Tuesday July 14 2009

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
A very busy day. I had two important meetings:

I met with Jean Baptiste and one of his aides - Jacqueline Budyedusenge., who is a genocide survivor from a small village in Kibuye. We arranged a trip for Denise and me to travel to her village and see rural Rwanda.

I met with Dr. Naasson Munyandamutsa, who is Rwanda's only psychiatrist, and the head of a psychiatric clinic in Kigali. He was very receptive to a collaboration between yeshiva university and the national university of Rwanda and his clinic. He was also encouraging about my sabbatical. All in all, this is everything I wanted.

I've many observations about Rwandan culture, too many to put down at this hour, so I'll just give one. After the genocide Rwanda needed a philosopher king to restore civil society. Paul Kagame fits the description. He is promoting the rule of law, fighting corruption, while guarding against the excesses of democracy.