Exploring the Land of 1,000 Hills

Uganda Day 14

Rwanda.
A country I have seen for the first time and will certainly remain imprinted on my memory for eons to come. Perhaps a little background is necessary…In 1994, Rwanda was divided in two by an ethnic genocide that killed over one million people. However, to say it occurred in the course of 100 days in 1994 would be a vast over statement. The genocide in Rwanda took place over the course of many years starting as early as 1991, but culminated in April of 1994 when the President’s plane was shot down while landing in Kigali, the capital city.
The divide, an ethnic one, split the Rwandese into three groups, the Hutus, the Tutsis, and the Twa (an ethnic minority which played no mentionable role in the genocide). This system of division dates back to the early twentieth century and was created by the Belgians. Tradition holds that anyone with 10 cows or more was a Tutsi and therefore part of the ruling class. This distinction, clearly, caused much tension amongst the Tutsi and Hutu people. Then in 1961 when Rwanda gained independence, it was a Hutu extremist group that took power, and ever since, the Hutus have been slowly trying to rid themselves of their Tutsi neighbors. I think one important thing I learned is that no genocide just happens, but something of this magnitude takes intentionality.
For ten days we, 30 Uganda Studies Program students from the States, 9 Honors college students, and a few program coordinators, travelled around the ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’ and learned about the people, the genocide, and the healing that has started. Friday morning we left before the break of dawn and arrived at the equator around 7:30AM.

It was quite amusing to most of us that we were standing at the equator wearing sweatshirts and were still a bit chilled. Friday night found us arriving very late in a town called Kibungo where we stayed in a Presbyterian guest house. Saturday morning introduced our group to a Rwandan activity called Muganda, which is community work. I went with a group of students to a location where the community was working together to build foundations and pour cement for a local primary school which needed expanding. It was awesome to work with the people and see them hard at work to gain a common goal. I even carried a few rocks on my head as we saw some of the locals doing. I tell you, it is amazing the things people can carry on their heads!
Sunday we were split up into groups again and after preparing a short presentation, in our case three songs and a passage, we went into the rural community and attended various churches. It was beautiful. However, I do feel like the younger members of the congregation may have spent more time looking at us than they did the service. While I did not get much out of the sermon, but I know we read some in Jonah, I thoroughly enjoyed the worship dancing and all the singing done by three different choirs. I was surprised that they had an electric keyboard and quite a bit of sound equipment. After the longest church service that I have been to in a long while, from 9-12, and lunch with the Reverend the IMME students (the 12 of us staying with host families this semester) split off from the rest of the group and we headed to the capital city, Kigali.
In Kigali, the intensity began. On Monday, we went to the Kigali Memorial/Museum. It gave us a good background and overview of the genocide, definitely a good first stop. What hit me the hardest was the display they had on the children killed. There were pictures of the children along with their age at death, favorite foods, last words, and the way they were killed. Not even the innocents were spared. I just do not understand how one could kill young, beautiful children in the ways these children were killed, sliced with a machete, skull smashed against a wall, trampled, torn limb from limb. Then outside there were beautiful gardens surrounding the memorial and mass grave which almost seemed like too much of a contrast from where my mind was currently residing. Although, I will admit the quite serenity was very good for my processing. After lunch at a buffet in town, with a plethora of fresh veggies (a sight that has become very welcome to my eyes, we headed to a church in Nyamata. The church in Nyamata has been preserved very much the way it was left after the militia. The bodies have been removed but the clothes remain on benches and on the floor. The walls show evidence of shrapnel and are splattered with blood. We were told that the people in this church were told by the government that this church was a safe place. I kept picturing a young mother cradling her baby trying to comfort him as he shrieked and she could hear the militia advancing. There were so many people in that church. Out in the back was a mass grave and I can honestly say that I did not expect to be affected as much as I was by what I found down there. I was the second person to go down the narrow stairway into a chamber no wider than a hallway filled floor to ceiling with shelves and shelves of skulls and bones. I was overwhelmed and as soon as I was down there looking at skulls which had visible damage and you could tell how some were killed. I know God brings beauty out of all things, but I just could not see it at that church.
Tuesday we went to visit a ministry called CARSA –Christian Action for Reconciliation and Social Assistance. They work with the perpetrators and victims of the genocide to help reconcile them and begin the healing of the country, Rwanda. The ministry has such a beautiful mission and it was awesome to meet some of the people who have gone through their program. There was one man who just carried himself with shame and while he was telling his story he got on his knees and asked us for forgiveness. He asked us to forgive him for his crimes against humanity. That broke me up inside. Who am I to forgive this man? What makes me any better than him? I am capable of the same evil, and meeting him made me see that. It was wonderful to see that the country was in the process of healing. Many of the students were skeptical of how much healing had actually happened in the country, but I like to hold on to the idea that hope and healing has to start somewhere. Even if one person out of 1000 forgives that is one person. We also heard from a local Reverend about his experience with the genocide and heard a little about the history of Rwanda.
Wednesday we left Kigali and headed for Butari and stopped at a ministry called Azizi Life, which means treasured in Swahili. We met Christi, an American, who works with this ministry to connect local Rwandan Artisans with buyers in the US and abroad. After arriving in Butari, I walked around the town and played some Frisbee with some local kids. Thursday was our last day in Rwanda and we spent it roaming around the town and seeing NUR (National University of Rwanda) with some Rwandan College students. It was really cool to meet some more African students.

Our last stop was a Museum of Rwanda where we saw some traditional African dancing. African dancing is pretty impressive and has made it on to my list of things to learn to do, which is steadily growing. Friday we headed back to Uganda for debrief. It was a beautiful quiet place called Bushara Island. It is on the deepest lake in Uganda, Lake Bunyonyi.

I cannot tell you how much I needed that quiet and peace to process what my mind was mulling over. I will certainly be processing this trip for quite awhile longer because right now I just have so much going on with classes and things my mind is all a muddle of chaos. But thank the Lord for moments of still and quiet. Goodness knows I’ll be needing them more and more as the semester goes on.
Please keep praying for me. That I will have enough time to juggle all that needs be juggled, that I will reach out and make some solid friendships both with Ugandans and other USP students, that my heart will be in the right place and God the center.
Thank you for praying and thinking about me. I appreciate it more than you know.