Rwanda in four days

We have been in Rwanda for about three days Kigali is a clean well run capital city, however getting an ATM that accepts a foreign credit card is a royal pain…there is only one EcoBank.

We did an afternoon at the Genocide Memorial, moving to say the least especially because of how recent the event was. One thing I can’t figure out is how this country even functions after what happened. If you look at every other major genocide, none of them have the two conflict populations living in close proximity, in Europe the Jews disappeared, same thing with the Armenians, in the Balkans they have all moved into ethnic enclaves. Here the Tutsi and Hutu still live together with 80% Hutu majority and the Tutsi (victims) in charge. Kagame seems to be doing a pretty good job at keeping a lid on the country (it is very clearly a dictatorship) for now and is trying to eliminate ethnic differentiations but one can easily see previous tension coming to a head if the strong arm of the government and current leader were lifted. I am unsure where things will be in 15 years.

Aside from above, Rwanda is much less charming than Uganda. It is cleaner and a little more organized though. Smiles and greetings from us are seldom returned and more often than not and returned with cold hard stares. This specifically has happened in the rural areas. I can’t figure out if it’s just poverty, the government or a national ethos toward Muzungos but it has really put me off. This is the first place on my trip and definitely the first place in Africa that this has happened. So we saw the gorillas and are now getting out of dodge and heading back to TZ to head down lake Tanganyika by boat.