-Is the world wide enough for all of us?

Wow. What a day. Do you ever have one of those days where you realize that the world is a lot bigger than you ever imagined? Today we all went to the Rwanda Genocide Memorial outside of Kigali.

I have spent much time learning about the Holocaust- its implementation, the persecution and suffering of the victims, and its implications in society today.

I have spent next to no time learning about the Rwanda Genocide. I knew of its existence, but we used the event as a way to justify our fears about Africa and its instability. The movie Hotel Rwanda is probably the most famous depiction of the monstrosity, but I'm even too scared to watch it.

I saw the bones though. I saw the bones of the victims. I saw their pictures. I read the stories of children who loved to laugh and play and who were killed for their heritage.

I was only at the memorial for a few hours but my whole life is different now. I have barely skimmed the history of the Genocide and have so much more to learn.

The aspect of the genocide that I found most sobering was the intimacy of it. Neighbor killed neighbor and friend killed friend. A person was killed because they were Tusti. Actually anywhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsis were killed because they were Tutsi. Around 250,000 Tutsi women were raped, many of them by known HIV-positive men. Following the devastation, Tutsi survivors had to keep living next to their neighbors who were murderers and rapists. The Tutsi had to move on. Feign forgiveness. Reside next to people that would sell them out at a moment's notice.

Now, in Rwanda there are two national holidays to recognize the genocide and to honor the victims of it. It is a criminal offense to deny the occurrence of the genocide. The memorial we went to has over 250,000 victims' remains where people can go and remember their lost ones. Is it enough? Will it ever be enough? People who lost their family members often don't even know where their loved ones are laid to rest. At the memorial, there aren't graves dedicated to individual people. It's a mass grave. They can't even exactly pinpoint how many died because no substantial records like that exist.

Is the world wide enough for all of us? I would like to think so. I would like to think that we can make it work- that our differences are used to enhance our experiences with one another, not to tear one another apart. But we still have a lot to learn. A lot to overcome. How do we properly honor those who lost their lives in this atrocity? Or those that lost someone? I don't know. I really don't. But I do think that we can work to bridge differences. We can appreciate the people around us despite their political leanings, religious preferences, ethnic background, or past choices. And we can make a conscious effort to do so.

This is one of the burial places for the victims of the genocide.

Here is the website for the Rwanda Genocide Memorial-

https://www.kgm.rw/about/photo-gallery/

(It's where I got the pictures and some of the information)