Today was a long day. We got up early and left the hotel by
8am. After about an hour of driving on the highway the paved road ended and we
spend several hours bouncing around the car on some wicked dirt roads. The
views were amazing though. About 3.5 hours into the drive we stopped at the
Bisesero Genocide Memorial which is currently under construction to see what
was there. We were able to see the areas they had built, but not filled with
anything, along with a memorial to those
that fought back against their murderers. The people, about 50,000 of them all
hid there where men with spears stood guard to help protect. However, they were
not able to hold off all of the murderers that had guns, grenades, and many
hand weapons. Some survived the first wave of attacks, but the French arrived,
and told them that they would arrange transport into a safe zone for them. The
French then left to arrange transport, and when they left, the murderers
returned and killed all of the remaining people, who thought they were under
French protection. We were taken down to tin shed and inside was the skulls and
bones of 1,040 victims. Below were coffins filled with as many as 50 people’s
skeletons each. The plan is to move all of the remains into a permanent
location where visitors can see the remains of all 50,000 victims. From there
we drove a few more hours, getting lost part way, to our hotel which is right
on lake Kivu. It is beautiful, and I’m sad that we are only here tonight, and
leave in the morning. Below are pictures from the memorial. I look forward to posting tomorrow!
The pictures of the bones in the genocide are not mine, but
ones I found online. When we got there they said the government has to give
permission for us to take pictures, and we didn’t know this in advance. But I
wanted everyone to see what we saw today.
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