was off to a late start. My hosts had insisted I stay for lunch, sharing a meal of rice, potatoes, pasta, and vegetables while watching football (soccer) on the television. I had met Clement the day before, shortly after he contacted me via Couchsurfing, offering to host me in his home town of Huye, formerly known as Butare, Rwanda. He was nice enough to show me around, taking me to the Rwandan National Museum and giving me a tour of the National University of Rwanda, where he was studying pharmaceuticals.
I
Remnants of the genocide were everywhere – from physical scars and missing limbs, to huge memorials in almost every town, to the manner in which people interacted with one another. Rwanda was different from the other African countries I had traveled to. There was less physical engagement. There was no yelling or grabbing in the streets and no pushing fights over whose matatu I would ride in. The people of Rwanda were reserved, but inquisitive, and it was clear that the genocide had deeply affected their way of life.
Clement lived with his brother, mother, grandmother, two sisters, and two cousins in a small brick house situated down a steep, eroding slope off the main road, just south of town. The backyard boasted large banana trees, along with papaya, cassava, and corn. There was a small water pump just outside the house where they collected water for cooking, but not for drinking. A car battery powered the lights and television in their living room. After the violent genocide of 1994, which decimated Rwanda’s population and left thousands of people displaced and orphaned, intergenerational family living became necessarily common.
As I pushed my bicycle up the steep, rocky path towards the road, Clement and his brother carried my panniers while their five year old cousin watched and giggled. Moving on after getting to know new friends is always the hardest part, but I thanked them and went back to say goodbye to the rest of the family before I finally loaded up my bike and began pedaling back through town. It was my third day into a solo bike tour through Rwanda and Uganda and I didn’t know what to expect. The ride from Kigali to Huye had certainly lived up to Rwanda’s reputation as the “land of a thousand hills,” and I was headed toward Nyungwe Forest, which rises to over 8,000 feet above sea level.
Bunyan Velo 70