Heart is stretched to the max!!

I feel I have become a completely different person from the time I woke up today to the end of the day. This morning, we had a great breakfast with Rwandan coffee, homemade bread with eggs, and the best fruit salad that has ever come in contact with my tastebuds. From there, we had a walking tour of Kigali with our tour guide, Sylvia. It's still amazing how beautiful this place is, inside and out. The hills go for miles and the crest children you've ever seen elevate your heart by giving you a hug! After a fantastic Rwandan cuisine, everything changed for the better with our visit to ther genocide memorial center. It angered me how there have been 4 genocides within one century, all meticulously planned, all caused by similar reasons, and hundreds to thousands of innocent people dying because of others' refusal to stand up. I now have a clear understanding of what happened during the Genocide. What happened near the end of our tour were moments that I will never forget.  There is a children's room in the memorial to pay tribute to the young hopefuls who lost their lives brutally during the genocide.  There was a picture of a 15 month old girl named Fabrice that made me burst into tears. She was considered to be very talkative, but lovable and she was hacked to death by machete . Fabrice's facial features reminded me of someone I love very much and that is what made it difficult to read about her horrific death. Then, since we are in Rwanda during Kwibuka, the rememberence of the 100 days of the Genocide, pure delegation laid down flowers on the mass grave of 250,000 Tutsis who had lost their lives  we reflected on what we witnesses as a village. My heart was stretched to the max and riding an emotional rollercoaster. I hugged our professor Drew and all the sadness I had poured out in a hyperventalating cry.  I realized that stories need to be told for those who cannot tell them anymore. As a village, we have a duty to learn from the past and bring awareness through our work. I used to be a big fan of country music, especially Kenny Chesney. One of his earlier songs is Who You'd be Today.  This song captures what I thought for the victims of the genocide. "It ain't fair you died too young, like a story that had just begun but they tore the pages all away. Sometimes I wonder who you'd be today." I was wearing Rwanda' s pain like a heavy coat today. However, there were things that were so heavenly in our excursion. When we were going to the mass graves, it was raining buckets. After lying down the flowers and having a moment of silence, the sky was clearing to reveal sun.  I believe the spirits of the people who lost perished in the genocide were thrilled with our growth and  epiphanies that their spirits were lifted to reveal sun. We havve grown sonkuch as a village from spending a full day here. I can only imagine what can happen in the span of 2 weeks. We'll wait and see.