Hotel Rwanda

Tonight Bruce and I went to watch Hotel Rwanda. What a powerful and heavy heavy movie.

That's the most I've cried in a movie in a long time. The movie, itself, was so tragic, but the true story behind it is even more so.

In 1994, the downing of the Rwandan President's plane initiated 100 days of bloody massacre in Rwanda. During Belgian colonization, the Belgians divided the Rwandans into two classes: the Hutus and the Tutsis, the Tutsis having the narrower noses, height, and lighter skin. They appointed the Tutsis to run the government for them. It was believed that Hutu extremists were behind the downing of the plane.

Upon his death, the Hutus began murdering the Tutsis, or "cockroaches" as they called them, in hopes of completely wiping out the population. That included killing the kids so they would be the last generation of Tutsis. In those 100 days, about 1 million people died in this small African country. That was 13% of the total population dead in 100 days!

The most tragic part was the UN tried to tap dance around the definition of genocide. If they determined that genocide was occurring, they legally had to intervene. And on top of that, the whole world dismissed the tragedy as if it was just another 3rd world issue. When they thought others would help, they were abandoned and left to be killed.

About 5 years ago, a friend of mine from work went on a trip through Africa and stopped in Rwanda. He visited a genocide memorial in southern Rwanda. 40,000 Tutsis were led to a Technical College as they were promised safety. Instead, they were all killed in 4 days. To this day, all 40,000 bodies are preserved, stacked on top of each other, at the college. The lime that was used to preserve the bodies have turned them white....ironically.

After watching that movie, I left with such a heavy heart. But I also left feeling very blessed to be leading the life that I live. Thank you God!