Re-reading my previous memoirs regarding the past few days, I feel as if I could have written a bit better. I noticed many mistakes, and things that I missed. I think if I had more time to sit and reflect and write and edit, I would have given a better picture of what is going on. But I realize that no matter how well I write and depict my time here in Rwanda, no matter how many pictures I show you, or how many stories I tell... it’s never going to be the same, it’s really only a glimpse into what I am experiencing here. A photograph cannot even begin to show you how beautiful it is here. A story cannot even begin to make you feel how I feel about this place. It’s hard to explain it. You should just come here. Really, you all need to go to Africa at least once in your lifetime. I know that this will not be my last time here in Africa... I can promise you that.
I think if I went home now I would be so satisfied with my time here (thats how great it is here). But of course, I don’t want to come home yet! Today we all enjoyed a huge breakfast of fruit and pastries and juice. Margit just totally blessed us with food. :) After we ate together with the mittelstaedt, we headed to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It was very sobering. It took us about two hours to walk through the whole thing. You go through and read and look at pictures, it was basically a museum. First it shows Rwanda before the genocide, then during and then after and currently. It was built on the tenth anniversary of the event. After you walk through the part with the descriptions, you walk into a series of rooms with real photographs of the victims. Families of the victims come and hang the photos of their lost loved ones on the wall. There was three huge rooms filled with countless photographs. Sometimes they left the last photograph that they had so that other people could see what the genocide did to their family... to the people of Rwanda. I thought that was so hard... and then I got to the last room in the memorial. The personal stories segment. You would walk through this hall with huge pictures of really cute kids on the walls, and you would read their biography. There was this super cute kid with a huge smile and big eyes... just oh, so adorable, pretty frowly looking. And under the picture said his favorite food: milk, favorite animal: cat, personality: daddy’s boy, remembered by: his laugh, death: by machete to the head. Story after story, burned alive, killed in mother’s arms, smashed against a wall, shot in the head. It really stung. These are stories and pictures that families have sent to the memorial, so they are factual and real. If you know the story of Rwanda, you will understand why this stood out to me; one of the biographies said that this little boy’s last words were: UNAMIR will come for us. This really just shocked me for some reason. After studying this situation in Rwanda in 1994, I really have had my views changed on global aid, on organizations like the UN. I encourage you guys to read up on it. It is a powerful, and really sad story. Rwandans here are still dealing with the consequences of what happened years ago... but they are also healing. Rwanda is not a place with tutsi’s and hutu’s, they are all the Rwandan people. I have seen it written in various places today, on a building, on a sign, on some flowers left at the memorial, on plaques in the memorial... the words “Never Again”. I think that speaks for itself. Never again, we pray. They also had a room where they talked about genocide as a whole, what it is, and showed other examples of genocide in the past. They showed the holocaust, the genocide in the balkans, in cambodia, they talked about pol pots reign, and many more. It’s crazy to think that genocide exists, let alone that it happened again and again. I just don’t understand fully. For some reason, I just felt so empty and void... I think I just could not fully understand that this thing happened. It almost didn’t seem real to me. In another room in the memorial they had glass cases with hundreds of skulls, bones and old clothes covered in dirt and blood. I sat in this room for quite a while just thinking. I imagined the people in front of me. I could see them, their faces, smiles, they were talking with each other, laughing, sharing life together... when all of a sudden others came in with machetes and guns and clubs... and beat, shot, raped and mutilated them to death, every man, woman, and child was dead. It said on one of the plaques that they used blunt objects on purpose to inflict more pain and suffering on their victims. Just... I don’t even know. I envisioned this happening in front of me, I saw them reaching out to me, screaming for help and I did nothing but stand there... it was like a nightmare was unfolding before me. And was it ever a nightmare. Then I saw them pile the bodies one on top of each other in mass graves. I had to leave the room at this point because I just couldn’t take it. Too real. It became even more real when we walked to the outside portion of the memorial where they had real mass graves for the victims. I had the opportunity to place a rose at one of the graves. It was so, so sad. I just kept thinking, what if it was me. What if the world was a different place, and us in Canada experienced Genocide to the scale of the one experienced in Rwanda. I also kept thinking, what if the genocide didn’t end? What if the holocaust didn’t end? What would the world be like today? What if there really was only one race in the whole world... I don’t even want to explore that idea any further. I love different cultures, learning about different people and places... I can’t even imagine.
After this really awful yet powerful and amazing experience at the museum memorial, we went for lunch at a tiny restaurant called Mr. Chips. It was great food... Like all food I’ve had so far. We talked and debriefed about what we saw and shared fellowship over some french fries and coke. The restaurant was owned by a Canadian, so cool, go Canada!! After lunch we went for coffee at a place called Burbon Cafe, and just had a relaxing afternoon. I fell asleep on the Mittelstaedts couch, no surprise there, still kind of jet lagged. I’m getting worried about what it’s going to be like when I get home and have to actually go to school when I am super jet lagged! It will be an experience in itself. We had dinner at the Komant’s house - the pastor of the church here (Christian life assembly) and it was great to sit and talk with the girls a bit. I really have missed them. I am secretly hoping that they end up coming back to Calgary someday (hopefully while I am still there). Driving home from dinner was frightening as my dad tried to drive a standard jeep in the “land of a thousand hills” (thats the nickname for Rwanda)... terrifying. But we made it back safe!
So that was today in a nutshell... we went to the memorial, and basically spent the rest of the day eating. I tried this fruit that was delicious, I have to write about it so I remember what it is called so I can maybe buy it in Canada. It was called a tree tomato, or a Japanese plum. Mmm mm good. I’d say this was a pretty fantastic day. I need to get all the food in I can before the fasting begins on Monday. I can’t wait for the safari tomorrow. We are leaving at 5:30am! Au revoir mes amis, a demain!
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