Kigali Genocide Memorial

I wasn't going to write a post about my visit to the memorial because I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it. But it's important to take the bad with the good so I'll say a few words and share a few pictures about this experience.

Just less than a month ago, my friend Nancy came to visit me from Nairobi and we went to the memorial together. The place itself is beautiful...but it holds a lot of pain and feelings I still can't put into words. The names of some of some of the victims (those that have been identified - the identities of many victims remains a mystery) as well as pictures of some of the murdered children are posted on walls.  There are many stories here - of both survivors and victims - and at times it was extremely difficult to read them...

I couldn't take any pictures of the inside of the memorial (and I wouldn't really want to as there are some very personal items and stories in there) but I did take some photos outside. They've dedicated gardens and have described the strength and memory of the victims symbolically through trees and beautiful plants.

 This sculpture is a gorilla on a cell phone - telling the world what happened here in Rwanda so that it does not happen again...

There are many graves here. Too many. But at least these people are now resting in peace in a place of beauty..

The hallway leading to the graves

Nearly a million lives were lost in Rwanda in 1994. The genocide is a dark reflection of how humanity can go so wrong. In the years preceding the genocide, there were indicators, signs, warnings of what was about to happen in Rwanda. But it was not prevented. The saddest part is that historically, Rwandans lived in peace but it is colonialism that brought about separation between the Rwandese people. Europeans created animosity between the ethnic tribes through favouritism and just general ridiculousness and in the end, it led to disaster. It's pretty unbelievable that all the UN had to do was send 5,000 troops and over 800,000 lives could have been saved....

I won't get into the history of the genocide but I will say that reading the stories and watching videos of survivors recounting what happened to them in '94 made me question how people can be so evil. It's a very dark and almost unbelievable story. Almost. Until you meet the people who were here in April of '94 and hear their stories and see their pain. 

The thing that hit me the most though was just how far Rwanda has come. Seeing how horrible things were nearly 18 years ago made me realize how resilient these people are. Here they are, living in peace and unity, smiling, dancing, singing and moving on. Reconciliation will not happen in just 18 years. It will take generations but this tiny African nation is well on its way to healing. I struggled emotionally with this experience but in the end, it just made me love Rwanda and the people here more...