Land of a Thousand Hills

We took a road trip with Jon and Joyce to Rwanda over the weekend, spending most of our time in and around the capital city of Kigali.  

We were struck by how clean Rwanda is as soon as we crossed the border. We had actually arrived in time for national "cleaning day"; by law, everyone is required to clean during the last Saturday of the month. 

At the border, the fields and plains of Tanzania give way to "the land of a thousand hills". Rwanda is as beautiful as we had heard, with its endless acres of banana trees and  patchwork quilts of rice and tea and coffee. But traces of the genocide linger. We drove by troops of convicted "genocidaires" in their dark blue uniforms; they had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for their role in the mass slaughter of 1994. 

 The flame of remembrance just outside the Kigali Memorial Museum. In the garden lie hundreds of bodies that had been dumped into mass graves during the genocide.

We were able to visit The Cards from Africa workshop which provides employment for dozens of young people, usually the heads of their household

Beautiful cards for sale! Visit  www.cardsfromafrica.com

"Hotel Rwanda" --The Milles Collines 

Duncan was determined to eat Chinese food--so we did.