The 300 pound Silverback looked over the rim of the creek bed, placed his hands under his chin, and just sat there. Our guide, carrying an AK-47, said “Don’t move.” I swear I've never been so still in my life.
Rwanda is quite possibly the most incredible place on earth. There’s entirely too many highlights to mention in the past 9 days but I’ll try. Let’s get started with what’s sure to be a long, desperately rambling blog.
About the size of Maryland, Rwanda is a tiny nation by any standard. About 10 million people live here making it the most densely populated country in Africa. Rwanda is a landlocked territory in East/Central Africa that’s bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. The country is bracketed by several of the most stunning, and least well-known, National Parks in the world. Appropriately named The Land of a Thousand Hills, the entire country is covered with rolling hills followed by severe mountains followed by volcanoes. It looks like a place out of a Tolkien novel.
Oh yeah, and just over 1,000,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus got massacred here in 1994 in a period of about 3 months.
We’ve only spent a few days “in country” but have been going at breakneck speed since the moment we touched down. Molly, my old roommate from San Francisco, and her husband, Matt Bonds, have lived here for over a year working for non-profits in the least developed areas of Rwanda. Matt works for Partners In Health (PIH), Paul Farmer’s organization - the one that’s highlighted in the phenomenal book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder - just outside Akagera National Park. Prior to PIH, this area had zero access to health care and included a population of over 250,000. I’m still not totally sure what the hell Molly does for a living, but I know it has something to do with environmental sustainability and modern farming techniques. I do know her project site is located in Nyungwe Forest National Park in Southwest Rwanda and is easily the most remote, totally off the grid, won’t find it in any travel books - much less any maps - place we’ve ever been.
Our week
We took off from Kigali, the Capitol of Rwanda, and spent the next 9 days covering as much territory as possible. We first headed east to Akagera National Park for some camping and spent a couple of days touring Rwinkwavu, the site of PIH’s project and the hospital where Matt works. Seeing what PIH has been able to accomplish in a short 4-year period is one of the more inspiring things we’ve witnessed and definitely the highlight of this portion of the trip. Also, Emily and I were asked to be godparents for Molly and Matt’s just born calf, Caddy, short for Caddywompus Rhombus. Having a godcow has never been a real goal for me, but I got surprisingly choked up nonetheless. Caddy’s mom, Johnny, is a cow purchased by Matt that provides milk to patients in the Rwinkwavu hospital. This is the first program of its type for PIH and it’s now time for our godcow to carry on the tradition. Go Caddy!
From there, we headed to The Virungas - Volcanoes National Park - and the home of the endangered mountain gorillas. The park looks like a huge mountain range but it’s actually a string of nine freestanding volcanoes - six inactive, three active and you can actually see lava coming off one peak. It’s also home to the highest concentration of mountain gorillas on earth. Emily and I signed up for the Susa Group, the largest and arguably most famous “family” in the forest. When we showed up at 6am, we were the only ones to sign up for this particular hike. This seemed mildly odd due to their popularity. We soon found out why: the group has moved WAY up the volcano and is now a three hour, 3000+ foot hike straight up a barely penetrable bamboo forest and, to us at least, a nearly impenetrable rain forest. To add to the drama, a couple of months ago there was a soap opera-esque falling out within the group: The #2 Silverback apparently slept with the #1 Silverback’s #1 girlfriend. This didn’t go over too well with #1 and he abruptly ended their BFF relationship. Fourteen of the 40+ gorillas took off with the #2 guy. This was the troop we stumbled upon. I’ll save the gorilla gushing for a live conversation and let the pictures speak for themselves.
Immediately after the gorilla venture, we drove west to Lake Kivu and a little town named Gisenyi. We absolutely fell in love upon arrival and were already talking about how we could live and work here before we even got to The Paradis, our guesthouse. By Rwanda standards, the town is a well developed community and sits on the shores of a huge freshwater lake. We booked a bungalow for the outrageous price of $50 and settled in with a couple of goat skewers, a cold one and one of the most jaw-dropping sunsets ever. Sadly, the next day I put it together that that goat I heard screaming soon after I ordered was probably our skewer du jour; that would have definitely put a damper on the sunset. Later that evening, when they threw us out of our bungalow because they had overbooked rooms for the night, the management put together a tent on the shore of Lake Kivu and let us stay there for free. Cha-Ching!
From there, we headed southwest to the unheard-of Nyungwe Forest National Park. The park encompasses over 500 square miles of the last old growth forest left in Africa. With over 200 types of orchids, 278 birds, 38 reptiles, 120 butterfly species and at least 500 chimpanzees, you definitely need to bring an extra memory card for your camera. Banda, Molly’s NGO site, is home to 2000ish residents who were solely hunter-gatherers a mere 30 years ago.
This place definitely didn’t fit the mold of your typical tourist go-to place. We spent 2 nights and 3 days in this amazing setting and didn’t realize that we were without electricity or running water the entire time. If you ever want to know what it’s like to be a celebrity then you should definitely check this destination out. I gotta tell you, being famous is absolutely exhausting! As I mentioned earlier, Banda isn’t in a single travel book and is relatively new to the NGO community, and for these people to see a Mzungu (white person) is a truly unique sight.
Every day was filled with hugs, handshakes, and Kinya-rwandan versions of “Hello,” “Good morning,” “Good Afternoon,” “Good Evening,” and just general old “Howdy.” We also once got a “What time is it?” which stunned us all to silence for a moment. I then dug around, found my watch, and only realized after answering the question that he had absolutely no idea what he was saying; I got a totally blank stare after I said “Well, it’s about 9:45am.”
I would have gotten the same look if I’d been standing there blowing spit bubbles.
With the entire country basically being wiped off the map 15 years ago, Rwanda has been given a real opportunity to rebuilt itself without all the baggage that drags down most third-world countries. The typical government payoffs and bribes are nonexistent and it’s a real, functioning democracy. One great real-life example that surprised us was that Rwanda has outlawed all plastic bags nationwide due to the litter factor and waterway degradation issues.
Another example is Umaganda; a monthly national “day of work” where the entire country rolls out for community service. Projects include trash cleanup, road repair, home building, etc. Belief in the future and support for their country is incredibly strong here.
Rwanda has been an awesome experience and we actually looked into staying for another week but ticket changes wouldn’t allow it. So, tomorrow we’re off to the sub-continent of India. Wish us luck.
