Hi Everyone,
Stephanie is a “guest blogger” from Occidental College (class of 2011). Teresa and I met her this past spring on our bike/speaking tour and when she said she was going to Rwanda this summer I asked her to blog about it. I will be posting her blogs here over the next couple of weeks. Please comment, I know she will appreciate your thoughts! Thanks Carl
From Stephanie:
Friday, May 28th, 2010
Today we visited the Kigali Memorial Museum, a museum dedicated to education about the Rwandan genocide as well as other genocides. Currently we are in the 100 days of remembrance of the genocide so it was a good time to visit the museum. Although I have learned much about the Rwandan genocide in school courses, being here in Rwanda, knowing that the genocide occurred in this very place made the experience much more emotional and heavy.
The museum also gave the genocide a more personal, human side, showing pictures and stories of people before and after the genocide. One section of the museum that particularly stuck with me was called, “Wasted Lives”, and had pictures of children and facts about their lives such as their favorite foods, their best friend, or their favorite word. The description that made me most emotional was a boy whose name was David. He wanted to be a doctor when he grew up and was only two years old when he was murdered like many others, by a machete. He was indeed a “wasted life”.
One thought on “Occidental College Student in Rwanda”
My first visit to that memorial site hit me hard as well… won't ever forget the pics and pieces of information on each child featured… seeing them by their first birthday cake, or peeking out from a kitchen cupboard where they were hiding or sitting on a bike 20 x's bigger then them…so easy to see ourselves in them…. so painful. There is this definite power in just standing on those sites…. Thanks for writing about it, Carl