Welcome to the former fortified Rwanda State House in Kanombe, a suburb of Rwanda’s capital Kigali, now turned into a museum as well as a beautiful wedding reception venue.
Located four kilometres from the country’s Kigali international airport, formerly known as Kayibanda International Airport, the museum finds itself in a heavily-militarized zone with very few ordinary civilian homes.

A short distance to the former State House away from the airport is the military police headquarters, a military hospital, and a military high court. Construction of the State House, which was home to two of Rwanda’s former presidents, started in 1976 on the orders of Juvénal Habyarimana (March 8, 1937 – April 6, 1994) who became president through a military coup in 1973 when he deposed his cousin Gregoire Kayibanda, the country’s first president.

At the main entrance, one looks for security signs synonymous with presidential residencies but none is in sight, save for the lone guard wielding a baton-like stick, waiting to direct you to the reception. Here, a tall slender young girl dressed in the Kinyarawanda traditional wear is ready to welcome you and take you through the do’s and don’t’s. This include not taking pictures while inside the museum palace, and a brief history of the former state house.

Fee
After a payment of 1000 Rwanda Francs (about Shs5,000), you are ushered into the main compound void of any signs of the military expected at a residence of a president. All that is left there are the empty guard posts and watch towers save for one facing the wreckage of the former presidential jet. The last president to stay there was Pasteur Bizimungu (born 1950) who was the fifth president of Rwanda, holding office from July 19, 1994 until March 23, 2000 and in 2008, the government turned it into a museum.

From outside, the place looks like a single-storeyed house, but it’s not until you are inside that you realise that it’s a double storeyed one. Habyarimana is said to have been so much obsessed with the colour white. This explains why from the waiting room to his public office on the ground floor up to his private office on the top floor, everything is painted white, save for a few changes that were made by his successor, Bizimungu.

All presidents save for Paul Kagame and Théodore Sindikubwabo, the country’s interim president during the genocide period, never used the former State House.

Rare view
The rear side of the house serves as the entrance to the public office with the King Louis sofa set in the waiting room. Like the walls, the chairs are white as well. The office was changed by Bizimungu to give it different chairs and a table top which is brown.

The house has three sitting rooms on the ground floor, one for the president, the children and the First Lady. Ms (Me) Habyarimana, as she was popularly, known had her own sitting room in which she used to host her guests on the eastern side of the house facing the swimming pool. Save for the First Lady’s furniture in the house, the other two have had face-lifts and changes in terms of furnishing.

The stair case to the first floor where the bedrooms are, has got security sensors, whose switch was only switched on once the president and his family were in their bedrooms. As soon as one stepped on the stairs, the president would know and on which stair the person was.

The first floor houses three bedrooms, the master bedrooms, the boys and the girls bedroom. The master bedroom still has Bizimungu’s kingsize bed, a small dressing table and a bedside stool which was used by Habyarimana. The glass bedside table has a white edge with elephant legs as its stands. From the master bedroom, one can access the huge balcony which could be mistaken for a lawn tennis court.

Eastern wing
On the extreme eastern wing of the house on the first floor is the TV room. It’s from here that one of the secret exit for the president was located. On one wall with wooden decorations in the middle is the TV stand; on the right hand side is the remote controlled door to the secret entrance to the third floor while on the extreme left is a gun chamber also remote controlled.
On the third floor, which cannot be seen from the outside, is the president’s gym, his special private office, a room for his presents from other heads of state or groups of people, and the few remaining gifts include art pieces and sculptures.

Next to the gift room is the president’s chapel. The chapel has got two entering points from inside and another on the balcony. The chaplain was using the balcony entrance which he could only access by use of the president’s special exit. The reason being that on the extreme end opposite the president’s private office was a special room for the president’s witchdoctor.
The floor also housed the First Lady and children’s salon. Just adjacent to the salon is the children’s study room.

In the basement of the house on the eastern wing is the president’s club. This is where he would go dancing whenever he felt like. It is fitted with a bar and some in-built seats. It’s not a huge dancing floor but it can accommodate up to 30 people

Please feel free to come visit the former state house building while on a Rwanda tours. We await for in the land of a thousand hills

Rwanda’s expenses on medical tourism is truly unknown but could be among those that are currently growing with in the East African region, and is aiming at becoming a regional hub of inbound medical tourism. For example, Uwimana had an eye complication which could not be treated by local eye specialists, therefore recommended a transfer to India or South Africa where one has to pay a lot of money to cater for transport, accommodation and treatment. Cases like Uwimana’s are frequent in East and Central Africa and they are always referred to specialised medical attention abroad.

UP to 100,000 people; medical tourists, go to India for medical treatment from East Africa and the number is increasing by 4% annually.

The acting head of services development section at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Hubert Rutage Ruzibiza, says the institution believes that medical tourism is a new product suitable for developing countries like Rwanda ad can be achievable if priority is given to it.

He further says, it strengthens linkages in the national economy and increases foreign exchange earnings. Medical tourism happens when consumers elect to travel across international borders with the intention of receiving some form of medical treatment.

The country is currently looking out for options to sustain the budding tourism sector that registered high foreign exchange receipts last year, and tapping into medical tourism is one of the catalysts the government is employing.

There has been an increase in the steady health infrastructure mainly boosted by the public and private investments in decent health facilities which include specialised hospitals and state of the art medical equipment to boost medical tourism.

Ruler Faisal hospital, Rwanda’s advancing state-possessed social insurance supplier, has foreign made state of the craftsmanship supplies, for example Computed Tomography (Ct) scanner framework, Magnetic Resource Imaging (Mri) frameworks, and other propelled imaging machines that may furnish better health awareness for patients.

This sort of speculation has expedited an universal accreditation of King Faisall hospital which is at present laying the ground to get a local referral hospital in the East African area.

“Such speculations have improved our neighborhood solid part and this implies that Rwanda will win more outside trade from patients from the neighboring nations like Burundi, Drc, Uganda and others,” says Ruzibiza.

Statistics from King Faisal Hospital demonstrate that in 2012 distant from everyone else the hospital appropriated 3,755 remote patients from over the district and Drc sent the most amazing number with 1,850.

As of late, a different specialized remote hospital opened in Rwanda to furnish eye medicine over the district. Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital from India is the first remote pro station in Rwanda, which is unavoidably set to get a local eye referral focus.

Dr. John Nkurikiye, a consultant ophthalmologist at Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital, says that the facility is well equipped with state of the art technology for performing surgeries related to cataract, retina, Glaucoma and other eye ailments with techniques matching the international standards comparable with Europe and South Africa.

“These facilities and services are currently in Rwanda for the first time,” says Dr. Nkurikiye.

“Dr Agarwal’s eye hospital is aimed to be the centre of excellence in the field of ophthalmology, fulfilling the need for advanced eye care services of the Rwandan and people from neighboring countries.”

Setting up the hospital in Kigali has so far consumed over US$2 million and more investments are in the pipeline to ensure that the facility delivers the state of the art eye treatment to the regional patients.

Ruzibiza says that boosting medical tourism in Rwanda “is also an added advantage for citizens as they are to enjoy reduced cost, the availability of latest medical technologies, and a growing compliance of international quality standards.”

Dr Nkurikiye says that medical tourists generally pay higher, out-of-pocket rates than local patients and also offer the prospect of spending tourism dollars on hotels, meals and even tours and entertainment for themselves and family members.

Dr. Nkurikiye acknowledges that Rwanda could become a tourism hub only if it has world-class medical facilities, which would be difficult without the participation of private entities.

He says that Rwanda is in a good location in terms of climate, the security and quiet environment, which patients need when going through the healing process.

Rwanda’s tourism is a leading foreign exchange earner for many years. Last year, it registered strong performance compared to 2011 as the revenue generated increased by 17% to US$281.8 million compared to US$251.3 million in 2011.

In Washington (CNS), this comes at the end of a fight that has taken her 15 years to complete, the world-renowned Rwandan genocide survivor as well as peace advocate Immaculee Ilibagiza became an American citizen the morning of April 17 in New York City.

She was completely in tears as she told Catholic News Service in a phone interview April 18. Being accepted in this country felt like receiving a gift – more like I hear my father saying, ‘now you have the right to be here, you don’t have to worry.”

Its estimated that 800,000 people — including most members of her family — were brutally murdered during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. In the early stages of the conflict, Ilibagiza was sent to hide with a member of another tribe at the behest of her father.

“I am alive today – because my father had trust in the man from that tribe,” she told an audience of 50 other immigrants who received their citizenship at the same ceremony.

A Catholic, the then-college student endured 91 days hiding in a bathroom from the “killers” who were looking for her.

In her book “Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust,” she wrote: “They were … right on the other side of the wall. Less than an inch of plaster and wood separated us. Their footsteps shook the house, and I could hear their machetes and spears scraping along the walls. In the chaos, I recognized the voice of a family friend. ‘I have killed 399 cockroaches,’ he boasted. ‘Immaculee will make 400.’

As she sat down at the citizenship ceremony, the memories of the genocide came drifting back, but it was as if the war had finally ended, Ilibagiza told CNS, noting, “It was like a victory.”

She looks forward to reading more about the history of the United States, especially the struggles to uphold the values on which it was founded.“It’s not about how America has changed. It’s more (about) the foundation of America,” she said.

She narrates her first experience in America – everybody seemed foreign. People looked (different), and so I (was) still looking for (the actual) Americans,” she said. “It was beautiful” to see this country embrace every nationality, she said.

After escaping the genocide, Ilibagiza went back to the jail cell of the killer who had shouted out her name while only inches from her hiding spot. As he sat in front of her, she reached out to touch his hands and said, “I forgive you.”

“I believe in love no matter what,” she said. “True love comes from loving others,” she said.

Many people in America do not think suffering is a part of life, she said. “People take a drug or a drink so they do not feel.”

“(But) nobody lives in this world without going through pain,” she added, challenging Americans to find solace by meditating on the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

“Jesus went on the cross to take the maximum of what man can go through in this world to show us, ‘I love you this much,’ and ‘you matter this much,’” Ilibagiza said.

“You accept your pain, look at it in the face, don’t avoid it, but ask for help,” she said.

A popular speaker now, she travels the world telling her story of peace, love, and forgiveness to all she meets.

“Please, in a small way, be a builder of peace,” she said. Her latest book, “The Rosary: the Prayer that Saved My Life,” will hit the bookshelves in August.

Gorillas embody the eponymous genus Gorilla, the greatest surviving genus of primates by size. They are ground-residence, dominatingly herbivorous gorillas that possess the forests of mid Africa. The genus is separated into two species and either four or five subspecies. The DNA of gorillas is remarkably comparative to that of a human, from 95–99% relying on what is tallied, and they are the following closest living relatives to people after the bonobo and normal chimpanzee. Gorilla safaris in the jungles of Africa have presently become common. Most people travel to witness and experience the human like characters of gorillas which is worth the money, time and energy

Gorillas’ regular living areas are the tropical or subtropical forests in Africa. In spite of the fact that their extent spreads a minor rate of Africa, gorillas blanket an extensive variety of heights. The mountain gorilla possesses the Albertine Rift montane mist forests of the Virunga Volcanoes, running in elevation from 2,200–4,300 metres (7,200–14,100 ft). Swamp gorillas exist in thick forests and marsh swamps and swamps as flat as ocean level, with western swamp gorillas living in Central West African nations and eastern marsh gorillas living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo close its fringe with Rwanda

The American M.D and missionary Thomas Staughton Savage and naturalist Jeffries Wyman first portrayed the western gorilla (they called it Troglodytes gorilla) in 1847 from specimens acquired in Liberia. The name was inferred from Greek Γόριλλαι (Gorillai), importance “tribe of hairy women”, depicted by Hanno the Navigator, a Carthaginian pilot and plausible guest (circa 480 BC) to the territory that later came to be Sierra Leone.

The closest relatives of gorillas are chimpanzees and people, the greater part of the Hominidae having wandered from a normal ancestor in the vicinity of 7 million years ago. Human genes contrast just 1.6% on normal from their comparing gorilla genes in their arrangement, however there is further contrast in what number of duplicates every gene has. Until as of late, gorillas were thought about to be a specific animal type, with three subspecies: the western swamp gorilla, the eastern marsh gorilla and the mountain gorilla. There is presently assention that there are two species with two subspecies each. All the more as of late, a third subspecies has been asserted to exist in one of the animal category. The divided species and subspecies improved from a lone sort of gorilla throughout the Ice Age, when their timberland environments shrank and got segregated from every other.

Primatologists press on to investigate the relationships between different gorilla populations. The species and subspecies recorded here are the ones upon which most researchers concur.
If you are interested in visiting and trekking gorillas in Uganda, Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa Adventure Safaris is ready to serve you! We offer customized gorilla trekking safaris to Bwindi Forest, Volcanoes, Virunga and Mgahinga Gorilla Parks at affordable rates

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is located in southwestern Uganda lying along the Eastern escarpment of the Albertine Rift Valley.  With winding hill making a beautiful scenic view in the morning when covered by mist. It is one of Uganda’s oldest biologically diverse rainforests, which can be traced back as far as 25,000 years and contains almost 400 species of plants. More famously, this “impenetrable forest” also protects an estimated 320 mountain gorillas – roughly half of the world’s population, including several habituated groups, which can be tracked.

This biologically diverse region is a shelters to 120 mammals, including several primate species such as baboons and chimpanzees, as well as elephants and antelopes. There are around 350 species of birds hosted in this forest, including 23 Albertine Rift endemics.

Bwind has got over 10 Mountain Gorilla groups with nine gorilla families available for trekking. We have got 3 gorilla families in Buhoma, namely Mbare, Habinyanza, and Rushegura , Ruhija having 2 which are Bitukura and Oruzongo. In Nkulingo we have one family known as Nkulingo Gorilla family group. There are 5 Gorilla families in Rushaga available for tracking and they are :- Nshogi, Mashaya, kahungye, Busigye and Bwega

The neighboring towns of Buhoma and Nkuringo both have an impressive array of luxury lodges, rustic bandas and budget campsites, as well as restaurants, craft stalls and guiding services. Opportunities abound to discover the local Bakiga and Batwa Pygmy cultures through performances, workshops and village walks.

The demographics associated with mountain gorillas, Gorilla beringei beringei, performed this year in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, concurs with the very least population of Four hundred gorillas, increasing the whole planet human inhabitants regarding mountain gorillas in order to be able for you to help 880. The state end consequence was released today from the Uganda Minister for Travel and leisure, Wildlife, as well as Ages Hon. Maria Mutagamba together with representatives of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
The increase inside Bwindi human inhabitants since the previous census, through 302 withinside 2007 to 400 this year, is attributed to improved censusing strategies of those uncommon as well as evasive apes as well as genuine increase.
With this newest annual official population poll, clubs systematically moved through Bwindi not when, however two times, searching for as well as saving mountain gorilla night nests and also faeces, as well as collecting faecal examples with regard to hereditary examination. The first attract has been conducted using a tiny team coming via Feb . Twenty-eight in order to be able for you to help Sept Two, 2011 as well as the next mop conducted along together using numerous clubs coming via September 10 in order to be able for you to help The fall of 3, Next year. Using the hereditary analysis, experts could actually determine how many distinctive organizations and men and women have been found through the industry census clubs through both mops, you consume is called the altered mark regain method.
In short, both attracts regarding Bwindi allowed annual official population poll clubs to find more gorillas than the usual single attract would have. Further, chances are in which some gorillas had been missed by industry annual official population poll teams withinside the ’06 demographics of Bwindi’s mountain gorillas. Yet many indications are usually that population regarding mountain gorillas should indeed be developing hence increasing and developing gorilla safaris in Africa.

Annual official population poll groups chart their particular route throughout Bwindi throughout the demographics carried out in 2011. Outcomes show a minimum of 500 mountain gorillas had been throughout Bwindi in the period the actual demographics has been performed.
“This method gives us the particular clearest image of the status associated with mountain gorillas in Bwindi that individuals have got but had,” provides Maryke Dull, Specialized Consultant for the Worldwide Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP; the alliance of the Africa Wildlife Base, Fauna & Bacteria Worldwide, and WWF). “Even along together using growing annual official population poll techniques, this particular outcome suggests that this kind of human inhabitants offers certainly increased throughout the last five-years, and that’s very stimulating because of this significantly endangered species.”

The particular Bwindi population regarding mountain gorillas happen to be aged 4 times given that The late nineties.
Mountain gorillas reside in interpersonal groups and the census results indicate that the Four hundred mountain gorillas throughout Bwindi Dense Park kind Thirty six unique sociable groups and also Of sixteen solitary men. 10 of those sociable groups are used so that you can individual reputation regarding either travel and leisure or perhaps investigation and also integrated, during the time of the actual demographics, 168 mountain gorillas or Forty two% from the Bwindi human inhabitants.
Although it was first planned to add Sarambwe Nature Book inside Democratic Democracy of Congo, the safeguarded location steady having Bwindi and so potential home for the Bwindi human inhabitants associated with mountain gorillas, it wasn’t achievable to do this as a result of low self-esteem withinside the Sarambwe location during the time of the actual demographics.
The particular estimation with the total globe human inhabitants associated with mountain gorillas currently appears at 880, representing the 400 individuals throughout Bwindi verified in this Next year annual official population poll as well as Four hundred and eighty mountain gorillas in the Virunga Massif confirmed with a annual official population poll this season. Each communities regarding mountain gorillas have experienced optimistic trends in increment during the last decade.
“In reality, the particular mountain gorilla is the only great ape in whoever human inhabitants are increasing regardless of steady strain in the habitat. This particular positive trend is because of the particular strong effort among the 3 nations exactly in which mountain gorillas stay as well as the collective endeavours on a lawn through playground employees, surrounding residential areas as well as local government, and also non-governmental organizations,” provides Doctor. Augustin Basabose, Interim Movie representative regarding IGCP.

Some people ponder: just simply the amount are chimps really like all of us all? One of the things which make humans distinctive is that we can identify ourself. Those who have viewed your pet dog discover their reflection in the mirror can see that the canine is re-acting to the image as if they was getting together with one more puppy, wanting to have fun with the particular ‘new’ canine or even daunt the ‘intruder’ simply by simply too much shouting. This is called the interpersonal response, as though the pet was mingling along together using one more dog such as themselves. For an animal, it is possible to presume that if these people notice a picture it signifies an additional personal simply due to the fact at first its this that it appears to be. They have a organic desire to classify others since buddies or even enemy, eventually determining when they are in peril or otherwise not. Apes use a more complex a reply to their own representation. At first everybody, respond like they are seeing one more personal, but then these people realize that they may be in control of the look these people see. Chimpanzees make a move scientists call backup screening – they’ve created actions while watching on their own in the reflection. It seems like being how they find out that it’s on their own withinside the mirror and not some various different chimpanzees. They then explore elements of their body that they wouldn’t usually have the ability to see without the aid of your reflection. They’ll use the actual reflection to more meticulously groom themselves their particular back, necks as well as face. Frequently they will carefully thoroughly clear their particular eyes and the enamel, places they would not be able to notice required attention without having to use one. This particular behavior parallels the behaviors in which people is seen doing throughout mirrors and emphasizes the actual impressive similarity between the easy behaviours regarding humans as well as chimpanzees.