The December Travel & Leisure homepage offers all sorts of exotic vacation delights ("Reef Madness! Coral, Cockatoos and Private-Island Resorts" and "Best New European Restaurants 2005")...and the promise of a new vaction spot: Rwanda. "If the Hutus and Tutsis can coexist, then why not luxury hotels and memorial centers?" Indeed.

Let the record reflect that I wanted to make fun of this article based on the above, but it's actually not at all abot lounging by the pool as Hutus and Tutsis unite in their desire to serve you a mai-tai. Thank goodness, it's actually a thoughtful portrait of a country getting back on its feet, and writer Melanie Thernstrom does a nice job of evoking both the horror of the 1994 genocide and the hope of Rwanda a decade later. The accompanying black and white photos are also quite arresting (as is the use of the word "galumph" to describe the action of gorillas - Jabberwock-tastic!).

Interesting (and surprising) side point: According to Don Cheadle in Black Book magazine's last issue, apparently President Bush saw three movies last year of his own accord "and Hotel Rwanda was two of them - he saw it twice."

Rwanda (After) [Travel + Leisure]