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Of Lakes
and Survivors - Gisenyi, Rwanda
Gisenyi Rwanda
Feb 10-13 2011
About 2 1/2 hours after we left Kigali, travelling the winding roads around,
over and down the neatly terraced hills we were in Gisenyi on Lake Kivu. The
main roads in Rwanda leading from town to town have been paved and very good.
The same does not apply to the roads in the villages. They are invariably full
of rocks and potholes and very dusty. Gisenyi was no different. The road
conditions are proving to be a good test for the strength of the wheels on our
suitcases. So far the wheels are holding out.
You would expect that
there would be families enjoying a picnic and trying the waters of Lake Kivu,
one of the Great Lakes along the Albertine Rift Valley. Lake Kivu, at a maximum
depth of 500 M, is one of the 20 deepest lakes in the world. The only people
brave enough were local boys washing their clothes and bathing at the edge of
the lake. This is because there is an unusual concentration of methane gasses
and dissolved CO2 in Lake Kivu near Gisenyi, the village we were visiting. There have
never been recorded limnic eruptions of these toxic gases in Lake Kivu. Lakes in nearby
Cameroon with the same conditions erupted twice in the 1980s with great loss of
life. We didn’t come to Gisenyi to swim. We came to enjoy the scenery around the
lake and countryside.
The bus station, in the center of the
business district, was a crowded, dusty spot with a myriad of moto taxi drivers
and other touts all desperate for our business. We refused all help and wheeled
our bags the short distance to the Centre d’Acceuil de l'Eglise Presbyterian,
the recommended budget place to stay. They had no double rooms left, just
crowded dorms available. We reserved a room for the next night and went to
Auberge de Gisenyi, on the other side of the bus depot. They had several rooms,
situated around a central courtyard restaurant, with a very popular African
style buffet lunch. The restaurant became our favourite place to eat but the
rooms at the Presbyterian center were quieter and much better.
The next
morning we started out for a walk along Lake Kivu. We stopped just around the
corner from the main street in town to watch a large group of prisoners in
orange overalls and some in pink chopping down a tall pine tree. The men took
turns cutting the last distance through the trunk with axes. It had taken a
while but the tree finally fell, a bit off center but without damaging anything.
The prisoners worked the next two days levelling the ground for a second bus
depot for the minivans servicing the local towns. Now you just have to dodge the
longer distance minivans in the main street.
The Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) was just 1.3 km along the shoreline. We walked to the border just to
say we had been next to the country but didn’t attempt to cross. The political
situation in the DRC is still volatile and there is not much of interest near
the Gisenyi border. If we had entered the DRC we may have had to pay a Visa fee
and then get a new Visa to return to Rwanda. Instead we turned and went the
other way along the shore, past numerous hotels, bars and restaurants and into a
long park with a nice sandy beach.
Before dinner we chatted with a
Rwandan school teacher who is on the board of a private Secondary school in
Gisenyi. He works in an associated school in Kigali. He told us it has just been
3 years since public education is free. Pupils still have to buy books and
uniforms, which precludes many from attending.
We ate dinner at the
Presbyterian Center one night, sharing the table with a French Canadian woman
who is spending three months volunteering in a center for street kids. She
didn’t speak much English but was glad to talk slowly so I could understand and
practise my poor French. She enjoys her volunteer work and says there is a
crying need for help but they are not very well organized. The center has 650
children who have no homes from the very young to 18-19 year olds.
The
next day Ray and I negotiated with two moto taxi boys to drive us to the Rubona
Peninsula, a scenic spot about 7 km along the shore of Lake Kivu. It was obvious
when we started out that the boys had never been there and didn’t know where it
was. We stopped on the lake road and I insisted we ask directions at a store
kiosk next to the road. Luckily a man was summoned who spoke English and knew
exactly where the boys should go. Off we went along the scenic and hilly coast
road until we got to a large brewery, where they use power from the methane
under the lake. I thought we could get a tour of the brewery but that was not
the case.
We walked along the lakeside road stopping to watch two boats
unload goods and passengers. Stalks of bananas and bags of vegetables and
potatoes were loaded on the heads of passengers and carried up the hill to the
road. A bag full of freshly skinned cow hides was laid out for inspection beside
the boat. Women were getting out of a small dugout with plastic basins full of
small silver fish they had purchased from one of the fishing boats that lined
the shore. Each wooden boat had a three M long pole projecting from the bow. It
appeared to be a holder for a net to catch the small fish in the lake. Young
boys were swimming in the lake. Several of them were jumping off the side of the
docked fishing boats. A few climbed out onto the fishing pole on the bow to jump
in.
We had been told there were restaurants to have lunch but nothing
seemed to be open that Saturday. We decided to return to the Brewery and take a
minivan that was loading up back to Gisenyi.
Saturday night we were
privileged to meet Frederick Ndabaramiye who was introduced to us by Jon Lee, an
American from Santa Barbara, California, staying at the Presbyterian Center.
Jon, who is an English teacher and ex-professional volleyball player, was in
Gisenyi to visit Ubumwe Community Center where Frederick is the Arts Director.
If other survivors of the Rwandan Genocide are as dynamic and resourceful as
Frederick, Rwanda is going to be an example to the rest of the world.
The conflict in Rwanda didn’t all stop in 1994. There were ongoing atrocities in
several areas of the country. Frederick was 15 years old in 1997 and on a public
bus that was stopped by an Interahamwe death squad. He was ordered to shoot the
rest of the passengers but refused. The Interahamwe killed the passengers
themselves, severely beat up Frederick and using a dull machete, cut off both of
his hands and left him for dead. He survived with the help of local women who
found him wandering in a forest. He spent a year in hospital and then spent time
in an orphanage learning to deal with life with no hands. Instead of seeking
revenge, he started working with street kids. He learned to paint, take care of
himself and even plays a mean game of volleyball with just the stumps of his
arms.
An American woman from Columbus Ohio, Jessica McCall, met Frederick
at the orphanage and asked him what his goal in life was. Frederick told her he
wanted to open a center to help children and adults with disabilities. Many
children born with disabilities in Rwanda are considered a curse and are kept
inside the home with no hope of improving their lives. Because Frederick had
received help at the orphanage, he knew there was a better way. Jessica was so
impressed she went back to the US and started raising funds. In 2008 the
official dedication of a large community center, Ubumwe, meaning “unity”, was
officially opened.
We were so impressed with this story we decided to
visit the center, which is in Gisenyi. Two Moto Taxis took us to the center
Sunday morning. Up to 80 people come to the center every day but Sunday.
Frederick was off with Jon to play beach volleyball. Fortunately, Charles, a
former student at the center, now a teacher of the deaf, was there to show us
around. We also met Zackary, who was brought up in an orphanage and is now a
co-director of the center with Frederick.
The center has programs for four main disabilities groups; hearing
disabled people, those with impaired vision, people, like Charles, who have
physical disabilities and those with mental disabilities. Most of the people
come first for training, which can last three years. They are taught life
skills, follow the regular school curriculum at the center, or if possible are
integrated into the regular school system. The students are taught skills that
can be practised in local cooperative workshops. The center has a big room where
students are taught to sew on Treadle Singer Sewing machines and make dolls,
stuffed animals and other crafts that can be offered for sale. Others learn to
use large knitting machines to make sweaters and ponchos. Banana leaves are
woven into placemats and baskets and are used to decorate note cards. There is a
room where deaf students are taught sign language. A young deaf girl who lives
nearby came in to meet us and show us what she had made. Another room has
computers where the students learn to use these useful machines.
In
addition, there is an outreach program where staff members visit homes with
handicapped children to help them better the lives of their children. There are
plans in place to expand the center with the addition of a pre-school center to
be built behind the current building. The new center will allow children with
disabilities to be helped much earlier and the local community will have a day
care center for all children.
It was an extremely rewarding and
uplifting experience. With the generous support of several organizations and the
dedication of the staff, the lives of many children and adults has been improved
and enriched.
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