Michelle May

With so many orphanages in Africa I may have had the good fortune to accidentally stumble on one of the better one around- in the village of Nyakinama near the town of Musanze in Northwest Rwanda.  As you will see here, there are some precious kids who live there- and the physical grounds look and feel good.  If you want to learn more about the orphanage (&/or volunteer there!!?) please check out their sponsor’s website:  www.aidpafrica.org 

Tags: orphanage, Rwanda.

One of the main reasons I came to Rwanda was to visit the Genocide Memorial in the capital of Kigali.  It opened in 2004 to mark the 10 years since the 100 day genocide.  The memorial was put together by Rwandan public tax dollars and the AEGIS trust which is a UK based group who also did the Holocaust museum in London.   It was said that part of the reason for constructing the memorial was so that society could recognize what went on, pay respect to the dead, and seek some understanding as a nation.  The memorial is set on a large hill; outside of it is a mass grave which is as large as a car park.  All over the tiny nation of Rwanda there are mass graves and memorials- usually on a lesser scale than this one.    Going through the memorial there is a play by play about how the seeds of division in the nation were planted- how they evolved, and then how the practice genocide and 100 day genocide was calculated, planned and supplied (French sold them weapons).  It points out the role of the UN (in leaving- abandoning them), as well as the role of propaganda/mind control, since the radio stations called for the killings (and the UN was not allowed to take out these radio towers).  It included faxes sent by the Canadian UN commander begging for more troops and warning of what was to come.  Photos of dead bodies and body parts- as well as those who survived machete wounds are shown.  I am constantly shaken here that humans could do such horrible things to one another and in such a barbaric way.  It is overwhelming.  The memorial also has s section dedicated to other genocides- Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Namibia, and Bosnia to name a few.  They point out the common denominators in Genocide ideology such as depersonalizing the “other,” promoting an idea that on race or religion is “all good or all bad” and giving people concrete ways to identify “others.”

The town of Nyamata about 30 kilometers south of Kigali also has a different type memorial.  During the genocide many took shelter in the churches around the country.  Tragically, many of the “death squads” came to the churches where thousands were hiding- they then massacred everyone there.  In the town of Nyamata there is a church where nearly 10,000 were killed.  As you enter the church the first thing you are struck by are the pews filled with clothing- as well as clothing of children stacked in a separate area.  You can see the belts, shoes, hats all laying there covered in blood- really hitting the point home of the enormity of what happened.  There I met a 23 year old named Mugabe.  He is actually a survivor of that very massacre.  I do not know how he can speak of it but he told the story of what happened over the 3 days that that church was terrorized- when he was 8 years old.  His brother put blood on him at the time so he could pretend that he was dead.  There he witnessed the torture, rape, dismemberment, and murder by machete of thousands including his own brothers and both of his parents.  I will not tell you the details but it is truly the most horrific way to kill or torture that one could ever imagine.  Mugabe took me to an underground tomb where his parent’s coffins lay.  Alongside are hundreds of others as well as piles and piles of bones and skulls.  I asked him about how he managed to recover from that and get to where he is today- a man who aspired to be an engineer, is soft spoken and kind.  He explained that immediately after he lived in a swamp for a month.  After the genocide “ended” he moved in with the family of friends.  He received government sponsored primary and secondary education (education is not free in Rwanda), but now that he wants to go to college he is on his own.  Mugabe said that he often has nightmares and flashbacks- I cannot begin to imagine.  His resiliency is something I have never seen before.  Mugabe seeks solace in friends, art, music, and karate.  After he took us around the Kenyan woman I was with wept.  “What can we do to help him?  We have to help him!” she urged.  I felt useless.

Afterwards I went to visit an American guy I met on a bus a few days back- he works at a hospital in Nyamata as a nurse.  He took me on a tour of the facilities.  Post Genocide many foreign powers put money into Rwanda- most likely out of guilt and shame since they sat by and ignored what was going on when it was going on.  The hospital was very nice, likely built with foreign donations- most impressive was it had an entire wing dedicated to AIDS patients.  One of the horrible weapons of genocide was rape and mutilation- often they purposely gave women AIDS- torturing but letting them live so that they would be “walking ghosts.”  There at the hospital were the faces of those who survived that- as well as younger victims of AIDS- some born out of rape.   My new friend also brought me to the psych ward of the hospital where I got to met their head therapist- and learn about the medications and therapies that they attempt in treating a traumatized nation.  The therapist was friendly personable and had passion for his job- later on my friend told me that the therapist had also witnessed his parents murder.  Pretty much everyone you meet here has had that- or they took part in the killings- they are genocidaires.  Rwanda is experimenting with reconciliation since they cannot possibly imprison everyone who took part in murder of between one and 2 million people.   I could never see that working in the US but here, expectations are already so low.   Sorry if much of this is disturbing- I have tried to not go on and on- but there is no way for me to describe Rwanda to you if I do not describe some of this.  A good book to read if you do want to learn more is Stephen Kinzer’s “A Thousand Hills.”

.

Happy Holidaze from Kigali, Rwanda ya’ll… Made it here from Uganda a few days back.   For 2 such small (relatively speaking) countries, Rwanda & Uganda could not be more different from eachother!  I took a local bus to the Rwandan border from Kampala, Uganda.  THere we had to exit the bus & take all contents out of our bags and bus.  The Rwandan authorities went through everyone’s bag, etc- to be sure that no plastic bags were on board- little boys were running around selling brown and cloth bags rather than the usual water, sweeties, etc-.  I learned that Rwanda has a law that is truly enforced-  no plastic bags are allowed.  Apparently this happend after they did a big clean up in Kigali & found millions of plastic bags littering the place- The President Paul Kagame made the decision- no more plastic bags!  Wow, if America could just do that.

As we drove into Rwanda we shifted from driving on the left side of the road to the right- another surprise.  Something else that struck me was that the green rolling hills and small villages were not littered with trash like i am used to seeing in nearly every corner of the globe (hey, have never been to SIngapore).  THere seemed to be a dignity even in simple homes & huts- flower gardens were bursting, etc-.  A man I met on the bus told me that Rwanda has strict laws around littering, and they also pay people to clean up the streets- creating jobs/income & keeping it clean.  Every last saturday of the month is community project day where all businesses are closed & no one is allowed to drive a car or motorbike- because they ought to be working on their community project!  Amazing….   My new friend & I discussed how many many countries, like Rwanda,  get huge amounts of international aid- but many of them do not seem to benefit or make real progress.  Well considering the genocide just happened 15 years ago- i would say that Rwandans & the Kagame government seem to be doing something VERY right here. 

It has been heartening to see how well this country is doing now- I did not expect it.  That is not to say that there is not still poverty, pollution, chaos- but from what I see so far Rwanda is much better run than any other sub-Saharan African country i have been to, all while carrying the huge burden of their past.  When i think about the aid that say, Haiti has gotten & compare to it here there is such a big difference- as my friend on the bus said, the difference is having a good leader versus a bad one- but we also suspect there is more to it than that & we need someone to do some hard research on the subject.  I just got here so i am no expert but so far I give Kagame my stamp of approval.  It’s not just the plastic-A few other things that made me say hmmmm…:

- pedestrian appears to have the right of way when crossing the street- cars stop so us pedestrians can cross in cross walks where there is no traffic light- not true in most parts of the world where crossing the street is the biggest travel safety hazard (ie:  Tehran, Beirut, Hanoi, Bangkok, Ramallah, etc-)

-Kagame has changed the official language from the local Rwandan & French to the local Rwandan & English.  Seeing as how France sold the genocide perpetrators millions in arms which were used to carry out the genocide, I can see why- also it is a smart $/business/tourism in my (selfish) opinion ; )

- i thougt there was more & there definitely is, but i just cannot think of them right now (it’s nap time).  What i am telling you is all very surface- there is so much to say about everything else.. i will get to that soon… But must get some shut eye now…  Much love from Rwanda.

.