first few days in Kigali

Our first full day in Rwanda was really cool too, and really emotional. First we had an orientation about Rwanda, mostly about the history and things like that. The speaker was really interesting, especially because he told us about his experience during the genocide. I can't remember everything he said, but I know he had to hide with his family in a neighbor's house for almost three months (because some killers had invaded his home, looking for him). But he didn't just hide in the house, he had to hide in the cabinet. He would have died of starvation if he hadn't found a pile of candy bars on one of the shelves, or if a grenade that was thrown at the house hadn't hit an avocado tree, providing them with some food. He and his family survived. No wonder people believe in miracles.
In the afternoon, we went to the genocide memorial. It was a really good memorial, of course, and it was sooo sad. One part of the exhibit showed pictures of children killed in the genocide, and it had a little written description of each one of them, like their favorite food or favorite activity. There was a plaque that said how they were killed (most plaques said "hacked by a machete"). Outside the memorial, there is a beautiful garden. After we left, I found out that the garden is the site for a mass grave, where over 250,000 victims of the genocide were buried. There was also an exhibit on other genocides around the world (like the Holocaust and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia), and I thought that was a really good idea. My sister just told me that the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC is going to open an exhibit on other genocides (Rwanda, Sudan, and Bosnia) to try to educate people and prevent genocides from happening in the future. (thanks for showing me that Lauren!!)
Being at the memorial really made me emotional. I started wondering how ridiculous it is to worry or complain about stupid little things when my life could be so much harder. I guess, more than anything, it just made me realize how lucky I am.
The next day, we had our first day of class! Since it was the beginning of class and it was one of our first days in Rwanda, we just did kind of an overview on law. It was soooooo interesting. I can't wait to go to law school (hopefully), yay! It is kind of hard to wrap my head around the concepts, but I guess I will just have to start thinking like a lawyer, haha.
That afternoon, we went on a bus tour of the city. First we went to KIST (i think it stands for Kigali institute of science and technology). It was the base where ten UN soldiers from Belguim were killed at the beginning of the genocide (you can still see GIGANTIC bullet holes in the walls and on the floor where they were shot). They were killed by the interhamawe (the extremist hutu militia) as a way to test the international community and see if the world would intervene to stop the systematic killing of Tutsis, or if it would just sit and watch. Of course, the UN pulled almost all of its troops out of Rwanda, so the interhamawe knew the international community wouldn't do anything to stop them. Then they killed about a million people. What is really sad is that the number of troops that it took to evacuate foreigners from Rwanda during the genocide could have actually STOPPED the genocide instead. ugggh, doesn't that make you frustrated?
Anyway, the rest of the city tour was less "heavy." We went to this pottery market called Dancing Pots, where I bought an awesome clay giraffe. I hope it makes it back to the US without breaking, beacause I am going to keep it for my whole life! haha. We also went to this awesome market where a bought a necklace made from paper. The tour guide were interesting too. They were our age, but they were obviously spokesmen of the government. They kept insisting everything in Rwanda is perfect now, and they basically did not recognize that there is still a lot of pain and suffering in the country. Rwanda really has come so far since the genocide, farther than I think anyone could hope for. But when you look deeper than the surface, there is such a sense of sadness in the air. How can we blame them? Some Rwandans we have talked to say that the President, Paul Kagame, is the only thing holding the country together, and that they are scared for the day he is no longer president. A lot of people think another genocide is possible, and maybe even likely. God, that would be so incredibly horrible.
At night, our first Friday night in Africa, we all decided to go out. We asked the city tourguides where the best place to go was, and they told us about the cool club called KBC. We went, and we danced, and it was really fun! It was a good ending to an awesome, amazing, and incredibly hard week.