June 1st, 2017

Dear Family and Friends, 

So far we have only been able to explore Rwanda for the past few days but it has been an adventure! Over the past few days we have been exploring Kigali and figuring out some basic skills on how to make it around the city. The first day Rwanda we went out to get phones and money. We all had to get phones in order to communicate with each other and some of us got modems so we could have WiFi at the Moucecore center where we are staying for the next two weeks.  In order to actually spend any money here and pay for things we needed to exchange our US cash in for Rwandan francs or withdrawal francs from the bank. After this very hectic experience of getting money and phones we got to go to an amazing restaurant called Heaven were we tried some Rwandan cuisine. 

On the second day we had our first class (located at the SIT center) and it was a basic overview about the course and our schedule for the three weeks we will be here. We also had a class on the general life/culture in Kigali and a crash course on Kinyarwanda (which is the native language in Rwanda). We got to test our new knowledge of the culture and language of Rwanda the very next day as we were all sent out into the city with specific tasks/questions that we had to figure out. This task, while not being a walk in the park, aided all of us in being able to navigate around the city and understand basic customs of walking around in the city. 

The fourth day here we had a lesson that went more in-depth about the Rwandan history and the events leading up to the genocide. After our class for the day we went to our very first memorial- the Gisozi Genocide Memorial. This memorial was different from any museum I had ever seen. It broke my heart to read about the violence that took place and how nothing was done to stop/prevent it from international communities. The images and stories were hard, but I didn't cry/break down until I saw the children's room. This room was dedicated to the children that died in the genocide and how their future and all the things they could have done for the world was stolen. It had pictures of children and then told their age, name, how they died and other facts about them. After seeing all these photos I was devastated that something like this could have happened. After the memorial we had a peace circle where we discussed how we were feeling and how to cope with our feelings. I feel like the peace circle was helpful in getting out all the emotions that I had felt during the memorial, but I still am overwhelmed with feelings of sadness and anger about what happened in 1994.

So summing it all up, the past few days have been a roller coaster ride of emotions/feelings, but I am truly excited for all that is to come in the next few weeks and all the things I plan to learn!

Sincerely, 

Hannah Coyne