The Memorials

Well hello everyone. I hope everyone’s summer is going well. I have been procrastinating writing another post due to laziness and the fact that nobody leaves comments when I pour so much time and effort into the words I write. I’m not hinting towards anything, just plainly stating.

Last Monday a few of the interns and I went and visited a couple of memorials dedicated to the victims of the 1994 genocide. Prior to 1994 there were several times when the Hutu extremist would go on killing sprees murdering ten’s of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutu’s. In the times of these occurrences the targets of the Hutu extremist would find refuge in community churches. Churches were considered a place of sanctuary and for the most part would be a safe zone. However this was a false hope for the Tutsis and moderate Hutu’s in 1994. In the 100 days that the genocide took place churches all over Rwanda were packed full of potential victims in hopes to escape the killers and stay alive. The memorials we visited last Monday were churches where these types of events took place.

The first church was a rural church called “Ntarama”. Ntarama consisted of three separate buildings: a sanctuary, Sunday school classroom, and a kitchen. In the beginning stages of the genocide all three buildings had become overflowing with families to come to find refuge and turn to the Lord in prayer. The Churches, at this time were not considered safe zones by the murderers, and turned into an easy target to kill thousands at one time. When the interhamwe (the name given to Hutu extremist) reached the Ntarama, the Church was sheltering around 5,000 people, in which were all eventually killed. By launching grenades inside and then covering the building with bullets, the interhamwe wiped out the entire Church. The memorial was very vivid, consisting of a shelving unit that contained the victims personal belongings and hung on rafters around the sanctuary were the victims clothing, most of which were blood stained. At the other end of the sanctuary sat a large shelving unit that stored a large amount of bones, which included skulls, arm and leg bones, and pelvic bone structures. The site was very overwhelming and a visitor could only think about, what the Church must have looked like in the final hours before the interhamwe arrived. All the families crammed inside the church, some knelt down in prayer, while others were in complete panic and unable to remain calm, some surrounded by their families and friends, while others stood all alone, some questioning their God, while others were ready to meet theirs. At this point I walked outside to process all that I was observing, trying to understand it, though knowing I never would succeed. I tried to find comfort with that the people came to God’s house in their final hours, and by God’s grace were saved and are free now from the evil that engulfed Rwanda in 1994.

The second memorial was also a Church that the people went to find refuge. Only after a week from when the Genocide had begun, the Church was overtaken by the interhamwe. As we walked through the Church, blood still stained the walls and the holes created from the grenade’s ricochet were still evident throughout the building. In the back yard, there were two cemented mass graves containing a large amount of caskets, each filled with the skeletal remains of the victims. Both of the graves offered stairs to walk down into the cemented structures to witness the site of the caskets, I simply declined. As we returned to the front of the Church, signing our names and leaving a small donation, everything that I had just experienced seemed so surreal. An event that I have spent a large amount of time studying in school had all just become real to me.

What happened at these two Churches, two locations that were overwhelming in themselves, continually happened throughout Rwanda in 1994. The numbers are impossible to wrap my head around, 800,000 people killed in a 100 days with the sole intention to wipe out an entire ethnic group. With the whole world aware, not a single country intervened to bring an end to the genocide. As I write this blog it's ironic to think that the same circumstances are taking place in the Sudan, and still the international community patiently watches.

Visiting these two memorials only motivated my passions more; the affects of what took place in 1994 are still evident throughout Rwanda. Children live without families, AIDS is rapidly spreading, the pains still exist and the grace of Christ is needed. My hopes and passions lie within such circumstances, that I, one person with the empowerment of Christ, can make a difference and hopefully bring a change to the evil patterns of this world and provide a sense of comfort and joy, for those that have already been affected.