As we explaining the situation, the man at the reception indicated that this happened often: people came to the Gisakura Guesthouse assuming that they made a reservation, while there was none made. The Gisakura Tea Estate Guesthouse has been closed after the last edition of the Bradt Guide. He knew the lady we called and told that she often accepted reservations, even though the guesthouse is not functioning anymore. This way, visitors are forced to go to Gisakura Guesthouse or, when it is full, to go to one of the two other options, both of which are much more expensive.

Right after we arrived at Gisakura Guesthouse and had taken the last two available rooms, another family arrived. They also assumed that they had made a reservation, but they also were ‘tricked’ by the lady on the phone. I hope that were able to find a place at one of the lodges…

To summarize: I would like to use this forum to inform other visitors that the Gisakura Tea Estate Guesthouse is closed and that when you still happen to call the number mentioned in the guide, no real reservations are made for you.

Kind regards,

Anne

There are two options for accommodation within the park, Bukima Patrol Post Tented Camp and Mikeno Lodge. The tented camp is conveniently located at the start of the mountain gorilla trek at Bukima and Mikeno Lodge is nestled amongst virgin forest centrally located 1 hours drive from all the main attractions (for rates please see www.mikenolodge.com)

Park permit prices are as follows:

$400 Visit Mountain Gorillas

$200 Climb Nyiragongo Volcano (includes spending the night in one of our shelters at the summit next to the world’s largest lava lake)

$100 Trek Chimpanzees

$200 Climb the Rwenzori mountains

Virunga National Park can offer tourists who book one of the above park permits, a  $50 tourism visa, which is valid for 14 days. You can use your tourism visa to enter DRCongo through either the Bunagana (Uganda) or Goma (Rwanda) borders.

To book your trip contact our tourism officer Vianney Harakandi directly on:

Email: tourism@gorilla.cd

Phone: +243 99 1715401

For more information or to organize your trip yourself online go to: www.visitvirunga.org

Sarah Bendelow

I also think Byumba is beautiful and worth a visit. There is a beautiful wetland, Rugezi, full of an extraordinary variety of birds half an hour from Byumba which Blandine and a British woman were hoping to develop. Unfortunately the UK person is now very ill, so I’m not sure what will happen to the project. I have been on guided boat trips on the lake and in the sun, it is wonderful. I’m not sure if Blandine can now organise these trips. Worth asking. bird watchers paradise!

Thank you for your guide!, and good luck exploring, Joan

Also, all outgoing buses from Kigali to different places in Rwanda are going now strictly from Nyabugogo. Even companies like Virunga, Atraco etc. that used to leave from various points in the city centre now only leave from there – so whenever you want to leave Kigali by bus you’ve to go to Nyabugogo.

Johann

Arriving at Murambi hill, one is first struck by the breathtaking beauty of its location. The site of a partially completed technical school in Nyabagabe District in southern Rwanda, it is a tidy array of unfinished classrooms, dormitories and washrooms situated on the grassy crest of a red dirt ridge that falls away on both sides to lush green bottom lands, beyond which rise the steeply cultivated and densely populated hills that hold this place in a close, but in no way comfortable, embrace.

For all its beauty, Murambi is troubled, the site of a horrific massacre of men, women and children during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

May 26th marks the day of the official opening of a new exhibition at Murambi by the National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide (CNLG). Working under the auspices of CNLG, the exhibition was created by Aegis Trust, the UK-based organization responsible for the development and management of the Kigali Genocide Memorial and Genocide Archive of Rwanda.

“We would like to extend our warmest thanks to the Aegis Trust for their outstanding exhibition design and their close collaboration with us throughout this project,” says Jean de Dieu Mucyo, Executive Secretary of CNLG.

Murambi Genocide Memorial is now the second commemorative site in Rwanda to offer visitors a museum-quality experience, comparable to that of the Kigali Genocide Memorial which opened in 2004 in the capital.

Murambi, with its history as a killing site and its unique, compelling displays of preserved bodies, is arguably the most important site in Rwanda for confronting the truth of the genocide. The addition of an exhibition locating Murambi’s story within that of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi provides both a national and local context for understanding what happened here.

Murambi is where up to fifty thousand Tutsi from all over the region were sent in the early days of the genocide, ostensibly for their safety, only to have their water and the flow of food shut off by the authorities. Murambi is where local militias sent to kill Tutsi were met by fierce resistance and turned back. The subsequent attack in the early morning of April 21st by the combined forces of the army and militia using guns, grenades, clubs, hoes and machetes was virtually complete: only a dozen are known to have survived.

After the massacre, the authorities used bulldozers to dig mass graves; upon later exhumation hundreds of the buried bodies were found mummified by the heat of decomposition. These bodies, preserved with lime, can now be viewed on white-painted racks in the dormitory blocks. The humanity of individual corpses – their torment still visible in the frozen cry of a child, the chopped skull and severed leg tendons, the missing limbs – is the grim legacy of Murambi.

“There are those who feel that only reburial can offer dignity for the dead, but some survivors ask what dignity there is in being forgotten,” reports Freddy Mutanguha, Country Director of Aegis Trust. “They fear that unless the ultimate evidence is there to see, the genocide could be denied and perhaps one day happen again.”

The Murambi exhibition is comprised of 4000 square feet (350 sq m) of exhibit space, complete with floor-to-ceiling displays of archival photos and interpretive text in three languages – Kinyarwanda, English and French – as well as video installations and an interactive GPS display of killing sites. The testimonies of survivors, of others who risked their own lives to shelter those targeted, and of the perpetrators themselves provide a window into the stark emotions and inner struggles of Rwandans coming to terms with the genocide.

Incorporating recent scholarship and archival material, the Murambi exhibition traces the history of the genocide from colonial times – the cycles of anti-Tutsi violence and discrimination ushered in with independence, the escalation of propaganda and attacks against Tutsi by successive Hutu regimes – revealing how plans for extermination were prepared and carried out by the authorities at all levels, by the army and militia during the genocide, and what was done – and not done – to stop it.

Following the broad narrative of the genocide are exhibits that focus specifically on the events at Murambi. With chilling clarity, the story of what unfolded during the night of April 21, 1994 is told in the words of those few who survived. Visitors then pass through rooms of family photos mounted larger-than-life upon the walls – the smiling faces seeming to refuse the brutal fact of their slaughter – where glass-covered burial crypts, designed but not yet completed, will hold preserved bodies: adults in one chamber, and children in another.

A final room displays the important stories of people who risked death and suffered themselves to rescue Tutsi and to preserve human life.

The exhibition ends with a challenge to visitors: Now that you have heard the story of Murambi, what is in your heart, and what are you moved to do? Visitors are invited to write on slips of coloured paper and to post them on a bulletin board for others to read.

On opening day, after the official ceremony, crowds of local people enter the exhibition, looking this way and that, while hundreds outside press against the glass doors and windows, awaiting their turn. They have come to see what is here at Murambi. Some may come again.

Another door has opened, another step taken on a long journey that must of necessity be negotiated by Rwandans themselves. Today, passing through the doorway of the exhibition many of the young are learning their history for the first time. Rwanda today is building a positive and inclusive future, one which depends on understanding the past in order to say ‘Never again’ to genocide. In its already important role in remembering the past, Murambi Genocide Memorial has been enhanced significantly by the opening of its excellent new genocide exhibition.

Al Setka, Director of Communications for the Great Ape Trust, hassent us the following press release about a planned ecotourism program that has been unveiled for Rwanda’s ‘Forest of Hope’, which would be used to support local people, chimpanzee conservation and reforestation efforts in Rwanda’s Western Province:  

A proposed ecotourism program for the Gishwati Forest brings new hope to Rwanda’s Forest of Hope.  Organizers of the Gishwati Area Conservation Program (GACP) recently presented their tourism pilot program to the Rwanda Development Board in Kigali.

Dr. Benjamin Beck, conservation director of Great Ape Trust, which directs and supports GACP, said an income stream from ecotourism is critical for maintaining community support for preservation of the Gishwati Forest in Rwanda’s Western Province.

“Despite their needs for agricultural land and for forest products such as firewood, Gishwati’s neighbors have enthusiastically supported Gishwati’s protection, and deserve additional tangible rewards,” Beck added. “Our program provides benefits to the community by being one of the largest employers in the region, and ecotourism revenues would sweeten the pot even more.”

Beck said the implementation of an ecotourism program would follow four years of GACP success with reforestation and chimpanzee conservation. Today, there are 20 identified East African chimpanzees in the Gishwati Forest – a 54 percent increase from 13 apes in early 2008 when GACP began the chimpanzee field studies and forest restoration initiative. During that period, the protected area of Gishwati Forest has increased an impressive 67 percent from 2,190 to 3,665 acres.

“With that success, the next logical step for Rwanda’s Forest of Hope is a revenue-producing tourism program that benefits the people of Gishwati,” added Beck.

The Gishwati pilot program would include guided half-day forest hikes for small groups of visitors, ensuring a personal and interactive experience for each guest. Tourists would be introduced to Gishwati’s unique bird population, exotic trees, a variety of plant life and several species of primates – including golden monkeys and chimpanzees. Fees for the treks would range from $15 (USD) for Rwandan residents, $35 for foreign residents and $40 for foreign guests.

If tourists want to go beyond the forest’s edge, the Forest of Hope experience will provide additional opportunities. Guided introductions will be offered to a community of historically marginalized people (Batwa) and cooperatives of traditional healers, handicrafts and beekeeping as destinations for experiencing important aspects of traditional Rwandan culture.

Guests would met and interact with cooperative members, learn about their activities and purchase traditional Rwandan handcrafted baskets, handbags, artwork and honey.

“We are including these community-based destinations in the Gishwati pilot ecotourism program because today’s ecotourists are interested in learning about different cultures and are willing to contribute to the development of the communities they visit,” said Madeline Nyiratuza, program director for GACP. “There is also an important interplay between the survival of the Gishwati Forest Reserve and the improvement of livelihoods for the members of these local cooperatives.”

When GACP started in 2008, the life of historically marginalized people depended on the sale of bark of indigenous trees and forest vines, the collection of wild honey, forest fruits and vegetables; and hunting rabbits and fowl. The women in the handcraft cooperative collected their craft materials in the forest while traditional healers gathered medicinal plants.

“These men and women know much about the forest but they need alternatives to what they were getting from there.  Ecotourism will help share and document the stories about their connection to the forest while supporting them to improve their livelihoods and to restore the forest,” Nyiratuza said.  “People around Gishwati cannot wait to see this ecotourism happen. The hope for tourism revenue is the key element that positively influences the attitudes of Gishwati area residents toward the conservation of this fragment of forest.”

GACP officials would like to begin tours by the end of the year, however, implementation of the program is dependent upon approval by the RDB, which oversees tourism in Volcanoes National Park, Akagera National Park and Nyungwe National Park.

GISHWATI AREA CONSERVATION PROGRAM BACKGROUND

The Gishwati Forest Reserve’s history of deforestation extended over many decades.  A forest that covered about 70,000 acres in 1930, was nearly depleted because of ill-advised large-scale cattle ranching projects, resettlement of refugees after the 1994 genocide, inefficient small-plot farming and the establishment of plantations of non-native trees.  As a result, the area has been plagued with catastrophic flooding, erosion, landslides, decreased soil fertility, decreased water quality and heavy river siltation – all of which aggravate a cycle of poverty.

In late 2007, the President of Rwanda, His Excellency Paul Kagame, and Great Ape Trust Founder and Chair Ted Townsend of Des Moines, Iowa, pledged at the Clinton Global Initiative conference to create a “national conservation park” in Rwanda to benefit climate, biodiversity and the welfare of the Rwandan people. In early 2008, the Gishwati Forest Reserve in western Rwanda, disregarded for years by international conservation organizations, was chosen as the site of the future park – and the Gishwati Area Conservation Program (GACP) began.

In 2010, the Rwandan Ministry of Lands and Environment entered into a Memorandum of Understanding granting GACP responsibility for managing the protected forest while endorsing the most challenging element of the project – a 30 mile-long forest corridor connecting Gishwati to Nyungwe National Park.

Today, GACP provides secure and meaningful employment to 27 Rwandans, and is an economic engine in the communities surrounding Gishwati. Students and working adults in 15 schools and 10 cooperatives as well as officials of the Rutsiro District government are partnering with GACP to help restore Gishwati.

GREAT APE TRUST BACKGROUND

Great Ape Trust, is a scientific research facility in Des Moines, Iowa, dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence, and to the preservation of endangered great apes in their natural habitats. Announced in 2002 and receiving its first ape residents in 2004, Great Ape Trust is home to a colony of seven bonobos involved in noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities, and to two orangutans. To learn more about Great Ape Trust, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, go to www.GreatApeTrust.org.

·        - supporting the promotion of cricket by working with the Rwandan
Cricket Authority (RCA) and visiting schools, colleges and orphanages

·        - spreading of the HIV/AIDS prevention message through the medium
of cricket.

The volunteers travel from the UK with softball and hardball kit and leave
it with the RCA at the end of the visit. The charity also visits 3 other
African countries Kenya, Botswana and Uganda.

Visits take place in mid March and end of September every year and although
based in Kigali, the charity also visits Ruhengeri, Butare and Gitarama. On
average over 12 different educational and community establishments are
visited and over 1,000 young people are introduced to cricket per visit.

A key activity for CWB in Rwanda is the sustainability of cricket. It does
this by training/accrediting coaches and teachers to International Cricket
Council (ICC) standards and also by establishing partnerships with
government and non-government organisations who are looking for different
ways to spread the HIV/AIDS prevention message.”

Cheers

Bob Hopkins