Travel

Day 18 & 19: Coming Full Circle and the Long Road Home

By Michael Eisinger • June 18, 2014 • 4 min read

Last two days. Day 18 was our final full day in Rwanda — revisiting memorials, witnessing something I'll carry for a long time. Day 19 was the long way home.

Day 18: Genocide Memorials Revisited

Spent the day at several genocide memorial sites, some we'd visited earlier and some new. A sense of coming full circle — back to the kinds of sites we'd started with in Kigali, but now carrying nearly three weeks of context, conversation, and experience. Different weight this time.

Entrance gate to the Nyanza-Kicukiro genocide memorial with sign reading Urwibutso Rwa Jenoside Yakorewe Abatutsi — The entrance gate to the Nyanza-Kicukiro Genocide Memorial

Covered brick walkway leading into the Nyanza-Kicukiro genocide memorial grounds — The covered walkway into the Nyanza-Kicukiro memorial grounds

Stone marker reading Jardin de la Memoire, Garden of Memory at the genocide memorial — The Garden of Memory stone marker at the memorial site

G.S. Nyanza school building with a 20th-anniversary genocide remembrance banner reading remember, unite, renew — A school building at G.S. Nyanza displaying a 20th-anniversary genocide remembrance banner

Memorial wall listing names of genocide victims at the Nyanza-Kicukiro memorial, dated 11 April 1994 — A wall listing the names of those who perished at Nyanza-Kicukiro on April 11, 1994

Covered mass graves with tiled platforms under a metal shelter at the Nyanza-Kicukiro memorial — Mass graves under a shelter at the Nyanza-Kicukiro memorial

Kanyarwanda genocide memorial monument with a cross and engraved names of victims — The Kanyarwanda genocide memorial, engraved with the names of victims

Close-up of the Kanyarwanda memorial inscription referencing the 1994 genocide — Inscription on the Kanyarwanda memorial, with a wooden cross and a reference to the 1994 genocide

Pink memorial monument with a circular woven design on a stepped platform at the Nyanza-Kicukiro memorial — A memorial monument on the Nyanza-Kicukiro memorial grounds

One of the most significant stops was the ETO school — the Ecole Technique Officielle, a former UN base. When the killing began in April 1994, thousands of Rwandans fled to the compound seeking protection from the Belgian peacekeepers stationed there. For a short time, they had it. Then the UN forces withdrew. The refugees were left exposed. They were massacred. It is one of the most thoroughly documented failures of the international response — the UN's decision to pull back rather than protect — and standing in the place where it happened makes that failure concrete in a way that no document does.

Street view of the ETO school campus entrance with signs and a brick perimeter wall — The entrance to the ETO school campus, now a technical training center

Tree-lined pathway and buildings on the ETO school campus — A tree-lined pathway on the ETO school campus

Brick perimeter wall with metal grate windows and landscaped hedges at the ETO school campus — The perimeter wall of the ETO school campus

The school buildings are still there. You can walk through them. The rooms where people sheltered, the grounds where they gathered, the gates the UN vehicles drove through when they left. Our guide walked us through the timeline. The silence in our group was heavy and stayed that way.

Information display panels at the ETO memorial titled Genocide: Failure to Protect, with a list of victims and historical photos — Information panels at the ETO memorial documenting the genocide and the failure to protect those who sought shelter here

Close-up of the Genocide: Failure to Protect panel at the ETO memorial, detailing how refugees were abandoned when UN forces withdrew — The "Genocide: Failure to Protect" panel at the ETO memorial, detailing how refugees were abandoned when UN forces withdrew

20th-Anniversary Observances

Because the trip coincided with the 20th anniversary, memorial observances were happening across the country throughout our visit. On this final day we witnessed local ceremonies — among the most powerful things I experienced on the entire trip. Watching people come together to remember and grieve, twenty years on. Not tourists. The country, doing what it does every year.

Before leaving, we were able to obtain some of the 20th-anniversary banners that had been displayed around the country. Felt like something worth holding on to.

Day 19: The Long Road Home

About 20 hours of travel back to the United States. Not much to say about the flights themselves. Long. Stared out the window. Slept when I could.

The transition from being in Rwanda to being home was disorienting. You come from a place where the genocide is present in every conversation, every memorial, every landscape — and land somewhere most people have never thought about it at all. That gap is hard to process. Was still processing it weeks later.

Home now. Trip is over. Very glad I went.

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Michael Eisinger

Program manager, nonprofit founder, and LGBTQ+ travel writer based in Silver Spring, MD. I’ve spent over a decade managing programs across nonprofit, healthcare, and medical education — and another decade finding out where the bears go. I write about travel that’s real, destinations that are genuinely queer-friendly, and the places that changed how I see things.

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Day 18: Genocide Memorials Revisited

20th-Anniversary Observances

Day 19: The Long Road Home

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