A Major History Lesson

When I told people that I was coming to Rwanda for the summer, everyone seemed to be shocked that I would be willing to go to a place that had a Civil War only 15 years ago. To be honest, even I had my doubts for a time, but I knew the country was in much better shape than most people probably thought. Today, Zach and I decided to go and find out the story behind it all, so we got ourselves to the Rwandan Genocide Memorial and learned all about an event that still affects the people of Rwanda.


The memorial was...intense, not necessarily from the beginning, but it builds up while you walk from one section to the next. There are videos of survivors describing how they lost their moms, dads, sisters and brothers. Even scarier, there are videos of people describing how family friends went from being like brothers and sisters in their homes, eating meals together and ultimately turned on them, trying to kill them during the genocide. It was really sad. But I think the room that affected me the most, was this one...

This room has pictures of those who died during the Rwandan genocide back in 1994. It is definitely one thing to hear about a massive group of people dying, but it is another to actually be able to look them in the eye. I sat down for a few minutes to take it all in. As I looked from one family to another, I couldn't help but wonder how the surviving friends and family of these people are doing without their relatives and friends. I asked God to watch over these people...

I think the Memorial is designed in a way to alleviate the intensity of this section because right after this came a BEAUTIFUL Garden! So many palm trees, water fountains and sculptures! I don't think I could have taken more pictures of it. As I was walking around in the garden, this woman was sweeping. I was going to ask her to take a picture of me with the fountain, but then she asked me for some money and kept starting at me when I didn't have any small bills to give her.
Monkey on a cellphone :)

Zach and I came back and had an AWESOME lunch ready for us! I'm really getting spoiled by this Rwandan food. We have pineapple and rice with every meal (which I love because Hispanic food always has rice and pineapples remind me of Hawai'i <3). Our cook is so nice, she tries to teach me some Kinyarwanda almost every meal so I can better communicate here in Kigali, hopefully I'm a pro by the time we go back to America!

Later, Zach and I went to KIST to make sure that our lab would be working and had all the necessary software that the students would need (Python, Django, Google AppEngine). We had a lab technician help us install everything. We also interviewed students who were in the AITI program last year so they could help us by being teaching assistance this year. All these kids are amazing (I probably shouldn't call them kids since they're probably my age lol)! We had a meeting with one particular group from last year that started a company called HeHe. They are really excited about AITI this year and they are willing to help is out in so many ways! We really wanted to get feedback from them on what worked in last year's course and what we could change a bit about the one we'll be running starting MONDAY!

We finished the night with our first complete team meeting! At this place called REPUBLICA. It had a great view of the Rwandan hills and some pretty good food too! Zach, Christina and I just kinda recapped a lot of the program, got to know each other a bit better and set up some times to talk about what's coming up next week with the start of the course. It's really starting to come all together. This is our last weekend before we finally meet the students on Monday morning and start teaching!!!!