Apr 23, 06:31 PM
April in Rwanda
Driving through the rolling hills of Uganda as we crossed the border into Rwanda yesterday was quite stunning. Although I must say that after entering Rwanda, I didn’t feel quite as chatty and, if you know me, you know that doesn’t come easy. It could’ve been the longer than expected bus ride from Kampala to Kigali (11 hours versus 8), but I think it was the idea that the rolling hills in Rwanda and the sight of so much striking beauty, juxtaposed against my knowledge of the absolute horror that took place here in April 1994, was more than a bit hard to take.
Our trip to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city, was prompted by an interest of travel to this part of the world, as well as visiting some contacts we have here. This week, we have the privilege of volunteering our time with an HIV/AIDS organization, founded in partnership with a group of American doctors and community workers and members of Kigali after the genocide in 1994. The organization, called WE-ACTx, was founded in 2003 to help survivors of genocidal rape and sexual assault and to help the women and their children to play an active role in their lives and futures.
During this week or so, Mark will use his knowledge of web development to help the organization improve its website and website management specific to the work being done in Kigali. This Friday, I will be training the staff social workers, case workers, and others in the area of positive youth development, as this is a skill I honed with my job at ICVP in Chicago. When we first decided to come to Africa, we knew that we wanted to do some sort of volunteering, but wanted to be intentional about the skills we actually have to offer and, since there are so many westerners flying in and out of the lives of Africans doing volunteer work disguised as an opportunity for them to have their own experience, we wanted to offer something we really knew and that an organization really wanted or needed. I guess one could argue that we also will be gaining so much more from this than we can give, but we feel good about doing it this way.
April in Rwanda is a strikingly interesting time. The country itself doesn’t see as many travellers as it does aid workers who arrived after 1994; so you don’t get as many people travelling here in general, but what I find eerily interesting is the timing of our arrival, just a few weeks after the 12 year anniversary of the beginning of the mass killings that took what is estimated to be up to 1 million lives in the short span of 100 days. I have to admit that it’s difficult to do much else but ponder this thought as you wander the hills of Kigali. The beauty of the land of 1,000 hills (Rwanda’s nickname) is both lovely and disturbingly haunting.
We are staying at the WE-ACTx house for the better part of this week, with other NGO workers and volunteers. The house itself is about a 10 minute walk from the Hotel Mille Colline, the infamous hotel that served as the basis for the setting of the film Hotel Rwanda. As we walked into town to exchange money this morning, we walked by it and I couldn’t help but think how unfortunate it was that it took a movie made 11 years later for most of the American population to realize what took place here in 1994 (admittedly, myself included, as I was a sophomore in high school at the time and I was much more aware of memorizing my lines for the big high school musical during that April than thinking about what how our government was responding, or not responding, to this tragedy). The rainy day here (the longest rain in a day that we’ve experienced thus far in East Africa and this is supposed to be the rainy season) caused me pause to think about the resiliency of the people who still live, work, and make their lives here. Moving forward.
It’s Friday, early afternoon on the 28th and I am so hoping to hear from you and see more on your blog so that we know all is well. We miss you here and you are never out of our thoughts. love mamagladtoreadyourwriting
— kathlen millson Apr 28, 09:08 PM #