The Genocide Memorial

We had a day in Kigali today. First we toured the Genocide Memorial. There are mass graves amongst beautiful gardens. There is a wall with names engraved on it, names of the people they were able to identify. The gardens were so nice and the setting was the side of a mountain overlooking the city, but still we were all very somber. We spent a couple hours inside the museum. There were many photos and we were able to read the history, etc. in english and watch several videos with english captions. The videos were of people who had seen their family killed, many times it was done by a neighbor that they thought was a friend. One lady said that she was a child in '94 and was amazed by the amount of evil. She saw her mother killed by a neighbor they thought was a friend. She had another neighbor who helped her and hid her from the rebels, but that was rare. She estimated that 5% were good, caring people, 5% were neutral and 90% were evil. Just awful. It was all very sad, but the most difficult display to walk through was the display with photos of children that were killed. Beautiful children whose lives were cut short, most by gruesome means. Very sad.

We took some photos before and after the tour, but somehow we didn't feel right smiling for the camera. As we left the museum there were many school children yelling at our vans 'mazungoo' (I think I used the wrong word in a previous blog, anyway that is the correct word for 'white person') We threw candy from the windows and soon had quite a following, that was a day brightener.

We had lunch back at the house.

In the afternoon we toured 'Cards from Africa'. A young man named Chris, from England started a business where he employs some of the poorest people in Kigali to make these cards. Most are children who are heads of household, raising their siblings. Feel free to check out their website www.cardsfromafrica.com By the way, Chris actually is a good friend of Rich and Prilla, who are friends with Kate Osborn(has the baby arrived?!), a friend of mine...small world! It was fun watching them make paper and then assemble these beautiful cards, calendars and bookmarks. Chris is saving lives in Rwanda by employing people through his business, check out the website and order some cards if you like!

After that we drove by 'Hotel Rwanda', then did a little shopping at a local market. Came home for a spaghetti and meatball dinner! Tomorrow we will build a house!!! Love, Pam