Trip to Rwanda - Monday, 4th of October 2010

Monday 4th of October 2010 - Rwanda from Nkem Dennar's Perspective.

.
It was a full day today. Out of curiosity, after breakfast I took a walk around the Solace building just to see what happens there on a daily basis. I met the nurse Gloria who spoke to me about what they do. At the centre, they attend to about 30 women every day who are HIV positive, run computer classes for the orphans and counselling sessions for people.

The highlight of my day was the visit to the Kigali Memorial Centre. The memorial centre has details of the history of Rwanda and the genocide that occurred in 1994 as well as a section on the genocide that occurred during different periods in history such as the Armenian and Bosnian genocide, and the Holocaust in Germany.

There were exhibits of weapons used during the genocide and also remains of victims. There were video testimonies of survivors and even confessions of the perpetrators.

This experience is not one I can describe with words. I think I left there thinking how can people be so wicked? From anger to disgust to sadness, I experienced a whole lot of emotions at the same time. The hardest bit was seeing the photographs of children who were killed in the most brutal way possible.

There’s no doubt these people have been through so much and my mind can not begin to understand it.

Outside the building there are about 258,000 bodies buried and a garden where people can come and mourn their loved ones. As we left the Memorial Centre, everyone seemed to be in a sombre and reflective mood. I for one had definitely seen enough.

To ease the effect of this experience we decided to drive around town to enjoy the sights and sound of Kigali. We had lunch at the Union Trade Centre with Remi and his friends. The whole day’s experience had me thinking about life’s real purpose.

Tomorrow we go to visit the people of Kaduha. It should be fun!