From Maputo, Mozambique we flew to Mwanza, Tanzania (near Rwanda) and made our way overland by bus (we had to take three to get there) to Kigali, Rwanda. 

We were a little nervous to be travelling in Rwanda after the horrific genocide that took place in 1994, where over a million people were brutally murdered. It was difficult to not be constantly thinking about those events and their impact on the people. There are some signs of the crisis still visible in Rwanda today.  We noticed Rwandans with visible war wounds like a missing eye or hand. We noticed the occasional group of prisioners in light pink outfits doing manual labour in the city.  There were also absolutely no dogs to be seen because during the war the dogs began eating the dead and were becoming aggressive towards humans. As a result all the dogs ended up getting shot and anyone who still wishes to have a dog needs to keep it in a fenced off area.

We visited the genocide memorial in Kigali which attempted to explain why it happened and who suffered. We wandered around reading and looking at different displays, one rooms was filled with bones and skulls of the dead, another showed pictures and a told a brief story of some children that were murdered, and there was also a room descibing other genocides that have taken place elsewhere in the world. A garden/mass burial for about 200 000 people surrounded the building. We walked out feeling numb and having trouble comprehending  how anyone could be capable of such atrocities.

After the war, the Rwandans somehow managed to cope and are visibly proud of their country. Rwanda appears to be a very self sustaining country with people living off the land. The fertile hills are covered with terraced farming such as banana and tea plantations. Tourists are a rare sight so of course we ended up getting a lot of attention, especially when we walked around villages where tourists normally drove through. We actually terrified a little girl that ran away screaming when she caught a glimpse of us. Kinda funny but weird. We passed this one school that was in recess and a hundred kids crowded the fence to get a look at us "muzungos".

We admired the colorfully patterned dresses and creative, braided hair styles of the women. All the men on the other hand have their hair cut very short which must account for the very high number of hair "saloons" as they say. I had a great time watching Levi get his hair cut in one of these places for 2 bucks, they only use clippers, no scissors in sight. A small crowd gathered to watch. We were worried it would be cut too short which was precisely what happened.. he resembled a Plumber nickname of lieutenant Levi. You also see a lot of men wearing canadian or american logos on their shirts presumably since they were donated from an international agency. It was strange to see that although the general population is quite poor, most carry cell phones. Another random observation in Africa in general is people's love of soap operas. Even the men love watching them!

Anyways, after spending a night in Kigali, we bused to Ruhengeri to prepare ourselves for a very exciting part of our trip, mountain gorilla tracking. We arrived at the gorilla center near the Parc National des Volcans early the next morning and were briefed by our tour guides on proper viewing behaviour, typical characteristics of gorillas, and shown the gorilla group of 8 that we would be tracking (the Sabinyo group). One of our guides, Francois actually worked with Dian Fossey for 5 years before she was murdered on my birthday in 1985.

A few gorilla facts: There are roughly 700 mountain gorillas left in the world inhabiting the volcanic range of Uganda, Rwanda and the Republic of Congo. Gorillas gestation period is 8.5 months, the young don't become independant for 3.5 years and the average gorilla can live to their 50's (same as humans without the advances of medicine). Trackers spend their days making sure they know where the group is and that they are protected from poachers who sometimes simply want them for their meat.  The trackers are aware of where they sleep every night, which makes them easy to find the next morning.

We drove to where the hike was to begin, passing through farmland and eucalyptus groves. After walking for 20 minutes, we reached the group. As you can imagine we were in complete awe. Our guides made us feel very comfortable as they were constantly making funny grunting noises to sooth them and we moved as a group to avoid getting too close. Several times a few of us (Levi included) got charged  playfully by the juvenile of the group. As you can see in the pictures we got stupidly close to the silver back (a few meters).  One cant help but think of how similar this magnificant creatures are to humans. You sense their intelligence just by how they stare at you in the eyes. It was facinating to watch them walk around on their knuckels and in a semi upright position. The hour we spent with them flew by. One is just filled with an overwhelming urge to stay with them and watch their behaviours for months or at least all day.

After the gorillas we headed to the south of the country to another national park called Nyungwe.  We were trying to track chimpanzees, which the park is known for, but after struggling for a simple place to stay and getting the same questions ("you dont have a mobile, where is your car") we had to settle for a stroll to a beautiful waterfall.  Luckily on the way back we did happen to see a blue monkey swinging in the trees, which was treat enough.  We also got to experience a 5.0 earthquake that was centered about an hour away from us that most of Rwanda felt.  Lucky us! We had never felt one before so it was quite scary hearing the rumble approaching then seeing the ground around you shake. We were on the verge of panic when it hit but luckily it only lasted about 5 sec, followed hours later by 3 aftershocks. A nearby town and village were damaged, killing at least 20 people, more because of construction techniques than from the earthquake's strength.

After our short excursion to the south of the country we headed back to Kigali to get ourselves back into Tanzania.  It is always interesting coming back to a city that you have seen already, you feel more at home, simply because you have already been once.  You even get used to everyone staring at you a bit.  People can get used to almost everything.