Rwanda: Mzungus in the Mist
A long bus ride through the rolling green mountains of Rwanda.
Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and every square inch is covered with crops. It's mostly winding mountain roads and tiny mud huts, it's a very beautiful country. The people here speak French as a second language so all of us got a little practice, and the French influence makes for better food.
Speaking of which, in continuing my theme of bastardizing my vegetarian sensibilities, I tried deep fried crickets on the ride to Kigali. Salty. Never again.
Rwanda is noticably richer than Uganda. After the genocide a lot of 'guilt' money came in, and you see a lot of nicer cars on the road. There are even traffic lights in Kigali! None of them are switched on though.
The hassle factor is higher than Uganda. A lot of people trying to sell you things, and slightly more aggressively, although it was never too bad. The traditional crafts were incredibly cheap though, I picked up a few things for home.
Every so often in Kigali you see a pick up truck filled with people dressed in pink uniforms, or you might see them working on a construction site somewhere. These are convicted mass murderers from the genocide.
Tomorrow we go to see the memorials. It's a little odd being a genocide tourist. Snapping pictures of the convicts in pink, like we're on safari. Wildlife photography with a twist.
But that's a big part of what this whole 4 month trip is. If I wanted to help people as much as possible then I could have given my $2700 for the flight to the Red Cross and kept working back at home to send more money. And while the point of me being here does have a lot to do with wanting to help people, there is a bit of "fucked up country" tourist motivation.
Also strange: buying Quality Street chocolates at a supermarket at a price equal to about 3 days average wage in this country. Gorilla trekking for $375 US per day, only $25 shy of the annual wage. Then walking past people starving on the streets and not giving them anything.
But in reality these are the decisions that I've been making every day my entire life, I just haven't had the consequences staring me in the face until now. And although I can't explicitly justify my actions, at the same time I don't feel like I'm doing the wrong thing. I haven't figured out the answer yet. It's something that I'll be rolling around in my head a lot while I'm here.
Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and every square inch is covered with crops. It's mostly winding mountain roads and tiny mud huts, it's a very beautiful country. The people here speak French as a second language so all of us got a little practice, and the French influence makes for better food.
Speaking of which, in continuing my theme of bastardizing my vegetarian sensibilities, I tried deep fried crickets on the ride to Kigali. Salty. Never again.
Rwanda is noticably richer than Uganda. After the genocide a lot of 'guilt' money came in, and you see a lot of nicer cars on the road. There are even traffic lights in Kigali! None of them are switched on though.
The hassle factor is higher than Uganda. A lot of people trying to sell you things, and slightly more aggressively, although it was never too bad. The traditional crafts were incredibly cheap though, I picked up a few things for home.
Every so often in Kigali you see a pick up truck filled with people dressed in pink uniforms, or you might see them working on a construction site somewhere. These are convicted mass murderers from the genocide.
Tomorrow we go to see the memorials. It's a little odd being a genocide tourist. Snapping pictures of the convicts in pink, like we're on safari. Wildlife photography with a twist.
But that's a big part of what this whole 4 month trip is. If I wanted to help people as much as possible then I could have given my $2700 for the flight to the Red Cross and kept working back at home to send more money. And while the point of me being here does have a lot to do with wanting to help people, there is a bit of "fucked up country" tourist motivation.
Also strange: buying Quality Street chocolates at a supermarket at a price equal to about 3 days average wage in this country. Gorilla trekking for $375 US per day, only $25 shy of the annual wage. Then walking past people starving on the streets and not giving them anything.
But in reality these are the decisions that I've been making every day my entire life, I just haven't had the consequences staring me in the face until now. And although I can't explicitly justify my actions, at the same time I don't feel like I'm doing the wrong thing. I haven't figured out the answer yet. It's something that I'll be rolling around in my head a lot while I'm here.
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