This is my last dispatch from Kigali and I'm dealing with a huge range of emotion. The adventure is coming to an end and I'm sad to leave it behind.
I am also more excited than ever to return home. I am not the person I was when I left and when my feet touch the tarmac of Canada, I'm sure I will be seeing it for the first time.
I realize the number of posts I wrote fell off while I was here but there is a simple explanation for this. To understand a subject and write with certainty, its important to understand and be certain of yourself. I haven't been for quite sometime.
So many of my assumptions and views have been challenged; so many hangups and insecurities have been cleared, like plaque from my arteries; so many emotions have been stirred. There is simply no way to communicate these things without proper time and reflection. So, to anyone who's been annoyed at my irregular entries (Mom, et all) come here yourself and I promise you will understand.
Speaking of my mom, I am more excited than I have ever been to see my family again. Throughout this trip, they've helped me account for the changes that have come over me and I know they'll do the same once I'm home. I really love you all and can't wait to see you again.
My excitement is tempered by a pronounced feeling of melancholy for the place I will leave behind.
Rwanda stands as a monument to the capacity of human beings to rebuild and move forward after tragedy. The scale and nature of Rwanda's tragedy revealed, for all of humanity to see, how prone to evil, indifference and hatred humans still are. Places like Rwanda call on human beings to examine who and what we truly are, because of what we have been.
Coming from a continent where taking time to consider the nature of things is devalued and "finding yourself" is seen as a diversion for people with trust funds, the country is sacred.
Rwanda is a living Eden that became a living Hell.
The evil that swept across Rwanda couldn't have done so without the support and complicity of the rest of the world, it this place made hypocrites of us all. The human community once swore an oath to its children after World War II. Never again. But the human community failed to convey the importance of that oath and by the time the children grew it was mostly forgotten.
Rwanda was a country that paid for that failure.
But as I hope I've been able to communicate, the story of Rwanda is less about the past than about the present and the future. Rwanda was the devil's canvass once, but it has wrested the brush from his hands. Now it's theirs.
Everyday, Rwandans work to craft a brighter future for themselves and their country. Extremists' attempts to undermine this work is futile jealousy from a disgraced and defeated foe. Ordinary Rwandans have no time for such jealousy and continue their labour.
In the fields, the shops, the streets and elsewhere Rwandans work to makes ends meet. They do it because they must, but with each job done and every franc earned, Rwanda moves a little further from the past.
Speaking of jobs to do, I really must should go pack. This will be my last post from Kigali for a while but I'll probably keep the blog going until I feel confident I've been able to say all that I mean to.
In the meantime, all I'll say is I'm sad to be leaving but I know I'll be back.
No comments:
Post a Comment