Build Up or Break Down

As we toured the genocide memorial center in Kigali, Rwanda, we ended on the grounds where 258,000 victims were interred into mass graves. Gentle rolling gardens were well maintained and carefully manicured to produce spaces of personal reflection and, possibly, repentance.

(Top: Entry into the gardens at the genocide center. Bottom: One of many mass graves at the center)

Alan Hunt, the World Orphans Director of Church Relations, pointed out to me the irony of gardeners using machetes to trim hedges and grass around the common tombs and pathways.

The principal instrument of fear and destruction for hundreds of thousands of helpless victims had now become the main tool for the upkeep of their place of remembrance.

We are given and fashion tools that can either build up or break down. How we choose to use them is up to us.

Comments

[Marcello]

Ironic indeed

[Scott]

indeed