SARA CHIECO'S SUMMER SABBATICAL

As some of you may know, I was fortunate to be able to take some time off from working at Papilia to travel this past spring and summer. When I was asked to write this article, the first place that came to mind was Rwanda. It was by far the surprise of my African travels!

Firstly, Rwanda is a gorgeous country. They call it the land of 1000 mountains, and I think that could be an underestimate. In stark contrast to Nairobi, Kigali was very well paved, hardly any cars on the road, and clean. I have no idea what I expected, but considering the genocide was a mere 10 years ago, I was expecting something far more visibly war-torn. Kigali, a city of 800,000 has been rebuilt remarkably well. I spent my first afternoon there at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. It is pretty much beyond words how difficult that was. Having been to the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, in Israel, I'd say it was quite comparable.

You may or may not know that the war in Rwanda was a "civil war" between the Hutu's and the Tutsi's. I was under the impression that these were different tribes, which is incorrect. Rwanda originally had 18 different tribes, but Hutu or Tutsi was a class designation, similar to middle class or upper class, and these designations changed as your circumstances did. When the Belgians came in the 1920's they decided that anyone with 10 or more cows was a Tutsi and anyone with fewer than 10 cows was a Hutu, and that designation was yours and all of your descendants forever. Slowly these designations morphed into a racial designation rather than one which had previously been class related (I'm unclear how that happened, but physical characteristics like forehead and nose size became relevant). The Tutsi's (only 15% of the people) were favored by the government and this lead to the imbalance which eventually became a hatred that culminated with the genocide of the Tutsi's in the 1990's. There had been other mass killings prior to then starting in the 1960's. I guess when you can get a group of people to believe another group is responsible for their misfortune, and you feed it with propaganda and let it fester, you create the environment for genocidal cleansing.

The people of Rwanda will speak of the genocide but typically refer to it as the war. There are no longer any racial designations whatsoever as everyone is very adamant that they are "one people undivided" now, and are happy to say there will never be another civil war. They don't really like to talk about it, as dwelling on it will not help them move forward, but they aren't afraid to acknowledge it. It's amazing to think of the horror these people went through only 10 years before! Nearly everyone you speak to lost at least one family member and numerous friends and neighbors. I had a guide for my four days here, Mike, who was terrific. He was able to escape Rwanda before the war broke out which was quite lucky as he was on the death list because he supported the RFP - who eventually were victorious in stopping the Hutu's. Two of his brothers were killed, but his parents weren't because they were old. His mother was Hutu and his father Tutsi, so they were lucky to survive.

I asked Mike about public assistance, as much of the country is "poor" farmers. But really, poor is not a fair term. These people have houses, albeit small ones (one or two rooms), clothing, food and jobs. They have families and loved ones and they seem really content. Why wouldn't they? They have everything they need to be happy. Now I see why people start to get rid of their possessions when they return from traveling. Most people don't even have shoes, but they're not very necessary in such a warm area. They do nearly all have umbrellas though, which I found to be quite amusing. The answer was no, there is no public assistance at all. Their government does give out loans though, through banks. The one thing that *completely* shocked Mike (and he is very well educated and well traveled) was to hear we have homeless people in the US. 'How could this be?' he kept asking... 'They live on the street?' Makes you wonder how there isn't homelessness in Rwanda but there is in San Francisco. On another note, they do suffer from AIDS - 3% of the country has it. This is not nearly so bad as Kenya or the Congo, but still a big problem.

I stayed in Kigali only for one day, spending the rest of my time up in the mountains to see the mountain gorillas who were amazing!

The conservation efforts are extraordinary in Rwanda - really impressive. I wonder if we in the states could even do such a good job? There are only 729 mountain gorillas in the entire world and they are an endangered species. Their population has grown by 29 in the past 2 years! They live in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Congo which is all one contiguous area but some of the volcanoes are divided among the 3 countries, so the gorillas roam across borders. Poachers come in to kill the mothers and take their children so they can sell them to zoos, since mountain gorillas don't live in captivity - only lowland gorillas who are not endangered. I will not sadden you with the specifics we learned of the deaths over the past few years. In response to the killings the government has trackers which follow each group of gorillas from early in the morning until dark, at which time the military starts their rounds, providing 24 hour coverage of the parks and protection for the gorillas. This past year there were no deaths from poaching!

In order to see the gorillas, you have to purchase a very expensive permit. They only allow a maximum of 56 people to see the gorillas per day, for only one hour or else it can disturb the gorillas and stress them. You are divided into 7 groups of 8 people and each visits a different group of gorillas. On a yearly basis, the park officials get together with the neighboring villages and ask for their needs. They then disburse the money from the permits to the villages for the projects. Examples of some projects are a primary school, a local water tank, a health center. This keeps the villages supporting the conservation effort, which is key to its success.

I really was blown away by the spirit and the resilience of the Rwandans, and their ability to achieve conservation success when so many have so little. Truly an inspiration!