We took a quick side trip on Thursday afternoon. The Rwandan border guards allowed us to cross the bridge to take photos of Rusumo Falls. It is a waterfall located on the Kagera River on the border between Rwanda and Tanzania (the most distant headwaters of the Nile River). Although the falls themselves are not of a significant height in comparison to other waterfalls, they have played an important part in the history of Rwanda.
The falls gained international fame during the genocide, as thousands of dead bodies flowed underneath the bridge while a simultaneous stream of refugees crossed ''over'' it, fleeing into Tanzania to escape the fighting and prosecution of their crimes.
The Kagera drains water from all areas of Rwanda except the far west, and consequently carried all the discarded corpses from the rivers nationwide. This led to a state of emergency being declared in areas around the shore of Lake Victoria, where all of those bodies eventually washed up.
Chad took a photo of each of us crossing the border since we did not get a passport stamp.
Susan-
ReplyDeleteSeeing this photo of the falls reminded me of when I visited Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe in 1992. Unfortunately southern Africa was experiencing a seven year drought at the time so the falls weren't in full force. It was still a memorable experience especially waking up next to the falls early in the morning as some friends and I climbed over the fence and slept on the edge of the Zambezi River. From your photo, I would have thought they were bigger than you described them to be based on the angle of the shot taken.
Sounds like you're having one amazing experience after another.
Thanks for sharing,
Sara K.
Hi Sara,
ReplyDeleteIt has been an incredible expereince and I will have to come back to earth soon and with so many changes at SVG, I do not know what I will be coming home to!
Hope you are having a great summer
Here is some activities of reforestation I have done at this beautiful, unnoticed strategic site
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