Rwanda Adventures (Part II)

So I need to finish wrapping up my sightseeing in Rwanda. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I traveled to Gisenyi, which is in the western part of Rwanda, about 2 km from the DRC and Goma the capital of DRC.  The town is located right on Lake Kivu, which is beautiful.  I was able to travel around with investigators and attorneys interviewing witnesses for my case.  It was interesting to meet witnesses, and hear their story.  I also got to see the crime scenes from my case.  After seeing this area, I know that my work will be more interesting as I am able to imagine these places in my head as I am doing work back at the ICTR. 




Lake Kivu

 

On Thursday, October 6, my birthday, I decided to go and visit one of the church memorials about 30 km outside of Kigali.  The church was located in the town of Nyamata.  It was definitely an adventure just to get to Nyamata.  I had to take a moto-taxi to the huge bus park, which upon seeing the picture below, you will understand the overwhelming feeling of trying to find the one bus to Nyamata, it is essentially like finding a needle in a haystack.  Anyways, after a few minutes of searching, a stranger, who noticed I was definitely a foreigner with no idea where I was going, helped me find the correct bus.  I paid about $1.50 for the 45 minute ride, and was dropped off in the middle of nowhere.  Rwandans speak French as a second language, so it is hard to find people who speak English.  A moto-taxi driver stopped after I waved him down, and for about 10 minutes, using hand gestures, English, and lots of pointing to my guidebook, we were finally about to get an understanding that I wanted to get to the Nyamata Memorial and that I wanted him to drive me there on his motorcycle.  This Memorial was very different from the other two I had visited earlier in the week; however, this one was just as powerful.  It was left basically the same after the Tutsi were killed at the church, so there were hundreds of piles of clothing laying around on the long wooden pews.  As a religious person myself, I found it unbearably sad that such tragedy happened in a church.  These people had flocked to this central symbol of hope in their community only to find themselves trapped and brutally murdered.  There were also mass graves there, and I believe it is believed that about 10,000 people died within the walls the confines of the church. 

The Bus Station...where approximately 1 million buses are parked.

Nyatama Church Memorial (outside of Kigali)

After visiting the church, I found a bus and made my way back to Kigali.  I went to a souvenir shop to find some postcards, then I went to a really great coffee shop/cafe.  At the cafe, I ran into another intern who had been in Rwanda for the week on a site visit.  He and I had lunch together and walked around the city for a while.  We also made plans to meet up later that evening to go out for a proper "birthday" dinner.  We decided on Ethiopian food as I had heard there was a fantastic Ethiopian place in town, and the other intern had never tried Ethiopian before.  Dinner was wonderful; there was so much food.  I even got a birthday song from the owner; it was a very weird/random song, but a birthday song nonetheless and very nice of him to sing for me.  After dinner, I went back to the hotel and got some sleep.  I was exhausted and had to make a early flight the next morning.




My 24th Birthday Dinner...it was fantastic. 

 

Overall, I loved Rwanda.  It was beautiful, green, lush, and a nice break from dusty, little Arusha.  I think it was wonderful to get to see some of the sights, and definitely helped me understand the genocide/my work more.  I had a wonderful time visiting, and the people of Rwanda are incredible.