MK: I was sent to Cairo for a Global Fund Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop. Because of the awkward flight schedules, I was in Cairo from the 8th to 15th of December 2007.
There is nothing more enjoyable than going for a hike in the forest....... that is, of course, unless you are hiking in the tropical forest of central Africa where poisonous spiders and killer ants haunt you at every step. Once a month in Malabo, a mixed groups of locals and foreigners embark on a 4 hour adventure into the unknown.
You may ask yourself, "why does it matter where Equatorial Guinea is?". Well, this country unknown to the majority of the world just happens to be where our fair Mélanie is hiding.In recent years the former Spanish colony has become one of sub-Saharan
Large oil and gas deposits were discovered off
AT-A-GLANCE:
Politics: President Obiang seized power in 1979; rights groups have condemned his rule as one
Economy:
International:
But few people have benefited from the oil riches and the country ranks near the bottom of a UN human development index. The government has started a scheme to divert a share of oil revenues into social projects.
The corruption watchdog Transparency International has put
In 1996
For initial photos of Equatorial Guinea, click here.
JK: With Mélanie's departure date for Eqatorial Guinea (EG) finally set (it had been postponed for an extra week due to visa delays), we decided to take one last adventure. By Canadian standards, the distances in Europe are so short and offer hugely rewarding end-points. Wanting to do something new and interesting, we decided to take a less than three hour drive over to the Champagne region of France. How we never thought of doing this before, I do not know. 
admiring the countryside and eventually stopping in to Moet & Chandon, home of none other than Dom Perignon (in the town of Epernay).
Ah, the lazy days of spring.... this time a bike ride in Knokke (north sea coast of Belgium)
With JK participating in a conference at the "Sciences Po" university, MK decided she would join in the fun and take the Thalys to Paris for a little adventure! The whole experience was made even more enjoyable with ER there, who was also going to Paris the same day for business.
....Equatorial Guinea!!!!
JK: It was short but sweet. Just days after I got confirmation that Mélanie was leaving UNDP in Rwanda, I found myself on Rwandan soil. How is that for doing my husbandly duty? :) (OK, Mel paid for the ticket, but still...)
MK: I was fortunate enough to attend a Sub-regional Environment Cluster (SREC) meeting in Mombasa, Kenya the week of 30 April to 4 May. About 60 of us attended the meeting from UNDP offices in Eastern and Southern Africa. 
Our conference took place at the Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort and Spa. I don't think I have ever really been to a resort before but was shocked at every meal. The food was unbelievable! Every day there was a different theme and live music during dinner. 
I didn't get to see much of Mombasa this time around. I forgot that the Eastern Coast of Kenya is like a sauna! Living in Rwanda and Belgium over the last few years, I forgot what the sun and heat were like! Mid-week, we went on a field trip and saw some GEF projects in action. The highlight was trying honey from sweat bees! Despite the fact that my days were fully packed from 8:00am to 6:00pm including meetings while eating lunch, I still managed to fit in a Kahawa Scrub (coffee grains), a facial, an ayuraveda massage, and a pedicure! What a treat! On the last day a small group of us went for an afternoon snorkel in the Marine Park. To see photos, click here and here. 
Two members of the infamous NART gang used Melanie being in Rwanda as motivation to venture down from Europe to the dark continent. Their 3 week tour included Tanzania (Zanzibar and mainland safari), Uganda (Kampala), and Rwanda (Kigali and Volcano National Park). The day they arrived, Melanie had the pleasure of introducing them to one of Rwanda's hottest night clubs called, "Fair Place" where UNDP was having an "End of Year/Staff Party". The disco lights, carpet, and pure cheese/70's retro decor were too much for these Euro snobs to handle!The stain of genocide is ever-present in Rwanda
Charles Gordon
The
Sunday, April 01, 2007
BUTARE, Rwanda - The taxi is not supposed to be on the road this morning and the driver has to do some fast talking to the policeman who pulls him over. The driver explains that he is taking his passenger to the genocide memorial at Murambi, 28 kilometres away. The policeman lets the taxi pass.
Every Wednesday it's gacaca day in Butare, a day when a citizens' court meets to decide the fate of people accused of crimes against their neighbours during the genocide of 1994. During the morning on Gacaca day, all business ceases.
There is no getting away from the genocide this day, if there ever is. The first stretch of road goes beside a valley in which men wearing pink uniforms are working.
They are prisoners, some of whom will have their gacaca moments and others of whom already have. The following day, at the
On Friday, it is the 13th anniversary of the start of the genocide. On April 6, 1994, the president's plane was shot down and this became the pretext for a slaughter that began immediately, so well had it been planned in advance.
For three months, people were murdered, with the enthusiastic support of the state, at the rate of 9,000 a day. The international community watched, didn't see and certainly didn't act.
Every year, there is a week of remembrance in
In one of those small-world coincidences, a man now on trial in
At Murambi, a former technical school three kilometres down a long dirt road from the town of
Some women are seated on the ground working and you can hear them laugh. Looking over you see that beside them, on a tarpaulin, are bones and skulls. In
Outside the first room in one of a dozen long, low brick buildings, pop music is playing on somebody's portable radio. The room is full of decomposed bodies covered in lime.
The room was a classroom. Now it has four large platforms on the floor, each covered with bodies in the poses in which they died. You are led to the next room and see more, and then to the next, then to another building with more rooms. One room contains nothing but the remains of children, some with holes in their skulls.
There is a room with just skulls and bones, another room in which clothes, most of them red, probably from the dirt, hang on lines.
Somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 people were at Murambi in April 1994, told by the authorities that they would be safe there. Then the militias came, threw grenades into the rooms and finished their work with machetes. It took four days.
Of those killed, 27,000 have been exhumed and reburied; 1,800, or parts of the 1,800, are on display. The rest are in mass graves. French troops installed themselves at the site in the aftermath of the genocide. On top of one of the mass graves they constructed a volleyball court.
It is a little detail that will live on, bitterly savoured by generations of Rwandans.
There is no signage in these rooms at Murambi, no panel displays, no narration. A woman who speaks no English and a little French shows you from room to room, offering no commentary. After two buildings she is replaced by a man, who is a survivor and has a deep hole in his forehead.
Neither of them says much, which is all right. Maybe it's better if there is nobody to explain it.
Charles Gordon is teaching at the National University of Rwanda as part of the Carleton University School of Journalism's Rwanda Initiative. © The
Melanie's Collection of photos of Rwanda and Murambi Genocide Memorial Centre. More photos can be viewed at Camera_Rwanda's Flickr set.
The national ceremony, under the theme 'We should remember the plight of genocide survivors while fighting for their justice', will be presided over by President Paul Kagame at Murambi in Southern Province on Saturday the 7th of April 2007.
MK: Well, I wasn't back from South Africa for a day when I packed up and went to the Eastern province in Rwanda where Akagera National Park is situated. This time, it was for UNDP's Annual Retreat. The highlight of the week was on the last night (Thursday the 22 March) in which we had a party. UNDP provided copious bottles of wine and alcohol for its staff. However, the staff of the Akagera Lodge felt it belonged to them as well. They had no shame in bringing trays of glasses, taking a bottle of whiskey off our table, filling up their glasses and brining them to the bar only for all of us at the table to watch on stunned! The staff proceeded to drink the whiskey they took from our table!! Other highlights included an early Friday morning Game Drive in which the Rwandese staff pointed at every living creature and exclaimed, "goat!"!!
MK: I left John at the airport in Johannesburg and shuttled my way to Pretoria. I spent one week there familiarising myself with my UNDP counterparts in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) - photo to the left. I had a chance to reunite with old friends from my training in Bonn, Germany. Photo below.
Toinette, Michael, their 3 children (Daniella, David, and Joshua), and Dandy (Malcolm's sister) hosted me for a few days, took me sightseeing, took me shopping, fed me, sheltered me, etc. They were great hosts! I was very happy to meet such a wonderful family.
JK: The Canadian Euro-Africa duo reunited again! This time it was on South African soil -- of all places -- after a string of good fortune landed us both in the same country for respective business meetings (mine Johannesburg and Mélanie's in Pretoria). What a surreal experience it was to see each other in a totally different place -- and what a place! The Western Cape did not disappoint. Stunning is about as accurate a word that I can think of to describe Cape Town and its environs.
And just in case you're wondering, we did not fall victim to South Africa's infamous crime (although we do think the wheel on our car rental was punctured on purpose one night; fortunately we did not have to deal with the problem until the following morning -- in daylight). Ironically, the only time I was "threatened" was in Paris at the airport train station awaiting the TGV (Thalys) back to Brussels. I was approached by four totally emaciated mid-20 something men in broad daylight on a relatively busy platform. I could not understand what they were doing, since clearly it would have taken all four sets of their atrophied arms to pick up my 20kg suitcase. After encircling me (not kidding) they pulled out their customs official badges, as if they were the FBI. It was a bizarre public spot check of my bags and passport. I must have been looking particularly swarthy after the 10.5 hour flight from Joburg. ;)MK: Melanie and Lindsey - 2 of 
The journey involved several stops along the way, not to pick up additional passengers (because we were already over capacity) but to purchase much-sought after food items: brochettes, cartons of buttermilk, grilled corn on the cob, donuts, etc. One female passenger was either starving and had not eaten for months or bored, because she atecontinuously (devouring six brochettes, two cobs of corn, and a donut or two) during the entire nine hour journey (yes 9, you read correctly).
The fiasco at the border (there is definitely a difference between “law-abiding
Just when Lindsey and Melanie thought they were nearing the finishing line and could see 
MK: I went on 2 field missions to gather informa
tion from stakeholders for my Protected Areas Biodiversity project. One week was spent in the Northern province (Volcano National Park) while the following week was spent in the Southern and Western Provinces (Nyungwe National Park). To view photos from these trips, click here.
JK: Once upon a time, there were three little girls who went to work for the UNDP in Rwanda, and they were each assigned very hazardous duties. But I took them away from all that, and now they work for me. My name is John.
