Final thoughts on Rwanda

Some lovely moments:

• seeing a tiny boy playing with a ball made from a blown up plastic bag; seeing other small boys play with hoops and circles
  
• mixing with and talking to many 'ordinary' Rwandans
• hearing about the lack of corruption and the considerable (and seeming successful efforts to rebuild the Rwandan society)
• finding that my French, when pushed, is not so bad
  

Some moments of contemplation:

• the number of malnourished and/or begging children
• the lack of old people
• seeing the gacaca (people's courts) doling out justice
  
• hearing people talk about 'forgiveness' and 'reconciliation', even during a gacaca trial so the perpetrator is not sent to prison, less than 13 years after the worst massacres in the country's history