Winding down

Sorry it's been a few days! We've been very busy here, so let's catch up. Last I left you we had come back from Kigali, and the National Genocide Memorial. In the days since, we've soaked up much Rwandan culture and history. Two days ago we visited the Rwandan National Museum, which focused on the natural history of Rwanda. Located here in Butare, the museum told the story of Rwanda from it's earliest pre-history to the current day.
Like almost every experience we've had here, the museum was a bit complicated. Some background on the genocide: When German, and later Belgian colonisers came to Rwanda in the late 19th century, they found a people who had conquered many tribes around them and established a loose empire. Within this empire, there were three class distinctions. Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa. (from richest to poorest) The Belgians quickly seized this chance to further fragment the people. In the early 1930s, coinciding with the replacement of a Rwandan king who would not convert to catholicism with his son who would, the Belgians issued ID cards for every Rwandan. This ID card declared them a member of an 'ethnic class'. The two largest were Tutsi (one with more than ten cows) Hutu (one with less than ten). The declarations lasted for generations, and although there were class issues beforehand, this fabricated distinction allowed the Belgians to constantly promote beliefs among the people that pitted the two sides against eachother. In the 1960s and 70s, Tutsis were driven from their homes to Uganda and the Congo. Violence continued steadily, as more and more radical leaders came to power in Rwanda. In 1994, the government collapsed when the presidents plane crashed near the capital, apparently being shot down. The radical army he had bred took control, and instituted road blocks across the country, murdering any Tutsi stopped on the road. Days later, the house to house searches began, and over the course of 100 or so days, almost a million innocent people were killed.
I can't really explain this in that much detail, because I have yet to learn much, but I have never been confronted with such a clear and obvious destruction of a culture and people as an effect of colonization.
With this in mind, imagine going through two history museums in two days, and seeing only one mention of anything regarding social classes. It's pretty baffling. The Genocide museum clearly explained all this, but the other national museums seem to disconnect here. Pretty interesting stuff. I can't wait to discuss it all with you intelligent folks. Aside from that, things are great. Took photos and video of a new guest house the nuns are opening, so they can make a website to promote it. They are still over-feeding us, and we are loving it here. We met up with an American Ethnomusicologist from FSU who is studying the music of the genocide here, and had an excellent dinner with him two nights ago. We filmed and photographed an amazing soccer match at the school (played with the one ball they have) and we're about to run out the door and interview the school's dean. Forgive any typos, i'm in a rush! Stay well, and i'll post much sooner this time!