A Dark Past, A Brighter Future
Trip Start
Aug 05, 2006
1
33
55
Trip End
Ongoing
Kigali,
Rwanda
Sunday, April 8, 2007
While entering Rwanda by bus from Uganda my eyes were glued to the beautiful scenery outside the window. Everything here is covered with a layer of green. On the valley floor were rows and rows of tea plants and the hills were dotted by banana trees. Upon arriving in Kigali; Brian, Li, two Israeli guys, and I checked into the "New Modern Guest House". Nothing about this place was modern except the room prices.
Kigali is a very relaxed town with clean paved streets and surrounded by rolling hills. Most people who only know Rwanda through the Western press would probably consider it an extremely dangerous place but the genocide was over 10 years ago and Kigali is now one of Africa's safest cities.
One place we just had to visit was "Hotel Rwanda" which is actually called Hotel Des Milles Collines. When visiting the hotel today it is hard to visualize the events that took place here in 1994. Today it looks like any other four star hotel with a nice swimming pool and bar in the back.
One place we also wanted to visit where the scars of the genocide are still clearly visible was the church at Nyatama, about 30km from Kigali. In this place alone nearly 50,000 people were slaughtered by the Hutu militia known as the Interahamwe. When we arrived at the church by minibus we were greeted by dozens of children shouting Mzungu, white person. After playing with the kids for a decided to have a look inside the church.
The first thing I noticed when entering the church were hundreds of small holes in the ceiling which I was told were bullet holes. When the killing reached full swing here even the churches did not provide safe haven for those fleeing the violence. The killers would often herd people into the church and then throw a grenade inside to kill as many as possible. Those still alive afterward were then hacked to death with machetes. The evidence of these horrible acts is still clearly visible on many of the thousands of skulls interred at the church which are all lined up on display.
After leaving the church we walked back to the bus station and waited for a ride back to Kigali. Since coming to Africa I have become rather accustomed to people staring at me but here I felt particularly like a zoo specimen as crowds of people surrounded us in a half circle and simply stared at us while we sat drinking sodas. I am also apparently not the first person from Missouri to visit here since I noticed one kid wearing a shirt with Branson, Missouri written on the front.
Rwanda has definitely experienced a dark and violent past but it is a country looking toward the future with hope and its people have tried to put aside the old ethnic divisions between Hutus and Tutsis and view themselves simple as Rwandans..
"Hotel Rwanda"
