Remembrance

As a result of being done with school to celebrate we decided to visit Rwanda before making the trip home.  Being up in the northern part of Tanzania decided it was worth the extra trip.  Plus, it made for a great way to celebrate the conclusion of this season of learning.  My friend Jennifer who also works in Arusha flew to Mwanza to be my travel partner.  The major site of Rwanda is to go Gorilla Trekking which was scheduled for Sunday.  However, we were pleasantly surprised of the lessons we learned through our time in Rwanda.  Through a series of posts I will walk you through our ventures of the last week and coming home.  But, first we pause for Remembrance.

We left Mwanza Tanzania on a bus before the sun came up.  The bus ride was long but many new sites of the countryside were taken in.  This time always proves to be beneficial for me.  As we venture through different areas of Tanzania I see how different tribal areas live and the terrain of the land in which people live.  Buses do not yet cross the border so I walked across the border and once again gained another stamp in my passport.  There were beautiful falls at the border.  The water a little muddy but still powerful!  We called it the Chocolate River!  We found our next bus and prepared ourselves for the last several hours of our venture to Kigali.  After visiting Kampala Uganda I was not all that excited about visiting another capital city of an Africa country.  I was pleasantly surprised as our eyes saw sites of Kigali.  They have named Rwanda as the country of "1000 Hills."  I think that was an understatement!  The hills are as far as the eye can see.  The hills are a rolling beautiful green.  The city still has many qualities that African cities do but I couldn't get over how clean it was!  The roads were well thought out and paved!  Rwanda has made HUGE strides since its haunting past of 1994.  I truly enjoyed being in Kigali and the sites were only beginning!

Our first full day in Kigali we ventured to the Kigali Genocide Memorial.  April is the month dedicated specifically to this tragic part of Rwandan history for it is the month the genocide ceased.  This is not my first time to view pieces of a country's history that has been plagued by this kind of evil encounter.  But, what made this one different is how recent this took place.  As we met people walked the halls of the memorial we were encountering people who were present and directly affected in the most horrible 100 days.  This was more than a chapter in a history book it was all around and a part of every hand we shook.  The memorial is a burial site of over 250,000 victims of the genocide.  Groups would come with flowers to remember, reflect, and mourn.  The memorial is simplistic and yet one of the most profound I have ever stepped foot.  The desire of the site is to be that of remembrance but also a tool to educate that something like this never happens again.  I shuttered as the amount of hate and evil it would take for something of this magnitude to occur.  I shed tears as I heard stories of the lives lost.  I smiled as my eyes saw transformation.

 This is a picture outside the memorial that overlooks one of the hills of the city.  Today people fill the streets of those who have moved on from the tragic past.  But, there are also those who pause to reflect and remember.  I pray that nothing like this ever happens again but I fear that it could at any moment in many places of the world.  Rwandans we met were open to talking about the Genocide as a whole but not personally.  When you asked about family they would respond well this is who is in my family now because of '94.  They would reference it as post 1994 the year that changed everything.  

 One of the quotes on the wall read: "When they said 'never again' after the Holocaust, was it meant for some people and not for others?"
                 Apollon Kabahizi

There was one floor I could barely step foot.  A floor with walls dedicated to pictures of children fallen victim of the genocide.  Children who never had a chance to grow up.  Children this world will never know and whose lives were taken in the most tragic of ways.

 Moments to think and reflect were needed after what we saw and learned by walking the halls of the memorial.  We went then and sat in the gardens of Hotel DesMille Collines which is now known in the city as Hotel Miracle.  It sits on a high hill overlooking Kigali and is the hotel that the movie "Hotel Rwanda" was made about.  The hotel manager who sheltered and saved many as evil filled the streets.  As we sat in mostly silence in a place of such pain and yet a reminder that victory can occur.  People can overcome tragedy, people can be saved, transformation can occur, Victory can be ours, and Miracles can happen.  

I have to admit I set foot in this country for gorilla trekking!  But, once again I left with so much more!  Stay tuned for more tails of the adventures!

In the garden of the memorial I took this picture of

this beautiful bloom that hung over the walking path.  The pure white bloom reminded me of peace and how once again, my friends, beauty can come from ashes.

"There will be no humanity without forgiveness.
There will be no forgiveness without justice.
But justice will be impossible without humanity."
                                            Yolande Mukagasana


Prayer Points~

• May we always pray for peace and unity
• For love to conquer evil
• My Rwandan friends to continue to find healing and praise for the transformed lives present after such tragedy!