June 1

Scratch that… Its not called the sunshine hotel nor am I staying there. Ahhh I’m so lost, and it doesn’t really help that none of the streets are marked. All of the streets have names but there are no road signs. To make it even more difficult each street has two names, one which the Belgium’s gave, and the other the Rwandans sometimes use.  The locals I’m sure think I’m an idiot. It probably doesn’t help my case that I can’t speak their language and I’m basically walking around in circles looking for a hotel that doesn’t really exist.

I’m not experiencing the culture shock I had expected. I guess I had this mental image of me backpacking through the jungle with a machete, chased by mountain gorillas, looking for the mud hut I would call home for the next few weeks. I know, so narrow minded, I guess that’s what you get for watching way too much animal planet. However, I was a little surprised when someone told me I can get arrested by walking on the grass. I was also a shocked when Claire told me I would be shot if I came back late and tried to climb over the gait. I guess shoot now, ask questions later. Note to self, don’t walk on the grass and NEVER try to climb a fence. Kigali’s main roads are paved, and are actually pretty clean, still I have yet to find a trashcan anywhere!!! There are no stray animals, or cows running around, certainly a change from India. Peoples driving fall somewhere in between grandma and afraid for my life, so that good too. They honk a lot but I don’t feel like I’m going to die.

The few people I have met so far seem very nice. I only really know Eddie the groundskeeper and Claire my volunteer coordinator. Claire speaks very good English, whereas Eddie speaks none. I have mastered the word hello and thank you, so for right now that is the extent of our communication. I have also met most of the other volunteers, four of us are from the United States, two from Australia, one from Canada, and one from the UK. I think I will be living with a few of them once I get to my placement. The ages of volunteers range from 19 to 49. It certainly a melting point, with the mix of age, religion, and culture.  Length of stay ranges from two weeks, to three months.

Today some of us went into Kigali. There we ate lunch at what I would call a buffet. The food was amazing. Surprisingly meat is widely available and people don’t understand the concept of being a vegetarian, they eat meat when they have it and they eat vegetables when they don’t. Not to worry though, there are a lot of vegetarian options. I also went to exchange some money which is always a challenge the first time. Exchange rate today was 580 Rwandan Francs per one USD. Lastly we went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. The only thing I can compare it to is the Holocaust museum in DC. The memorial was divided into three sections. The main exhibition tells the history of Rwanda leading up to the genocide through personal testimonies, photographs, and video. The second section called Wasted Lives reflects upon genocides of the past, for example massacres in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, and the Holocaust etc.  Then the third section called Tomorrow Lost was a display of the innocent child victims of the genocide. The memorial without doubt was very somber but in a way I felt like I was an outsider looking in. Watching the videos, and viewing the picture I stood there almost hardened. Of course I understand what happened to these people and how it must be horrific watching your family beaten, rapped, and brutally killed, but there is no possible way I can relate to this. There no experience I have ever had that can even begin to compare to what this entire population has faced. Friends killed friends, family killed family. Innocent people and children were brutally murdered. Horrible, but how can you wrap your mind around something like that. Not until local students came did I really see how this memorial affects the country, and then it began to affect me. When looking at the memorial the students began to cry, hold each other, and fall over with sadness. Students had to be escorted out and held by the staff members. These students couldn’t have been older than 18, few of them, if even any of them were alive to witness these horrific acts of violence. Although it’s so fresh in history I’m still amazed how it effects the younger generations. Another thing I noticed about the students is how they observed each exhibit. As a visitor I stood from a distance looking at the wall of family photos of the people who had been murdered.  As for the students, they walked up close to the photo, sometimes hold them in their hands examining it. I’m not sure, but I think they were looking at family or friends that were killed.  The last display I personally thought was the saddest, it was the child’s exhibit. The exhibit was covered with large picture of children, and under it had a short description of the child. For example one display showed a life sized portrait of a little girl. The description said name: Donata, age: 3 years old, favorite toy: doll, best friend: her daddy, characteristics: very talkative, Death: bludgeoned to death with a club.  There was also a display of skulls, several of them cracked, missing parts or had large bullet sized holes in them. Personally I don’t understand how this country has managed to rise above this. In the memorial today there were Hutu and Tutis crying together, holding each other, grieving as one. How are they able to set aside not only their differences but the fact that they live with the knowledge their neighbor may have killed their entire family. It amazes me how this country has been able to move on and become one, but still remember and memorialize the victims of the genocide.