How strange it is to come outside where the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and everything seems so peaceful. Being inside the memorial where I was surrounded by and immersed in information, pictures and videos of the genocide made it seem so real, but out here in this flower garden it seems a million years away and really just a dream that people have made movies about.

While inside I noticed a man with a huge and deep scar on his head. Was he a survivor of the genocide? Probably. Everyone in Rwanda is a survivor.

This memorial has 14 different mass graves with a total of about 2,500 people buried here. The outside of the memorial is beautiful: a flower garden, two fountains and a shaded sidewalk. The view of downtown is beautiful and the memorial is set in a quiet part of Kigali. Inside the memorial are 3 main sections. 1. A chronological walk through the memorial detailing events preceding and following the genocide. It's crazy to think that Hutus and Tutsis knew no difference between themselves before Europeans came in and favored the Tutsis. But what is a Tutsi when her history, culture, religion are identical to that of a Hutu? In this section there was a room of skulls and bones from many victims of killings. 2. There is also general information (actually fairly detailed) about other genocides in the world: Cambodia, Kosovo, the Holocaust, Balkans, and Rwanda. 3. The most heart/gut wrenching part for me was the memorial to the children. There were a dozen blown up photos with placards detailing the child's favorite food, drink, characteristics, last words, and lastly, how each one died. It was horrific.

I'm sitting in the sunny flower garden trying to process what I've just seen and read. It seems that signs of the genocide were so clear and yet humanitarian aid and the very people who could have stopped the on-coming massacre, pulled out, leaving Tutsis (who they'd favored) to fend for themselves against friends and neighbors who were being told (via hate radio) to kill Tutsis.
thoughtfully,
eh