Shyenga

We travelled across the border to the capital of Rwanda, Kigali in a small group with Kelly, Michael and Steph. Known as the place with 1000 hills. The scenery was spectacular and lush green. It was noticeable how clean the country is compared to Uganda and Kenya and they also drive on the other side of the road like in Europe. There is also a 1 hour time difference.

It was very sad day learning about the genocide which started in April 1994 when the Hutus turned against the tutsis killing over 1 million people in 100 days. Tutsis across Rwanda were raped and tortured then massacred even by their own neighbours.
The tribes were defined by the Belgians by the number of cows owned with 10 cows or more being named the Tutsis.
We stopped by at a school where the girls were told to divide into the 2 groups but they refused and were all raped and killed
We then stopped at a view point of the river where lots of bodies were thrown which led to fishing being prevented for a year due to finding human remains inside the fish.
The memorial we visited held the mass graves of over 250 thousand people in just 14 graves. There is one open grave for remains which they are still finding .
We also visited a memorial where the 10 Belgian soldiers who were protecting the prime minister where killled.
Following that we visited Hotel des Mille Collines from the movie Hotel Rwanda for lunch which was a place which looked after Tutsis in hiding.Read more