Feeling sick and not knowing why

We stressed all weekend about whether or not Kurt would be well enough to make it with the group to Rwanda after he was diagnosed with tick fever, so of course he would be fine Monday morning, but it would be Jessica and me that spent all night throwing up. I will not go into details from that long night, but I woke up for our 6am bus feeling like I could barely stand and not trusting the pit in my stomach.

Somehow I talked myself into it, and somehow I made it to Kigali without anymore problems, but this whole week has been a battle between not causing myself more nausea, while still getting food and water. And now Dane is sick. We are suddenly more ready to be home.

But I am very glad I went. I remember watching Hotel Rwanda and feeling sad and horrified, but it is such a different thing to walk into the rooms where the slaughter happened. One site we visited had clothes and books left from the victims, and the feeling of death was still there. I'll never forget that. The biggest surprise to me was learning how much planning the government had put into the genocide. Apparently, the ideology of extermination was beginning in 1959, so we should have been more prepared for what happened in 1994.

Despite what happened, the country is beautiful and prospering and a good example of what other nations can choose after civil war.

I did not take very many pictures at the memorial sites. It didn't seem right. This is a name plaque standing next to one of the mass graves. Most of these that we saw had enough space for how many they estimate died, but usually they only have about 30% of the names because the rest are unknown.

According to our audio guided tour, this is the cell phone monkey that represents voices from the past telling those of the future not to let genocide occur. Yeah, the Kigali Museum got a little heavy on symbolism at times.

The Parliament building still functions today with holes from the mortar shells that were fired at it while the rebel forces were here, trying to end the genocide.

Uganda has some beautiful green areas, but I think Rwanda has it beat.