hey hey hey Kim here.
so after an amazing week at carols, we procceeded to go on our 2 day adventure to Rwanda. After about 10 hours ish of driving we finally made it to kibale the capital of rwanda.. accomodations were very luxurious to our standards..a hotel, with a queen sized bed, a nice balcony and even a TV!!
The first night, all of us ladies took a taxi to a resturaunt called gorrilla something…it was a pizaria …so bomb. We were the only people there and the music was rather hilarous, very old school, it really just got better and better with each song. The next day we went to the Kibale Memorial Center to learn more about, and pay our respects to all of the innocent men, woman, and children who lost their lives in the Tutsi genocide which wiped out 1/3 of the nations population almost 15 years ago. The memorial consisted of beautiful rose gardens which symoized all of the differnt types of people who lost their lives durig the genocide, a garden for the children, for the woman, a garden of protection, and a fountain that in the middle had a tourch, that is lit on occasion, symbolizing death, water, symbolizing life, and four elephant statues which symolized that no one will ever forget, becuase elephants are the animals known never to forget. then there were the mass graves which have 250,000 bodies in them..it was almost hard to wrap your head aroud such a number.
Then there was the inside of the memorial which consisted of various photos, vidios and articles educating us all on the events of the genocide. The most disturbing thing to me about the entire thing was how people were killed, and who was killed. Woman were raped, often by men who had HIV, people were tortured, thrown in latrines, and even the children were not spared, they too faced death by a machete or beating…it was truley heartbreaking and eye opening. There was another part of the memorial which breifly educated us on some of the other genocides that have occured in the passt, that was also extremely hard.
It was so interersting to be in the place where such a thing occured though, much more intense, becuase almost everyone over the age of 15 played some role in the genocide. you would see a person with a scar on their face, and wonder, were you tutsi, or hutu? The day needless to say was a hard one to swallow, but really all in all made one realize how truley fortunate we all are.
On a lighter note, we got to ride on the back of bicycles, which had little seats on them, it was way fun! And now we are in Tanzania working with a medical clinic, which allows people who have little money to get medical assistaance.. sorting through containers full of medical supplies and organizing them. The place we are staying is super nice, our bedrooms even haev a bathroom with a sitdown toliet in them!! yoo!! and a shower!! Our nights here are spent playing spades, and newly poker, betting with match sticks. We are all having a grreat time, and next is our safari!!!!!!
peace!!!
