Fragile Growth

This weekend I took a short vacation to Gisenyi, a little beach town situated on the shores of Lake Kivu.  I was a little apprehensive about the trip, both because of the town's proximity to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the the eventuality that Lake Kivu will explode due to a build-up of gases in its waters (as far as I can tell this explosion is not going to happen for quite some time, but I'm not sure.  Geologist friends?).

But the trip was a big success!  We stayed with my boss' family and thus were treated to easy and comfortable lodging and a delicious dinner with many more dishes than any thanksgiving dinner might offer in the states.  We had breakfast at a resort surrounded by lush and dramatic mountains, the lake and beautiful flowers and I could have sworn I was in Hawaii (or my dad's backyard).  We made our way through the market to buy lunch (bread, peanut butter, bananas, avocados, cookies) and even found a friendly bartender who allowed us to have lunch in his bar when, after buying the delightful picnic lunch, we realized that due to the taboo of eating in public here, there was really no appropriate place to sit down and eat it (even without the taboo we likely would have attracted more attention and kids than would have been comfortable).  Saturday evening we walked along the shore of the lake watching kids swim and practicing our French with one of our French-only speaking hosts (although that walk did end with the slightly overwhelming appearance of hundreds of bats swarming over our heads).  Even the travel to and from Gisenyi was nice - on the way I sat next to a Rwandan university student who was on his way to study the gorrillas for four months (the gorillas and monkeys are about an hour from Gisenyi).  On the way home a "rest stop" included traditional dancing and deliciously barbequed potatoes to snack on, as well as views of tea fields, eucalyptus groves and the always dramatic Rwandan hillside. 

Amidst these adventures and vistas, the history, memory and effects of the genocide frequently manifested themselves.  A memorial on the road to the Hawaii-like resort marks where, for some time after the genocide, buses would be stopped and Tutsis killed.  This continued until the bus riders would refuse to separate between Hutu and Tutsi and the whole bus would be torched.  Throughout the province signs articulated a critical mission in Rwanda, saying that there, they fought genocide ideology with their hearts and minds.

But most poignant for me was seeing how the land, the actual geography of Rwanda, is so related to the memory of genocide and violence.  We stopped to look at a beautiful winding river from a cliff, and upon learning about it, found that it is where many were drowned during the genocide.  While gawking at the bright red sky around the still-active volcano on the Rwanda-DRC border, we were told that perhaps it wasn't a reflection of the active volcano spewing fire, but rather a reflection of houses burning in the DRC, something common in the country still ridden with violence, much of it related to Rwanda's past.  Standing on the shores of beautiful Lake Kivu I couldn't help but remember that it was where many bodies were dumped during the genocide.

Lake Kivu is located on a rift that is expanding, or in other words, as far as I understand, it is under Lake Kivu where the Earth is literally growing. This growth probably makes the beautiful mountains I enjoyed that host acres of farms and house gorillas.  But this growth is also related to the build-up of gases that will one day cause the lake to explode, unless some method to remove the gas is put in place.  For now, there are efforts to turn the gas into an energy source for Rwanda.  But, the volcano which currently only erupts into the DRC, could easily trigger an eruption of the lake in Rwanda.  I don't want to read too much into the geology, but it seems like the fragile balance of growth and energy production and building gas pressure and nearby volcanic activity occuring at Lake Kivu all too closely mirrors the fragile, hopeful, possibly tourism producing, calm that Gisenyi and the neighboring areas are trying to maintain.

Ok enough geographic/political metaphors and time for bed - tomorrow morning I teach English for four hours in a house named "Benazir Bhutto!" 

But first, some photos of the trip:

Beautiful Lake Kivu

Picnic Lunch!