Day 10; Back Home

By Musau Sarah (Participant from Kenya)

This was our last day in Butare and we packed our bags preparing to return to Kigali.

We held a short debrief with Never Again Rwanda Programs Director, Tandi sharing our experiences especially from the trip to Murambi Genocide Memorial centre. Many of the participants expressed their shock at the gross inhumanity that was expressed by radical Hutus on the Tutsis people during the 1994 Genocide. There was also commitment on our part to ensure that we should work to fight the occurrence of such an incident in our communities. Some of the participants were still in shock and faced some bit of trauma basing on the site at Murambi.

The drive back to Kigali started and I would like to quote a facebook update of Ssekandi Ronald Ssegujja from Uganda where he talks about the experience;

“Huye District is set in Southern Rwanda; hilly, green and well cultivated. From here you can see many of the thousand hills that make this land roll and wind down until they disappear in the horizon. The sun sets so beautifully you would think you have been teleported to the biblical Garden of Eden.

My dear, Murambi Genocide Memorial is set on one of these hills. It is strategically located in a valley of sorts and surrounded by many other hills. This beautiful hill was turned into a slaughter house by the merciless genociders in 1994 where they massacred thousands of people. When you see the corpses lying in the various rooms of what was meant to be a school; you feel ashamed of human nature. You are dead block shocked at how such hatred could have been conceived. When you walk to the volleyball ground that was constructed by the French soldiers on top of a mass grave to conceal the killings; your mind goes blank. You just can’t imagine such an act by men. You just can’t!!!

Now you are on the road from Murambi and on the way you meet clans of people going about their business, you see households being rebuilt, you see children playing together on the roadsides and once in a while you meet households with the blue, yellow and green flag of the new Rwanda flying proudly up. You feel proud; you flash a smile and feel hope and optimism welling up inside you. You see the rolling hills once again; green, cultivated and beautiful. The wind from outside brushes on you and you feel renewed.

Kampala, I am proud of you. When this nation needed allies, you were there! Tonight, I would have sat outside and bid you company….only if I was there.

May the sun rise tomorrow”

Back in Kigali, we retired to our rooms since we had a free afternoon.