Rwanda Part II

Cycling into a big city is always stressful for two little country bumpkins like us. After navigating the hills, trucks, motorcycles and surprisingly a cobblestone street we are glad to escape to the Tugende bike café for a late breakfast and to meet up with Michael who will give Jo and Olive a professional checkup.

It turns out that the rainy season (esp. the grit and mud) is wearing down our chains faster than we expected. We thought it would be enough to switch them out every 3000km, but Ben’s is already worn down after less than a 1000km. Kigali is the biggest city we’ll be going through for a while. But even here it’s slim pickings for new/good/real chains. We end up buying some fake ones to get us to Lilongwe (Malawi) where we‘ll hopefully be able to stock up again.

Other than the chain situation the bikes seem in great shape. Michael even compliments Ben’s gear knowledge which makes us both beam with pride. He always underestimates his skills. A little while later we push the bikes down a steep dirt road to the home of our Warmshowers hosts for the next three nights.

Justine, Gaetan and their amazing kids Juliette and Leon are a Belgian family who only moved to Kigali in January. Last year they cycled from Romania to Japan and we marvel at this feat of endurance, patience, strength and teamwork. We dive into Lego, play boardgames, swap travel stories and Harry Potter knowledge. It’s families like these that make us consider having one of our own.

Our days off rush past in a flurry of chores (changing money, buying cheap Chinese crap and replacing odds and ends). We drink copious amounts of soda, smoothies and coffee and eat our bodyweight in pastries, Indian and Thai food. It might be a month or more before we can get this level of indulgence again.

We also use this time to catch up with other travelers, notably Yuri from Bulgaria who’s on a motorcycle trip down to Cape Town and then back up west Africa. Meryem from Morocco is doing that route in reverse. Tough as nails she has cycled alone for more than two years, always caught in the rainy season somewhere and is nearing the end of her trip (Meghylost).

We also have some updates from the Dutch couple on a tandem whose route we’ve roughly been following and who are chilling in Zanzibar while waiting for some replacement parts from Europe. Finally, we hear from Lorenz and Nicole whose beautifully crafted updates about living in Kenya have become too infrequent in the last month (Wawili Barabarani). In short, lots of people doing things and seeing stuff.

On May 1st, which surprisingly is a national holiday here, we prepare ourselves for a tough morning. We’re visiting the genocide memorial commemorating the killing of more than half a million Tutsis, Twa and moderate Hutus by the government and associated militias in 1994. We already had a glimpse of the horror when we visited a church that was the site of a massacre outside Kigali. You’d think that the years of lessons about the Holocaust would have prepared Lina for what is to come.

It was an immensely difficult experience for both of us; to read and see what people, fueled by arbitrary hatred that was seeded during colonial times, can do to their neighbors, friends, women and even children. We learn that the 5500 international soldiers who were deployed to evacuate the staff of foreign NGOs would have been enough to stop the bloodshed. It’s another reminder about the questionable success of organizations like the United Nations.

The goal of the exhibition is to preserve the memory of the genocide and to prevent ethnic tensions from escalating into something like this ever again. There is a big focus on the unity of Rwandans today and how much the government is doing to guarantee a bright future. Though deeply moved we can’t quite forget the fact that this piece of history was written by the victors.

The books of people critical of the current regime are curiously missing from the gift shop and we can’t help but wonder what else has been omitted. Most people who lived through the ordeal are still alive today and lots of the perpetrators fled to neighboring countries from which they still attack sporadically. The country can’t be fully healed 31 years after.

The visit leaves us with lots to contemplate as we say goodbye to Les Belges and make our way out of Kigali. We take the last couple of days in Rwanda to document the speed camera to car ratio (almost 1:1), chew on some sugar cane and try potato samosas. One morning we even face our worst nightmare: an empty row of chairs in a big room with 20 kids getting ready to give a performance just for us.

But the rhythm of the drums helps to shrug off the social awkwardness and for a few minutes we can enjoy the singing, dancing, guitar playing and even acrobatics. Etienne and Christophe lead us through the village and tell us all about banana beer, farming pineapples and the regional marriage customs. They are volunteering at a social project instead of using their university degrees (in computer science and communications) to earn money. There simply aren’t any jobs for them in Rwanda. This is a story that’s repeated throughout the continent. Lots of young educated people but not enough work for them.

In the distance we spot the volcanoes on the border with Uganda in the north – a reminder of how small this country is. The border with Burundi in the south is closed since the governments of the two countries don’t get along these days. To cross over we‘ll have to go via Tanzania. We prepare ourselves for lots of border hassle. Burundi often ranks as the poorest country in the world, so we‘ve gone back and forth a lot whether we should go there. But recently we’ve heard from a few people that it’s well worth the visit. Even if it’s a harrowing experience it would only be for about a week. Like Rwanda, Burundi is also tiny.