Visiting Rwanda

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Blog Response Answers

1. While I was reading the book, Left To Tell, I experienced it in a touching way. This is because the protagonist, Immaculee Ilibagiza went through so much. She had such a loving family and a happy childhood then she experienced so much pain. I put myself in her shoes. She was extremely courageous.

2. I was very happy about my book choice. It was an amazing story about faith, courage, and hope. I can't imagine another story touching my heart in such a deep way.

3. The place in the book I found most intriguing was the bathroom that Immaculee and the other women spent time in. To be in such a confined area under such awful circumstances, I don't see how anybody could become closer to God. Because Immaculee prayed so hard in the bathroom her faith led her closer to God.

4. The ideas that the author is exploring during the novel are faith, love of family, and hope. Her family and friends are being murdered all around her but she keeps her faith by praying to God. Throughout the book she talks about how much she loves her family and how close they all were. She mentions that she hopes to find happiness again and forget the bad things that happened to her.

5. From this project I learned how to brainstorm to relate a story to geographic places. I also learned how to design and edit a blog, link sources, and develop a works cited page. I also learned a lot about the landscape and culture of Rwanda. If you keep God in your heart he will listen and help you to forgive your worst enemies.

6. The most enjoyable part of the project for me was reading the book because it was such an amazing story and it taught me so much about faith and Rwanda.

7. The most diffucult part of the project was thinking about how to make the blog interesting. I think it came together when I decided to use Immaculee as the author of the diaries in the blog. This helped the diary flow more easily.

Works Cited

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Diary 15

During the time I spent in the camp, I met other Tutsis who knew how my other family members had died. It is too gruesome to mention here. Some day I hope to never have the visions of their deaths in my mind. The soldiers took us to Kigali where it was safe to live. Thousands of Hutus were fleeing the country because they were afraid of being killed for what they had done. After a few months I found a job at the UN in Kigali. I helped lost children find family members. Though my country has been through horrible times, it is definitely a country that will heal. As the country rebuilds I hope that others will come to visit my country. Even though the horrible things happened, it is a part of our history. I pray that this history will never repeat itself.

Diary 14

The pastor leads us through rocky dirt roads until we are about 500 yards away from a French camp. He is to nervous to take us any further. We run as fast as we can to the camp which turns out to be an abandoned Protestant convent for nuns. The French soldiers don't believe that we are Tutsis until we show them our identity cards. Luckily I can speak French and I help translate for all the women. When the soldiers finally allow us into the camp we are all crying and can't be consoled. The French soldiers keep telling us our nightmares are over and that we are safe. It is hard to believe that this is true. A soldier leads us to where some mats are placed on the ground and we lie down to try and sleep. I look up and can't believe the amount of stars that are in the night sky. I won't take these for granted anymore.

Diary 13

The women in the bathroom and I have decided that it is better to try to reach a French camp than to wait in the bathroom any longer. If the French are for the Hutus, then hopefully they will just shoot us and our death will come quickly. This would be better than being captured by the Hutus because they will torture and abuse us. We have convinced Pastor Murinzi to sneak us in the middle of the night to the closest French camp. We leave at 2 in the morning and we happen to pass a mirror on the way out of the house. It has been 3 months since we have seen what we looked like. We can't believe our cheeks are so sunken and our eyes are so far back in their sockets. I used to weigh 115 pounds, now I weigh about 65 pounds. We are in schock at the way we look. We know that this is the least of our worries.

Diary 12

Me revisiting the hiding spot.

After hiding in the bathroom for about 3 months we heard that France was planning to send troops to Rwanda to help the Tutsis. The radio reported that Operation Turquoise was the name of the rescue mission. The French were going to set up camps near Lake Kivu. If a Tutsi member that had been hiding for months could reach one of these camps, the French promised to keep them safe. The crazy thing is, the Hutus think that the French are there to help them. When the French landed in Goma, Zaire, the Hutus welcomed them with a big ceremony at the airport. We are hearing conflicting reports about whether the French are here to help us or the Hutus. Even the pastor thinks the French are here to help the Hutus, but my faith in God keeps me believing that the end of the genocide is near. Each day I pray that God will keep me alive to spread the news of what has happened during this awful time. I feel that my freedom is near.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Diary 11

The bathroom that Pastor Murinzi has us hiding in is four feet long and three feet wide. We all must take turns sitting in each other's laps. It is so crowded, our muscles get cramped and we can hardly move. We can't make a sound for fear of a servant or a family member finding out about us. Even members of Pastor Murinzi's family have turned against the Tutsis and would kill us if they found us. We can hear the chants of the Interahamwe doing a dance of death as they say, "Kill them, kill them, kill them all; Kill them big, and kill them small! Kill the old and kill the young. A baby snake is still a snake, kill it, too, let none escape!" We live in fear as we wait for the day that the Hutu killers will come to search the pastors house. We all wonder what has happened to our family members and we wonder if we are the only ones still alive. The only thing that helps me keep my sanity is saying the rosary and praying to God like I have never prayed before.