So, we are in Tanzania at the moment and a few minutes ago, we spontaneously decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro!!! We never intended to do this because we are not really in that good shape plus we always die when we have to climb up a mountain anyways. We have no idea what convinced us, but we already paid the tour and there is no way back... Just FYI, Mount Kilimanjaro is with 5,896 meters the highest mountain in Africa.
First we go on a 5 day safari to Serengeti and some other National Parks and right the day after we come back to Arusha, we will start our 7 day Kilimanjaro climb.
We have no idea whether we will make it back, but we really hope to see all of you again :-) So no more updates until we get back to Germany, sorry guys!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Rwanda's dark past - The Genocide
As most of you know, in spring 1994, the last genocide of the 20th century took place in Rwanda. Within three months approximately 1 million people were killed, many of them slaughtered by machetes and tortured and raped before their death.
After the Belgian colonists introduced identity cards, artificially labeling every Rwandan as either Hutu, Tutsi or Twa and ruling by first favoring the minority Tutsi and later switching to the majority Hutu, tensions between the groups increased. After this change, there have been occasional massacres on the Tutsi, but nothing compared to what happened in 1994. The country went crazy: after months of propaganda, most Hutu were convinced they had to "finish" their Tutsi enemies, which they commonly referred to as cockroaches or snakes, and moderate Hutu, which they saw as Tutsi accomplices and thus betrayers. Shockingly, a big part of the population joined the killings (using machetes, clubs and axes) and was indifferent to whether they were killing a man, an old woman or a two-year old baby. Nearly every Rwandan over 14 years that lived in the country during the genocide saw a (or most likely many) corpses and witnessed a killing or any form of torture. These things are hard to believe if you travel in Rwanda nowadays. The Genocide is such a recent experience, but still, at first sight, people seem to live in harmony.
Nowadays, the government is dealing openly with the past and wants people to remember what happened but still move forward with their lives and work towards a common future for all Rwandans.
There are many genocide memorials all over the country and we visited one in Gikongoro. After being encouraged (by the local authorities and the church) to hide at a technical college in the city, more than 50,000 Tutsi came and sought protection from the killings that were happening all over the country. The people hid there for approximately two weeks with nearly no food and water. Then (organized by the local authorities and the church...) the killers attacked and within two days, everybody except four people were slaughtered. As part of the memorial, hundreds of bodies have been preserved with powdered lime and left exactly as they looked when when the killers had finished their task.
The following pictures are horrible, but real life in Rwanda at this time was a lot worse. After most genocides, there are always a few people who try to deny what happened. We hope this gets more difficult after seeing the following pictures:
In Kigali, there is also a great museum on the Rwandan Genocide where we spent many hours.
The picture above shows Emmanuel, one of the four survivors who we also met in Gikongoro. As you can see, he was shot in the head when the technical college was attacked, but miraculously survived. Talking to this old man was just as shocking as seeing the many corpses because one could tell that he is still suffering a lot from everything he went through and he is still struggling today.
A few of the many children that were killed during the genocide...
All of this is very sad and impossible to understand. How can things like this just happen again, and again, and again? The international community did nothing to stop the genocide and that although the UN was already in the country. On the contrary, they were confused by the situation and for a long time provided support to the killers rather than the victims of the genocide... Similar things are just happening again in Darfur, but as usually, we just don't care, because in the end, the victims are only Africans and all the events seem to happen too far away to really worry.
If you are interested in knowing more about the Rwandan genocide, I can recommend the following books on the topic:
After the Belgian colonists introduced identity cards, artificially labeling every Rwandan as either Hutu, Tutsi or Twa and ruling by first favoring the minority Tutsi and later switching to the majority Hutu, tensions between the groups increased. After this change, there have been occasional massacres on the Tutsi, but nothing compared to what happened in 1994. The country went crazy: after months of propaganda, most Hutu were convinced they had to "finish" their Tutsi enemies, which they commonly referred to as cockroaches or snakes, and moderate Hutu, which they saw as Tutsi accomplices and thus betrayers. Shockingly, a big part of the population joined the killings (using machetes, clubs and axes) and was indifferent to whether they were killing a man, an old woman or a two-year old baby. Nearly every Rwandan over 14 years that lived in the country during the genocide saw a (or most likely many) corpses and witnessed a killing or any form of torture. These things are hard to believe if you travel in Rwanda nowadays. The Genocide is such a recent experience, but still, at first sight, people seem to live in harmony.
Nowadays, the government is dealing openly with the past and wants people to remember what happened but still move forward with their lives and work towards a common future for all Rwandans.
There are many genocide memorials all over the country and we visited one in Gikongoro. After being encouraged (by the local authorities and the church) to hide at a technical college in the city, more than 50,000 Tutsi came and sought protection from the killings that were happening all over the country. The people hid there for approximately two weeks with nearly no food and water. Then (organized by the local authorities and the church...) the killers attacked and within two days, everybody except four people were slaughtered. As part of the memorial, hundreds of bodies have been preserved with powdered lime and left exactly as they looked when when the killers had finished their task.
The following pictures are horrible, but real life in Rwanda at this time was a lot worse. After most genocides, there are always a few people who try to deny what happened. We hope this gets more difficult after seeing the following pictures:
In Kigali, there is also a great museum on the Rwandan Genocide where we spent many hours.
The picture above shows Emmanuel, one of the four survivors who we also met in Gikongoro. As you can see, he was shot in the head when the technical college was attacked, but miraculously survived. Talking to this old man was just as shocking as seeing the many corpses because one could tell that he is still suffering a lot from everything he went through and he is still struggling today.
A few of the many children that were killed during the genocide...All of this is very sad and impossible to understand. How can things like this just happen again, and again, and again? The international community did nothing to stop the genocide and that although the UN was already in the country. On the contrary, they were confused by the situation and for a long time provided support to the killers rather than the victims of the genocide... Similar things are just happening again in Darfur, but as usually, we just don't care, because in the end, the victims are only Africans and all the events seem to happen too far away to really worry.
If you are interested in knowing more about the Rwandan genocide, I can recommend the following books on the topic:
- We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by Phillip Gourevitch
- Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak by Jean Hatzfeld
- Life laid bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak by Jean Hatzfeld
- Season of Blood by Fergal Keane
- Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire
- Sometimes in April
- Shooting Dogs
- Hotel Rwanda
Monday, August 4, 2008
Germans in the Mist
For more than two weeks we have been trying to spot the Virunga volcanoes, first in Uganda and now in Rwanda, but it seems that we are stuck in the mist. Since it is the dry season right now, the air is usually very hazy and visibility is limited.
Given our misfortune with the volcanoes, we decided to at least visit Dian Fossey's famous gorillas in the mist. Rwanda, more specifically the Parc National des Volcans in the northwestern part of the country, is home to some of the last mountain gorillas. Worldwide there are only about 700 of these creatures that share an astonishing 97% of their DNA with human beings left, all of them found in Uganda, DR Congo and Rwanda.
The permits to visit the gorillas are very limited with only 40 people per day being allowed to visit them in Rwanda. There are no more than eight people in one group, each visiting a different family of the gorillas. Natalie and I were chosen to visit the Amahoro group which consists of 17 family members including one silverback.
To get to the gorillas, we had to first walk on a small (and muddy!) path through a bamboo forest and then climb cross-country up the slopes of the volcano where the gorillas liked to hang out. To actually get there, the way had to be cleared with machetes and we all had to practically crawl on our hands and feet to not slide down on the slippery plants.
And then, all of a sudden, we nearly bumped into them:
One is supposed to keep a distance of seven meters to the gorillas, but I guess nobody ever complained them the rules. More than once, they just crossed our way and walked by in less than two meters distance. Quite a weird feeling! Furthermore, they actually look you directly in the eyes, observe their visitors and really did behave just like us (not only Natalie and me, but human beings in general :-)).
Fortunately, gorillas are really peaceful and relaxed animals that don't feel bothered by photographing visitors. Good to know once you meet the silverback of the group who can actually weigh up to 220 kg.
The silverback was actually the only one that was visibly not very impressed by our visit. He decided to simply ignore us and go on with his usual business :-)
Unfortunately, you can only spend one hour (that went by like five minutes) with the gorillas in order not to disturb their daily routine too much.
Nice view on the way down, but still no volcanoes...
Back to normal life in the village:
BTW, the boy on the left is Masengesho, the little boy we became friends with and bought some clothes.
After seeing the gorillas, we went on to Lake Kivu which has some of Africa's best inland beaches and seems more like a sea. We stopped at an amazing guesthouse in Kibuye and had the best room on the trip so far: not only did we have a private bathroom and TV, from our terrace we also had an amazing view of the lake!
We spend some lazy days and also did our laundry the African way :-)
We also became friends with a really nice Rwandan/Kenyan family and spend some evenings at their house, enjoying African tea and some nice family dinners. This would have been the perfect spot to be stuck for some weeks, but unfortunately we had to move on...
Our next stop was the Nyungwe Forest National Park in the south of the country. The park reserves an area of montane rain forest that in earlier days covered more than one third of Rwanda. Given the overpopulation (Rwanda is the country with the highest population density in Africa) and corresponding need for farming land, much of the rain forest was cut down. We did some nice walks in the National Park, crossing through tea plantations, the rain forest and visiting a waterfall.
I guess the above pictures are pretty self-explanatory.
However, all this fresh air seemed to have left some damage and Natalie's state of mind was alarmingly decreasing:
For all of you who were wondering what the above pictures are all about: we waited for more than one hour on the main road in order to catch a bus out of the National Park. However, no vehicles passed in our direction except of this truck on which we managed to catch a ride. The soldiers whose roadside base we spontanously converted into a bus stop decided to come along and put up some armchairs from the truck's load.
There are still one and a half countries to discover and four weeks ahead of us. Who knows where the journey will take us?
Given our misfortune with the volcanoes, we decided to at least visit Dian Fossey's famous gorillas in the mist. Rwanda, more specifically the Parc National des Volcans in the northwestern part of the country, is home to some of the last mountain gorillas. Worldwide there are only about 700 of these creatures that share an astonishing 97% of their DNA with human beings left, all of them found in Uganda, DR Congo and Rwanda.
The permits to visit the gorillas are very limited with only 40 people per day being allowed to visit them in Rwanda. There are no more than eight people in one group, each visiting a different family of the gorillas. Natalie and I were chosen to visit the Amahoro group which consists of 17 family members including one silverback.
To get to the gorillas, we had to first walk on a small (and muddy!) path through a bamboo forest and then climb cross-country up the slopes of the volcano where the gorillas liked to hang out. To actually get there, the way had to be cleared with machetes and we all had to practically crawl on our hands and feet to not slide down on the slippery plants.And then, all of a sudden, we nearly bumped into them:
One is supposed to keep a distance of seven meters to the gorillas, but I guess nobody ever complained them the rules. More than once, they just crossed our way and walked by in less than two meters distance. Quite a weird feeling! Furthermore, they actually look you directly in the eyes, observe their visitors and really did behave just like us (not only Natalie and me, but human beings in general :-)).
Fortunately, gorillas are really peaceful and relaxed animals that don't feel bothered by photographing visitors. Good to know once you meet the silverback of the group who can actually weigh up to 220 kg.
The silverback was actually the only one that was visibly not very impressed by our visit. He decided to simply ignore us and go on with his usual business :-)Unfortunately, you can only spend one hour (that went by like five minutes) with the gorillas in order not to disturb their daily routine too much.
Nice view on the way down, but still no volcanoes...Back to normal life in the village:
BTW, the boy on the left is Masengesho, the little boy we became friends with and bought some clothes.After seeing the gorillas, we went on to Lake Kivu which has some of Africa's best inland beaches and seems more like a sea. We stopped at an amazing guesthouse in Kibuye and had the best room on the trip so far: not only did we have a private bathroom and TV, from our terrace we also had an amazing view of the lake!
We spend some lazy days and also did our laundry the African way :-)We also became friends with a really nice Rwandan/Kenyan family and spend some evenings at their house, enjoying African tea and some nice family dinners. This would have been the perfect spot to be stuck for some weeks, but unfortunately we had to move on...
Our next stop was the Nyungwe Forest National Park in the south of the country. The park reserves an area of montane rain forest that in earlier days covered more than one third of Rwanda. Given the overpopulation (Rwanda is the country with the highest population density in Africa) and corresponding need for farming land, much of the rain forest was cut down. We did some nice walks in the National Park, crossing through tea plantations, the rain forest and visiting a waterfall.
I guess the above pictures are pretty self-explanatory.However, all this fresh air seemed to have left some damage and Natalie's state of mind was alarmingly decreasing:
For all of you who were wondering what the above pictures are all about: we waited for more than one hour on the main road in order to catch a bus out of the National Park. However, no vehicles passed in our direction except of this truck on which we managed to catch a ride. The soldiers whose roadside base we spontanously converted into a bus stop decided to come along and put up some armchairs from the truck's load.There are still one and a half countries to discover and four weeks ahead of us. Who knows where the journey will take us?
Thank you - Part I
We are happy to announce that we already put the first donations to use! Yesterday we met Joseph, a 15 year old who looked more like 10 years, on the street. After somebody on a bicycle ran into him the day before, he had some problems with his wrist and was obviously in pain. He first asked for money (actually way too little) to go to the hospital, but since it was just around the corner, we decided to just take him there right away.
So last night, he was still examined by a doctor and already given a shot and some pain relievers and this morning we had an appointment for an x-ray.
Here we are still waiting to see a doctor after the x-ray was taken. Poor Joseph was still smiling, because he didn't know yet about the four shots he would get into his finger as soon as we would meet the doctor.
One of the doctors taking care of "us" examining the x-ray at the window.
Here Joseph is just about to get the shots in order to make his hand numb so he wouldn't feel the pain of setting his finger back into shape. It was quite a painful procedure and he was very brave (definitely braver than Natalie and I!).
This is how his hand looked afterwards! Now he has to take some drugs against the inflammation and come back in a week for a check-up. Since we won't be here anymore, the Canadian volunteer doctor you could see in the picture above will take care of him and make sure that he can finish his treatment.
Everybody in the hospital was really helpful and we were surprised that all of the doctors spoke French and English. The whole treatment (including the registration with the hospital, x-ray, shots, pain relievers, etc.) was less than 12 EUR - not a big deal for all of us, but loads of money here...
Thanks again!
So last night, he was still examined by a doctor and already given a shot and some pain relievers and this morning we had an appointment for an x-ray.
Here we are still waiting to see a doctor after the x-ray was taken. Poor Joseph was still smiling, because he didn't know yet about the four shots he would get into his finger as soon as we would meet the doctor.
One of the doctors taking care of "us" examining the x-ray at the window.
Here Joseph is just about to get the shots in order to make his hand numb so he wouldn't feel the pain of setting his finger back into shape. It was quite a painful procedure and he was very brave (definitely braver than Natalie and I!).
This is how his hand looked afterwards! Now he has to take some drugs against the inflammation and come back in a week for a check-up. Since we won't be here anymore, the Canadian volunteer doctor you could see in the picture above will take care of him and make sure that he can finish his treatment.Everybody in the hospital was really helpful and we were surprised that all of the doctors spoke French and English. The whole treatment (including the registration with the hospital, x-ray, shots, pain relievers, etc.) was less than 12 EUR - not a big deal for all of us, but loads of money here...
Thanks again!
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