Ok, it’s a misty Wednesday and I should have gone to my
placement today but we were told this morning that some of us (including me)
are not leaving until tomorrow. After a successful Kinyarwanda lesson where I
learnt how to politely say I’m a single lady and how to buy food at the market,
we were dismissed until we depart. A small group of us decided to take a trip
this afternoon to the Gisozi Genocide Memorial in town and I cannot put into
words the emotions it called upon inside me. You had to pay to take pictures
inside and I did not have enough money, so I’ll go back another time to do that
but I cannot erase the pictures from memory. Inside the museum there are many
posters outlining each stage of the genocide and how it came about. There are
videos where survivors are talking about their experiences during the genocide
and still images playing of horrific injuries people endured during that
period. The worst part for me was the A2 portraits of children who were
massacred – their parents have given the most recent picture of them to be
enlarged and underneath there is a commemoration plaque explaining the name,
age, likes, dreams of the child and a description of how they died. I will take
the sentence on a 4 year olds plaque “stabbed in both eyes through the head” to
my grave as a reason not to hate others even if encouraged to do so. There are many skulls and bones of the
deceased in other rooms, along with some of their clothes amidst beautiful
stained glass windows and quotes from people about the bravery of those who
helped those being persecuted. Outside you can walk around the peace gardens
where the mass graves have been placed. This year in April, it is 20 years
since the 100 day period where nearly a million people were massacred - as I
said before... no words.
On a lighter note, I will be picked up by my new manager
tomorrow at 10am and taken to Byumba where I will live and work for the next 2
years. It sits higher up in the mountains than Kigali, so I expect it to be a
little chillier there – going to wear my long sleeves tomorrow!
Our group is down to 6 now as eight went off to
their placements today – quiet times!
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