This morning we woke up and secured transportation to the village of Nyrabuye and Rusomo. We drove for about an hour southeast of Kigali and then turned off the main road. We drove for another hour or so up a very rocky and bumpy dirt road until we came to the small village of Nyarbuye. We found the genocide memorial at the church that we were looking for and we were told that it was closed. Felix, our taxi driver helped us get in touch with the "Executive of the Kibungo District." We conviced this person that we were indeed teachers and doing research on the genocide. After several minutes, they finally agreed to let us into the site. About 25,000 people were killed in the school attached to the church in Nyrabuye. This is one of the more infamous massacre sites of the genocide.
Before commiting the murders at Nyrabuye, the killers surrounded the church compound (a school, priest residence and church) and waited to kill. They cut tendons and waited longer. One of the most moving part of the site were 4 large rocks that were worn smooth by the killers sharpening thier machettes. Very hard to explain the impact that this site had on both of us.
After finishing up at the site, we continued on to the border town of Rusomo. We had planned to stay there for the night but when we arrived we decided it was best to return to the town of Kibungo. Rusomo is right on the Tanzanian border and there is a fairly large waterfall under a bridge separating the two countries. We walked out on the bridge and, flirting with the Tanzanian border, we took some picture.
Once we arrived in Kibungo, we found a nice guest house to stay in. Felix had some family to visit in town so we made a plan for him to pick us up tomorrow at 9:30am.
Interesting day. Mulaho.
James and Dave
No comments:
Post a Comment