Silence

Long overdue to post some in-depth pieces following recent discussions/conferences. But this week I’m in Kigali, Rwanda helping put together a project with GirlHub.

On Sunday I had time to go out to the Genocide Memorial Museum. Some places should be visited in company, but this was somewhere that benefited from being visited alone – able to spend the time to listen and absorb without any consideration for where family/friends might be, able to take as long as it needed to. Usually, I’m a big fan of interactive elements and video films, but here I was glad that some of the video screens were out of order. Reading stories of 1994 and seeing images and, on occasion, implements was hard enough. Seeing a few people talking about their experiences was enough for me.

And while the ground floor of the museum is entirely about the events in Rwanda, it takes a global look on the second floor with displays of other genocides from around the world – Namibia, Armenia, the Holocaust and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Fitting really, as once I’d gathered my thoughts, sitting silently outside by the mass graves, I came back to the hotel to build a site through which we’ll be looking to support building a more integrated Bosnia-Herzegovina for the future – a challenge, given the recent memories.

Rwanda has made progress – as evident in the wonderful people and lovely environment of Kigali. Let’s see if we can help some others make a little progress along the road too.