Kigali, Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda

List of Victims

A reference to Rwanda elicits horrific images of brutality and racial extermination, and yet arriving into the country we were stupefied by, dare I say, its tranquil and stable nature?  With lush rolling hills and tropical greenery we instantly took a liking to the gentle capital - a quiet suburb amongst the terraced countryside, the complete opposite of bustling Nairobi or the nearby Congo.  Arriving on a Sunday, the streets were eerily quiet: no honking cars, only chirping birds and the occasional rustling of the dense trees in the breeze.  We hiked the hills, noting the surprisingly modern infrastructure (thanks to foreign investments) and cheerfulness of the locals (for the most part ignoring us, which we loved).  Was this really the same urban area where dead bodies rotted in the streets and one million people were murdered in only 100 days? 

During the 1994 genocide, a high-end hotel (known as Hotel Rwanda per Hollywood) served as a sanctuary for Tutsi’s escaping the slaughter in downtown Kigali.  So it was surreal (to say the least) to eat an eloquent Sunday brunch on a sun-filled afternoon by the poolside patio of the real hotel.  Looking around I wondered... how many people knew someone who died (everyone?)... who in this buffet line killed someone... who in this clear blue swimming pool witnessed the carnage... how can these people go on living after such trauma?  My body succumbed to constant chills as I strolled through the perfectly manicured lawn and lobby’s marble bathroom, well aware of the tragic events that befell here.

At the Kigali Memorial Center, a mass grave for 250,000 people, again we were disturbed beyond words - how does one stand on the grounds knowing thousands of dead corpses were buried en masse beneath one’s feet?  The museum offered an excellent audio tour; we languished for hours listening to the dark stories of terror and fear, survival and optimism.  While the extreme suffering caused deep psychological damage, we were simply astounded that a people could do such a remarkable job of healing its wounds and looking towards a peaceful future.