Genocide Museum

Wednesday, April 28

Had breakfast at Bourbon Cafe for a second time since being in Kigali. I had a croissant with egg, cheese and ham. Very good. 

We left breakfast and went to Kigali City Market to buy flowers to take to the genocide museum. We walked along the street where there are stores and also vendors on the street. We saw some flowers and stopped. The man showed us pictures of arrangements. We picked one and was told to come back in 30 minutes. 

We wanted to buy Mama Chesie lace for her house. So, off we went in search of lace. Rachel bought some for her house last week so we went to where she bought it last week and it was now a place to buy rugs. A man selling sheets and other fabric kinds of things stopped us to look at his stuff. He wanted too much so we walked off. He followed us and we eventually bought from him. 

Went back for flowers. Cost was $20. 

Then off to the Genocide Museum. There are really no words to describe seeing and hearing about what happened to almost a million people here. We are here in the midst of the 100 days of remembrance so people we have met have talked about the genocide. Everything here is talked about in terms of before or after the genocide. 

Only 20,000 names appear on the wall because these were the only ones identified here in Kigali. 

Rachel said that some bones from the genocide were just found in a village where one of the Peace Corps volunteers lives. That's 22 years later. 

We were at the museum for 2 or 3 hours so it was time for lunch. Rachel had heard of a hamburger/hot dog place called 4 Blooms. Took a taxi there. Joe got a hot dog and we ordered hamburgers. Very tasty even by American standards. 

After lunch, we headed to the big market so K and R could talk to someone about making them some clothes. This was min and K's second visit there and Joe's first. It is fasinating to see a market like that. 

While girls were looking at fabric, Joe was entertained by some teenaged boys. They wanted to show him everything. Here he is watching a checkers game. 

To continue our eating around the world in Kigali, we went to a Greek restaurant. Interesting that we didn't see any lamb on the menu. I ordered gyros made of pork - very good. K had rabbit in red win sauce. Joe ordered steak with green pepper sauce. Rachel had eggplant. It was all good.