Day # 3 / Part 1 Church and the Genocide Museum in Kigali

We started the day off with breakfast, devotions and planning the day at Hotel La Palisse.

Would you care with a little fly with your coffee?

Breakfast ~ beans, french toast, pineapple and potatoes. Carbs and more carbs.

Our van. No frills. Just the basics.

Ready for the day. No jet lag. Yet.

Ellie, Randy, Justin, Kristen and Richard headed to one church and the rest headed to another.

The view from the hotel

We drove through downtown Kigali to the outskirts.

Rwandans are affectionate with one another. It's not uncommon to see men holding hands with men. It has no meaning other than friendship.

Coca-cola (unrefrigerated!) was plentiful and served more often than water.

My first photo of a kiddo. I took it from the van. I was not aware that the wave I did (the curling of the fingers up and down means, "come here!" A wave from side to side means hello) invites people to come on over. Would have been good to know!

Most travel on foot. Some have bicycles and few have cars or motorcycles. Many walk hours to get to church. It can take eight hours to walk to a Hospital in many Rwandan villages.

Bringing home the goods

Going to the market

We pulled up to the church and were greeted with shouts of, "Mazungo! Mazungo!" meaning, "person with white skin." The kids were elated and all asked to have their picture taken and crowded to see it on the screen.

With Tirzah

We visited Pastor Theophield's church ~ Harvest Christian Church. The members were welcoming and I was in awe of their singing and dancing. I have quite a bit of video footage and will post it once I figure out how to do so!

I even joined in on the dancing!

This cross is a gift from Saddleback Church

This little one came to the front of the church and hopped on my lap!

She held my hand and then promptly fell asleep.

She liked Tirzah's hat...

Pastor Theophield's wife led worship

The children's choir sang and danced for us.

Beautiful voices from beautiful children.

After the service (3 hours which went by surprisingly fast...) we toured the church. One room is the sewing room. One Mission Team purchased the machines for members to make clothing and sewing projects.

There I am, way at the top!

We met back at the hotel for lunch. It took over an hour and a half to receive our food, and we were reminded of the concept of Africa time. The food comes when it comes, and it's not completely uncommon for the restaurant to go purchase the needed food and then prepare the meal! So, you might be waiting for a while!

We spent the afternoon at The Kigali Genocide Memorial Center. Powerful to say the very least.
The Centre in Kigali was created by a joint partnership of the Kigali City Council and the UK-based Aegis Trust. It contains a permanent exhibition of the Rwandan genocide and an exhibition of other genocides around the world. It opened on the 10th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, in April 2004. The Centwe is built on a site where over 250,000 people are buried. These graves are a clear reminder of the cost of ignorance. It is a permanent memorial to those who fell victim to the genocide and serves as a place for people to grieve those they lost.

In less than 100 days over 1 million people were murdered. By the end of the genocide more than 85% of the Tutsi population had been murdered. Death was not the only outcome. Tens of thousands of people were tortured, mutilated and raped. Tens of thousands more suffered machete cuts, bullet wounds, infection and starvation. There were over 300,000 orphans and over 85,000 children became heads of their households. Thousands became widows.

Women and children were a direct target of the genocide. The killers were determined to ensre that a new generation of Tutsis would never emerge.

Tutsi women were systematically raped and mutilated as a weapon of genocide. This was often by known HIV+ males. Hutu women in mixed marriages were raped as a punishment.

Children were forced to participate as perpetrators often killing friends and neighbors. Victims were sometimes forced to kill their loved ones just before they themselves were killed.

Tragedy.

The Children's Memorial was the most touching. It is dedicated to the memory of the many thousands of children whose lives were cut short cruelly and intentionally. There are 14 windows that detail the life and death of a single child...

FRANCINE MURENGEZI INGABIRE

Age: 12

Favorite Sport: Swimming

Favorite Food: Eggs and Chips

Favorite Drink: Milk and Tropical Fanta

Best Friend: Her older sister Claudette

Cause of Death: Hacked by a machete

Eight mass graves on this site were established shortly after the genocide, when it became apparent that there were hundreds of shallow mass graves around the city. Thousands of unidentified corpses were being discovered with no families to conduct dignified burials. Kigali City Council decided to create a single place of burial where victims could be laid to rest with dignity.
Since the creation of the initial eight mass graves, an additional 3 mass graves have been created and filled with coffins. During the 100 days of Remembrance in 2004, many people took the opportunity to bury their loved ones at the site, turning up in hundreds across weekends and public holidays.
The graves consist of concrete crypts three metres deep, each filled from floor to ceiling with coffins. The coffins rarely contain the remains of an individual victim, and can even contain the remains of up to 50 victims because of the impossibility, in many cases, of ensuring that the remains of individuals are kept intact. Rather, the coffins are symbolic of the dignity that Kigali wishes to afford to its dead.

A Memorial Garden

Names of loved ones lost

"There will be no humanity without forgiveness, there will be no forgiveness without justice, but justice will be impossible without humanity."

~Yolande Mukagasana, survivor