Hotel Malahide Paradis Gisenyi

... happened: The country was divided up into two groups based on social classes. Those with 10 cows were called Tutsi(15% minority), and those with less than 10 cows - Hutu(85% majority). They were all given identity cards showing which group you belonged to. The Tutsi’s had power for a while until the Hutu Revolution in the 60’s. Then a few decades of build up then in 1994, the Hutu’s started wiping out the Tutsi’s en masse. They ...

HU-JAMBO!!!!!! C'est tres jolie ici. Mas francais as improvement. I love it here. We're camping on the beach. I apologize for no photos....the internet is so slow here it's frustrating. But I don't have too much desire to be on here unless I am saying hi or replying to the wonderful emails or messages I receive. WAZUNGU WAZUNGU is an often phrase we all here, along with... you give me money? I have ...

... in the presence of the gorillas, so as not to disturb them. Suffering in silence has never been my strong suit!<br><br> Our interactions with the gorillas today are even more satisfying than those of a couple of days ago since we are allowed much closer. At one point a female appears and decides to walk through our group, passing about an inch away from me. Talk about unnerving!<br><br> There are several cute ...

... your hands. Then someone says grace (they are very religious) and there are meats (chicken and beef), a sticky dough and vegetables. You basically get a bit of dough, rip some meat off and dip it in the sauce and eat it. It was pretty good but I was crazy tired from all the running around. Unfortunately I had to have a few drinks with the host's brother Baracka or else it would have been rude. He told me how the fighting in Congo with Rwanda and Uganda had started in ...

... were messing with me and that it was an animal but when I looked closer it was a young child's skull and when I looked around there were bones everywhere. I was planning on going to the genocide memorial in Kigali but was not prepared to see the signs of this tragedy from 1994 still so prevalent. The casualness of the children also speaks to their acceptance of this period as just a moment of history but it's hard to accept when you see the ...

... girls (Sarah and Sophie) who I had met in Kampala turned up. It was a crazy coincidence that we should meet on a tiny island in the south of Rwanda a week or so after briefly crossing paths hundreds of miles north. I spent the evening playing pool with Biziman and some of his friends. It was good to meet some locals who could chat some English and enjoy some fun time here.<br><br>I was meant to leave today at 5am but had been erring ...

... m not generally a nervous passenger but I was fairly sure that falling asleep whilst navigating hairpin bends was not going to be healthy for any of us! I nudged Jennie, who was sat next to me: "Hey, look at the driver!!!" Jennie's concern took more of an active form than mine: she notified the VSO girls sat in the front seat. "Psst!! The driver's falling asleep!!" Fortunately for all of us, the girls took their new-found responsibility ...

... the hotel for him. We got to talk to David a bit, he spoke English well. He was in the Rwandan military for many years, and served as a guard at the state house, the president's home. David is a great storyteller, and we spent the evening talking with him. The next day, we walked toward the beach. We were not sure what to expect from a Rwandan beach resort. We found an ...

... each other. He was on the property of his hotel and I was on the public side of the beach. We chatted for about 10 minutes in French. The kid just wanted to know what I was doing in this town. After realizing he wasn?t able to give me access to the hotel?s beachfront, I just decided to read my book at a spot not too far from the hotel. I noticed that the guard went to get a chair and placed it right at the public/private beach border. It seemed like he wanted ...

... government officials to preserve the creatures from extinction. As we passed a multitude of fields, villages and shops on the hillside, all so obviously well cared-for, the scenery increased in beauty and the air, in pureness. Rwanda is blessed with a temperate climate and very fertile soil, and from what I could tell, not one square inch was wasted. As we got closer to Gisenyi town, there were more people congregated ...