Kigali Genocide Memorial and Nyamata Church

I was not expecting what was to come today. I woke up (early bird) and within a few hours, everyone was in the car. Took twenty minutes to get to the first destination we were heading to, Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre.

We went through the garden and talked about the bodies that were stacked upon each other within the tombs underground and the man that was our guide for the beginning told us that they found more bodies from the genocide in Kigali resulting to buying another part of the land. There was still one empty hole where bodies were still being found to fill in and a half full hole of other victims. Our guide took us to the actual garden and he told us that there were three gardens, all representing three different groups, but all in harmony and connected it to when the genocide startedm groups were torn apart.

We went inside and I took my time, wanting to absorb as much information as I could so I can take back as much knowledge as I know now, back home to my home. Throughout this whole trip, I have been waiting for the Genocide part and learning more. Well, I finally got it today. The problem was that I did not know what it would carry with as I learned more. I was overwhelmed with how the Genocide started before the groups were made, before massacres began in 1994, before bloodshed was spilled on this beautiful land. Reading about how people suffered whether they were collaborators, victims, or survivors was overwhelming. Seeing the videos of small clips of what had happen during the genocide hit hard for me. I remember vividly of a little boy being treated of a machete that was clubbed in his skull that made a large scare and showing the inside of his head. His tears...God, I cannot get them out of my head, and I think that it will stay with me forever.

I continued going through the memorial, taking my time, reading everything that I could get a hold of. Victims were tortured, raped, humiliated, and so much more during the genocide. There was a clip of three Genocide Survivors being interviewed telling on how they survived the genocide, what they remember from one of their great friends or family members who were killed. It was heartbreaking for me to listen to it and I thought it was too much, but this is a one in a lifetime for me to experience that I did not care if I was crying at the end. I wanted to knowm qnd finding out what happened here where people speak so quietly of the genocide that took place in my time is hard, yet easy. Hard that I cannot go up and ask some person about the genocide because I do not want them to be forced to speak of something they themselves have a hard time remembering.

As I walked through the "after" part of the memorial of the genocide, I kept on remembering the pictures I saw before then of dead bodies lying in the church, the field, their own home. It's very upsetting to read some of the news articles that were the the New York Times way back then and nobody taking action. It's disturbs me that no one did anything to stop it before it was too late and more than 1,000,000 people had died. I went into the Children's museum and it was heartbreaking. There were pictures of some of the victims of how they died, what there favorite drink was, who was their best friend (one of them said their dad), how old they were, their names, and their cause of death. I remember two victims (one of them I can't remember their names) and she died of a grenade thrown in the shower...she was no older than a seven year old. And another one...named Thierry Ishimue who was just nine months and his cause of death was in his mother's arms. Tears streamed down my face and I could picture it so well of how he died. Being vulnerable and not being able to support yourself and then getting killed so inhuman is...it's powerful. You had to have been there. I walked out, after going through another room that talked about other genocides around the world, and the sounds...it was silent...only my train of thoughts of reflecting was the only thing I heard. I tried to hide my tears, but I didn't want to, I needed to cry instead of holding it in and letting it get the better of me before it becomes too much later on in this trip.

We had lunch, and it was good ol' happy food. Cheered me up! And then we headed towards the Nyamata Genocide Memorial Site...I have written a lot, and I'm going to let my other friend, Natalie take it from here.

So, TTFN! (Glynnis)

Today was the day of this trip I have been waiting for since I signed up to go to Rwanda. This sounds morbid, but I have a real, genuine interest in the stages, victims, and genocidaires of the Rwandan Genocide. This experience really connected all that I have learned in class to what actually happened.
After the 3 hours we spent in the museum we got lunch where
Abby, Emma and I were super lucky to be sitting at the same table with a man from Belgium who worked for the International Red Cross. He had just moved from
Darfur and is here to make sure that all prisoners here keep their civil rights.

Then we headed off to Nyamata. This was not like the museum at all, but it was intense. Our tour guide was one of the only 7 survivors out of the about 10,000 people staying at this church. Charles was very soft spoken and we could all tell he had been through a lot considering the other 10 members of his family had been murdered right next to him. He survived as a 9 year-old boy covering himself in his brothers blood and pretending he was already dead. He then stayed like this for 9 days before going out for water and other people took him under their wing and they stayed in a marsh for three weeks before the RPF found them and saved them. àCharles told us that when the Interhamwe first came in they lined up six people and mocked them before killing them. Telling them that if they were such intellectuals they should be able to figure their way out of the situation. Then they cut off their arms then their heads and threw them to the thousands of people and told them to play soccer with them. then the massacre began.

In this church they kept all the clothes of the people murdered. The church is FILLED with clothes. Then Charles took us outside where there were more mass graves there and took us underground where there were also rows upon rows of hundreds of femur bones and shelves of about 144 skulls on each shelf. we saw many machete wounds in the skulls. It"s difficult to grasp that these were not just our science class skulls, each skull was a person, a soul and a family member.

This clearly wiped us out emotionally, so most of us just went back to the iris and fell asleep. I know I did. then we met up after dinner and talked a lot about what we had seen and felt during the day and about possiblilities the 2011 trip. I have learned more today and on this trip than a semester at school. Parents, your money is being extremely well spent and thank you so so much for this extraordinary experience.
-natalie