The weekend now being free, we've driven to Gitega to visit Gitega International Academy and Homes of Hope, an orphanage also run by Youth for Christ Burundi. Homes of Hope is a beautiful place creating a new start and a hopeful future for (currently) 37 children orphaned for various reasons.
On the way up to Gitega, we stopped at the memorial below. This is at the site of one of the worst atrocities of the violence in 1993 where many children from a local school were locked in a petrol station building which was then set on fire. Only one or two escaped, including Gilbert Tuhabonye whose inspiring story can be found in his book "The Running Man".
It's a sobering place to stand and contemplate what happened twenty years ago but the inscription, rough translation "Never Again", points to a more hopeful future. Homes of Hope is in stark contrast to that place and is part of that hopeful future.
We're staying in Gitega until tomorrow and then heading back to Bujumbura, hopefully to be reunited with the rest of the bikes.
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