Visiting Rwanda: 2010

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.

Diary 10

My family did what we were told and stayed inside our home. A few hours later we got sight of what we were hearing about on the radio. At least fifty Interahamwe with knives and machetes were climbing up the hills around Lake Kivu towards our home. My father gave me his rosary and told me to go to the home of Pastor Murinzi. He knew that if the Interahamwe caught me, they would not only kill me, but rape me first. Pastor Murinzi is a Hutu but he is a good friend of my fathers. My father knew that Pastor Murinzi would hide me in his home and keep me safe from the Hutu killers. Even though the pastor was afraid of the consequences, he hid me and six other women in a tiny bathroom for about three months.

Diary 9

Machetes used in the Rwandan Genocide

It is depressing to listen to things on the radio. We are hearing that the Interahamwe are killing more and more Tutsis. The announcers on the radio are desperately trying to get Hutus to turn against their neighbors, the Tutsis.They are telling the Hutus to kill Tutsi people with machetes. I try not to listen to the radio because I feel like it is all propaganda. My father sent me a letter encouraging me to come home over Easter break. Not long after I got home my family started to hear reports that we should stay in our homes because if we were caught out in the towns, we would be killed. How could this be possible? We have so many friends and family that are Hutus, they would not possibly kill us. My family and I did not know it at the time, but on April 7, 1994 the Rwandan Genocide had begun. The Hutus were trying to kill all Tutsis young and old. How could the spread of evil happen that fast?

Diary 8

Interahamwe Soldiers

Things settled down for awhile and I felt safe as long as I was at school. I finally graduated high school and I received a scholarship to the National University in Butare. This has been a life long dream of mine. My family was so excited. We celebrated with a big Rwandan feast. My parents were so proud because I was the first girl in the family to go to university. My parents told me to hold my head high and that I was going to be able to take care of myself. Going to coffee shops, seeing movies on the weekends, and going to dances on campus helped me enjoy college life very much. I was doing very well in school and I had lots of friends. We heard throughout college on the radio about peace talks between the RPF and a new group called the Interahamwe. The Interahamwe started out as a group of homeless kids and they were trained to kill by government army soldiers. My brother Damascene and I came in contact with the Interahamwe for the first time on our way to Kigali for a wedding. They were scary and I hope we don't come across them ever again.

Diary 7

Today is October 1, 1990. My Civil Education teacher, Mr. Gahigi, just told us that there has been an attack on our country. The Rwandese Patriotic Front, also known as the RPF, is banding together with a group of Tustis who have not been able to return to our country. They want to live in Rwanda, but the government won't let them because they are Tutsis. These outcasts have been living in Uganda and Zaire, which are countries close by Rwanda. We don't hear much about what goes on outside the school walls, but during this time our school director lets us listen to the radio. On the radio I can't believe what I am hearing. The announcers are telling lies about the Tutsi people. They are calling them "rebel cockroaches" and saying they live in the forest like animals and eat humans. They are telling all Hutus to hate Tutsis no matter if they have known them their whole lives or not.

Diary 6

My time in high school has been going by very fast. I am learning much and making very good friends. There are mostly Hutu girls at my school but they treat us just like we were one of them. I have one Tutsi friend named Clementine and we do experience unfriendly people when we go outside the school walls. The priest and nuns at our school make sure we always have an escort if we go outside the school walls. On the weekends the nuns let us have movie night in the main hall. This helps us get our minds off our school work and other problems. Damascene visits me at least once a month. All the girls have a crush on him. He always gives me good advice, like praying before I do my homework and before I take a test.

Diary 5

Children at School in Gisenyi

My family received wonderful news today. I was accepted into the all-girls school called Lycee de Notre Dame d' Afrique. The school is far away from my family in the province of Gisenyi. It will take my parents four hours to drive along very rough roads to come and visit me. I am very sad to be so far from my family, but I know this is a wonderful opportunity for me. My brother Damascene goes to school not far from there. He told me he will come to visit me often and that there is a big fence with a lot of guards. I wondered why there would have to be guards in Gisenyi and my brother told me that it is a predominantly Hutu province. Some of the Hutus are mean to the Tutsis. I don't understand how people could have so much hatred towards one another.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Diary 4

My parents never taught my brothers and me that Rwanda is made up of three tribes. The Hutus are shorter, darker, and they have broader noses. The majority of the people in Rwanda are Hutus. The Tutsis are taller, light-skinned, and have skinny noses. The Tutsis have a smaller population in Rwanda. The third tribe is called the Twa. They live in the forest. Even though the Hutus and Tutsis live in the same villages and have been friends for years we are starting to hear people on the radio refer to the Tutsis as "cockroaches." I have a good friend named Sarah. She is a Hutu and lives in Kigali. Kigali is the capital city of Rwanda. Even though I am a Tutsi, Sarah's family is very kind to me. I love to go to Kigali and hear the planes taking off at the airport.

Diary 3

Children at School in Mataba

School and religion are very important to my family. We are Roman Catholic and we go to Mass every Sunday. We pray every evening together as a family at home. I really love the Virgin Mary and I have a special rosary given to me by my father. My parents teach us to treat our neighbors with respect and they really believe in the Golden Rule. To my parents everyone is equal and we should all live in harmony. This is why I was suprised today when my teacher, Buhoro, told all the Tutsis to stand up in class during role call. He then told all the Hutus to stand up. He got mad at me because I did not know what he was talking about. My brother Damascene told me to stand up when my friends do. This was my first lesson in discrimination.

Diary 2

Overlooking Lake Kivu in Mataba

The village I live in is called Mataba. Mataba is in the western Rwandan province of Kibuye. My family's home is high on a hill that looks over Lake Kivu. This morning while eating my breakfast of rice and beans, I could look out and see mountains on the other side of the lake. The beans we eat for breakfast are grown in our family fields. After eating breakfast I did my morning chores. These chores consist of feeding and watering our cows and other animals. After our chores we head off to school. Most days my brothers and I walk to school, but our family actually has a motorcycle and a small car. Having two vehicles is very rare in our village.

Diary 1

My name is Immaculee Ilibagiza. I wrote a book called Left to Tell explaining my experience in the Rwandan Holocaust. As you will see as you go through this blog, I came from a very beautiful country. My family was very important to me and I miss them very much. They provided me with many opportunities to succeed in life because they stressed how important education is. My father was very religious and instilled in me a strong faith which helped me stay close to God during the difficult times I faced. Losing my family hurt but it did not weaken my love for Rwanda. I wrote Left to Tell so that people learn from my experience.