LAKE KIVU AND KIGALI After seeing the gorillas we drove to Lake Kivu on the west of Rwanda for a relaxing couple of days. We stayed in a lovely lodge in Gisenyi - right on the edge of the most beautiful lake with Rwandan fishermen rowing past in their dugout canoes. Rwanda is incomparably beautiful, however recent history of violence can make any visit a little uneasy. It is hard to imagine how this paradise could harbour such a violent and disturbing past. Gisenyi is where the 1994 genocide is supposed to have started and the exit point of the hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees on their way to Goma in Congo, just the other side of the lake. Only twelve years after the event you would never know that it has seen so much trouble. It was only when we started speaking to local people that they told us their horrific experiences - our waitress saw her parents being killed by a machete and hid from the Hutu inhamwe (young teenagers armed with machetes who instigated most of the brutal murders in the country). The historical parallels with the Aryan youth movement and the German holocaust were eerily similar. There are memories of the genocide throughout Rwanda. We visited the excellent Memorial in Kigali (a must for anyone who seeks to understand the causes of the genocide more), which was ironically set up by the International community who could and should have done more to stop it. Whilst in Rwanda Camilla has been reading an excellent but disturbing book about the genocide period called "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we shall die with our families". We are still finding it impossible to comprehend the scale of the atrocity. An estimated one million people were killed in three months out of a population of eight million- people killed their own family members, teachers killed their school children, workers killed their own co-workers, priests killed their own congregations...although we now know a lot more about it, it is still hard to understand it. Every young person and adult was involved in the genocide, either as a killer or as a survivor, so the country is still in deep trauma and it will take generations for the country to regain its former pride. From our point of view it seems to be the poorest country we have travelled through but they are looking towards a brighter future. The country is beautiful, the people hospitable, the wildlife amazing (especially the gorillas). Whilst Rwanda might not be on the top of most people's 'must visit destinations' we felt it was certainly a good place to explore. Tourism, hand in hand with responsible aid and education programmes, will hopefully help restore Rwanda's pride to become a desirable place to visit. Inspite of the violence of Rwanda's past, we really enjoyed our time here and the people seemed to appreciate our visit. Rwanda may feel like a case of 'paradise lost' but in time we know it will be found again.