Guest Blog - Rwanda - Pascal Erenstein. - Gast Bericht Rwanda van Pascal.

Blog Rwanda, pascal erenstein

Sunday 29-09-13

Iwitness trip Rwanda, Kigali

"Why?"

I have started the day well with a great breakfast at the hotel. The first sunrays are shining on my head and the birds are singing nice songs. What a beautiful day to start in Kigali. The plan of today is first a tour through Kigali and then a visit to the Kigali memorial museum. 

Kigali memorial centre at Gisozi

UNICEF wants us first to know a little bit more about the history of this country before we see the good things UNICEF is doing here.

It is 09:30 and the UNICEF van is picking us up at the hotel for the Kigali tour. Cyriaque from UNICEF is guiding us the whole week. The first thing that attracts my attention during the tour is that everything is so clean. The streets are good and well maintained and the people are friendly. After a tour through the city and a visit to a hill top with a very nice view over Kigali, we go to the Kigali memorial museum.

Mass graves with our (UNICEF & IKEA) flower arrangement

When we arrive, we first go to a mass grave to remember all the victims of the genocide. UNICEF has brought a very nice flower arrangement which we put on the grave and then we have a moment of silence. 

There are more than 250.000 victims burried at the site here at this museum. 

After visiting the graves we go into the museum. 

At the start of the museum we get an audio guide which is telling us everything about the genocide and this country for the past 25 years. What happened here 20 years ago is very terrible with a lot of innocent victims. 

All I can think of is "WHY"? Why did this happend?

I will not tell the whole story here but the many smashed sculls, bones, clothes of the victims and the photo's and films have impressed me a lot. And what impressed me the most is how the Rwandan people of today are helping each other. 

They also have one day a month that they call community day.

From every family there must be at least one person to help together with the government building this land up from the ground.

And so far my blog of the first day in Kigali. The next days we will experience more of all the things UNICEF is doing in this beautiful country to build a better future for Rwanda and especially the children.

One of the UNICEF Landcruisers we were driven around in.

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