Day Five

Time's a-flyin. Today, interviews with the State Minister of Education, a member of the National Reconciliation Commission, and a Christian schoolteacher. For the afternoon, we split up. Ben & Jesse hoofed it through the streets of Kigali & braved a public Matatu shooting Broll, while Lyn, Chris, Richard, BJ and I hit our two afternoon interviews.

We've been fortunate the last few days to have a Landcruiser on loan (one of the few vehicles that can survive out here. Rover? Nissan? Ain't got nothin' on a Cruiser. Toyota owns this part of the world.) We had to give our lovely cruiser up yesterday to a returning missionary, and we now have our new 'favorite' vehicle, a Toyota Hilux. On the outside it looks a lot like a Toyota pickup from North America, but it has added features like leaf springs and does away with nicities like shocks. Excellent for camera gear. Also quite fun to fit eight people into when we're shooting full crew.

Richard tells us things will go from bad to worse this weekend... we'll be driving a Matatu out to lake Kivu. A Matatu is externally identical to those old snub-nose Toyota mini-vans they had in Canada, but configured to seat 14. Each one has a name, sort of like how captains christen their boats, and most are all painted up to match the theme. Some favorites:

- Forever or For Always
- Heartbreaker & Heartbreaker II
- the Widowmaker

Any suggestions on what we should christen our Matatu for the Kivu trip this weekend?


Today we learned about some of the specifics on how the country has been healing since the genocide. One striking remark is how two separate societies -- one for widows of men murdered during the genocide, and one for women of men imprisoned as suspected genocidaires, have joined together to form one group as a sign of unity & reconciliation.

Rwanda has adopted it's own unique take on justice tribunals, adopting a process called Gacaca, that not only brings perpetrators to justice, but helps the community to heal as the sins are recounted in front of the community.

One golden quote from today: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." Rwanda has recently eradicated school fees for basic education, and mandate attendance up through Grade 9.

A few pics of the gorgeous sunset, from the local YWAM base: