Tourism Association

I was in for some morning meetings here in Musanze and copious amounts of coffee.

Greg introduced me to Japhet, the chairman of the Amahoro Tourism Association which is the umbrella association for a large number of community-based projects in and around Musanze. Japhet hails from Birwa Island, one of the islands on Lake Bulera. There is estimated to be around 176 families (approx. 560 people) living on this island that also has a church and a school on. Almost all the people practice subsistence farming but used to historically fish in the lake for a living. They're of course hoping the moratorium on fishing is lifted soon so they can start fishing again. The soil is fairly poor, so they do battle a bit with crops.

The associations represent a variety of activities like banana-leaf weaving, tailors, woven chair making and then a variety of cultural activities like dancing, drumming and explaining the old traditional religion in which many trees play(ed) a significant role. I'll find out more about the latter because I know we have some of the trees that featured in this religion, on the site.

The birding at 11am was very productive although the numbers were obviously not as good yesterday, being over midday. We were also hugely distracted by the butterflies - their time of the day for hill-topping (checking and ensuring territories are in order). The picture above is one of the butterflies we encountered in the north-east of the site.