Understanding Rwanda

As i spent the last few nights reading through websites, journals and blogs of different people who have been to Rwanda, i began to see a different light to the whole subject of analysing this country. my first encounter to the country was thru facts.

Country name. Size. No of population. Economic activities. GDP. President. Genocide in 1994. Former Belgium colony. the list goes on ...

But these are just facts. just like name, age, occupation, height, weight, gender, interests describe a person but does that make you understand he/her?

I realised that there are so much i do not know about Rwanda. how did she feel when foreigners stepped onto her land for the first time? how did she react when a new authority took over? what were her thoughts as she watched different groups of people of her land coming against each other? what did she want to say when people begin to think of themselves instead of as a nation? did she cry when bodies after bodies began to fall and blood spread through the ground? were her arms around the little children who have just lost their parents; some of them even suffered severe injuries themselves?

The complexity of the society. Now, more than a decade after genocide, after many conflicts and peace-making efforts, the country is finally at peace. but is it really peace? or is the storm forming amid the calm sea?

How do you resolve from not allowing the past to repeat itself again? how do you tell little children that they need to forgive the people who murdered their father, mother and siblings in broad daylight? how do you tell them that they need to let go of the sights of how their loved ones were brutally killed? when they saw how the heads fell, how the air was breath last and how the body hung lifeless on the tree ... how do you tell them that they need to move on?

Rwanda. a land of complexities. yet amidst the tragedy and conflict history, she cries out for life.