Rwanda

Today is my last in Rwanda. My impression is that the country is very similar to other East African countries, except that there was a huge genocide here. This series of events has changed the country in many ways; however, I am left feeling amazed that, at least on the surface, Rwandans such strength and national unity in moving on.

There are still beggars here, but the majority of these beggars do not have festering wounds or life-long diseases as they do elsewhere. Instead, many of them have scars where their extremities were hacked off - obviously removed outside of a hospital. For instance, I saw a beggar with 3 inches of forearm the elbow. I also saw a women whose entire face was one huge scar. She had trouble opening her eyes beyond that of a strained squint because the tissue healed improperly. People with missing legs and crutches fashioned in a backyard are almost the norm. And these are the survivors, over 1 million people were massacred.

Undoubtedly this has left a huge emotional and psychological scar on the country, but it is an extreme testament to Rwandans that without the beggars, the Kigali Memorial Center (genocide memorial), and the references by outsiders you would not suspect that such atrocities had taken place here.

The other way in which I have felt the genocide is through my pocketbook. After the world realized that they could have very easily prevented the genocide (the U.N. Lt. General on the ground predicted 5,000 troops with authority to keep the peace would have been enough to prevent most of the 1,000,000 murders) the country was flooded with NGO's and foreign aid workers. This has brought with it a lot of money, and a demand for good hotels, not the $6 cheapies that people like myself desire/require.

As a starting point to learn about the genocide, I recommend the film Hotel Rwanda, which seems to accurately depict one man's attempt to help others during the chaotic months of the genocide.