A Stitch in Time

As usual, I just spent the past week in Rwanda so busy running around, I didn't get to write about it! The main event was a reporting workshop sponsored by the US Embassy, and once again, I have to say I always wind up learning more than I could ever teach, and being inspired by the people I meet.

Rwanda remains a really fascinating place. Very much an East African vibe, but I think what most outsiders can't grasp is that most people there are still very palpably affected by the 1994 Genocide. Literally, the overwhelming majority of the adult population has vivid, often devastating memories of the brutality. Most people lost multiple family members. Most people remember the rivers of blood and often witnessed the horrors.

Like this 19 year old genocide orphan. She landed a spot in a training and leadership program for young women, and she's learning the tailoring trade. Now, since I can't speak Kinyarwanda, I couldn't understand her responses to the journalists' questions, but you didn't need a translator to recognize the dedication she's developing in her craft.

I had to wonder if maybe she remembers what happened when she was three. I had to wonder if maybe those memories haunt her at times, keep her awake, fill her quiet moments with pain and loss. Just like the man who's interviewing her. It was only on the last day of the workshop that he told me that both of his parents, his 4 brothers and 2 sisters were all slaughtered. He escaped death only because he was studying English in Uganda during those hellish months in 1994.

So how do you keep it together? How do you trace a pattern for your future. when most of the major players have already been cut away?

If I travel to Rwanda 100 more times, I'll never understand how people keep on moving. It's just the most astonishing thing I've ever witnessed.