2025 Rwanda Delegation— Asma Islam
International Relations ‘27
I’m really excited for the opportunity. I’m hoping to gain real-world experience in international development and learn more about how policies actually affect communities on the ground. I’ve read a lot about Rwanda’s progress over the years, especially when it comes to gender equality and rebuilding after conflict, so I’m looking forward to seeing it all firsthand. I’m also really excited to meet new people, experience the culture, and just take in everything from the food to the landscapes. I think it’s going to be a meaningful and eye-opening experience.
June 04, 2025
I, along with 14 other people, landed in Kigali, Rwanda. The journey before reaching here is not important. Let’s just say that this is a kind of trip where the destination is what we looked forward to the entire journey.
My first impression of Rwanda was like “oh! This looks like my country, Bangladesh, only cleaner.” I guess that’s what happens in a new place. We just compare it to similar things we know. It looked like a mixture of a tropical beachy area, but instead of the beach, there were mountains everywhere. Beautiful mountains.
After reaching the airport, we met our lovely tour guide, Yvan. He was telling us about everything we could see from the car till we reached the hotel. We had our lunch and then did some money exchange. Then we got some downtime to settle down, shower, nap, or whatever.
So far, I think my favourite thing has been the dinners in amazing places. The first night we went to this restaurant called The Hut.
June 5, 2025
The 2nd day was when we started to settle in and kind of got the idea of the reality with every single class we had last semester. First, we went to a women’s center. First, it was small but kept so clean, and it was beautiful. There were books of all kinds. Then we were welcomed by this lovely girl named Angel. She gave us a brief introduction of what they do there. From what I gathered, they have been able to teach 6,000 women so far for free. They provide them with free training in sewing, hair braiding, and other cosmetic programs. They’ve been so thoughtful to keep the timing of the training from Monday to Thursday from 8 -2, so that they can go home at a decent time and do other personal stuff. What surprised me the most was seeing some women bringing their kids with them to the training center, and some boys who were training with them just because they were interested in learning. And they received their training for free, too.
If I want to write about every single experience I’ve had, just the first day, it’ll turn into a whole book.
June 6, 2025
The anticipation for this trip has been so long that the trip doesn’t even seem real.
When professor Drew used to say in class “once you’re there you’ll get to taste it, smell it, feel it.” I didn’t realize what it meant at that time. Because I’ve been to memorials before. I’ve seen the bones and skulls of people. I’ve seen the pictures of people who died in some kind of war zone.
But I didn’t feel it!
I didn’t feel anything!!
I don’t remember the exact time but we got to Nyamata genocide memorial on Friday. We were waiting outside a little bit and the man who manages the memorial said that he’s the only one there so the tour will be a little short. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. I was just like let’s get over with this. We all stood in front of what looked like a very old , poorly built door.
No pictures allowed,
Short tour,
It’s really hot outside …
Music to a tourist’s ears, isn’t it?
They kept the door as it is after the genocide. The people who came to the church for shelter were betrayed by their priest. Gun shots and explosions at the door. Okay! I mean people must have gotten some time to run away, right? Or hide? Maybe someone came and rescued them?
When I went inside and what I saw can only be described by saying “ I don’t have words” . It was an old church. Yes! Like the one we see in movies. There were benches for the believers. There was a little station to baptize the children.
There were what looked like clothes of hundreds of people. All dirty, cramped together. The smell? “BLOOD”
Oh! The cute little white cement station with yellow borders to baptize children? They used it to sacrifice them… The place where they were supposed to be born again became the place where they were killed.
Brutally!
Inhumanly!
I remember among those piles of clothes there was a pair of blue pants. The size indicated that it belonged to a 1-2 year old.
I wonder when his/her parents bought those clothes what were they thinking. Probably something like “ it will look amazing on their newborn “ or “ let’s buy one size bigger because kids grow out of their clothes so fast”. They didn’t think that that would be the last thing they’d wear.
The never ending clothes, caskets full of bodies. Bones and skulls in glass cabinet and a basement…
A basement where they keep the bodies or the bones. There’s still space inside just in case they find more bodies. After 31 years of the genocide they need to keep space just in case they find more bodies. And you know what they did. Just when we’re about to leave, we see some police car, a van with 3-4 caskets and a family. They found more bodies. The family found the remains of their loved ones after 31 years.
I wonder, is it easy to say goodbye to your loved ones remains after 31 years? I mean they probably dealt with the grief right?
They didn’t!
We saw them from the bus. Still grieving. They just put their family in a basement full of other bodies. They just finished the funeral of their family members. Some of them they never even met. Just looking from a distance, their grief was so visible. I can say, I felt their pain. But I can never feel the pain of someone who lost their family member 31 years ago. I can never understand how it feels to keep wondering for 31 years if somehow they got away, if somehow they were still alive…
So, I become selfish and pray that I never go through the same thing as them.
I pray I never realize their pain…
If reincarnation is real,
I pray I’m never reincarnated in a world where children never get a chance to grow out of their clothes…