Our reason for making this trek all the way to Africa is finally here. We are now at The Solace Guest House, our home for the next two weeks.  We are joining the rest of our group from INSPIRE!africa, the impressive charitable organization founded by our friend, Margaret.

After enjoying the continental breakfast with so much delicious fresh fruit, Margaret gathers us all up to explain the events of the day. It is going to be a mix of light-hearted activities, sombre visits and eye-opening realities. Traveling with a group means we have transportation figured out (a minibus!) and we aren’t in charge of any of the logistics. We get to follow and enjoy.

The first stop is a small walk through downtown Kigali. What we have learned so far is that Kigali has many faces. Each neighbourhood has its own flavour. This particular section is extremely modern with tall banks and large investment firm buildings. It seemed like each one was competing for an award in architecture!

If you have seen the movie “Hotel Rwanda”, you’d recognize our next stop, the Hotel des Mille Collines. It is now a luxury hotel catering to the wealthy. We went through a heavy security checkpoint to get inside, they aren’t taking any chances! The lobby was stunning, filled with local art and artifacts. We made our way to the infamous pool which was used to hydrate the 700 refugees hiding there for 100 days during the genocide. This was our first glimpse into their history.

From the hotel, we walked to The Peacekeepers’ Memorial. Here, 10 Belgian soldiers were brutally murdered. The had been commanded to guard the Prime Minister but were captured and taken to this military base where 4 were killed immediately and the other six barricaded themselves in a room and tried to fight the presidential guards. They survived for only a few short hours before being out gunned. It was jarring to see the small building riddled with bullet holes from large machine guns. Absolutely awful. There are 10 large stone pillars representing each of the soldiers killed here. Beautifully done and a stark reminder about why we are here.

Knowing we would need an emotional break, Margaret had a fun activity on the agenda. Time to visit a fabric store to choose fabrics for any clothes we would want made by the tailor. The Rwandans certainly know how to dress and they take their fabrics very seriously. There were thousands and thousands to choose from. Jason and I were so relieved that we had already done this and that our choices were in the dozens, not thousands. It would have been so overwhelming to be in this small shop with fabrics piled from floor to ceiling, a bunch of people clamouring over each other and now you have to focus on finding the exact fabric you want. No thank-you!! We took a bow and went to go sit on the sidewalk to wait patiently. We got to do some great people watching as the locals did their daily shopping. We also turned a bunch of heads being the only non-black people.

Fabrics chosen, we went hunting for lunch. We found a great restaurant in a mall and everyone enjoyed the buffet meal. Then it was off to the Genocide Memorial Center. Phew. Another heavy hitter. Here, most of us opted to get the audio tour to be able to walk through it at our own pace.

The Center focuses on the Rwandan Genocide: the before, the how, the why, what happened during, what happened after, the trauma, the orphans, the destruction of a country. No topic was left untouched. It was an incredibly moving, disturbing, educational and important memorial.  Reading about the atrocities written by firsthand accounts, hearing the testimonials from survivors, seeing the pictures of the murdered and learning about this history in the words of the local historians was staggering. We were there for over two hours absorbing all we could, trying so hard to understand how something like this could happen and wondering why it is still happening in other parts of the world. Gut-wrenching.

Needing another emotional break, Margaret has planned for us to visit another Women’s Cooperative, Peace’s Porch Project. Years ago, Peace was noticing a lot of strife in her neighbourhood, not necessarily anything to do with the genocide, just regular discord. She started to invite the ladies to her porch to talk and have somewhere to go. Eventually, different needs became known and they worked out ways to meet these needs: emotional support, literacy, financial independence, etc. There is now a huge group of women who make crafts, sew clothing and provide support to each other and anyone in the community who needs it.

Their shop isn’t quite as large as the first cooperative we visited, however, that didn’t stop us from buying almost everything in sight! In fact, we cleared them out so quickly, some of us had to put in orders for more! I think it was a successful day for everyone involved.

It was a very full day within which we rode the roller coaster of emotions. There is no better way to debrief and destress than to go with the group to find a local pub and have a beer.

This was the first day of this leg of the trip. We can’t wait to see what happens next.