Author Archives: daveboni

Leaving Rwanda was never going to be easy. The exit visa was released 4 hours before check in and the Nairobi bound flight mysteriously took off 30 minutes early, decimating the ‘African time’ rule book. I have met a unique people, determined to push forward and to move mountains stone by stone. The challenges areContinue reading “A mountain full of stones…”

Visa overstays however unintentional are inadvisable in a country whose immigration system is complex, and penalties severe. A hasty but welcome visit to the British Consulate, followed by an alarming one to Rwandan immigration resulted in a loss of passport, a sizeable fine, a day or three of bizarre paperwork and an expensive UK boundContinue reading “The costly paper-chase ..”

It is said that nowhere on earth could forgiveness and reconciliation of atrocities and genocide of this scale occur so soon after the event. Not perfect by any means, but there is tangible evidence of a determination for perpetrators and survivors to walk the long and painful path to healing. Distraction by action is anContinue reading “Distraction by action…”

Working with the orphanage staff still requires the near death experience 125 bike taxi ride. Terror levels had just been reduced to none cardiac failure rates when the heavens opened, African style. An overturned truck brought the heavy traffic to a standstill allowing the taxi bike drivers to hone their narrow gap riding skills allowingContinue reading “Mind the gap…”

Figuring out understated people is never easy. Simon, a part Ugandan and part Rwandan businessman, servicing paper-bag manufacturing machinery by day saw the need.. and then did something. Aged 25, and slight in build, he could not watch the younger children sleeping on the streets. Raising the £3000 to buy the concrete shack was justContinue reading “Simon…”

A tiny misshaped concrete building houses the Giesenye orphan and street children project. Staffed by volunteers and a resident Mamma, 14 of the district’s many orphans are given a baseline home and some sponsored schooling. David, a 20 year old former street boy, orphaned by the 1994 genocide, was helped by local family and isContinue reading “Police clear the streets..”

The long and convoluted flight via Burundi into Kigali’s tidy but underused international airport was quickly followed by a white knuckle pillion ride upon one of Kigali’s, thousands of 125cc taxi bikes. Riders with suicidal tendencies are given license preferences; the visit to the Genocide Memorial Centre provided a brutal introduction to the country’s recentContinue reading “Kigali on a 125…”

With heavy bags and the hope of a kindly check in agent, I am on the road again. Rwanda via Burundi and Kenya; what could possibly go wrong? Kenyan Airways, ( The pride of Africa) I am sure will take good care of me.