Despite best Belfast hospitality courtesy of Rowan, we didn’t stop in Rwanda for long enough to get past first impressions of the country. First impressions, though, were good. A tiny country of dense mountains, fertile soil and beautiful people, it is immaculately clean and well ordered. Streets are swept, roads sealed, motorbike taxi drivers wear one helmet and carry a second for their passenger. We even managed to buy a Tomtom in a large Kigali shopping centre!

Sadly, it’s impossible to talk about Rwanda outside the context of how much it has suffered. Belgium’s Divide and Conquer colonialism led, after independence, to a genocide 17 years ago in which 1 in 6 Rwandans were killed as the world looked on (or in the case of the French, continued supplying arms). A further 1 in 3 became refugees. 250,000 fled over a single bridge into Tanzania in one day. Bodies littered the streets in every town and province. If anyone hasn’t seen them, the films “Shooting Dogs” and “Hotel Rwanda” bring the genocide into brutal focus.

To try and connect the country as it is today to its recent history is difficult. Our impression was of a people who have collectively recoiled in disgust at what they did to themselves and have, in retribution, thrown themselves at full-scale cleanliness, productivity and development. The investment money flowing in from a guilty international community plays a significant role.

It’s a country we would love to come back to and get to know; three days didn’t allow us to scratch the surface.

[Thanks to Ian for the pictures of the memorial in this post]