Butare

Wow! It sure has been a while since my last visit to cyberspace. Thinking back to when we left our homestays in Kigali for Butare seems like remembering a previous lifetime.

We spent a week in Butare, sourthen Rwanda about three hours from Kigali. A much more rural, less bustling place than Kigali, Butare still has the characteristically rolling green hills that I will forever associate with this country. Much of our days have been spent at a local grocery store slash cafe, having class with Donna in the mornings and NUR (National University of Rwanda) faculty in the afternoons.

The evenings are spent either at a bar downtown with our group or simply at our guesthouse. My favorite time of day is sunset on our balcony, with the sun dipps below the horizon and the chirping birds give way to a chorus of insects. The call to prayer from the loudspeakers of the teal mosque across the valley adds to the calming appeal.

One of our last days in Butare was spent at a genocide memorial where many of the bodies had been preserved-Mt Vesuvious like-but with lime preservation. During the genocide, Tutsi fled to a local tech school in hopes of protection but instead were destroyed. We walked into countless rooms of dessicated bodies white with lime powder, as well as a room filled with clothes and other possessions. Equally, if not more, horrfying than simply seeing bodies in the positions of their murder was the obvious signs of Frenc involvement. Over a mass grave, the French flew their flag and even made a volleyball court.

In many ways, I have become accustomed to hearing survior stories, seeing wounds and even experiencing the presentation of preserved bodies to a point that it seems normal and expected. So many of us have expressed how desentized they are and how many of us will not be able to process what we have learned and seen for a long time after we have left this place. It's difficult to imagine what returning home will be like for me and the rest of our group once we have become immersed in the knowledge and exposure to this history, this people, and this experience in whole.

On a lighter subject, we leave for The Netherlands soon! A salad, hot shower, and a fountain soda are needed immediatly upon landing.