Tomorrow Lost

Lake Kevu, Rwanda
Originally uploaded by An Smith

'Tomorrow Lost' is the memorial that is dedicated to the children
that died during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The name is eerily
fitting and the memorial itself is tastefully put together and
extremely informative but being there and seeing it first hand doesn't
change that it is impossible to swallow (or believe) what happened in
this country just over a decade ago.

The photos are life size and hang tastefully on the wall. Immediately
the spirit of the children in the photographs jump out at you - they
remind me of all of the children I've met in Africa. Big smiles,
happy, playful, mischievous eyes and mismatched grubby clothes.
Innocent as hell. Beside each picture is a small description which
details the child's name, age, favorite food and a characteristic that
would best describe their personality. The last detail is the method
in which they were killed. Shot, bludgeoned to death, stabbed in the
eye. However it was, it was brutal and cruel and disgusting. It
goes without saying - none of it should have happened and you can't
help but walk out of there with the sickest feeling in your stomach.

I think most people (are now) aware of what happened in Rwanda, thanks
to movies like 'Hotel Rwanda' and Romeo Dallaire's novel detailing his
personal experience during the crisis. (And if you still don't know
just keep an eye on E! Now because Paris Hilton, is like, visiting
there, for like charity stuff, like, this month! Wicked!).

Anyway, to give a Cole's note semi accurate history lesson tensions
built during colonial rule when the Belgians pitted the more dominant
Tutsis against the Hutus in order to have a political advantage. They
switched 'sides' when people began to push for Independence and
basically all hell broke loose after that. Originally Germany was
'awarded' rule of Rwanda during the late 1800's when the Europeans
decided to divide Africa - it was then 'won' by Belgium as a result
of WWI. (Don't assume that Africa was even aware of it being divided
let alone having a say in what was happening).

We spent some time in a really sleepy village in Rwanda, very close to
the Congolese border. It was your typical African town with a small
market selling not much more than designer jeans, tomatoes, cocoa
butter and colourful kangas. There were no tourists, no restaurants.
There weren't even street vendors or cars let alone bicycles. "Rush
Hour" was a line of people walking home from work, or whatever it was
they were doing. On April 1994, 11,400 people were massacred in this
town. In one day.

There wasn't much to do there. We spent most of our time detoxing,
trail running and exploring mountain villages. We realized that a lot
of people 'hung out' at the gas station. So we did to. We sat on the
bench in front of the small shop that sold cool drink and did what
they did. It was actually pretty entertaining as far as people
watching goes. We met a little boy who was three years old. He
didn't speak English, French or Swahili so the lines of communication
were hugs and smiles. We couldn't figure out if he 'belonged' to
anyone because he was just always there hanging out wearing snowpants
and a ripped t-shirt that had seen better days. A man gave him some
money, and he immediately went to buy muffins because he was clearly
starving. He sat down on the bench with us, and in typical African
fashion he offered us his food before he even took any. This lil guy,
who is half starving..with 'nothing' in the world, except really
impressive manners.

Looking at Rwanda now you see a relatively more affluent society than
what we have seen in other African countries (sort of). The roads are
paved, the people are better educated and there is a lot of
positivity. It seems like there are a lot of opportunities and that
people are moving forward. The international community has pumped a
lot of aid because of the guilt from ignoring the genocide and perhaps
that is the only positive thing you can take from the experience. It
doesn't make it better that 1 million people had to die but it's
comforting to know that nothing like that will happen to these people
again.