Just a preface, some of this is very graphic. Here are our observations:
Fifteen years ago, just under one million people were murdered inside Rwanda by Rwandans. This may be the saddest part. They were not all killed by a powerful army like the in the Holocaust, but largely by the population that makes up Rwanda today. In March 1994 there were 9 million people in the country, a month later, 8 million. This is roughly the equivalent of Americans killing everyone in California, Oregon and Washington--around 10% of the census. Every Rwandan is either afflicted or guilty. Every single person lost a family member or were forced into killing a neighbor, a friend or anyone ethnically 'Tutsi'. When you watch people walk down the streets, many of them seem to be staring through the sidewalk.
Kigali is in a beautiful setting, surrounded by hills and covered in green. Taking motorcycle taxi's around the city, it's impossible not to imagine what it was like then. There were quite a few people missing limbs, but frankly this is a common site in Africa. The memorial museum itself was well done with a lot of interpretative material about the lead up to the genocide and some heartbreaking displays. One display was comprised of a series of glass cases lined with skulls. Half of the skulls had missing sections, many of them had linear cuts indicative of a blow to the head with a machete. Upstairs is a hall full of photos of children, each with an account of their favorite things and also how they died. One that I will not forget, was written by the grandmother of two children pictured, a brother and sister. She wrote that both babies died in the arms of their mother. The children and their mother were chopped by a machete. I imagine that there are stories like this throughout the country. There are memorials throughout the country. One museum that we chose not to visit is simply a school where people gathered to hide from the Hutu. When the Hutu found them, they chained the doors and murdered everyone. Inside are thousands of victims who were hacked to death with machetes, garden hoes and hammers, left untouched and preserved in lime since 1994. We talked to a volunteer whose Rwandan host took her to a neighborhood party. After introducing the volunteer to a line of her neighbors, she walked to two individuals and shook their hands, but kept her head bowed not looking them in the eyes. Afterward, the volunteer asked why and the woman told her that these were the people that killed her family.
It is a safe place by African standards--maybe the safest country we passed through on the continent. After the genocide, they changed their flag and have encouraged a kind of national forgiveness that seems to be working. Oddly, its a very expensive country as well. Because of a large UN presence, prices in Kigali were at European levels. The people there are still very poor, especially in the countryside. There were many Americans there running NGO's and volunteering in various capacities. To be honest, it was frustrating to see expensive NGO Land cruisers driving on Kigali's streets while most of the population still lives in poverty in the countryside. We have seen this in every country of Africa--people send donations and have the best intentions for the people there. More often than not, it ends up raising the cost, not quality of living and causing a national apathy. Because many people traveling in Africa are volunteers, we met quite a few. Nearly all of them said that you should be very careful when sending $$ and choose the foundations only after committed research.
Africa can seem like a lawless and crazy place. Its important to mention that Africans themselves are not this way for the most part. One on one, nearly all Africans are not unlike westerners. They value family and laughter and deep down just want a better life. Rwandans especially deserve credit, as they are overcoming a nightmare that in incomprehensible to most of us.
The real "Hotel Rwanda"
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