Rwanda

In a fairly last minute decision, I decided to head to Rwanda with two other Real Uganda volunteers, Dee and Dan. We left on Tuesday to go to Kampala and stay the night. Then on Wednesday morning, we got up bright and early to catch a bus to Kigali, Rwanda. We thought that we had gotten on a VIP bus that would go directly there and pass through a major border crossing, but we later found out that we got on a different bus. The bus ride sucked because the roads in Uganda were horrible and I was sitting next to this woman who was seriously invading my space bubble. We wound up going through a bunch of dirt roads and dust was literally billowing in through the windows and covering us. We went through a really small border crossing and Dee wound up getting stuck at the border because she is Australian and she needed a visa. Dan and I carried on without her and felt really bad just leaving her at the border to sort it all out. The bus ride wound up taking a lot longer than expected. At least the countryside was beautiful. Dan made friends with a Rwandan guy who was explaining what everything was to us. He talked about how the government is trying to collectivize many of the villages to be able to more easily provide electricity and water to them. He also told us that any house along the road that doesn't have a veranda has 6 months to construct one or else the people living there will be evicted. He basically said that the country is moving in a direction where the rich will get richer and the poor will get screwed. It was quite interesting to here. We didn't get into Kigali until 13 hours after we had left and Dan and I were freaking out that we wouldn't be able to exchange money. Luckily we got into Kigali and had no problems getting money exchanged and getting to the hotel. We got into our room and at about 11:00pm, Dee showed up.

The next day was really relaxed. We just wondered around Kigali. We went to the craft market and got to see a bit of the city. Kigali is very different from Kampala. The city is much cleaner and there is a nicer atmosphere. The people don't harass you as much, the roads are good, the boda drivers have helmets for their passengers, and there is just a nicer vibe here. All of us said that we liked Rwanda better than Uganda, but then again we have only seen one city and haven't been out to the villages at all. It is really interesting how stark the contrast between Kampala and Kigali is. I am definitely glad that I came here to experience a new area. That night we met a girl from Great Britain and a guy from Sweden and went to dinner with them. It was a really nice start to the vacation.

Today we got up and decided to go to two genocide memorials about 30 km outside of Kigali at two different churches. I was ready to be shocked, but the reality of what I saw is something that words cannot even describe. The first church that we went to was really small and fairly off of the beaten path. At this church, 5000 people were massacred. As you walk into the main building, there are flowers and memorials constructed. There was a shelving unit with shoes, pots, pans, and other various objects that belonged to the people and strung all over the walls and on the rafters were the clothes of the people who had died. There were so many clothes and the majority were of women and children. At the other end of the church was a huge shelving unit of bones. There were a ton of skulls and bones just sitting there. It was a really moving experience and hard to believe that the genocide only happened 15 years ago. There are still so many people living here that experienced it and are still living with the repercussions. As we drove through the countryside I couldn't help but look at each older person and ask myself whether they were a victim or a perpetrator.

The next memorial that we went to was at a Catholic church and this one was even larger. 10,000 people died in the church after hiding there for 2 weeks. In total there were 40,000 remains from the church massacre and the surrounding village at the church. Covering the church benches were the clothes of the victims. Many of the clothes still had blood stains on them and the pulpit was covered in blood stains. Down below in the crypt were a few skeletal remains and the coffin of one woman who was raped and then had a broom handle shoved through her vagina to her head. Outside of the church were more crypts and inside were thousands of coffins and bones. I have never seen so many skulls and bones in my life. By the second church I couldn't even cry any more because it all seemed so unreal. I was in complete shock at how humans could do such a thing to other humans. It is easy to become a pessimist about humanity after seeing such sights. At least the country has moved forward and continues to develop. After visiting the churches I didn't know what to say. I was feeling really shitty and didn't really know what to feel or what to think. When we got back into Kigali we decided to go to the Hotel Des Mille Colline, the famous hotel from the movie Hotel Rwanda. It was a super nice hotel and it was surreal to go inside of it. We ate an extremely luxurious buffet lunch there and just sat trying to process the day. I will still be processing this day long after I leave Rwanda. I am so glad that I came here and I look forward to going to the official genocide museum tomorrow.