Bernadine write:

"Dearest friends,

Monday was our first full day in Rwanda.  We left by van and 4-wheel drive
land rover early in the morning for Butare, after stops to complete the
reservations for the gorilla trek next week, money-changing, water-buying,
and all the delays that accompany moving 15 people plus our incredible
guides and interpreters.

The countryside is everything that is written about why people from
everywhere fall in love with Rwanda and her people.  Lush green hills and
terraced farming, banana trees and deep red earth, elegant people making
bricks, farrming, and carrying things on their heads to markets.  It is a 2
hour plus drive to Murambi, which is on a high hill (as is everything here).
  There is a large new museum building under construction at the entryway to this
site, which was a place in April 1994 where 50,000 Tutsi were herded after
having sought refuge in nearby churches and schools.  They were murdered
here, all but 4 survivers, over a 3 day period.  Their bodies were buried in
3 shallow mass graves.

One of the survivers is an old man, he is 47 years old, who has a deep hole
at the top of his head from a bullet.  He was left under a pile of hundreds
of bodies, including those of his wife and children, and after a day made
his way to through the woods and after several weeks crossed the border into
Uganda.  He comes every day to offer to explain to people what happened.
When the government has money, he is paid by the Department of Youth, Sports
and Culture which is in charge of the genocide sites.

We will send you photos but it is impossible to describe how it is
experienced.  There are a terraced series of simple wooden barracks, long
with open window.  Inside each rather small room, perhaps 5 rooms to each
barracks, are wooden slatted benches or tables, with corpses who have been
covered in a sort of white plaster.  Some of the bodies have fragments of
clothing, a wedding ring, a few have hair.  Most however are simply bones
and teeth.  Some are curled up, some with arms outstretched, some encircling
a child.  Almost half of the bodies are children, some whole rooms of
children.  I always tell my students that half of the world's people are
children, but here it seems to shocking and impossible.

There are wildflowers growing outside, and the lavish green of corn and
beans and bananas growing, and the villages on the adjoining hillside.
There are people working to construct the museum that will open at the
entrace to the site.  There is ordinary life.

For two of our guides, it was their first time there.

Zack asked the surviver guide if he could imagine forgiving the people who
did this.  He said that the head of the town, the main perpetrator who
brought in the army soldiers and militias who did the killing, the official
was well and living abroad.  He said also that if people admitted what they
had done, he could forgive because what good would it do if he killed them
in retaliation.  He has an inward look to him.

Emanuel, one of our two main guides who is a law student at the University,
is himself a surviver and lost his entire family.

We then spent two hours with the Rector of the National University of Rwanda
in Butare, a physician who was out of the country for much of his life.

more tonight.  The students are fantastic.

all love to you.

Bernardine"