Tuesday 17 January 2017

Kigali

We started the day with a trip to the Rwanda Genocide Museum.  This stands as a memorial to the estimated 1 million people who were killed in about 100 days in 1994.  250,000 of the victims are interred at  this site and more bodies are found and brought to this memorial regularly to this day. 
It was a grim reminder of the atrocities we humans can and do visit on each other.  The museum itself is well laid out and gives good and thorough descriptions of the lead up to the unrest, the genocide itself and the aftermath which is still unfolding some 23 years later.  I can't say that it was a fun experience but it was sobering and difficult to see and contemplate.

The Graves themselves are covered in large concrete slabs with one having a window allowing visitors the opportunity to leave flowers and say their goodbyes.  In the museum there are many horrific things....one which was very touching though was a wall of pictures of victims. There are literally thousands of them there.

Afterwards we explored the city of Kigali, visiting the newly developed as well as the original parts of the city.  This is a city of 1.5 million people, spread out through valleys and into the surrounding hills.  Many of the streets are not paved and in the old section they are cobbled.  Very interesting are the motorcycle taxis  which cluster on the street corners waiting for fares.  Needless to day...the traffic is insane!  (But not beating the total madness we witnessed recently in Beijing!)

It was a very hot day (35° c) so we ended it with a luxrious dip in the hotel's chilly pool.




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