mooky

We are going to Rwanda to gorilla trek in August. A friend recently came back and said he went to muramba memorial of genocide which he said everyone should see. Has anyone had experinece there and how difficult was it to get there from Kigali
Thanks
Mooky

Lucia78

Murambi is in Gikongoro. It is not for the faint of heart. If you do a google search you can see some photos. Unlike Gizozi (the Genocide Memorial in Kigali) in addition to the main center, Murambi has rooms which display the bodies of the victims in the open (the bodies were covered with lime and thus preserved--many in haunting positions).

Murambi isn't the hardest place to get to, but it's also not the easiest. You can go from Kigali to Butare by bus and then Butare to Gikongoro by bus and then a taxi to Murambi. It probably takes around 4 hours or so in total. If you have a private car, it's as good road so it shouldn't take you too long.

There are 5 genocide memorials in Rwanda: Gizozi (Kigali), Murambi, Kibuye (which is a Church that was rebuilt after the genocide and the families of the victims donated $$$ for beautiful stained glass windows), Nyamata and Ntarama (the last two are very close to eachother and are a day trip from Kigali).

waynehazle

I went to the Murambi Center [the Kigali Center was closed ]

Yes it is not for the faint of heart. The visitor's center was not open when I was there, so we walked around the back to a bunch of tiny buildings, the guide opened a door and ... there they were petrified skeletons with skin on them, laid out on tables! You could see the cracks in skulls from machetes. You could also see the anguised looks on some faces.

http://tinyurl.com/yka7ex

It is brutal and it is a must. If you go to my site, listed above, you will see them. Also, in one of the last pictures you will see my wife with the caretaker at Murambi, all his family was killed there, a man who helps out, all his family killed there... he still has a bullet hole in his head. You will also see my guide Richard, who lost members of his family also.

You can see video of my time there at:
www.travelistic.com/video/show/1501
or
www.ifilm.com/video/2807143

The video is 24 minutes long, the Murambi section is I think 5 to 10 minutes in.

So long story short FIND A WAY to get to Murambi

waynehazle

5 minutes in. I just checked

kumasawa

Lucia78 wrote: "There are 5 genocide memorials in Rwanda"

Unless the "memorial" designation only applies to large sites, there are actually lots of genocide memorials in Rwanda. Our guide told us that most towns/villages have small memorials containing graves and sometimes a small monument. We visited the one in Ruhengeri, drove by the small one in Kigali near the Gorillas Nest hotel several times, and saw others while driving on the main road from Ruhengeri to Gisenyi. I thought it was equally moving to see both the smaller ones in the villages and the bigger Gizozi memorial in Kigali...

Lucia78

I should rephrase....there are 5 official genocide memorials in Rwanda. I guess it's because they are the sites of the largest massacres.

mooky

thank you all for your replies. I will speak with our agent here in Melbourne to push for it. Will post any other queries.
Mooky