The Kiwanis Club of the Battlefords held a meeting followed by guest speaker, Ray Knowles, Monday.
Knowles spoke about his 30 years of experience with the military, with focus on his tenure in Rwanda.
He donned a dandelion on his suit jacket as he talked to the members of the club. He spoke about what it represented.
“You are always trying to get rid of it, but it keeps coming back, that’s just like us Wounded Warriors. People are fighting to get back to normal, and you are not going to give up.”
Knowles is the longest serving UN member to serve in Rwanda and spoke both of the perils of living in the country and its beauty.
"The land of 1,000 hills," Knowles said, "top five beautiful places I have ever seen."
He spoke about how he met a man who picked up two languages just by listening to NBC radio. He continued, saying the people who live there are no different than us, they only lack opportunity. Despite the beauty of its citizens and their intelligence, there is disaster in parts of the country.
Knowles spoke about civil machete killings and the massive genocide throughout the land. He talked about the prejudice towards different sizes of kids. They often murdered taller citizens. In 90 days, the number of deaths totalled almost one million people at one point or another.
Canada's involvement within Rwanda was very little, as it was against the law to interfere inside another country.
He told a story of being ambushed by teenagers equipped with weapons and whistles, something that often symbolized a riot was about to break loose or had just finished. They had broken his car window as he managed to make it out alive with his counterpart before running towards an Italian embassy.
Along with his story, Knowles handed out pictures of teenagers on the streets with guns, complimenting them with additional pictures of fantastic art from the people who had lived through such difficult times.
This was all in the early 90s, he said. Many things have changed in the country and it is now a much safer place to live, and is a prime destination for tourists, he added. Rwanda has grown and evolved, and will continue to leave its past behind.
