Postscript

I've been home for two weeks now, and am still thinking about Rwanda and struggling to figure out exactly what I think about the country and its future, and how I can best use my skills and knowledge to help.  (Well... I do know that I think the country is wonderful and I would love to go back.  But I'm also certain that my extremely positive and hopeful and fun (and very short) experience is not a complete depiction of the country.  It's an incredibly complex place.)

The presidential election was held this week and Paul Kagame was re-elected for another 7-year term with an astounding 93% of the vote.  Critics charge Kagame with suppression of opposition candidates and journalists and they claim that his authoritarian style stifles dissent.  They fear his societal control may eventually lead to instability in the country and claim that there is a great deal of tension and resentment simmering under the surface.

I truly don't know what to think.  I know that every person who talked to me about the situation expressed optimism about the state of the country and about Paul Kagame's leadership.  I know that Rwanda felt cleaner and safer and more efficient and forward-thinking than any country I've been to in Africa.  I know that the entire time I was there I never once heard the words Hutu or Tutsi (except in museums).  And I know when I commented to people that I thought it was amazing that people were living side-by-side in such close proximity in peace and stability after going through such turmoil and tragedy, I always heard the same responses.  "We have to do it...We have no choice...We have to live together...We can't go back to that ever again."  


But I don't know what the people who didn't talk to me would say.  Perhaps they just held their tongues. Perhaps people don't feel safe to express what they really feel.  Or maybe they were all just telling us what they thought we wanted to hear.  It's so difficult to tell on such a short trip.  The energy and enthusiasm felt real to me.  But I just don't know.

And while I don't know much about Rwandan politics, I do know quite a bit about trauma.  And what I do know is that trauma doesn't just go away.  Many people can function after going through traumatic experiences  and think that nothing is wrong.  But often it comes back to haunt them later in life, often many years later.

I came to Rwanda thinking that my next project will focus on trauma, and I was eager to hear about what programs were in place to help people deal with PTSD.  (Because without a doubt nearly every single person who lived through the genocide here has got to be traumatized in some way from the experience.)  But what I heard was that there was not a strong program in place to help people deal with mental health issues.  There were small pockets of individual programs, often small groups of therapists working within neighborhoods, or NGOs making efforts to work with traumatized people.  But there is no institutional attempt to bring therapeutic programs to communities to help the country heal from its emotional wounds.  And that concerns me a lot.  Because rage and hatred and bitter resentment will only fester, until a triggering event brings it to the fore.  (By the way, I would say the exact same thing about Iraq and Afghanistan and a handful of other countries where huge numbers of the population have been exposed to violence and turmoil.)

I know I will be back to Rwanda at some point.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.  And I'm hopeful that I can work to create a non-profit media program helping mentor journalism and documentary students.   Because that's something I know I can accomplish relatively easily, and I know that there's a huge need, the students are eager, and a free press is a really important component of a healthy democracy.   (Relatively.  Nothing's easy.)  But I also think that I need to follow my original plan of working on some type of project to help with trauma recovery. Because despite all of the work and money being poured into the country by NGOs and governments and institutions who feel great optimism about the country under Kagame's leadership, (and who also may feel great guilt because they completely abandoned Rwanda during the genocide), it seems that the mental health of the population here is being neglected.  And that's a huge oversight.   Because all the newly paved roads, and laptops in schools, and fiber-optic cable in the world can't hold a country together if a considerable number of the population are suffering from mental health disorders...no matter how suppressed they might be right now.