Kigali Memorial Center

We visited the Kigali Memorial Center a bit outside of Kigali, after a nice breakfast at our hotel, the Okapi Hotel. The Memorial Center is a beautiful building, set amidst numerous gardens, all of which symbolize some part of the genocide and the rebuilding of the country in the 16 years since. It is a $2 million building with an incredible exhibit inside, and three huge mass graves on the hillside behind it, overlooking Kigali. We had audio devices to explain the exhibit and all the gardens, so that we knew exactly what we were looking at. The Memorial Center was also a powerful experience, like the two churches we saw the day before. Particularly moving were the video testimonials of people who lived through the genocide, and whose parents were killed. It is a lesson to be learned by everyone, how something so terrible could happen and the rest of the world could watch without intervening, or in the case of France - they aided the perpetrators. Of course there are politics and other factors to consider, but really when I sit back and think about it, it was an entirely unacceptable thing that such violence could occur without other nations coming to help.

But enough about that. The Kigali Memorial Center also pays homage to other victims of genocides that have occurred, and emphasizes the importance of never allowing something like this to happen again. We didn't have as much time as we would have liked at the Memorial Center, but we are finding that this is a theme here - we always wish we had more time in every place that we are going. We will just have to come back!!

After the Memorial Center, we walked to the Hotel des Mille Collines, which is the hotel where thousands of Tutsis were saved by Paul Rusesabagina - you'll remember it from the movie Hotel Rwanda. The hotel is beautiful and very peaceful, set in the middle of Kigali, and we had a delicious lunch and a beer there. The local beer is Primus and it is very tasty! We had lunch by the pool and it was such a nice day. It is almost unimaginable that this same hotel was where thousands of people sought refuge during the genocide. You would never know it by the looks of it today. So we were happy to support the hotel that did some good during that time. Not to mention it is always nice to have a delicious lunch by the pool on a sunny day.

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and headed into the bus park to catch a mini-bus to Musanze, in the very Northwest corner of Rwanda, where we will spend 3 days adventuring in the mountains of Volcanoes National Park! We took the Virunga Express mini-bus. Now the mini-bus was not like the Jaguar, and not like the taxi. It was a bit bigger than the taxi and would have been perfectly comfortable, except that there is no room for luggage or bags. They filled every seat, so that meant that all of our giant bags were on our laps. We were the only two mzungus of course, and also the only two people with bags. Poor Ryan had his leg in a very uncomfortable position and couldn't move it for 2 hours! But, at $3 each, it was again worth the discomfort so that we could put the money to better use elsewhere ... such as in buying things! :)