While the shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum made headlines across the world earlier this summer, a grenade attack at the Kigali Memorial Center last night has not had quite the same impact on the international community.  The attack on the memorial has barely made the news in Kigali.  Although no one was killed, the attack – the third in two years – is quite upsetting in a country that claims to be progressing rapidly towards reconciliation and reconstruction.  Read the one article I could find on it here.

“Do you like hip hop?” Kabera (formerly known to blog readers as Jean-Paul; he told me this afternoon that he prefers to go by his family name, Kabera) asked me this morning as we waited for the slow Internet connection at AERG’s offices to upload his photos.

As Rihanna set the mood, we began to put together AERG’s first web site, a very simple google site that will allow Kabera and his colleagues to share information about their organization, post photos, and allow their members to share their testimonies with the world.

About an hour earlier, Kabera shared his story with my me.  We began our interview by discussing AERG’s mission and how he gained the position of national coordinator.  As the interview went on, we delved deeper and he told me about his own experiences during the genocide.  He spoke of the murder of his father at the very beginning of April; he had gone to the Church for refuge – “a place of God” – and then the massacre of his entire family when they were discovered hiding in the marshes.  They tried to kill him too, slashing his neck and leg with a machete, but he managed to survive.

“It is very difficult,” he said several times, “It is very difficult to talk about this.”  But he continued on; he wants to ensure that the world knows what happened to his family and to him.  He wants to ensure that it never happens again, in Rwanda, or anywhere in the world.

He talked of his new, “artificial” family, the family gained through AERG.  While he is the “father” of his organization, at his university, in his small “artificial” family of 12, he is a kid.  And he loves being a kid.

“Sometimes it is just fun to be a child,” he says with a smile.

The interview went on for close to an hour as Kabera shared the most difficult details of his story, the challenges he faces as the leader of AERG, and the hope he has for Rwanda’s reconciliation and peace.  I’m hoping to figure out how to edit the footage, and will hopefully get something resembling a video up soon.

Following the interview, he asked me about my family – if I have both of my parents, how many siblings I have, if I am married or have a boyfriend – and I felt guilty with each reply.  I think he sensed my discomfort, and chimed in, “I am very happy with my new family.  We provide each other with great love and care.”  He smiled and clicked on some Rwandan tunes.

“Look! It’s Africa!”

I am finally about to drift into a wine induced slumber (wine is free on Ethiopian Airlines!) on the second leg of my 18 hour flight to Addis Ababa, when my traveling companion – a 20 year-old Ethiopian now living in Detroit and studying engineering – pokes me and points towards the small plane window.

“Look!  It’s Africa!”

His eyes light up as he tells me we are flying over Libya.  He is returning to Ethiopia for the summer to visit family that he hasn’t seen in five years (when he came for his first, and permanent, stay in the US).  We talk about his grandmother who lives a three day drive from Addis; he tells me about how he will turn 21 when he returns to the states and plans to “party hard core;” and when I ask him why he chose engineering he tells me about his dreams to earn enough money to bring his brothers and sisters to Michigan one day.

About an hour later, I notice on the TV monitor that we are crossing over Khartoum.  Sunset over Sudan.  Funny, I always pictured my first trip to Africa in Darfur, or Congo, or a country experiencing egregious human rights abuses.  But instead, I am heading towards Kigali… Africa’s Asian Tiger.  But perhaps Rwanda is an appropriate place to start.  While the country has its problems and still has a long way to go, it is a ray of hope for places like Sudan and the Central African Republic.

During the flight, I have quite a bit of time to contemplate what I’ll be doing when I get to Kigali and why I’ll be doing it.  Waiting to board at the Dulles airport, I overheard several conversations of Americans going to Africa “to help” the people that are suffering.  And while well intentioned, I’m not sure that is what I will be doing, what I want to be doing, or what I should be doing.  Does Rwanda, or Africa for that matter, need to be saved?  And if so, what do I have to offer in that regard?

I hope and believe that the work I do will be meaningful, but perhaps, Rwanda will be helping me.  The people of Rwanda have incredible stories to share and their courage and perseverance will inspire me.  And maybe my most important contribution to the country is an investment to share its stories with the world.

Rwanda is the land of a thousand hills. Or so I’m told.

I’ve also been told that the country is rapidly rising - economically and socially - through investment, technology, and an impressive work ethic.

I know I’m not allowed to bring plastic bags into Rwanda, nor can I get on a motorbike taxi without a helmet. If I want to go see the gorillas in Virunga National Park, I have to make reservations months in advance. Friends and colleagues have told me that Kigali is one of the safest cities in Africa and that it’s a relatively easy place to live.

I also know about Rwanda’s darker history; the genocide that began in April 1994 and that resulted in the massacre of almost one million Tutsi and moderate Hutus. I have read about the Arusha Accords and the plane crash of President Habyarimana that eventually incited the events of 1994 for which Rwanda is most well known. Over the last semester I have researched the current political situation in Rwanda and written about the political and social rise of women after the genocide.

Courtesy of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Courtesy of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

I have done my homework and learned a great deal about what I will be doing in Rwanda as an Advocacy Peace Fellow working with Survivor Corps, an international organization, formerly known as the Landmine Survivors Network. I’m excited to meet Albert, my Survivor Corps colleague based in Kigali, and begin working on a survey project and documentary about Survivor Corps peer support program.

All in all, I consider myself well informed about Rwanda’s history, political and economic situation, its potential for growth, and the organization I’ll be working with this summer. Yet, as I pack my bags, make housing arrangements, pick up my malaria prescription, and begin saying goodbye to friends, I have no idea what to expect when I arrive in Kigali on June 2nd…