was staged after years of well planned discrimination and violence . Outside Bugasera is one of the country ´ s 14 prisons with a majority of genocide perpetrators . It has around 3000 prisoners .
The first time me and my colleague Murigo came we were shown into the small common hall placed outside the high brick wall of the inner secured parts of the prison .
One after the other come 60 inmates like marching in . They come in on a row , all dressed in the conspiucous orange and pink uniforms : shorts and short sleeved shirt . They make the uniforms themselves as part of training tailoring . They greet us very courteously , with one hand on the heart or two hands together before sitting down on the low wooden benches . Several of them have brought pen and paper for notes . Many have the Christian cross hanging over the shirt .
An atmosphere of attention and curiosity fills the room . They look at me with expectation , no suspicion it seems . It is not often a foreign visitor comes to offer something . They get even more astound when realizing that Murigo , herself an orphan survivor , who lost all her family in the genocide has come to deliver a tool for wellbeing to them – to them the perpetrators ! First they thought she was a spy from the government .
We start with a round of presentation . Name , profession , years in prison . Experience of stress and trauma .
The first man to my far left stands up . Takes off his glasses and looks me straight in the eyes .
_ - My name is Manimana . I am a Doctor , a Muganga . I have been here for 17 years . We are very happy to have you here . Many of us suffer from nightmares , headaches . Some isolate themselves and do not want to talk . Others get very easily angry . It is not easy . Our families have rejected some of us and don ´ t visit . We do our best to keep sane .
Others nod affirmatively . Murigo tells her story and how she found healing through the technique we are about to teach them .