Ibyiringiro

Rwandan Word of the Day:

Ibyiringiro: Hope

We had a very jam packed day today. I got up at about 6:45am. It was rather unpleasant to get out of my bed at that hour, because I woke up at around 3am freezing and had to get up and put on sweat pants and a hoody. It was weird. I don’t know if it was a side effect of my anti-malaria pills or what. So it made getting up extra early extra difficult.

I showered again today. I have been dreading it since my injury last time. BUT you will all be happy to hear that I made it out of the bathrooms without a single injury. It was quite a success. The water, however, was extra freezing and the showerhead didn’t really work so there’s that. It’s always one thing or another, and I will gladly take cold water over another injured knee for sure.

We got provided breakfast this morning, which was nice considering we usually don’t. I wasn’t feeling the waffles, but the eggs were good and so was the tea. I just love tea though. Then we left for Parliament at about 8:20am on another janky bus. It didn’t take us very long to get there, and we pulled right up to the building without much security at all. I found that odd considering there are armed guards in trucks by the droves. We took lots of pictures on the outside, and then went in to our meeting with the Human Rights Committee from the House of Deputies (their version of the House of Reps). We got to talk with 7 MPs about the problems facing Rwanda in terms of human rights issues. It was cool, because I can’t imagine being able to do that in the US where our congress people are completely unapproachable and unavailable 99.9% of the time. They also answered our questions decently yet politically. Not surprising. Politics and the way politicians work is pretty universal it seems. They were friendly and personable though, and took pictures with us at the end of the meeting. I even got one of the MP’s email addresses so I will be able to hopefully correspond with him in the future. WIN! Yay for networking! Haha!

After the meeting we toured the Parliament building. Part of the building had been left with the damage done during the genocide as a reminder of what had happened. It was pretty crazy. We got to see both the House of Deputies and the Senat. Yes, I meant to spell it that way. I got to sit in the President’s chair. BE JEALOUS! I have a picture to prove it haha! We only had about 15mins to spend touring the building though, because we were running behind schedule. Like always.

Next stop was the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center. It was a beautiful center, but brutally honest and graphic with all the gory and depressing details of all things genocide. It was similar to the Holocaust Museum in DC in terms of the fact that they both exhibit possessions of those who lost their lives along with individual stories and thousands of pictures. The facts surrounding this atrocity are disturbing, unnerving, and infuriating to me. It makes me so mad at the international community who could have prevented this or stopped it quickly. It makes me sick knowing that countries are so self serving that they will not take a chance to save another country in dire need. What happened in Rwanda is unspeakable, yet it should be talked about everyday. These people live with the ramifications of those 100 days every second of their lives. Not a single person here in Rwanda was unaffected by the genocide. Every person, American and Rwandan alike, walked out of that memorial touched all the way to the soul. I wish I could do more to educate the world about what really happened here in Rwanda. It’s easy for people to forget and even deny that there was an actual genocide here. “Acts of genocide” does not even begin to cover the nearly one million murders that occurred in a little over three months. How can people turn a blind eye to that? I know it sounds idealistic, but I wish people and countries would help one another just because it’s the right thing to do and not because it’s economically or politically favorable. We all condemn selfishness when it comes to individuals so why should it be acceptable when countries are selfish? I don’t understand it. I know things are more complicated than I’m making it sound, but tonight I feel like I’m only human for wanting to be idealistic. I want us to WANT to help one another without thinking of how we will gain from it. Watching a person drown in a lake when you know how to swim makes you an accessory to murder. If you have the means to help, you are obligated to do so. Idealistic? Yes. The way it should be, though? You better believe it.

One of the exhibits showed biographies and pictures of some of the children murdered in the genocide. I almost had to walk out and throw up, because it left me so disgusted in mankind. The children depicted were between the ages of 15 months and 12 years. No mercy was spared. Not even for innocent children. One two year old was thrown against a wall with such force he died immediately. Several more were drown in latrines or cut up with machetes. Children. Cut up with machetes by their friends, neighbors, and sometimes even their relatives all because the Belgian colonizers had decided to classify their predecessors as Tutsi instead of Hutu or T’wa. It makes me ill. I don’t understand how a human being could be capable of such cruelty. I really just don’t understand. That part of the memorial really rocked me to the core.

Outside of the building containing all the exhibits on the before, during, and aftermath of the genocide there are huge beautiful gardens. I fell in love with them. There are also three fountains that tell the story of Rwanda. The first fountain was that of unity. It was surrounded with palm trees that symbolized Rwanda’s natural beauty. From that fountain there was a waterfall into the next fountain called the Division fountain. The waterfall symbolized Rwanda’s fall into genocide and the pool was star shaped illustrating how the population was divided. There were also five different benches surrounding the fountain on all directions symbolizing the international community’s lack of aid and support. The next fountain was connected with a stream and a bridge. It was called the Reconciliation fountain. The bridge represented the reunification and reconnection of the Rwandans. There was also a statue of a monkey with a cell phone illustrating how Rwanda should now and forever always be directly connected to the international world. It was really well put together and I truly enjoyed it.

The other part of the gardens also housed the mass graves. More than 259,000 Rwandans are buried on the grounds. I can’t even comprehend that many people being laid to rest there, but that number is only a fraction of how many people were murdered in the genocide. The mass graves were divided into four or five huge concrete slabs covering the ground where the victims’ bodies were placed. There were flowers all over them with banners saying “Never Again” in several languages. They were beautiful. I don’t know how I felt about the concrete slab mass graves though. I get that there were too many people to do individual graves, but concrete kind of bothers me. There was a huge wall of names of those buried there though (similar to the Vietnam War Memorial). I thought that was a good way to memorialize the individuals, but the names are still incomplete. Hopefully one day all the people buried there will be recognized.

I was very glad to get the chance to go there. It was a sobering experience, and the gardens are a place I could spend hours sketching and thinking.

After the memorial we went back to St Paul to get lunch. I ate too much. Again. Rwandan food is extremely starchy. Good, and definitely better than expected, but SO starchy. Then we had a group meeting about what we experienced. I didn’t really feel like talking about it, but we had to. I like to just sit with my thoughts sometimes, and come to my own conclusions before sharing with groups. It was a decent discussion though. Everyone seemed to think the memorial was well put together, and everyone also expressed the disgust with the international community.

Then we finally got some free time before dinner at a place called Dallas (haha). Some of us washed clothes out in the yard with buckets. It was funny to watch. The Rwandan participants came to watch and told all the girls they were terrible at washing clothes and tried to show them how it was done. I about died laughing. I spent the time trying to update pictures and what not. I took a ridiculous amount…. Surprising? I think not.

For dinner, we climbed up the mountain and went to the Dallas restaurant in the shopping center. It was a Rwandan buffet. It was actually pretty decent considering people who had gone before had really bad luck with it and said the food was terrible. They had cucumbers, which made me extremely happy and content. At dinner we found out where and who we would be doing homestays with. I got paired with Frances, because we both work for RAPP and we are staying with a RAPP employee named Phillipe. He is around my age and a musician. He sings in a band. I found it really cool, and he was very nice. I’m actually looking forward to the homestays even though we won’t have internet all weekend…Boo.

After we ate, we decided to go get a beer at the bar across the street. Well, one beer turned into three shots of tequila and lots of dancing. It was a TON of fun. We sat outside for a while and drank, and then I got drug to the dance floor by one of the Rwandan delegates named Johnas. He tried to teach me how to dance African style, but I wasn’t super successful. It was a lot of fun though. A big group of the rest of the group joined in, and we spent the rest of the night dancing. The other Rwandans in the bar thought we were all funny and ridiculous, but I don’t think they were too annoyed with us. A lot of them came over and danced in our group for a bit. It was a really awesome experience dancing with the native population, and spending a real light out Kigali style. We were all covered in sweat, but it was SO MUCH FUN. It reminded me of all my amazing nights out in Londontown. Oh nostalgia…

The only downer of the night was the fact that the waiter misunderstood what we meant when we ordered shots. We actually only wanted to order three shots of tequila total, but he gave us three shots EACH. We didn’t realize this though, because it came out in one glass. We just thought we were getting a lot of tequila for our money… not the case. It was frustrating, but what can ya do?

By the time we left the bar, it was slightly raining outside. Me, Jessica, Acaleza, and Stina walked back together. We had been so hot in the bar, we actually welcomed the drizzle minus the fact that it made the road and our flip flops slick. Me and Jessica walked arm and arm so we wouldn’t slip and fall. We successfully made it to our hotel, which was a definite plus. I didn’t feel like going to sleep when I got back, so I stayed up and packed some since we’re leaving for homestays this weekend.

Today was a very busy day, but all and all I enjoyed all the sights we saw and felt like it was a good day. Especially the night out. WIN! I love all the people in the delegation, and these next couple of weeks will just continue to be better and better.

Good night!