Freeman Motor Company

Alden-On Wednesday we went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It is located on top of a hill overlooking part of the city. When we arrived there were four guards stationed at the gate. They searched our bags very thoroughly and used a hand-held metal detector to scan for guns or bombs.  Apparently there has been numerous threats to this memorial.

We were allowed to take pictures outside the memorial, but they asked for no pictures inside. Inside there were many graphic pictures and stories of near death.

As my family knows, I’ve got a weak stomach for blood, but I tried to absorb the mass carnage of it all. As you can imagine, Rwandans are still emotially recovering from this tragety. We heard one estimate that 7 out of 10 Rwandans need couselling for the things they experienced and saw.

If you are not aware, 800,000 people were murdered by blunt objects and machetes over a period of 100 days in 1994.  Women, children and familes were murdered.

Onsite there are mass graves of people buried. One of them was still open, because they are still finding people’s remains. The gardens outside the memorial were beautiful and they have done a very good job of making the genocide personal and relevant.

One quote (I’m sorry that I don’t remember who said it) I read inside the memorial really impacted me. “Genocide is not the killing of 800,000 people. It is killing one person, then another 800,000 times”.

The picture on the right is a pathway on the left. On the right (concrete lids on top) is the graves of Rwandans.  I thought I heard that 200,000 people are buried onsite.