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Published: March 9th 2010
I'm now doing day trips from Kigali and went out to Nyamata, an area which used to be renowned for being a highly populated Tutsi area. It was due to this that it was used as a trial run for the genocide in 1992. People sheltered in a local church to flee the killers but they had no food or drink whilst in the church and resorted to eating the grass. An italian lady lived opposite and smuggled food into the church but she was brutally murdered when she was found out. On this occasion they remained safe, though when in 1994 the acts of genocide started again and over 10,000 people fled to the church grenades were thrown in to kill everyone and then people came in after with machetes to ensure everyone was dead.
The church has been left as it was, blood stained clothes are piled up on the pews together with a few hats, but no shoes; the walls are covered in blood stains and i can't explain the stench as i walked in. A small crypt has been built under the church with a few bones and skulls on display and a coffin of a lady who refused to talk to Hutus. She was killed by a spear right up through her and then another one through her heart and her baby no her back. Until recently her body lay on the floor just on display but when the President visited he said she needed to be in a coffin.
Outside are mass graves where those few who were identified lie in coffins and everyone else, row after row of unidentified skulls and bones. So few were identified either because whole families were wiped our, or because people were scared to return or merely because people did not know where their family were killed.
The guide explained how there were bodies everywhere, along every roadside, on every hill, in houses, ditches... everywhere. I'm still not sure how and when and by whom all the bodies were cleared away but the guide explained that bodies lay until 1995 (9 months later) when merely bones were remaining. (i think he was only talking about the church)
It was a heavy morning and so for a bit of light relief i headed to a hotel to try and teach one of the guys i worked with to swim. There were many people learning to swim and it was so nice to see anyone and everyone taking half an hour to just help others to swim - while i just swam up and down!
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katy
non-member comment
Wow Jess, that sounds pretty emotionally intense...but one of those things you've got to experience if you can. As the saying goes...something to the effect that you've got to remember the past or you're doomed to repeat it. It's pretty horrific the things humans do to one another. Glad to hear you ended the day with a nice swim!