I was happy to stay in Kigali the second weekend in Africa after multiple trips throughout Europe and then traveling to Uganda right after landing in Africa. The weekend wasn’t as restful as I had hoped as that Friday night we danced the night away at “The New Cadillac”. It’s always so interesting going out in a foreign country. It’s such a great glimpse into the local culture. This was no exception. The club was cheesy with its neon bright lights everywhere. Clubs don’t get hopping until midnight. Rwandese love to dance! They go nuts to every song. The music was interesting – a mix of dance songs that are familiar and then some fun, upbeat mix of local/African dance music. We saw the old, European men with hot, local women. One really interesting note is that men here are very affectionate here. And no, they are not homosexual. There isn’t that taboo of males touching other men that American men seem to harbor. You see men holding each other’s hands. You also see them grinding on the dance floor!
The following day was spent walking around town and exploring. At a bookshop, I learned through a children’s book, that diarrhea is a common cause of death among children in Africa and that is because of dehydration.
That night, we were then invited to a house party. Another great way to get to know the locals…well, that is, the local expats. I met a ton of Americans at the party that were working at the U.S. Embassy, USAID, and so many other NGO’s. I was amazed by how many Americans were in Kigali, of all places! I met a South African who was running a mine in Ruhengeri. He had never been out of Africa. His name is G. So, I asked him what it stood for. He said, nothing. His dad was just lazy and just decided to name him a letter. Wow, what a dad! To go along with ‘G’, I also met a man nicknamed ‘X’.
Rainy Sundays are perfect for visiting the museum! I visited the Kigali Memorial Center, a.k.a. the Genocide Museum. The definition of genocide is "the deliberate and systematic destruction of an entire people who belong to one racial, political, cultural or religious group." Before arriving in Rwanda, I knew next to nothing about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, except that the acclaimed movie, “Hotel Rwanda”, is based on the events. I strongly recommend this museum or visiting a museum of this nature. It was incredibly educational of how the events leading and during the genocide unfolded. Basically, the Rwandan genocide was the result of tribal divisions between the Hutus and the Tutsis. It stemmed from the Belgian colonization when in order to control the country, took advantage of tribal differences. Although the Hutus were the majority, the Belgians favored the Tutsi for top government positions. They enforced the Rwandans to note on ID cards to which tribe they were from. The resentment of one tribe towards the other built up over decades, even after independence, in which the Hutus felt the need to retaliate, unfortunately leading to a genocide of the Tutsi's and moderate Hutus. It's unbelieveable how brutal the killings were. It definitely is sobering being in Rwanda, thinking about what happened 14 years ago. Kigali has been a city of rebirth since then with new construction everywhere.
The museum also did an incredible job of personalizing the events. I was left to tears at many points of the exhibit. It focused on the Rwandan genocide, but it also chronicled several other genocides, some of them my history classes never covered. I felt really ignorant of certain genocides, such as the Armenian genocide, at the hands of the Turks, at the beginning of the 20th century. Thousands were cast off into the desert to starve to death. It made me understand that governments can conveniently keep their populations in the dark about certain situations.
Today, one is not a Tutsi or Hutu but the emphasis is being Rwandan. With the memorial being an example, they accept the genocide as part of their history so that they and others can learn from it and not make the same mistakes in letting these atrocities occur again.
