While hiking Mount Karisimbi on a travel assignment for the national airlines RwandaAir magazine, we were met by a unit of soldiers who escorted us on the final day-and-a-half of the hike.
A boy carries grass for his family's thatched hut in the farmlands below the Virunga volcanoes.
A young girl with her young brother wrapped in Rwandan cloth on her back.
A musician plays traditional folk music with his inganga, high on a ridge between the two "twin lakes" of Ruhondo and Burera.
Our guide rests while porters walk ahead through the dense forests of Mount Karisimbi, Rwanda's largest volcano at 14,700 feet.
The Nyabarongo River snakes its way through the wetlands of central Rwanda.
A hilltop in northern Rwanda emerges from the clouds.
A village near Akagera Game Park in eastern Rwanda.
Nyungwe Forest Lodge rests on the edge of one of the country's largest tea plantations, overlooking the Nyungwe Rainforest.
The "twin lakes" of Ruhondo and Burera lay beneath Muhabura Volcano.
Boys catch sambaza sardines as their fathers row back from a day of fishing on Lake Burera, in the north.
A classroom in the hut of a village elder named Christophe, high on a ridge between the "twin lakes" of Ruhondo and Burera.
A young mountain gorilla in the bamboo forests of Mount Sabyinyo.
The steep, terraced hills of central Rwanda.
A family's farm atop a terraced hill in central Rwanda.
The Gitarama-Butare highway in the southern province.
A wetland in the middle of the Nyungwe Rainforest.
Nyungwe Rainforest, southern Rwanda.
Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
Members of a traditional Intore dance troupe in the north.
The 'Dance of Heroes' is performed by men wearing grass wigs and carrying spears, many years ago performed by returning warriors, celebrating victory in battle.
Sonrise Primary School, a school established for orphans of the 1994 genocide.
Like many nations of Africa, the love for soccer is widespread, and many children make balls out of trash.
A band of the Shyira Diocese prepares to perform for the enthronement of Reverend Laurent Mbanda as Archbishop.
Reverend Laurent Mbanda as during his enthronement ceremony as Archbishop in the Shyira Diocese in the north.
President Paul Kagame waves to a large crowd of people in Ruhengeri before an election rally.
President Paul Kagame waves to a large crowd of people in Ruhengeri before an election rally.
Students line up for a distribution of Tom's Shoes.
A boy walks along a road in the drylands of the east, near Akagera Game Park.
Kwashiorkor is a disease caused by severe dietary protein deficiency, and this girl in a village in the north showed one of its common symptoms: pot-belly.
Many cyclists in Rwanda catch rides from passing trucks up the country's steep highways.
Fans in Amahoro National Stadium, during a match between the national team and Burundi.
Many women of Kigali can be seen wearing brightly colored hijabs, as a good portion of Kigali is Muslim.
My good friend Joris Cyizere went on to study industrial engineering at Northwestern University in Chicago.
A man smiles after receiving a hearing aid. In 2011, NFL Pros for Africa (including Adrian Petersen and Larry Fitzgerald) and Starkey Hearing Foundation partnered to deliver more than 22,000 hearing aids to Rwandans.
Political founder of the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF). He steered the organization of the Tutsi refugees in Uganda and throughout the Diaspora into a cohesive unit and helped define their goal of "one Rwanda for all Rwandans". He was inspirational in giving the soldiers of the RPF an understanding of what it was they were fighting for.
1964 - 2012 | Minister Inyumba, who grew up in a Ugandan refugee camp, was a leader in post-Genocide Rwanda, and believed the key to Rwanda's reconstruction lay in involving women at the grassroots level.
A Volcanoes National Park ranger escorts our group of expats up the 12,000 foot volcano Mt. Bisoke. The rangers face two battles: poachers of the famous mountain gorilla and guerrilla forces in neighboring Congo.
Farmers in a valley between two of Kigali's five major hills.
A young boy stands near a game of pick-up basketball in Kigali.
A lone tree stands in the middle of Gisakura Tea Estate, one of the country's largest tea plantations.
A Chinese construction worker, one of thousands of Chinese laborers in the country working on highways and buildings, at the site of the future Kigail Marriott Hotel.
Evening approaches in Kigali, the capital.
Low clouds roll through the hills of central Rwanda.
The Kigali-Musanze highway winds its way north toward the Virunga Volcanoes.
The most eastern volcano of the Virunga Mountain Range - Mount Muhabura - separates Rwanda's northern farmland from Uganda.
The cratered hills of northern Rwanda, near the border of Uganda.
The sun rises over the eastern plains, drenching northern hilltop farms in morning light.
Traffic lights in the center of Kigali, Rwanda's capital.
Atop the country's newest and tallest skyscraper, a view of Kigali, Rwanda's capital.
Dancing among soldiers and citizens during Umuganda, a national day of community work.
Young girl students in a rural school in the high hills of northwestern Rwanda.
A member of the national Intore Dance Troupe.
A village in the east, during distribution of Nike Foundation's magazine Ni Nyampinga, a part of the country's first girls' movement called the Girl Effect.
Dancers peform during the distribution of Nike Foundation's magazine Ni Nyampinga, a part of the country's first girls' movement called the Girl Effect.
Girls look up at the stage during the distribution of Nike Foundation's magazine Ni Nyampinga, a part of the country's first girls' movement called the Girl Effect.
National radio hosts on stage while promoting the rollout of Nike Foundation's magazine Ni Nyampinga, a part of the country's first girls' movement called the Girl Effect.
A rapper on stage during a performance in Musanze.
A young girl performs with her new guitar - given to her as part of Nike Foundation Girl Effect's initiative to empower Rwandan girls - as her parents look on in their mud brick hut in central Rwanda.
The shorelines of Lake Kivu, in the northwest and bordering the Congo.
European and American expatriates invented a game called Moto Polo, recruiting the city's best motorcycle taxi drivers to drive each player.
A school teacher leads her young students across a bridge toward the village's school building, in central Rwanda.
The country's "One Laptop Per Child" program rolled out in 2010 with the goal of giving every Rwandan child a computer.
A young girl holds a copy of Nike Foundation's magazine Ni Nyampinga, a part of the country's first girls' movement called the Girl Effect.
A student expresses the needs and desires of her female counterparts at a school high in the hills of northwestern Rwanda.
Girls read copies of Nike Foundation's new Ni Nyampinga magazine in a school in northwestern Rwanda.
Goats graze on one of the high hills of northern Rwanda.
Flowers along the muddy, crocodile-filled waters of Rwanda's largest river, Nyabarongo.
One of just four major countries that grow pyrethrum, a flower refined into pesticide, Rwanda has rebuilt an industry that collapsed after the 1994 genocide.
I was asked to photograph the funeral of a close friend, Emmanuel, who drowned in a Kigali pool while home during a break from the prestigious African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg.
I was asked to photograph the funeral of a close friend, Emmanuel, who drowned in a Kigali pool while home during a break from the prestigious African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg.
A well traveled path cuts through a large tea estate, northern Rwanda.
A woman walks through a large tea estate, two of the Virunga volcanoes looming ahead.
Workers on the massive Gisakura Tea Plantation, bordering Nyungwe Rainforest in the south.
A woman workers the rich volcanic soil of the northern volcano belt.
Near the summit of Mount Karisimbi, which rises over 14,700 feet.
A porter walks down the summit of Mount Karisimbi, one of the Virunga volcanoes that rises over 14,400 feet tall.
A soldier walks down a ridgeline near the summit of Mount Karisimbi among Dr. Seuss-like vegetation.
The Kigali skyline, which becomes brighter and brighter ever year.
Umuganda, also known as community work.
A village elder speaks during a ceremony after umuganda, a day of national, mandatory community work.
A young man runs home during a wet afternoon in the rainy season, Kigali.
Soccer consumes the interest and pastimes of most young males in Kigali, the capital.
A man drinks from a well near the banks of Nyabarongo River, among a grove of banana trees.
A man stands on a bridge that crosses the Nyabarongo River in northern Rwanda.
A boy carries grass for his family's thatched hut in the farmlands below the Virunga volcanoes.
A funeral procession for a good friend, Emmanuel Manirakiza, who drowned in a Kigali pool while visiting friends during a break from the prestigious African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg.
Kigali, Rwanda