That said though, I'm pretty sure I'll be back in some way, shape or form whether Uganda wants me back or not.
After a fairly uneventful but prolonged and needless wait at the border that involved getting drenched by a Ugandan / Rwandan downpour, we were eventually allowed to cross into Rwanda and I got a pretty interesting stamp in my passport.
I couldn't tell you anything about the Rwandan scenery from the border crossing to Kigale as our 4.45am wake up call meant I spent most of it cwtched up in my sleeping bag sleeping.
Our first stop in Rwanda was the Genocide Museum.
In 1994, approximately one million Rwandans were massacred over a period of 100 days following years and years of longstanding tensions and civil war between the minority Tutsis who ruled the country and the majority Hutus who formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
The genocide itself started when the then President's (a Hutu) plane got shot down coming into Kigale airport. Tutsi extremists were the main suspects but nobody has ever taken responsibility for it.
Only hours after the plane was shot down, the government began their meticulously organised and pre-planned massacre of Tutsis in Kigale. Opposition members were murdered within hours and the army was dispatched throughout the country with one aim - to identify and kill all Tutsis regardless of age or sex. Even newborn babies were beaten to death with machetes or clubs.
Every day for over three months, Tutsis, and any Hutus suspected of sympathising or showing any compassion towards them, were brutally butchered on the spot. Due to a longstanding propaganda campaign by the government, many Hutus had such deep hatred for Tutsis, that ordinary men, women and children as young as ten joined the mob mentality, killing their victims with enthusiasm and blind hatred.
Most Tutsis were killed in their own villages or towns, often by their own Hutu neighbours and friends who were told to kill or be killed.
Seeing photographs of streets littered with decomposing, mutilated corpses, reading personal accounts and watching videos from survivors about the scale, speed and sheer brutality of the slaughters was one of the most shocking things I have ever seen.
I find it unbelievable that something so horrendous and so brutal could have happened so recently. Unidentified corpses are still being uncovered across the country.
Almost everyone we see walking along the street here would have been involved in the genocide in some way - they or their relatives could have been involved in the killings, they could have lost family members, been orphaned or lost their livelihoods.
Our visit was made more poignant by the fact that Rwanda goes into a month of national mourning every April. When we were at the museum, there was a memorial service around one of mass graves.
I didn't stay and watch as I didn't want people to think their mourning was part of my tourist experience but even just passing by was so sad and poignant.
From what I've read, been told and seen though, Rwanda seems to have done a pretty good job of unifying itself. It would have been pretty easy for the new RPF government to be bitter and rule with revenge, but they seem to have restored a great deal of trust between the two tribes and are creating a new spirit of national identity.
Some of the people on our truck bought purple wristbands that commemorated the genocide. Unfortunately for one of the boys, he didn't look at his properly until we were back on the truck and had left Kigale.
Instead of saying "Rwanda Genocide - Never Forget", his says, "Rwanda Memorial. Free entry Wednesdays and Thursdays after 11am".
Rwanda is also home to mountain gorilla which we saw yesterday but that's a whole other blog!
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