When Dr. Murray (Uncle Paul) is on away from home, he writes letters to his nieces Heidi (6) and Morag (2).  A letter from Rwanda is unlikely to get home so he is posting them here instead so the girls will get them and others might enjoy them.

30/9/2019, 10.07pm CAT.  Good News Guest House, Gikondo district, Kigali, Rwanda

My very dear friends Heidi and Morag.

I’ve been to a number of places where a terrible atrocity has happened.  Namely;

• Hiroshima, Japan
• Tuel Sleng, Pnomh Penh, Cambodia
• Auschwitz, Poland
• World Trade Centre, New York City

It would be daft to say that I’m “pleased” to add Rwanda to this list – that is definitely not the case.  However, the more that we can understand about these events the better so I was glad to have that opportunity today.

The museum follows the lead-up to the genocide rather well and of course details the event itself.  It also features exhibitions on other genocides including those in Namibia, Cambodia and Serbia, and of course the Holocaust in Nazi occupied Europe.  The pattern to all of these is explified by the genocide in Rwanda.  Various powers promoted a campaign of prejudice towards the Tsutsi minority and Hutu moderates.  This escalated over time (roughly according to Allport’s Scale of Prejudice) to isolation of the minorities before violence and eventually extermination and genocide.  The atrocities committed defy description and therefore I will not do so.  Suffice to say it pitted friends, colleagies and even family members against each other and in the end some 800 000 – 1 000 000 people were killed and many others left suffering.  No one was exempt – even children your age were killed and many of those who survived were left with no home or family.

I’d like to leave this to you my friends as the future of this society to ensure that events such as this never happen again.  However, I remain concerned about the news reports I read of prejudices against various minorities in many countries around the world.  I hope that people have not forgotten where hate and discrimination can lead.  People need to come to places like this, however hard it may be to understand what happened and how we can avoid it ever happening again.

After the museum we stopped at an amazing place to buy material to make clothes. More of that later….

Lunch was a little quiet as you might imagine but the chips and egg sandwiches were very much enjoyed.

In the afternoon, David took us to a project rehousing people in the hills outside Kigali. On the way we stopped into a market to by bananas, tatties, and cassava for the people. It was a proper local market with lots of different items being sold and negotiations occurring left, right and centre. Kieron, Ben, Gillian and I handled the produce while David and Gavin negotiated prices. The sight of the “muzungus” struggling with massive sacks of food caused great hilarity amongst the assembled throng – particularly when I fell over.

We arrived at the project to the sort of audience that we’re now starting to get used to. After some introductions they told us their stories. Esha was particularly excited to meet a Muslim lady who lived at the centre. She seemed absolutely lovely and someone who “calls a spade a spade” in the vein of Miss. Diamond back at Kirkcaldy High. Half way through our visit she had to chase some kids away with a broom!

The project is essentially council housing – houses built by the government for people who otherwise would have no home. They told us that often the children had no ambition due to the situation they were born into. We were able to sympathise with this as while poverty in Scotland presents itself in a different way, the problems are all the same. When push comes to shove we’re all just humans trying to solve human problems, wherever we happened to be in the world.

They seemed very pleased with the food we’d brought and before we left we sang “The Red Yo Yo” and I played “Rory McLeod” on the fiddle.  They then sang for us and a dance-off occured between me and one of the local gentleman.  I won, of course.  As always it came time to leave and Suzie, Gillian, Zaynah, and Hannah has to be shoehorned from the extremely cute baby that had been passed around. They were lovely, lovely people.

A shaky and dark bus ride brought us home to a delicious dinner of pizza, spaghetti and meatballs. Enough time had passed to share our thoughts on the day and everyone had been profoundly affected – particularly by the room of children at the museum. I feel that today was an important day for everyone.  No-one will me coming home unchanged by Rwanda.

I remain as ever your very good and loving friend.

Paul ♫ xx