Tripbod traveller in Rwanda inspired by locals!

Following the research I conducted, I realised I had made some valuable observations regarding African local business.

One major outcome found from talking to these locals was the immense good that the money was doing, as any money made was utilised so efficiently. The first use would always be school fees, because all these people want is an education, which is not state-covered like we receive yet barely appreciate.

The next main point I noticed while interviewing these locals was the selflessness and generosity of them all, as maybe half of the craft shops were set up to raise money for others:
• Some were raising money for a group of orphans, to pay for school fees and general essentials such as food and clothing. The children made crafts to sell, and some money was reinvested in the business to buy stock whilst the majority of the profit goes to the children. I mentioned they were orphans; this came about when some rebels from the Congo came over the border and massacred many of the locals here.
• There were a few stalls, all run separately but for similar purposes, where the majority of the proceeds is given to women, some of them widows, that are caring for their husbands and/or children with H.I.V. They make crafts from home and these are sold in the shop to pay for medicine, school fees and general essentials to survive.
• There were several different organisations set up where the profit goes towards good causes. It baffled me that the little that is made goes straight to bare essentials or good causes. The general ethos is to make something from nothing; maybe this is just a survival technique.
Whilst we were researching and interviewing the locals, Edwin was interviewing the managers at the exclusive lodges and hotels in the area to ask if they would also be interested in making a beneficial relationship with the locals to utilise local resources and build the capacity of the locals, hopefully further educating the population and expanding the ability for these areas to prosper and therefore develop, which will subsequently have a ripple effect across the country... Well, that’s the plan anyway, and so far people were being very receptive; or maybe Edwin was particularly good at explaining that everyone would benefit from these changes.

The afternoon was spent nosing around lodges and cottages, exclusive and very, very expensive, painfully so. Edwin was still discussing business with hotel owners at this point while myself and Doreen pretended we could afford to stay in this $1000 per person per night, fairly average in my eyes, hotel room. The part I would pay for is the view and the local interaction; this we got for the bargain price of $10 per night maximum at the Gorilla Friends guest house – plus an incomparable atmosphere!

Either way, the day ended on a positive note. We all returned to the Gorilla Friends guest house, to the starkly decorated bar, tired, but in that really satisfying exhausted way that the day had gone well.
The next day would be spent travelling back down, traversing the narrow, terrifying tracks out of the mountains in search of a far flung place called Kisoro.

Tripbod traveller in Rwanda interviews local vendors

We are, as it happens, lodging at a humble guest-house called Gorilla Friends; we found this apt and somewhat amusing as we are friends of the gorillas – however the amusement may have been at the giant elephant that was in the room, which was that this guest house was a little basic, and we still had to investigate the long drop loos out in the back! Oh my... all we could do now was to have a few beers, happy days! Oh, and the food was fantastic, who would have thought it, eh?

As I had expected, I awoke and was amazed at the misty sunshine all around, like a winter morning in the Lake District really. Just glorious! Then, off we set to do our research; we were to interview the local people on the craft stalls in Bwindi.
As I have noticed, in Africa the idea of competitive pricing is not really evident and also there is no real knowledge that if you swamp the market then there is no market. Therefore, in towns, villages and jungles alike, if man set up a stall to sell crafts then suddenly, within seconds twelve more would pop up surrounding this man’s humble stall, all selling identical products. This is why in Kigali there are regions in the city only selling hardware or only selling clothes and so on, completely overwhelming the customer. This was evident in Bwindi; on one small stretch of road, maybe 100 metres in length, there were approximately twenty craft stalls. It was our job to interview these locals to ask them if they had any interest in expanding business and maybe diversifying into other areas such as agriculture, or interlinking with the private sector businesses such as the very smart private lodges catering to exclusive high-end clients, and selling their products there.

As expected, many already had been expanding, with any money earned being reinvested in the current shop, used to pay for school fees or invested in land - and maybe even in property building. These people utilise all they have, however small, and make it work for them; they make something from nothing. This was mind-boggling; the entrepreneurship and drive of these people in the middle of this forest was just inspirational!

Blog from an intrepid Tripbod traveller in...Uganda!

I departed from Kigali at 11.30am on Wed. We set off for the border amid beautiful, green surroundings. The Rwandans and Ugandans put every possible piece of land into rotation; I’ve seen people hoeing on almost vertical hillsides! Impressive, but not necessarily environmental; the soil erosion must be massive! I am aware that, similar to the South Americans, plateaus are made into every hillside - no exaggeration; the entire panoramic view as far as the eye can see is a patchwork of greens and browns, ground being cultivated or harvested with massive valleys of tea plantations, hillsides of plantain and banana trees, or little wig-wam shapes across an expanse of hillside which I am told is used to support the beans that grow on vines. The ingenuity and ability to make something from nothing astounds me more and more as I advance further into more rural and more humble communities living in the mountains.

Crossing the border was easy enough; fill in a form, pay some money, the border official looks up to take his 379th passport of the day, looks down…then quickly double takes and suddenly takes an interest as to why this Muzungu would be here. And the questioning begins; ‘How long are you staying in Uganda for?’, ‘Where will you be staying?’, ‘Oh! Only one week?’ All this is asked out of interest and general amusement at the fact that I am there, a novelty if you will; there is no ill-meaning to this questioning at all. I am then – unlike the other people I am travelling with, who happen to be East African residents – welcomed warmly to Uganda; ‘…and please enjoy your trip and you must return to go to Kampala next time!’ All those travelling with me found it hilarious, of course, that they as residents get no welcome or special treatment, whilst I was welcomed. A cynic would say this is because all Africans relate Muzungus with money; I however like to think that it is curiosity which causes an interest in my travelling around this part of Africa.

We arrive at Bwindi, and within minutes of being inside this Tarzan mountain wilderness I see monkeys! Monkeys everywhere; more and more were appearing!

Further on we bounced and skidded along the mountain tracks, inches away from vertical drops of hundreds of feet which stretched down to the valley below. Still we continued, rocketing around this corner, and then the next and then, around the next corner – a truck; we slam on the brakes and skiddddd to a halt…without screams or rude exclamations or noise; we are all transfixed as this beaten-up old wagon, overloaded with people and crates of G-d knows what comes flying towards us…and still nothing was said; we were awestruck into silence! We stopped in time, and all everyone could do was laugh, and one of the boys on the roof of the overloaded truck shouted, ‘Take it easy man!’
Then off we went as before, rocketing off round these mountain passes as if we didn’t just nearly have a head-on collision on the edge of a cliff. At this point I choose to close my eyes and sleep as I’m exhausted at the prospect of watching anymore.

We arrive in the evening darkness; real mountain-jungle, wet, musky-smelling darkness. I cannot wait to awake and see the views I can only imagine are unfolding just in front of me in the dark abyss!