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Rwanda

Lined up to get water from a public well

Once outside Kigali instead of Moto cycles it is bicycles waiting as taxis.

The Nyamata Genocide Memorial is based around a former Cathholic Church 19 miles south of Kigali in Rwanda, which commemorates the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The remains of 50,000 people are buried here

Entrance to the church. We were told by the local guide that about 10,000 women, men and children gathered here and they locked themselves in. For over a week they stayed within the walls of the church without food and water. After a week the church priest left and all were massacred. Only 7 survived. The church walls today show how the perpetrators made holes in the walls of the church so that grenades could be thrown into the church. After this the people inside were shot or killed with machetes.

The bars to the church door were cut open.

Our local guide who has family interred here

The ceiling of the church shows the bullet holes and the altar cloth is still stained with blood. Most of the remains have been buried but clothing and identity cards are left as you can see in the photo above. The identity cards were what identified people as either Tutsi or Hutu.

People in the surrounding area were also killed after the massacre at the church. The remains of 50,000 people are buried here.[

Inside the burials, underground, where the victims are laid to rest. They want the world to see what happened so that it will never happen again hopefully.

In this location 5,000 skulls and 45,000 master graves have been brought to this location for final resting place.

Main entrance to the church which now serves as a haunting memorial of the terrible massacre that occurred here.

Arrival ceremony for our group at a Reconciliation Village. A community where both perpetrators and victims of the 1994 genocide live side by side as part of a healing process.

This is where I wish we could share the music and dance that we received upon arrival.

In this Reconciliation Village there are 54 homes and 384 people that have come together as Survivors and Returnees.

The village has 3 classes of Returnees. Those who caused the problems for the families attacked and killed; those who were attacked and lost family members: those who have returned and asked for forgiveness after serving time in prisons for the atrocities committed against their neighbors.

For Tutsis who survived the Rwanda genocide or watched as their loved ones were slaughtered or raped, reconciling with the Hutu attackers once seemed unimaginable.

Through our local guide today, who translated for us, we sat down with the residents of the Reconciliation Village and learned from each side what had happened.

Our travel group is listening intently from survivor and a perpetrator. Their story before during and after the genocide and where life has taken them today. Talk about a moving experience.

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