Akagera National Park

Hi folks,
I know the last few posts have been less about what I have been doing and more about what Rwanda and the world have been doing. Thats for a lot of reasons but partly because I havent been doing all that much. However, last weekend, after the realization that I better start living the adventure, I left town and went first to Akagera National Park for a game drive and Volcanoes National Park to track mountain gorillas (this will be the next post. Its a little too much to write and read all at once).

I went to Akagera with my roommates, Kate and Marta, and two of Kate's relatives who were kind enough to let us tag along on their vacation and pay for our rooms. We left Kigali in the evening and then drove for a little over two hours to get to the park where we stayed at the one hotel in the area, the Akagera Game Lodge. Marta, Kate, and I shared a room so we pushed the two twin beds together and made ourselves a lovely jumbo bed. I got up a little before 6 to take pictures of the sunrise, but the thing about living on the equator is that it gets light like a gunshot and dark like a gunshot. So I have about two sunrise pictures and then it was full on daylight. We left the lodge around 8 for the game drive, which lasted about four hours. Although Akagera doesnt have too many large animals left (most were poached during the genocide as a result of the breakdown of law and order) there are still quite a few giraffes and zebras and one legendarily ill tempered elephant, in addition to the requisite antelope, hippos, and warthogs. At one point, we got out of the car and were within about 100 meters of a herd of giraffes and a herd of zebras. Thats probably about four carlengths. And at some points, it was even closer than that. It was pretty phenomenal. It is a pretty surreal experience to be standing within arms length of animals that were in the storybooks that you used to read as children, animals that seemed so exotic and unknowable and now are right there in front of you.

Akagera is a fairly small park. After the genocide, when thousands of people were returning from refugee camps in Tanzania, Uganda, and Congo about half the park was opened for resettlement. Although it is a sad loss, in a country that is the most densely populated in Africa, so right up there with most densely populated in the world, sacrifices must be made and at least the government committed to keeping as much of the park as it did. The government continues to actively protect the park boundaries and fines any farmers who allow their animals to graze in the park.

Tourism is such a questionable activity. On the one hand it has the potential, and often is, environmentally destructive. Game drives impact soil quality, air quality, and affect the migration patterns of animals. The construction and use of lodges, particularly luxury lodges, can often result in pollution to surrounding areas. However on the other hand, tourism can significantly improve the economic aspects of local communities and have other positive effects. For example, many of the guides in parks are former poachers. As they are now able to benefit more from protecting the animals than from killing them, the most dangerous predator of the animal is removed. And the government of Rwanda attempts to ensure that other local people benefit from tourism. Five percent of profits generated from the tourism industry are directly given back to local communities. Although that might not seem like a lot, it amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Additionally, much of the remaining 95% goes towards conservation efforts and park maintenance. By ensuring the continued safety and health of the animals and the preservation of habitats and natural resources, Rwanda is able to ensure future tourism and economic development. Its a symbiotic relationship, but a fragile one.

I am going to attempt to post my pictures at some point in the future, but unfortunately, right now the internet nationwide is terrible and uploading even one picture is pretty much impossible. But rest assured I will get them up eventually!

In the spirit of Christmas

Dear friends and family,
Below is a letter written by my good friend Lacey Haussamen and another from Father Joe, who I stayed with in Uganda, and one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. Please read the letter and if you are able to give (I know that it is a very hard time for everyone), please consider a small donation. If you are willing to donate, please email me so that I can give you Lacey's mailing address. She will be moving to Uganda in February and will bring the donations. Thank you so much!

Dear all,

I write this in conjunction with two classmates from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory - Linnea Zimmerman who lived with me in Gulu last year, and Jeremy Kane who had a similar internship in Gulu just a few months ago. All three of us had the pleasure of staying with Fr. Joseph Okumu who was one of our gracious hosts. I believe I speak for all of us when I say that Fr. Joe is one of the most wonderful and respected people I know and Uganda is lucky to have him. He definitely has the best interest of the Ugandan people in mind and he works very hard to improve the lives of people so traumatized by over 20 years of war. We all learned a great deal from him about northern Uganda and its people.

Fr. Joe is from the small village of Poronga in Pader District – an area hit very hard by the war. He has taken a special interest rebuilding a health center in the village. According to him, the area has no adequately functioning health center right now and transport to other areas for treatment is challenging on many levels. This region of Uganda has finally reached a tentative, but welcomed state of peace and relative stability in terms of the war. The real challenges now are rebuilding infrastructure, outside of the camps, that has been totally destroyed or prevented by the war. Working alongside his community, Fr. Joe is trying to renovate a community health center and make it a functional service for the community. They know they cannot wait for the proper government services to reach the area because they are generally slow to come, if ever. They are supporting the education of at least one nurse who will come to work full-time in the center. They plan to train more as resources become available.

Another crucial need right now is the actual renovation and repair of the building itself, along with the stocking of delivery beds, other tools and equipment, and the necessary drugs and supplies to properly treat patients. While the material and supply needs are great, it is also essential to great a quality infrastructure for the center that can be maintained, kept sanitary and offers a quality of care that is welcoming and attractive to the community. The community and Fr. Joe have decided to prioritize the strengthening of the infrastructure while their nurse is completing his education. I have attached a full spreadsheet of building renovation costs that Fr. Joe gives to people who ask how they might help him. The building renovation will take place in three phases:
Phase I: walls, pavement, floor and verandah – 24,381,000
Phase II: roofing, painting and glass fitting – 36,408,600
Phase III: windows, shutters – 6,693,400
Total: UgSh = 67,483,000 = USD 38,126

I know this is a huge sum, but Fr. Joe has expressed that any small amount contributed will help the community make this a reality. They are contributing in kind donations as well (cement, bricks, etc.) though the reality is that the poverty that pervades the northern population is deep and not easily overcome. So the people contribute what they can, but even with that, every little bit can help.

We are asking that in lieu of Christmas gifts, please consider contributing that money to this cause. It does not matter how small the donation. If you feel strongly that your contribution be used for supplies, drugs, delivery beds, or any other specific need, please let us know and I am sure Fr. Joe and the community will honor that. I will be traveling to Uganda in February and can take it then, or depending on how much we collect, we may wire the money together. Please do not feel that you have to donate anything, I am only asking this in lieu of gifts.

The following is a letter from Fr. Joe, so he can tell you about the health center in his own words.

Poronga Health Center

Greetings from me in Gulu. I have been visiting Poranga Catholic Parish location in Pader to work out the cost of renovation of the Health Centre. I now have it as you can see in this attachment. I know it is difficult to come bye such a huge amount of money. We will appreciate whatever little amount you will be able to find. Please know also that I send the same cost to people I guess may help. We have been having torrential rains even in November but in the last three days it stopped. I hope it will remain dry for a long time to allow people dry their crops. There is a huge movement of people back to their own homes following the peace that is. The grass is ready dry and so the Acholi people who build with grass are now busy cutting it to thatch their huts in villages. The priests are having the difficult task to reach the people in their widely spread villages. The Acholi people are very happy now that they can live in their villages in more decent homes. The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is instead disastrous. Thousands of children and women who are often defenseless are seen tracking miles and miles on foot to enter western Uganda. It is so painful to see them in that condition. We still need to pray a lot for them.
Greetings to you all.
Regards, Fr. Joe

More developments regarding Rose Kabuye

For the past week or so, there have been somewhat informal demonstrations protesting the arrest of Rose Kabuye. On Wednesday, the government announced a day of "manifest" where all businesses were closed to allow citizens to protest Rose Kabuye's arrest. There were over 140,000 demonstrators in Kigali. I did not go out to see the demonstrations as our embassy warned us not to, but there were no incidences of violence, before, during, or since. In fact, since the demonstrations the French government has agreed to release Rose kabuye on the grounds that she not leave France for two weeks. I do not know if she will then have to stand trial or not, but it seems a good sign that they do not have sufficient evidence to carry forth with the trial.

It is interesting to talk to people here about the protests because many Rwandans, despite firmly believing in Rose Kabuye's innocennce, would not go. Some said it reminded them too much of what happened 14 years ago. Others said that if you go to a demonstration, you dont know who is taking your picture or how your involvement will come back to haunt you. He cited the many anti-RPF demonstrations that took place prior to 1994 and how many people were identified by the government through records of those protests. At first blush, that seemed a bit extreme. But it certainly happens in the states as well. I wonder how many anti-Vietnam protestors have records? The recent election has revealed that our past will always come back to haunt us, or even the past of others. It isnt just people in Rwanda who need to be concerned about being identified. I've been to a protest, even a riot if you count the school-escorted trip to the WTO meeting in 2000. I wonder if I have a record out there?

In other, less contentios news, I am going on a mini-safari this weekend to Akagera state park in the East Province of Rwanda (dont worry family, it is about as far from Congo as you can get). We will be leaving on Friday and returning Saturday so it will be short, but it will be nice to get out of the city, explore a new corner of the world, and post some more photos.

Also, for Christmas, I will in South Africa with a friend of mine from Emory. I cant wait! There should be some great photos from that!!!!!! But I will write again before then...

Gisozi Memorial

This weekend I went with my friend Frank to the Gisozi genocide memorial. Even though we have both been here three months, neither of us have gone. Frank is leaving soon though and we have been saying for months that we would go. So on Sunday we hailed a couple of motos and made our way.
The memorial is located in a house, which before I went, meant to me that it would be small and not very powerful. Coming from the US, it is fairly indoctrinated in me to think of bigger as better, bigger as more powerful, bigger as the only way to be truly impressive. Well, in the case of a genocide museum, bigger would be overwhelming and unnecessary. The museum is located on two stories in a house that is probably about the size of an average American house, say about 2000 feet. The lower story is devoted to the Rwandan genocide.
We began by walking through a tunnel that begins with the history of Rwanda before colonization, which explained that Hutu and Tutsi are not true ethnic groups, nor was the designation particularly important before colonization. Rather, the German colonizers, as so many other colonizers have done, found it expedient to divide and conquer, designating all people with ten cows or more to be Tutsi and all people with less than ten cows to be Hutu and giving preferential treatment to Tutsis, using this new "ethnicity" to govern in abstentia. When the Germans lost WWI and the Belgians received Rwanda as a colony (because of course countries are like commodities and can be traded around), they modeled their governance after the Germans, keeping Tutsis in power. In the early 1960s, the Belgians began to give power to the majority Hutus as they prepared to leave the country and grant independence. With this transition, wide-spread violence against Tutsis began. After 70 years of rule by one minority ethnic group, the repressed majority sought retribution and the first wave of genocide began leading to millions of people fleeing the country to Congo, Burundi, Uganda, and for the wealthy, Europe and the United States. Despite peaceful attempts to come back, refugees were denied repatriation to Rwanda and many were forced to live in refugee camps. While refugee camps fostered the formation of rebel groups, willing to take military action to go back to their homes, the government of Rwanda, led by Hutu extremists and militarily supported by the French, armed and trained Interhamwe, youth militia. The sole purpose of the Interhamwe was to fight the enemy. And the sole enemy was the Tutsi.
All of this is detailed through pictures and writing. Nothing is particularly shocking about it or new information, other than seeing pictures of the youth militia. The boys, for they really are just boys, were trained to be killers and filled with hatred at such a young age, they are just as ruined as their victimes. No one survived the genocide without scars. As you continue down the tunnel, it details the years immediately leading up to the genocide. Radio ads spouting the doctrine of ethnic cleansing, ten commandments of how Hutus should treat Tutsis, and the increasing attacks on the government by the RPF, composed of refugees determined to institute democratic government and force the return of thousands of refugees.
Continuing down the tunnel, the pictures and video become more graphic and the reaction more visceral. There is a video that is not for the faint of heart or stomach, which shows the murder of a man by another with a machete, children with festering wounds in their heads, and dozens of photos and videos of the hundreds of dead bodies simply left to rot in the street. It is unbelievable to look at the video and know that in the peaceful and clean streets I walk on everyday, human beings were left like garbage. Along with that video, which is silent, there are others which interview survivors of the genocide and one which captures a perpetrator recounting the murders he took part in. What was somehow the most shocking to me was the pictures of the planners of the genocide. I had somehow assumed that the men (and women) exuded evil, that looking at them, I would know that they are somehow devoid of humanity. But it isnt the case at all. In the photos, the architects of the genocide are jovial, even beneficient-looking people, which somehow made it even worse. If these men and women, who are clearly human, are capable of planning such inhuman acts, what are any of us capable of?
Along the tunnel there are machetes, ancient guns, chains, all implements of death, preserved in glass cases so the viewer can see that it was not sophisticated technology in the hands of highly trained soldiers that led to this destruction, but simple and outdated tools put in the hands of regular people and transformed into weapons through a campaign of hatred and fear. Finally, we exited the tunnel into a small atrium which on one side had mounted news stories of the reaction of the west (which is to say none) and the evacuation of people in danger (which is to say only white people and sickeningly, government officials who orchstrated everything). Particularly disheartening is the observation that the number of soldiers used in evacuations would have been sufficient to prevent the genocide from happening. On the other wall, in perhaps the only heartening display, are the stories of those who protected others. Sheltering and feeding people, putting themselves in extreme danger (anyone who was suspected of sympathizing with the Tutsis was considered just as bad, if not worse than Tutsis themselves, and put to death), simply because it was the right thing to do. Once out of the atrium, there is a series of small rooms which house different exhibits. One is a room that is full of bones, skulls, arm bones, leg bones. The skulls are perhaps the hardest to view, because there are many that are almost shattered or have perfectly round holes, the work of a single bullet. Yet somehow this room is the easiest to view. The next room is a display of clothing, the clothing that people were wearing when they were killed and abandoned. Perhaps the most surreal to me was the running shorts and Cornell sweatshirt that one man wore. Within this room, there is another video interviewing survivors about the burden of survival, the guilt, the anger, and the enormous effort to forgive. Finally, the last room is filled with photos. Walls lined with photos of men, women, and children. For me, this was the hardest. To be completely surrounded by photos and to know that it is but the smallest fraction of those who were killed... it is staggering. And again, another video.
On the second floor there are smaller displays describing other genocides; Namibia, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, Cambodia, the Balkans. It becomes too much. At some point, numbness just overtakes you and it is impossible to react to the worst that humanity is capable of. Or so you think...
And then the childrens room. The childrens room is simple, small, stark, and without doubt, the most evocative part of the museum. It is a series of four small rooms, and within each room is three to four life size photographs of children. Babies, children, teenagers. And under each photo is some small description of their personality, their likes, their dislikes, their age, their dreams, their last words, and how they were killed. It was here that I cried. It is sickening to see a photo of a beautiful two year old girl in a baptism dress, read that her favority activity was playing with her father, and then read about her brutal murder. Even here, I dont want to write about it. It is too difficult to actually detail inhumanity and madness. Writing it makes it real.

So anyway, that was how I spent my Sunday. Although the whole museum took only two hours to walk through, it was exhausting. Leaving the memorial, both Frank and I were dragging our feet, barely able to walk up the stairs, and certainly not in the mood to hail motos and haggle for price. A larger, bigger, brasher memorial would have been too much. Already it was too much to take in, anything more would have been lost.

Im not sure that this blog is really satisfactory to me. There is so much to say about the memorial but at the same time describing it is nothing like experiencing it. What is truly important to me, what I got out of it and what I want to emphasize, is that although this happended in Rwanda, it is not a tragedy only of Rwandans. The West was responsible for not reacting, for sheltering and continuing to shelter those who planned the genocide. Certainly it was Rwandans who planned the genocide and Rwandans who were killed, but the country distinction is a false one. It was humans who planned the genocide and humans who were killed, and that is what we need to remember. By thinking that it was only "them" that could do that to "those", we leave ourselves open to the artifical distinctions that make it possible in the first place. We are all responsible for each other.

Sorry for the silence

I suppose it wasn't in the best taste to post an article about war in the area and then neither post nor respond to comments for a couple weeks. In my defense, the internet, nationally, has been terrible of late. There is only one internet company in Rwanda, Rwandatel, so when its slow or changes its servers or its http address or whatever, it affects everyone. Its not unlike my nemesis of cable television, Comcast. Hard to say which one infuriates me more. Actually, no its not. Comcast, definitely comcast. Anyway I am fine. In fact, the only news I hear about the conflict in the Congo is if I look on international news sources. The government here isnt exactly open about anything having to do with the genocide, existing genocidairres, or any possible involvement they may have with conflict in neighboring regions. But everything in this region is tied up together, so I would be very very surprised if Rwanda wasnt involved somehow.

In other news, one of President Paul Kagame's top aides was arrested upon her arrival in Germany yesterday upon her arrival to prepare the President's visit. Apparently, the French issued an order for her arrest in 2006 for her suspected role in the assassination of former president Habyiramana, whose death facilitated the genocide in 1994. No one has ever been able to uncover evidence about who actually shot down the Habyiramna's plane and in fact there is just as much speculation that then-government officials did it as there is that rebels did. Kabuye's arrest comes a few weeks after a report issued by the Rwandan government that heavily implicates the French in the genocide and a few weeks after Kagame declared that the only official language of Rwanda will be English beginning in 2010, no longer French and English. It is an interesting coincidence that this arrest comes so soon after these announcements. I cant help but feel like France is being the bully of the schoolyard. It got shamed and now its taking it out in a petty and vindictive way. Only these actions have the potential to seriously undermine both Rwanda's stability and the French government's credibility. I guess bullies dont think too much about that...
Here are two links to the story if you want to read an actual journalists reporting...

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/10/germany.rwanda/?iref=mpstoryview
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-11-10-voa2.cfm

Despite this news, please dont worry about my safety. Kigali remains peaceful and orderly, as it has for the past decade. In fact, another reason I have not posted recently is I have not really had anything to talk about. My days are as routine and quiet as they are at home, probably more so. Other than Obama's election there has not been anything particularly exciting happening. That was amazing though. For the first time in eight years, and maybe for some time before that, I am proud to identify myself as American. Of course, there are still problems with the US and there is a good chance that Obama will not be able to deliver on his promises but he represents at least the possibility of change, the possibility of hope. Even here, his election has energized people. After CNN predicted his win, everyone in the restaurant that I was at all night started hugging and crying. Perfect strangers were clinging to each other. He delivered his speech just as the sun came up and all of us were were quiet, listening to him accept the nomination. As we left, all of the Rwandans that we met on the street were enthusiastic about his win. People were shouting and giving the thumbs up sign as we drove home