Kigali Day 1

We had booked three nights at the Elevate Suites with the option of staying longer if we so wished. It was lovely, after the excitement of the long day of travelling, to arrive, eat and retire to a large, comfortable, well equipped and relatively quiet room for a good night’s sleep.

Our plan had been to just take a couple of days to relax, allow Rob to get over his illness and decide on the next steps to exploring Africa. When we both woke up refreshed and eager to move, after our recent sedentary days, our plans changed, momentarily……..

We went down to breakfast

The sun was shining and we planned our day. Rushing up to our room we got ready, threw raincoats (just in case), phones and money into a bag and were down in reception, handing in our key and ready to go by 10.30.

We had planned to walk to Kigali’s Genocide Memorial because although we knew it was over an hours walk we were definitely up for it after too much sitting and travelling. We’d also discovered that, the first Sunday of every month was a car free day in Kigali – how lucky were we to choose just that day for our stroll through the city. Not very as it so happened…..

As we stepped out from under the entrance canopy of our hotel the first raindrop fell. ‘I’m not just going out to get soaked,’ – ☹️guess who?? 🤔 We stepped back into the foyer while I made my usual efforts at persuading. Eventually Rob agreed that we had good raincoats, it was only light rain, we’d put them on, start our walk and it was bound to dry up in no time. On the coats went, out we stepped just as God decided to turn his shower on to its top power shower level.

Hurrying back in for a second time, much to the amusement of the hotel’s security and receptionist, we abandoned our plans until the rain eased and resumed plan A to arrange the coming weeks. We were sure we’d be out on our walk in no time.

I have discovered that the illusion I was under for so many years of it not raining very much in Africa is completely wrong. I’m sure that there are some areas that they really are short of rainfall and are desperate for some heavy showers but as it so happens, wherever Rob and I go, apart from Kilimanjaro (where we were told to expect heavy rain, were well prepared, and never got a drop) it rains.

In Zanzibar, heavy rain showers, Kampala, hours of torrential rain, Rwamwanja, you saw the video as we arrived – that continued for two days, Mbarara, just a brief shower and now Rwanda!!! It came down in torrents until about 1.30, when we had almost given up hope but finally set out for the Memorial.

The walk was fairly uneventful, about half way Rob started to complain of needing the loo so we eventually stopped at Kigali’s version of McDonalds. I honestly don’t know why, it certainly wasn’t to do with the tempting smells or the look of the place but we decided to eat here.😬😬 If nothing else it gave us a topic of conversation for the rest of the walk as Rob wondered what it actually was that he’d eaten. 🤔😂

Eventually we arrived and were totally unprepared for the effect of the memorial.I don’t know why we were so ill prepared. We were 24 when it happened and both vaguely remembered the news reports at the time. We also knew that over a million Tutsi’s had been killed in 100 days, shocking statistics but just statistics until you’re there, seeing the pictures and hearing/reading about so many personal experiences.

seeing thousands of photos of children who never made it to adulthood.

The memorial doesn’t point any obvious fingers or dwell on who is to blame but we couldn’t help feeling responsible for having been alive at the time, knowing so little about it and doing nothing to try to help. Five thousand soldiers would have been enough to control the massacre, apparently there were many more French soldiers there at the time but they were deployed on other tasks and nobody gave the order for them to adjust their deployment.

As I said, the memorial doesn’t dwell on any of this. I have been reading A Sunday at the pool in Kigali and We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. Both books give various accounts of the genocide with opinions on what happened and why. Until now I thought that death was the worst that could happen…..

The memorial overall is a place of hope and from our limited experience this feels reflected throughout Kigali. People have found a way to move forward even with their awful memories, their lost children or total lack of an older generation. Many say they have learnt to forgive because what’s the alternative?

There are over 250 thousand bodies buried here with many other smaller memorials all over the country.

It was an extremely thought provoking, desperately sad and emotionally exhausting afternoon but as we walked back around Kigali in the dusk, talking about the atrocities and the situation which had led to it, we were greeted with lots of smiles, good afternoons, how are yous and childish cries of Mzungo. We felt very safe, welcomed and hopeful.