A few of us went to the Memorial that is dedicated to honor those killed in the genocide and inform people about all the gruesome details of how it happened. Walking through a maze with pictures, personal stories, and video clips all portraying the evil of the mass killing that happened in this seemingly peaceful place years ago seemed so unreal. I can't wrap my mind around what it would have been like to live through such trama, to watch so many people you love get murdered in front of your eyes, and to fear for your life constantly years at a time. I learned that through the colonization of the "Rwandan" tribe, the differences between 2 tribes once united to be one was brought to focus, in which one tribe was favored above the other. This favoritism caused great jealousy and resentment among the other tribe and ultimately caused an uprising. Just proof that bitterness left unchecked leads to a hardened heart! The genocide lasted years, but the biggest outbreak happened over 100 days, killing 800,000 people. About 1 million people were killed overall. The memorial honored the dead by hanging photographs of people's family members that were killed which filled two full rooms. This does not include entire families that were wiped out completely. My heart broke hearing stories about how childern were targeted to try to wipe out their tribe, and also how children on the other hand were trained to be the ones killing their neighborhood friends. Outside the Memorial Building were the mass graves holding hundreds of bodies in each. Experiencing the genocide through this Memorial made me really question how the Rwandan people can worship God so freely having experienced such evil in their world. How would I respond to losing family and friends in such a violent and cruel way? How would I respond to seeing my homeland be ruled and destroyed by men trained to hate me? I am inspired by their contentment in the Lord and His will for His people. I have a hard time being content in general and I have never experienced trials such as these.
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