Hey there! I know it has been a long time since I updated this thing, but I have been enjoying being "off the radar" as much as possible. Heres a little update as to what I have been doing!
I believe I left off in Jinja, where I had a great time rafting and seeing some "white folk" but it got boring quick and I got the urge to move.
On to Kampala, the capital city. Now THIS place made me homesick! Garden city is basically a western shopping mall, and I had a blast. Loaded up on books, about 50 USD worth, and sat around reading for a few days. Of course this is not the purpose of my trip, but can you blame a guy after so long? Books here were actually cheaper than in the states or Israel, but that was the only thing. The movie theater was 6 bucks! That is crazy for this part of the world, as in Ethiopia I was paying about 30 cents, and likewise in Kenya. Uganda was definetly the most expensive place I had reached so far. Although out from the city, there were nice places, like where I stayed in Kabale, on the border with Rwanda. Called Edirisa's Home, it was a museum/hotel/restaurant/co-op/store/cultrual center/movie theater/internet cafe...pretty much anything you could ask for! And it was the cheapest place I could find in Uganda, coming in at a grand total of 2.50 USD a night. Wonderful and I wish I could have stayed there longer, but the travel bug got the best of me.
The next day I headed down to Rwanda, and boy was I in for a suprize! What an expensive country! Although I have noticed that as the country gets more expensive, the standards go up, I wish I could find the grubby 1 dollar a night places I had in Ethiopia. Here, I was lucky to find a 9 dollar per night un-marked mission behind a huge church. I was helped by 2 guys I met at the genocide memorial in Kigali who were volunteering and traveling a bit as well. Nice guys from Norway, and one spoke French so he was able to help me find the cheap place.
The genocide memorial in Kigali is quite impressive. Reminds me of a museum in the states, a big feat when compared to the standards of the other museums I have visited here in Africa. Complete with videos of survivors and lots of information, it was very imformative, but extremely sad. One floor was dedicated to the Rwanda genocide (basically 1 million people killed in 1994 in 100 days, hutus on tutsis, as one will recall from the movie "hotel rwanda.") But this could not prepare me for tomorrow.
Knowing that I had to get out of the big city, as the prices were rediculous, I headed south towards Burundi where I wanted to stop off for a few days. I spent the night in Huye (previously Butare) and still spent 9 dollars for a room, although a much better one. Not that I care about quality! I went as a day trip to the memorial in a town called Ginkongoro, 28 km west of the city. There I walked through beautiful rural Rwanda, with hills and forest, before reaching the memorial. No other visitors in site, I was lead to the back of the compound by a young woman with a large set of keys. The place was pretty deserted, but I could tell they were renovating. This basically means there were 100 men with shovels yelling "white man! white man!" and laughing as I walked past them. I later hung out with them, and what cool guys!
So back to the memorial...I was led to a group of 4-5 very long buildings made of brick. We walked to the end of the buildings, and I noticed the pavement we were walking on was stained brown in the shape of human beings, like the white tape marking a bodies position at a crime scene. My guide lady knew no english, but I didnt need much explaining to get the point: this is where thousands of people were murdered and sat bleeding for a long time.
She then proceded to unlock what seemed like hundreds of doors, each containing up to a hundred white bodies of victims. Their bodies were preserved with lime, thus turning them white. Some still had clothes on, and others were intact with tufts of hair protruding from fractured skulls where a machete was inserted. I had to remind myself that these were actually PEOPLE and not the life-size molds of bones you often see in museums. The expression on their faces and missilanious body parts contorted in ways unimaginable was almost too much to bear. Near tears, I then realized these were little people. Almost 90 percent of the bodies in every room were babies, toddlers, and children. Some you could tell were still in the position of a mother protecting her child, although from the previous memorial I know many mothers were forced to kill their child before being hacked to death themselves.
Ok, I think you get the point. I was then led to a shack with the clothes, shoes, and personal items of the dead, and then past many unmarked mass graves, which I would have played soccer on had there not been a sign. I have no idea how many bodies there were, but it was a lot.
After leaving there, I walked back to town with the workers. It started raining heavily, and we found what looked like an old school room to shack up in until the rain eased up. I could picture the young people running from their homes back in the direction of the memorial, where they all were to meet their ends. At the same time, I was in a room with a hundred people, of which most had either been killers or had their familes slaughtered by their country folk. It was eeire in deed, however the people seemed to feel no tension. Amazing what 15 years can do. What can you do but forgive? They went along as normal, men joking with eachother, women breast feeding their toddlers who seem never to cry. After this I took the matatu back to the hotel to reflect on what I had seen. what a day.
The next day I took a series of vehicles to Burundi, past the border, and on to the capital Bujumbura. This was the 5th country I crossed into, and I was very happy to be here. let me just save this, as we are losing power...
