Archive for July, 2009
Building Reconciliation
Pacifique uses a machete to chop wood to stoke the fire for lunch while a few feet away the man who killed her brother and sister thrusts a shovel into wet cement being used to finish construction of her house. This is what reconciliation looks like for many villagers in Rwanda after the genocide here [...]
What reconciliation looks like
Jean Gihana calmly admits that he armed and directed a band of killers in his neighborhood during the Rwandan genocide. Confessing got him out of prison early, and today he counts survivors as his friends.
“For the one person who I killed, I have apologized to his family.” Jean said in an interview outside a seminar [...]
A Survivor’s Fear & Hope
“I don’t know what is in other people’s hearts.” Fifi explained to us, and then nodded somberly, yes, the genocide could happen again. Fifi is the only survivor of the genocide from her family. It is clear she is fearful, “I have to be vigilant. There aren’t police officers to protect everyone.”
She lives alone, an [...]
6,000 victims, 12 survivors
Charles Mugabe should not be alive. Now he spends his summer vacations guiding visitors through the church turned memorial where he watched his twin brother die. He witnessed a killer decapitating a woman with a machete, hid for 3 days in piles of bodies and then escaped killers for 3 weeks by swimming through swamps. [...]
Greetings from Rwanda
Hundreds of jubilant Rwandans were blasting air horns, cheering, and dancing greeted the Reconciliation’s Reach at the Kigali international airport today. Boys with bright green wigs and gold jerseys alongside men with elaborate masks and children pounding drums all stood by as we exited the airport into the 80 degree dry, dusty sunshine.
While the crowd [...]
Documentary Team Leaving for Rwanda
UPDATE: Our team is leaving for Rwanda beginning Sunday July 12th, 2009-August 11th. Come back here for updates.
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The Fourth of July is a time for celebration of liberation, quality time with family and friends and good food… in Rwanda. 15 years ago on America’s birthday in 1994 is the date many Rwandans point to as [...]
Heading to Rwanda
The Fourth of July is a time for celebration of liberation, quality time with family and friends and good food… in Rwanda. 15 years ago on America’s birthday in 1994 is the date many Rwandans point to as the turning point in their national nightmare. On July 4th, 1994 exiled Rwandan fighters took over the [...]