Rwanda- Genocide Memorial-Best Not to Forget

-----------------------------------------Unfilled tomb

Dear Friends May 8, 2008

As part of our Rwandan experience, we went to tour the Genocide Memorial commemorating the 100 days in 1994 when over 800,000 people lost there lives .

It was a profoundly moving experience and one I don’t believe myself , Carol or Bill will ever forget.. It also, was extremely well done with mini videos, and oral presentations along with photo’s of this period.

I, of course, had seen the movie “Hotel Rwanda” and remembered the historical facts but couldn’t stop myself from thinking mundane thoughts like “What were we (Americans) doing when all this was going on?” My only personal recollection was that it was the time between my mothers and fathers passing into the heavens, and all that covered our news was the” OJ Trial”..

---------------------Guide explain the Memorial to Bill and Carol

Being so close to Rwanda ,as I am now, one would think everybody KNEW what was going on only miles from their border.. But they say “no, not really until it was over did we understand the scope of destruction and lost lives”.

The Genocide Memorial is surrounded in beautiful gardens and markers remembering entire families. And we were told that bodies continue to be found and buried in these mass graves

If you should ever go to Rwanda, make it a point to go there ,but if not, re-rent “Hotel Rwanda” or simply go back a year in my Blogs and re-read Maria Goretti’s story. There are some very pain-filled moments in the history of man that are best not to forget. This is one of them.

Marie..