First we went from Kigali to Butare. This is close to the border with Burundi. Some 25 kilometers away, there is the school of Murambi. Here many thousand Tutsi and Hutus fled, but the militia found them and killed everybody. The corpses lie even today in the former classrooms and have been preserved with pulverized lime. It is a memorial hardly to be endured. The bad one is that here also very small children and babies were killed brutally, and one sees all that already very exact. I was glad that I was not here by myself and could discuss the seen with Hans.

On the next day we drove further on to Kibuye, a wonderful place directly at Lake Kivu. This was a real holiday feeling here. A mountain lake at an altitude of 1500 meters, surrounded by mountains, in the lake many small islands, clear water, a good hotel and a restaurant with very good food with view of the lake – what else one needs?
By bus it is easier to come from Butare on the inland route to Kibuye, however, is not so exciting and does not have the nice views like the route along the lake, which Hans did by the motorcycle.

So, the next day, Hans put me on his big motorbike again to take me parts of the way he just came from the other day. It was simply great. Not the road, for sure, as this one was very bad, but the views were just spectacular!
Here at this point again thank you very much to Hans, who drove part of this track even three times just to make me see all these beautiful things as well!
From Kibuye we went to Gisenyi, which is also at Lake Kivu. This road was in bad condition as well, as it took me 5 hours for 115 kilometers by bus. Gisenyi faces a lot of dust at the moment, as all streets are torn open just at the same time and renewed. Because here also the border traffic with Congo goes through, the whole place is dusty, dusty, dusty – so at the moment this one does not win the price as a pearl of Lake Kivu, rather a gigantic dust flag! From there we went to Ruhengeni, where then our ways separated. Hans went further to Uganda, I back to Kigali. These were very nice travel days with an uncomplicated travel partner. I hope very much that he can realize his travel book project and that he will find his dream place for a hostel somewhere in the world. Also, the world is a village and another meeting somewhere in the world is not unlikely.
My last day in Rwanda I spent with Tobi and Barbara from Austria. Barbara is working in Kigali for Unifem, her boyfriend was visiting her for 2 weeks. They offered me a seat in their 4 wheel drive just for the share of gas for a daytrip to Akagera National Park. There is not an abundance of wildlife as in Masai Mara, but it was very nice to see giraffes, antelopes, zebras and hippos. Besides, I had a beautiful day in nice company out in the bush. The landscape is very dry here, so it is an interesting contrast to the rest of Rwanda, I have seen so far.
The evening I spent with Uwe and Andrea from Switzerland. They adopted a little boy from Rwanda and this was the first night he spent with them in the hotel. So, there was something to celebrate, even more, after he fell finally asleep. I am pretty sure to meet them somewhere again, no matter, whether Switzerland, Germany or anywhere in the world.
So, tomorrow, I will leave for Tanzania. But this is another story for another time. Thanks god the world is still big enough for many more adventures.. Let’s go and see them!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Crater Lakes and more crater lakes

So, it was very easy to reach Lake Nkubura, as I needed only 30 minutes more with a motorcycle taxi. It is not really easy to sit with full luggage (big tour backpack and small day backpack) on the back of a motorcycle…. It is not comfortable, in any case.
At Lake NkurubaI did a tour to some of the crater lakes in the area. It is a beautiful landscape of bananas and tea plantations with the crater lakes in between. The lakes are more than 60 meters deep, and they are considered to be free of bilharzias (this is these small worms that bore by the skin and attack the internal organs). But, as said, that disease is not common here. Apart from that, it was too cold to take a swim here, as the lakes are at nearly 1800-metre altitude!

The next highlight of Uganda was half an hour of motorcycle taxi, 5 hours of minibus and then on the next day over again 3 hours of minibus and 45 minutes of motorcycle taxi journey away – Lake Bunyoni. This lake lies away at 2000 meters altitude and is only few kilometers from the border with Rwanda. The lake is wonderful and surrounded by terraced mountains. One knows such terrace fields rather from Nepal than from Africa…
In this area there are due to HIV a lot of orphan´s children. Immediately behind my hotel there was one of the orphanages.                                 Here live 59 children in some small houses, who are looked after by several adults. Well, accommodation is very tight, as there is not enough room to accommodate these children in a proper way, e.g. the 5 smallest children divide a bed. They sleep crosswise, and then five of them fit. Others sleep on the ground. The shell of an additional building stands, however, is still far away from his completion, particularly as currently there is no money to continue.
The children are enthusiastically, when there is a visitor, and then they sing and dance.   
                                                 
Two boys from the orphanage took me against a small donation for the orphanage on a boat tour to some of the islands. This was a good opportunity to get into conversation with the both. Their parents have passed away due to HIV, leaving behind a total of nine brothers and sisters, everybody in the orphanage. Both latest brother and sister have by the birth also HIV. There a reasonable answer is already difficult for one….

Then one of the older brothers has brought me by the motorcycle to the border. Thanks a lot to Gordon; this saved me definitely a lot of waiting. I hope to find a solution to some of the problems they have there in the orphanage.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Tinka from Bigodi - a homestay

My next destination was Fort Portal. This is relatively high altitude and thereby it feels quite chilly. From Fort Portal, I took a shared car to the small village of Bigodi. On a map, one probably will not find this village, as there are just a few hundred people living there.
However, nearby there is Kibale National Forest and there I absolutely wanted to go.
But first, however, to Bigodi and my lodging there: I lived there with the family of John Tinka. Tinka has done a lot for his village which was as poor as most Ugandan villages till 10 years back. However, things changed, when Tinka had the idea about taking advantage out of a swamp just next to the village.


Tinkas homestay, Bigodi
The villagers converted the swamp into a small park with footbridges for visitors, they qualified guides who know a lot about fauna and flora and it worked. Today, there are quite a few tourists visiting the area and pay entry for it. The calculation rose – since some years income comes regularly by the visitors to the local community. Besides, in the meantime, a women's co-operative has formed which pursue a small store with art craft beside the park entrance, a peanut butter factory was founded, a secondary school was built and various home stays accommodate visitors now. The latter means, that tourist can directly live with families and pay for it.

Tinkas homestay, Bigodi
Swamp, Bigodi
I stayed with Tinka, the co-founder of the project. This was definitive with family connection, because here live beside him and his wife still the granny and 9 children between 8 months and 22 years….
During daytime, usually everybody was occupied with various works like laundry washing and ironing, washing dishes, preparing and cooking food or Tinka working in the office…
When it comes to food, because this is asked quite often: In Uganda people eat mainly banana. These can be the sweet bananas as we know them from home, or, however, cooking bananas. They come to almost every food as an addition; the whole is called Matoke and tastes a little like mashed potatoes with light banana mark. Otherwise there is often Posho, maize mash, and beans or cooked beef or chicken.
However, with Tinka and his family I had a lot of fun. In the evening there was singing, dancing or stories were told.
I was very lucky to get a permit for the national park on the spot. Thus I could visit the chimpanzees in the Kibale National Park. Normally one must walk about 1 or 1.5 hours, until the guide can localize the chimps in the park. Also there we had luck. We have found the first chimpanzee's family after 10 minutes. The chimpanzees sit normally high in the trees and are very difficult to take photos. One can hear them, however, far away, because they communicate a lot with each other. The hour with the Chimps passed too fast. It ware simply fantastic!

Kibale National Forest
Presumably it is even more impressive with the gorillas, but to get a permit in short notice is almost impossible, moreover, the permit costs a whooping 500 dollars. However, this is quite too much money….. At that time I thought it might be cheaper in Rwanda, but I learned later that it is the same price.
The next day, I visited the marsh in which also many monkeys live, indeed, no chimpanzees. In addition there come many birds and rare plants. Here I had once again luck, and have got to know 2 ladies from Netherlands, who took me after the tour in their car 20 kilometers towards my next destination.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Streetkids, scouts and more

Bus station, Kampala
After all these adventures at the border, I was ready to contact the people I wanted to meet in Kampala. First, I gave Father Caesar a call. I got to know him some years back in Regensburg. A good client of our travel agency booked flights for him and 10 former street children to come from Kampala to Germany for the catholic youth day with the Pope in Cologne.
When they arrived, they visited me in the office and so I got to know Father Caesar. When I was planning this trip, I got into email contact with him and well, we met at Kisube church outside of Kampala. This was a very interesting day, as this was the Kisube Parish Youth day. The ceremony in the church was very different from the services we know in Germany. There was clapping, dancing, people had quite some fun there.
Father Caesar
After church, the festival continued outside with traditional dancing, theatre and a nice lunch.
Father Caesar also invited me to spend a couple of days with a group of Italian scouts, which arrived the following day.
This was a very interesting time. We visited quite a few schools. Some of them had also scouts. It was very interesting for me to learn about the ideas of the scouts. In one school, the scouts showed us how they do camping here in Uganda with building their own tents out of leaves and woven mats.

Other schools liked to present themselves with choirs, some even with guitars or played sketches for us. The most fun we had with the primary school, and especially the boy scouts were treated like stars, as they took child after child on their shoulders. I had a great time with this group. Thanks a lot for all!

Rhona
Slum in Kampala
After a couple of days with them, I got into contact with Rhona, who is the cousin of a friend of a friend in Germany. She is Ugandan and lives here in Kampala and she is taking care of some street children. She rented a house which accommodates 15 boys at the age of 10 to 22. Apparently, it was not easy to make them leave the streets. The longer time they spent there, the more difficult it is. Most of them are into drugs like sniffing glue, many lost their parents due to civil unrest or HIV, and some just left their families due to unbearable circumstances. Rhona tries to attract them by offering free food twice a week after praying together. It is usually something like 60 to 100 children, who come for the food. The ones, who come regularly, are offered a place in the house, if there is space. At the moment, the house is full with 15 boys, but there are plans to build up more beds.
Slum in Kampala
I had a great time with these former street children, sitting together, asking questions, trying to give answers, praying and singing.
Well, I wanted to help but as my money is rather limited, I thought it might be best to do what I am good in. So, Rhona and I decided to do a lot of photos of the children, the home, the slum, the unbearable conditions there and hand them over to Robinah to make her fund raising in Germany hopefully easier… At least that is what we are about to try.
Also, Father Caesar is willing to get into contact with Rhona, which is very good idea, as he has 20 years of experience in working with street children. I rate him as a mine of information with plenty of contacts which can be only good for Rhonas organization and the children and youngsters there.
Soupkitchen
After one week in Kampala I had the desperate feeling that I needed some fresh air out of town. I was lucky to get the last seat in a minibus going for 3 days to Murchison Falls National Park in the northwest of Uganda. Here are the huge Murchison Falls and quite some animals. We have seen many giraffes, buffaloes, monkeys, warthogs, elephants, but no lion.
Also, we did a tour on the Nile with a boat, which was a very good way to see many hippos on the way. Some of them were even out of the water for eating grass during daytime. The boat is going near the waterfalls which are an impressive sight from down there. But it is even better from up. The way there is very slippery, but the scenery is just great! We had a wonderful time in the park.
New Jerusalem, Kampala
Now, I am back in Kampala. I spent some more time with Rhona. I will never forget that beautiful Indian dinner, we had at her cousin Annas house. Her husband John is a wonderful cook and Anna presented a lovely chocolate cake on top.
The last few days, I spent in Jjanya, which is a small village about 40 kilometers from Kampala. Just a few weeks before I left Germany, I came across an organization named Ukihi, which is from my hometown Regensburg. They are doing projects with a local school there, and that was the one in Jjanya. To make it as easy and affordable as possible for me to reach the place, headmaster Charles fetched me in Kampala. We went by minibus to the next bigger place and from there by motorbike the rest of the way.

Jjanya
The school and its children were just lovely and I had a great time there. The people from Ukihi did quite some work at the place like constructing new buildings, giving paint or a new roof to some of the older houses. There is a solar system providing energy for late time studies now and there is a water pump to avoid long walks with water canisters. The pump is broken at the moment and under repair in Kampala. Ukihi is providing all these help as the school takes former street children without asking for school fees. Instead they get all these facilities, which are helpful for all children. To attract more children to school, there is now even a program to give each child a porridge lunch. The numbers increased dramatically after this program was installed (from more than 600 to now more than 700 students).
I spent as much time as possible with the former street children and it was very interesting to hear about their dreams for the future. All of them are very happy and grateful. They know that they got a chance in life, probably the only one they ever had, and that they have to make the best out of it. So, all of them want to study as hard as possible to make their supporters believe in them and to make them continue their work.
As I was staying on the school compound, I had all these nice people around me 24 hours a day and I really loved each single minute of it.
Jjanya
As I have even more contacts from Regensburg here in Kampala, I will see another school not far from Jjanya, this one is in Nsumba. This school was supported by DJK Regensburg and is surely as well worth a look.

After that it is time to leave Kampala for another destination. Next stop is Kibale National Park. That is the best park for spotting chimpanzees. Then, I will make my way down towards Rwanda.