Murambi and The Stippestate

On June 15th we drove 2 hours to Butare where we stopped and ate lunch at a buffet. Then we drove another hour to Murambi. Murambi was a technical school that was under construction during the genocide. Today at the site, bodies are preserved in Lye and laid out on tables in the school's classrooms. It was an experience that will be hard to forget. We also walked around the back and we saw where the mass graves were, where people were buried alive. Our tour guide, Emannual, survived the Murambi massacre and told his story after we walked around the site. We spent about two hours there and then rode back to Kigali. On the way home our driver drove really fast and we got pulled over, but because it was a bus full of muzungus, the cop let us off with a warning. When we arrived back at the Iris Guesthouse we walked next door and ate at Shang Hi, a Chinese restaurant.
The next two days we spent walking around Kigali, shopping at Caplaki and swimming at the Stipp. The Stipp did not have rooms for us because of the East African Military Games are being held in Rwanda. We were instead relocated to the Stippestate, a gated community with brand new villas that have never been lived in. We seperated into four of the nicest villas many of us have ever stayed in (it didn't feel like we were staying in Rwanda). The second day at the Stipp was spent walking around looking at the city. On our walk, we stopped at the Belgian Troop Memorial, where ten Belgian soldiers were tortured and killed before the genocide. We ate at Sole Luna for dinner, the delicious Italian restaurant.
Now, we have all packed up and said our goodbyes and are preparing for our long flights home. We got on the bus at 12 and went to lunch at the Hotel Des Milles Collines.
We all enjoyed our trip and most people are not ready to leave.
-alex, kelsey, mary, emma