After watching both the presentation and the movie on the Rwandan genocide, I definitely have a better understanding of the atrocity that occurred on April 7th – July 14th, 1994. Hundreds of innocent people were murdered in this horrific event, men, women, and children alike. Having a Tutsi genocide survivor come and speak to the class, I found, was very educating as well as being quite sad to hear about. Neighbour murdered Neighbour just because they were different, just because they were Tutsi and Hutu. It’s not only sad to see what kind of pain and horrors humanity can bring to this world, but it is also quite scary. A human being is capable of so much, you can save lives, but you can also take them away. The Hutu army took advantage of their capabilities, they spread so much fear and burned this tragedy into the memory of so many, to many.

I can not begin to imagine the kind of pain survivors of the genocide had to endure, but I truly admire them for their strength. When Elizabeth (a genocide survivor) came to speak to the class, I was truly moved by how she was able to rise above her pain and start a beautiful charity that does a tremendous amount of good for Rwanda. Also, she did the one thing that hundreds couldn’t, she forgave. She was able to forgive the Hutu who hurt so many, and that takes and extremely big person to do something like that. Overall, I thought that this was a pretty heavy topic, but an important one at that. Every single person who experienced the terrors of the genocide deserves to be supported in every way possible, for they will have to live with those awful memories for the rest of their lives.