May 30, 2013

May 30, 2013

 Yesterday during our lunch break between classes, Elizabeth, Chelsea and I went to a market beside the restaurant we ate at to get some water.  We ended up talking a guy who worked there, Christopher, and he pointed us in the direction of some pineapple wine. Sounds good but don’t ever get it – probably one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever drank.  Anyway, we became friends with Christopher and another worker in the store, Immanuel, and they helped us practice our Ikinyarwanda.  We told them we would come back Tuesday to give a review of the wine and our language skills – they’re probably going to be disappointed with both.

Once we got back to the guesthouse after class, five of us decided to explore the city a little.  We walked by a few kiosks and a medical center and a lot of construction. Everywhere we walk people literally stare us down.  We found out that if you say “muraho” (hello), their faces automatically brighten up and they smile and try to communicate a little bit back with us. I met one guy who tried to teach me “you are my friend”.  We couldn’t decide if they appreciated that we were trying to learn a little bit of their culture or if we just sounded ridiculous and they were laughing at us. Either way, it was a positive response so we just went with us and walked around telling people hey for hours. 

We walked past the Serena Hotel, which is supposed to be the nicest one in Kigali and decided to sneak in a get a look around. It is SOO beautiful inside and the pool area is amazing. When we were leaving we told one of the doormen “murabeho” (goodbye) and he told us that only older Rwandan people used that and it was very formal. One of the workers at the guesthouse said that wasn’t true so I don’t really know what to make of that.

Anyway, we went through a pretty crowded market area and ate at a restaurant called “Fantastic Restaurant” which was pretty good.  Once we got back to the guesthouse we got Jackson Uwizeye, assistant manager at the guesthouse we’re staying at, helped us to say our numbers 1-10 in Ikinyarwanda. I think I finally have that down pat.  We tried the pineapple wine and ended up giving it to two of the guesthouse workers because it was so bad. They seemed to both enjoy it though – guess it’s an acquired taste.  We played cards with some more of the students on the trip and some of the workers at the guesthouse.

Today we went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Museum. They have mass graves outside where they have gathered and embalmed bodies put them into coffins and buried them together. The museum part of the memorial was very informative and we had one of our TA’s friends from Rwanda take us through it, which offered a personal aspect and was very moving. After the information part of the museum I went through the children’s museum.

Once you walk through the doors to the children’s museum they have pictures of children who were killed in the genocide. Under their pictures, there’s a plaque with their name, age, favorite food, favorite activity, a few more pieces of information about them and lastly it lists the manner in which they died. Once boy was 8 years old and it listed that he was tortured to death.  An 8-year-old child. Another 2 year old was beaten to death with clubs. A 15-month-old died in his mother’s arms by machete. It just seemed to get worse and worse. Under one of the children’s pictures it listed his last words: “UNAMIR will come save us.” If you’re not familiar with the Rwandan genocide, UNAMIR stands for United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda. They were not given enough military power by various countries (mainly the US) and therefore never came to the rescue of Rwandans.

They had plaques outside of the children’s museum with quotes from some of the genocide survivors. One 16-year-old boy said that both of his parents died and he didn’t have a single thing to remember them by – not even a photograph.  Imagine not only both of your parents dying at such a young age, but not having anything to hold in your hands to remember them. Even worse, they died at the hands of another human being.

The entire museum experience this morning was emotionally draining, but I’m glad I went and I think it’s very important that people know how this atrocity happened and how we can prevent another from happening. I think it’s interesting and heartbreaking that after the Holocaust the world said “Never Again” will there be another genocide.   However, when genocide faced the Rwandan people, the rest of the world sat back and watched.