Murambi

For my second to last weekend in Rwanda, I traveled to the Murambi Genocide Memorial, formerly Murambi Technical School, down near the town of Gikongoro. After the genocide started in April of 1994, local leaders had encouraged Tutsis in the community to stay at the school, assuring them that the French soldiers would provide protection. However, the soldiers ended up leaving and a massacre ensued, leaving 50,000 Tutsis dead. At the memorial, there are 24 classrooms containing over 800 preserved corpses of those that died there.

I still haven't been able to sort out my feelings about the experience. I feel incredibly sick about the whole thing, and sad, yet hopeful and optimistic as I've been able to experience how far Rwanda has come since then. When walking through the memorial, I felt like I didn' t belong, that I was an ignorant tourist intruding on something intimate that only Rwandans can understand... but I also felt like I needed to see it, as someone who has worked in the country, lived in the community, and has formed friendships with the people. I'm still struggling over these emotions, and I don't think I'll ever be able to understand them...