Debi's Amazing Journeys Continue: The air is heavy

Very difficult day. But I d have some remarkable photos and a video on Fb because I dont know how to add videos from my phone to this blog

We started heading south to the Genocide Memorial museum that is located at the site of the church where 10,800 people were told it was safe to hide and were brutally massacred. The church is riddled with bullet holes and outside the pavement bears the marks of hand grenades. Inside are mounds of deteriorating clothing taken off he dead bodies. Outside theree are mass graves. You can enter the tombs where the caskets of bones and remains can be found. There ae also bones and skulls whowing the result of machette or bullets or clubbing that have re3cently been found. Te conservation of these items is not as it should be- as you can see the remains just laying on a blanket.

I found this place almost suffocating and it was hard to feel . Maybe Im on genocie overload?

We then traveled south near the border with Burindi to visit a village which is one of fove such villages made of murderes who have been released from prison ecause they have expressed remorse and have written letters to their victims families. Tjis goverenment sposored program strives to have these people find forgiveness and reconciliation The village opened in 2005 and wih 40 homes now there are 80

We were greeted by a throng of women all colorfully dressed singing a song of welcome. Most of these women ae widows because of the genocide. Hee they are teaching victim forgivenmess The government provided the land but the people have built the simple houses. They hope t teach the world about what they have been able to accomplish here. Two women both named Marie spoke sepertly about their lives and how their husbands and children were brutally hacked or clubbed to death, each woman introduced the man who commited the murderers. They hend their hands and introduced them.
Marie 1 told how her husband was generous and had actually given 100 cows to neighbors. But this neighbor killed him and threw his children on top of him and they weree killed as well. She claimed that the apology of Filbert and the fact he now has taken over te roles her children and husband would have as far as the crops etc has helped her o find life again.
Listening to Filbert tell ow he ws influened with hate as a child was very powerful yet disturbing. I starred at his hands and wondeered how a boy of 19 could so brutally kill children?
The seond Marie suffered blow to her head with a club with nails on it and left for dead. A Hutu doctor saw her and realized she was not dead and saved her.
Te murderer of her husband and children and the man responsible for her head trauma- Leonard spoke, He was older than Filbert and about 45 when he committed these atrocities which makesme wonder even more. Why? Because we know youngsters are easily manipulated, drawn into the crowd but as we mature we know better so what happened to make a 45 year old man do this?

There is a lot more to the stories that I will type up another day or from home.

Johnson accompanied us today, He is a gentle soul and very soft spoken , he was only 9 when the genocide occured and it becomes raw for him when he mentions his mother. He talked about what is forgiveness and how he felt today having been a victim himself. I willnot go into too much because it may be his private thoughts but he questons forgiveness much like I do.

Tomorrow we leave at 6 am for a five hour ride to a location that was supposed to be a technical school that turned into a massacre of 50,000 people whose remains are still there