Kigali, Rwanda

After a beautiful and splendid journey across the heart of Africa between Uganda, close to the congolese border and in Rwanda, I would have been amazed one more time ! Landscapes were to cut the breath, a lot of nice people and this part of the journey will definitively remain unforgettable. I have finally decided to drive trough Burundi where a new president has been elected, the former rebellious chief. The civil war, which has killed people during the last 12 years, is finished and people finally go back to Burundi to visit their families, an occasion in gold for me not to miss! The situation is very calm at the moment and I hope that it will remain like that during my stay, we never know in Africa but, like ever, I follow my intuitions. Thanks to my intuition I have escaped a wheel that a minibus lost. The wheel passed a few meters of me while I was climbing one of these many "hills" in Rwanda. I don't know who called Rwanda,"le pays aux mille collines" (the country with the thausend hills) but for me, it is rather the country with the thausend mountains!! The moutains are huge but don't believe that I'm complaining, in contrary, finally I'm in the mountains again, I like the desert, but I have crossed quiet a lot of them the last times.
I should still be able "to connect me to the world" in Burundi, after that, I will cross Tanzania but will escape all the traditionnal tourist places or even any civilized places. I will go along the border of Congo to Tanzania, I hope that the rainy season which should start very soon will remain nice with me because the road haven't any asphalt. Some villages will be on my way and especially a lot, a lot of lonelyless should await me during this time. It will be good for me after all these surpopulated countries. After that, I should be able to crash in one of the beaches of the Lake Malawi, but that's future's music..... There is quite a lot to drive and the road shouldn't be a holiday. But in a way, harder it is, more exciting it is !
"to finish, a small joke from Rwanda (French-speaking country, Belgian ex-colony):
What is the difference between rich swiss people and poor swiss people? ... - the poor swiss people have to wash their car by themselves.... "
See you, take care and enjoy the life, it is not always pink, but the life has always something to offer!

"The land of a thousand hills" that has known one of the best prepared genocides in human history. Crossing a country of hills that learns to open up again to the world and forget its past.

I missed the border in Uganda and I'm already finding myself in Rwanda. The police officer in Rwanda is not very cooperative and I am feeling that he's searching a mistake in my passeport or my visa. Unfortunately for him, there's any, therefore, no backshish for you my friend....
I am going until a city called Ruhengeri and it is, as for each new country, a new planet for me. People are very surprised to see me and screaming from everywhere to great me.... in French! Belgian Ex-colony, people speaks French and English and they drive on the right side, it's a bit strange for me to drive again on this side, but I'm getting used to it quickly. I am not remaining a very long time in Ruhengeri, I am just spending an afternoon and a night. Here, I am seeing a lot of young people riding wooden bicycles and to descend the large slopes... without brakes. These bicycles are a symbol of the area, when a young person want to get married, he give his bike to the father of his fiancée and he can then marry her. The sight here is splendid, everywhere volcanos and mountains which culminate until an altitude of about 4500 meters. Here the tourists come in mass to see the gorillas in the national park of the volcanos. I don't havee the money (USD 380.-- for one hour) but one day I'll return and visit the companions of Jane Fosset.

The road which is heading to Kigali is very animated, for several reasons. The first one is because of the people, Rwanda is a very populated country, it's perhaps one of the reason to this terrible genocide which decimated the country a little more than 10 years ago. The second reason is that a motorcyclist is inviting me to have a cool drink. We are stopping in a small village a little further. I am making my way through a crowd of curious people which ran to come to see me, I am leaving my bicycle against the wall of the restaurant and I am seeing a guy with a large smile on the lips who is looking at me. I am looking at him as well and then and I am noticing that his arms are attached with an enormous chain. The motorcyclist guy is telling me that I don't have to be worried, he's no more dangerous now... Of course I'm not worrying when I see a guy attached by a chain ! He's insane, someone is saying, he attacked the members of his family and even some of his neighbors, since that time we left him like that. Surprising, but somehow this crazy guy still can live in a kind of freedom, in our society we'll put him in a psychiatric center and give him a lot of drugs. Then I am continuing my way and listening my intuition like ever... something is gonna happen, I am feeling it. Just after this thinking, I am seeing a matatatu, a minibus, which is driving down the mountain very quickly. I am looking at it and starting to drive very close to the slope of the moutain, with my small but heavy bicycle. This matatu, I do not know why, but I don't have a good feeling... Suddenly, at about fifty meters from me, the minibus is losing its right back wheel. The wheel is rebounding several times and is passing at 2 or maximum 3 meters over my head. the minibus is stopping a hundred meters lower, braked by the back axis which is touching the ground... while making a lot of sparks... What a day, one more time....

I am arriving in Kigali and right before I am seeing an amazing panel: "dangerous slope, be careful, 8% on 6km, truck in second speed!!!" It is the first time since Egypt that I am seeing a board with such a precision!! I had almost forgotten that there are rules of traffic.... In Kigali, I am enjoying life and impregnating myself of rwandese culture. I am spending most of my time in a kind of small restaurant. A place where people from all backgrounds meet each other to eat, drink a juice or a cold beer, to discuss, etc. A very convivial place like the city in general, where I am feeling at my ease. Except when I am passing close to the american embassy: there's a way just for walkers but I didn't know it. I'm in Africa and all the time, you make what you want... I am passing with my bicycle and a man in uniform is making me stop. He is saying to me that it is a big problem and is asking me not to move. I'm thinking : "the day has come where the police is finally getting me and I will have to pay my first bill.... "At this time I am noticing that it's an agent of security with the american flag on his jacket. Then I’m losing my tempe and I’m telling him off because I'm not gonna wait here. He is calling other security guards and is putting his hand on his weapon. I'm advising him not to touch it and to forget the idea of arresting me. Then, I am going away on my bicycle. We are in Rwanda here ! It's not the American Embassy which will dictate its laws in here! Besides this small incident without consequences (one more experience who make me love more and more the american policy which tries to control the world), I am passing a very pleasant stay.

Not so pleasant is the visit of the Center of commemoration for the genocide victims. This is a tragic history of horror where the international community can only be shamed because nobody has done anything to help them. On the contrary, a Belgian colony has created a gap between the tutsi and the hutus, both main tribes, increasing the hate of the Hutus agains the Tutsis which was the monarchy in power and which refused to consider the requests of the beligian colony The French army of the U.N. came too late and helped the Hutu killers to kill more Tutsis and afterward they helped them to move out to Congo and a small part of them are still hiding. The american army came after everyone, made of its center of refugees, one of the bigest business of the history of the refugees's camps, a lot of restaurants, hospitals, bars and even cinemas, everything has a price and the one without money could set out again from where he came. Many americains got rich by this way, it wasn't humanitary help, it was a business. In a short time Rwanda digested its sad past and it's now illegal to say that I'm Tutsi or Hutu, each citizen is rwandese, that's it. The beginning of the solution. The problem is that the president seems to use the past to control the country, economically, politically, etc.. I hope it won’t turn into a new African dictature. But it will need a generation or two to help the country to forgive and to forget the past, so that the wounds disappear. More that 100'000 people have been arrested and judged by the Gacaca (in all, it's about 760'000 people who are juged or concerned), a local court in general in the open air with the locals who assist the judgment. 50'000 people have been already released after having been judged and spent a few years in prison. The others are still waiting for their judgement. On an another side, there's the official court in Arusha, Tanzania, which take care of the serious cases, the people in charge for the genocide who have organised this genocide. Even Hitler didn't mananed to organize such a good massacre of the Jewish people. On the way for Burundi, I am talking with some truck-drivers while drinking a cold drink. One is speaking about the genocide and he is telling me that they are Tutsis and that their truck is full of food to feed the Hutus who have participated to the genocide. They are making the delivery for one of the largest jail of the country which is full of the genocide's killers. An almost comic situation if this tragedy wouldn't have taken more than one million people’s lifes away in 3 months. And that, in the most atrocious way it can be. The stories I heard by the people themself, are haunting my mind and will stay there for ever: Neighbors who killed the neighbors, the rape of women, in general under the eyes of their family and done by the Hutu who was known to have the HIV, lynching in the streets as soon someone was recognized as a Tutsi, people killed by blows of machetes sometimes even by hammers or what they found under their hand. Bodies everywhere in all the country, the rivers red of blood, everywhere a smell of dead, everywhere the horror... In Kigali, they are some 250'000 bodies which are incinerated and burried in 8 large ditchs close the center of comemoration. Very well done, visit their website which is very interessant and an exemple for the next generations: http://www.kigalimemorialcentre.org/

The rainy season is starting in Rwanda but I am soon in Burundi where the rain should arrive in a month only. The road is beautiful and always under the encouragements of the people which are on the roads, I am climbing "hill" after "hill" (I would like that somebody explains me the difference between hill and mountain...). In Butare, I can use again my knowledge of Arabic to change some money and to make some stock of dollars. Abdallah is not here, but his daughter looks after his business and, impressed by my knowledge of Arabic , she is asking for my phone number... of course, I don't have one.... Damned, for once that an Arabic girl tries to pick me up, I miss the occasion… The more I'm close to Burundi, the more the people are looking at me flabbergasted, and it's only the beginning... I haven't spent so much time in Rwanda, the country is very small, impossible to camp because the country is too populated and the hotels are usually expensive, very expensive. But I liked my stay in here, surely because it's a country where the tourism is not very developped, therefore people are not blase to see a White man, it's even making them happy to see that the tourists are back. Moreover, people speak French and I have met a lot of people from Congo, who also speak French, who are telling me a lot of interesting stories about their country that I can't visit (because of non-existent safety and the chaos). Since a long time, Tibet is not any more my target. I am realizing that my way is my target. I'm discovering the world and especially Africa. I didn't know at all this continent and now I am starting to know it very well. Not completely, it's a continent full of cultural and social differences. The West is totally different from the East, the North from the South, much more different than the differences than we find in Europe between Portugal and Romania or Greece and England. Well, money should be found now if I want to continue but I believe in my good star and I don't really want to stop now this journey, I want to continue, to cross other countries, to meet other people, to see new landscapes. Until now, everything happened well and all came when it should have, I'm sure I will find a solution for money. Llife is beautiful, but it is very hard in Africa, especially as a White man. But somehow, the harder it is, the more exciting is the challenge to do it and to surpass myself.