rwanda today.

I’m writing from Kigali, Rwanda.  Jonathan and I are here to get licensed for a Business Development Center we hope to bring to our city.  I’ll write about that later.

For now, I am gushing over this little nation that has overcome tremendous obstacles to become the beautiful, bright country it is today.

For most of us, the only thing we know about Rwanda is her scarred history – a 1994 genocide that claimed a million lives.  In a hellish frenzy of racial violence, neighbor hacked neighbor to death with blunt weapons in the worst human catastrophe of recent history.  I walked through her genocide museum and saw unspeakable crimes.

It is incredible to think that virtually everyone I pass on the streets today has been affected in some way.  Many are returned refugees who had fled for their lives.  Others lost loved ones or entire families.  And since the majority of the country participated, many murderers were never tried and roam free today.

When the Rwanda Patriotic Front took Rwanda back in the mid-nineties, her story could have easily mirrored her not too distant neighbor Somalia or many other corrupt sub-Sahara African countries.

And yet something remarkable happened.  A just president came to power and invested heavily in infrastructure and free enterprise.  Bodies were cleared, roads paved, businesses started, and sins forgiven.

Today Rwanda is beaming with opportunity.  Her spotless, broadly paved boulevards boast a resilient confidence in the face of many challenges.  Her people have a vision.  I meet Rwandans everyday who’ve returned from their east African havens to make this nation great.  And they’re doing it.