16th Annual Genocide Memorial Week

The genocide memorial week begins April 7^th each year. This date marks the night that the presidents plane was shot down over Kigali. Along for the ride was also the Burundian president. Within minutes road blocks were erected all around Kigali with militias and the government troops manning them. By the end of the first day, 8,000 people were dead. Tutsi leaders, such as journalists or political leaders, were targeted first.The killings happened at ten-times the rate as the German holocaust and in only one hundred days around 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were dead.

This holiday is one of the most important in Rwanda. On this day, events are held around the entire country at local government offices to remember that fateful day. People give their testimonies, guest speakers talk about the importance of unity, the President of the Republic makes a public speech and people gather to remember their lost loved ones.

On this first day of memorial week everything is closed all day. Then on April 8^th-12^th, work continues as usual in the mornings but in the afternoons places shut down again and memorial activities are held. During the entire week no amusement or entertainment activities should be done. The 13^th is the official end of memorial week but people never forget. In the following months there are memorial activities around the country and many people take journeys back to the places where their friends and families were killed. All in all, these months are bleak. And during these months we as visitors in the country need to be particularly understanding.

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

When there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

And it is in dying that we are

Born to eternal life.”

St. Francis of Assisi

WEEKS 8-9 (Mar 30-Apr 9):

For several weeks, we prepared for our “practical activity”. For this assignment, we were supposed to identify a target group that we would eventually give a health presentation to in kinyarwanda. I gave a presentation about HIV/AIDS to a huge group of primary school children ranging in age from about 6-16. Doing the presentation in kinyarwanda was difficult and took a lot of preparation. Overall, it was a success. I gave a presentation about the transmission of HIV/AIDS and a colleague gave a presentation after mine concerning the myths about HIV/AIDS.
We held a party for our language and cross-cultural teachers and for our resource families. It will be sad to see everyone part but exciting to go to our sites and get started. Training ends Saturday the 11th. We will go to Kigali on Tuesday and on Wednesday the 15th we will be sworn in AS VOLUNTEERS!!! From Kigali we will go to our sites and begin our service. After the party for resource families my “mama” brought me to her neighbors wedding. It was very fun and more traditional of a wedding than the last one I attended.
Genocide Memorial Week began on April 7th. On April 6th 1994, the president of Rwanda’s plane was shot down. On April 7th the mass slaughter was already in full swing. It is a national holiday here and is taken very seriously (as it ought to be). For the entire week, everything will close at noon and the public is expected to attend genocide conferences where guest speakers will give their testimonies etc… Movies concerning genocide will be shown everyday throughout the entire country. People will also visit their families and gravesites of their lost loved ones. It is a time for mourning, reconciliation and remembrance. On the 7th, we joined a silent parade through the streets to a memorial site (mass grave) nearby. It is strongly discouraged and stigmatized to not attend these events.

WEEK 2 (Feb 8-14)

We have been studying Kinyarwanda hard and long. This week we were assigned “resource families” which are Rwandese families that volunteered to help us learn the language and culture. We meet with them for at least three hours a week. My “mama” is very nice. She is a secondary school teacher and has three kids. Her house is a couple kilometers from here and the last kilometer is up a VERY steep hill. Each PC trainee was assigned one family.
Second we went to one of the starkest genocide memorials in the country yesterday. Mrs. Wellman, please read this before reading it to the class.
We boarded a couple small buses and drove for about 40 minutes through some of the steepest areas I’ve seen in Rwanda yet. Not without car trouble though. The bus that I was in couldn’t do it. It broke down so we started walking. The countryside was beautiful and made it worth it. We arrived at the Murambi memorial and were given notice of what we would see and were given the option to decline. There were 27 rooms filled with the bodies of victims preserved in lye. You can see the expressions on their faces at their moment of death. The deaths of these people were oftentimes horrific. Many of the bodies were missing limbs, their skulls crushed or split or decapitated. Children were no exception. There were a couple adults clenching their babies. Many of the bodies still had their clothes on. Not a whole lot of people can make is through all 27 rooms. I don’t think anyone makes it through without crying. Some of you may be concerned of why this memorial exists. The idea is that the face of genocide has been veiled so many times before. They are trying to show the true face of genocide so that it doesn’t happen again. There is much more to this story but this blog probably isn’t the appropriate place for that.
Afterwards some of us went to a local park to play volleyball. There was a wedding that was getting ready to start at the church nearby, so another PC trainee and I decided to stay just to see the drummers that were setting up. We were sweaty and not well dressed but this very nice man offered for us to attend the wedding. We ran home to change and clean up and grab our cameras. When we arrived at the wedding there was a very awkward 30 seconds when everyone turned around and looked at the Muzungus (white people). We sat down in the back but an usher brought us up closer. This is actually normal in Rwandan culture. They are VERY hospitable even to strangers. We were offered cake and drinks that they wouldn’t let us refuse (hehe). It was the most exciting experience I’ve had in Rwanda yet! The drumming was absolutely INCREDIBLE and the dancing was some of the best dancing I have EVER seen!! Some very important people were there and we met a couple of them. Anyway, this blog entry is getting long. I miss my friends and family very much! I hope everything is good back home!