Friday, June 11, 2010

The Past Two Days...


So I spent all of last night trying to figure out how I am going to get home since my original plan went down the drain. I will try to give a brief overview of everything we have done yesterday and today. Yesterday, we went to the Gako Military Academy, which is where they train people to become officers. It’s not like WP though. People who go to Gako are NCOs and/or have gone through college already so they are older than us. And they take various classes and programs to either develop them into leaders for certain positions or to prepare for deployment to Darfur. We had lunch there and I sat with the Commandant. We had a very good conversation about several different things. One thing I found interesting though was his response to my question about if any soldiers experienced PTSD as a result of the war or genocide. He said there haven’t been any soldiers he has known of and that they don’t really go through that stuff. In my opinion, I definitely think some of them developed PTSD but because of their culture, none of them admitted it or sought help. Again, that is just my opinion.

Anyway, after Gako, we went to the Nataroma Memorial Site. This place originally used to be a church, but was turned into a memorial site after the killings that happened there. Many Tutsis fled there to seek protection and refuge but unfortunately, it is said that the priests conspired with the Hutus and come kill everyone hiding there. And that is exactly what happened. The main building we saw had all the belongings people brought. There also was preserved bones and skulls of the people who died. The next building we saw was the Sunday school. This is where babies were violently thrown against the wall to kill them. Some of the walls inside still had blood stained on the wall from it. The last building we saw was the kitchen. This is where several people were burned alive. The killers lit mattresses on fire and put them inside to block any exit. They all burned alive and inside there were still some hair and bones from the bodies. This was all very powerful and I’m grateful we had the chance to see it.

After the memorial, we went to the US Embassy. I was really excited to go but it turned out to be the worst part of the day. We pretty much got lectured about what we should and should not say…a week after we got to Rwanda. I probably shouldn’t have said that but oh well. After the embassy, we met with the Minister of Defense himself, which I heard is the second most powerful man in the country. He gave us a great insight into the country and provided us with plenty of good information. He also asked us what our impressions were of Rwanda and what our expectations were, to which we pretty much all replied by saying we have been very impressed with the development and progress they have made since the genocide. That sums up the events from yesterday.

Today was our last full day in the country. We started the morning off by visiting a few UN organizations. They gave us a presentation regarding the reconciliation of the country, with a focus on the involvement of women in peace and reconciliation. I found it to be very informative and interesting. They are trying to develop a Rwanda Peace Academy as well for their military forces. This is something the US lacks, but I guess it makes sense since we don’t do peace keeping and peace building missions. Next, we visited the Ministry of Finance, which turned out to be a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. Our presenter spoke a lot about Vision 2020 which is essentially a plan of where the country wants to be in various areas of development by the year 2020. I’m sure Google can you provide you with a more in-depth explanation than what I am willing to provide right now. He addressed some of the areas where they are not on track to meeting in the plan as well, which was interesting. In the afternoon, we returned once again to the Ministry of Defense to speak with a gentleman about the Gacaca court system. I was slightly disappointed because all week I thought we were going to see an actual Gacaca court case in action, but instead it was just someone talking about how the system work. It was still informative and I’m glad we went, but just not as exciting.

We concluded the night with a cocktail party at the Officers Club for the RDF. The night for the most part consisted of dinner, cultural dances, and lots of socializing. At dinner, I sat at a table with two Colonels from the RDF. One of them told us that we fought in “the bush” for 6 total years, 2 in Uganda and 4 in Rwanda. The bush is basically what they call the forest and stuff, which is where the defense forces fought and lived during conflicts. Most of the people in the RDF were not actually born in Rwanda too. Many of them were in exile in surrounding countries and had to fight their way back into Rwanda, which is where most of their parents originated from. It still amazes me to hear these stories of fighting and living for years in the bush, or seeing countless bodies from the genocide and then seeing how resilient and prideful the people of this country are. I wish the rest of the world could see what we have seen and could speak to the people we have talked to. I know that my perception of Rwanda and Africa as a whole has changed. Granted, we were a little spoiled coming to Rwanda because they are unlike many other African countries. But seeing the potential for this country and continent is amazing. I’m so inspired to just change the world and help them as much as I can. But anyway, we concluded the party with some gift exchanges and picture taking. I actually felt really sad tonight as it was happening. It was almost like I was at a graduation saying goodbye to friends. We have grown to love this country and its people, especially our 3 RDF escorts. But I know that we will keep in touch, even with our badass drivers!

Well I guess that concludes this post. Tomorrow we are heading to the market in the afternoon to do some shopping and then in the afternoon we embark on the long journey back to America. I will be home Monday afternoon for about a week for anyone interested. When I get back home I will make one last post of a bunch of pictures from the trip…well maybe not a bunch but at least a few. Good night.

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