Never again

Sunday it is 14 years ago that a plane with the Burundese and Rwandan presidents on board was shot down, the start of the 100 days lasting genocide.

Monday is the remembrance and the rest of the week most things are limited, for example the swimming pool will be closed.
Apparently this will be the worst week to be in Rwanda, people are sad, sometimes zombie-like. In a way it is good that we are here to experience this. However I can not blame people who take their holidays now. See how we feel next year.

In short, we are not looking forward to this week, I have a feeling we will spend a lot of time at home next week.

Poor Maria and Bill will arrive during this week, I hope they will be alright if we tell them not to leave the house.

Just 1 example.
Our guard was on holiday for three months. I asked him how it was. 'Bad' he said. He was able to visit his family in Bujumbura for 15 days, he didn't feel save and went quickly back to Kigali. His parents were murdered in 1962, when he was still a baby. (A fact little known in the west is that the genocide in 1994 was not the first one, and even worse killings are still taking place in eastern Congo and in Burundi, but this is less sexy for the media then Darfur.) In 1994 Emanuel (our guard) was attacked, he showed me the scar. He fled to Rwanda and lived here ever since. As I understood, he is torn between being Burundese and Rwandan. It is much safer here, but all his family is in Burundi.The remaining part of his holidays he probably couldn't enjoy either, because with a salary of less than 1 euro a day it is hard enough to stay alive and healthy. I am sure he is glad to be back, because he has something to do and we give him something extra every month.