Day 10, Part 3: Projects in Ruhengeri

When we reached the jeeps at the bottom of the hike after seeing the gorillas, we were met with a village destitute and dirty. The children peeked. The men and women stared. The guards stood stoically around us.
We said goodbye to the two British women who were going all the way back to Kigali in order to catch a plane, and then we loaded up and drove away from that tired town.


Our first stop was a boarding school for deaf children. A study had shown a high rate of deafness in the area, often as a result of meningitis, and deaf children were considered worthless and mistreated. The new school included a classroom, a building with beds, and a dirt-floored latrine. We were able to donate school supplies and sports balls to the teachers.


The neighborhood children watched with solemn curiosity.

Then we drove to the compound of the Fair Children Youth Organization. We met five beautiful young women who are orphans of genocide and who are between 15 and 22 years in age. They have formed informal orphan-headed households, and do the best they can to make ends meet. At the compound, which is stretched for funding, they are beginning to learn English.

We drove back to Kigali enthralled by our encounter with the mountain gorillas but also sobered by our experiences in the mist-covered hills of the north.