Into the Bathroom

In my previous post, I had forgotten to mention that after saying goodbye to Damascene, she was also obliged to say farewell to her other brother, Vianney and his friend Augustine.

The bathroom.

RETELL
Pastor Murinzi carried a flashlight down the dark hall and led Immaculee and 5 other women to his bedroom. "This is where you'll stay," he said swinging open the bathroom door revealing to the women their new home. The bathroom was about four feet long and three feet wide. There was a shower stall at one end and a toilet at the other- the room wasn't even big enough for a sink. How were 6 women supposed to fit in a such a small room? Pastor Murinzi squeezed them all into the tiny space and ordered them to be silent. He made it clear that if any sound were to be heard from this room, they would all die. They were also ordered to not use the shower nor the toilet; the only suitable time for such would be when the other bathroom on the other side of the wall was flushed, due to the same plumbing. No one was to know they were hiding in there, not even his children. It was an absolute crime to hide Tutsis during the genocide. If anyone were to find out of the Pastor's good deed, he himself, would also be killed. During those dreadful months in that tiny space, Immaculee was exhausted, hungry, cramped and very hot. It was impossible for her to sleep, if by any chance she would doze off, immediately she would be awakened by a leg cramp of someone's elbow knocking against her ribs. Once in a while, they would give themselves a few seconds each to stretch and then return to their original positions.
One day, when it was Immaculee's turn to stretch, she had heard a huge commotion erupting from outside. There were dozens, maybe even hundreds of voices yelling and chanting, "Let us hunt them in the forests, lakes and hills; let us find them in the church; let us wipe them from the face of the earth!" Immediately, with not one doubt, they knew the killers were present. Curious, Immaculee stood on her tiptoes and peeked out from the window through a little hole in the curtain. The other ladies urged her to get down because she would be seen. She ignored them, although she soon regretted her decision. Hundreds of killers surrounding the Pastor's house, many of whom were dressed like devils, wearing skirts of tree bark, shirts of dried banana leaves and some even had goat horns strapped onto their heads. What demonic costumes. Their faces were recognizable with murder written in their eyes. They all yelled simultaneously, " Kill them, kill them all; kill them big and kill them small! Kill the old and kill the young... a baby snak is still a snake, kill it too, let none escape! Kill them, kill them, kill them all!" What horror to Immaculee's ears, these people had once been their kind loving neighbours. To see them killing ALL of the Tutsis population due to a NAME they were given in society was heartbreaking. All through this mess, Immaculee never gave up and continued to pray harder than ever. Even when the devil tempted her, God was the only one she could rely on. That same night, while they were asking God to save them, the devil whispered in her ear, " Why are you calling on God? Look at all of them out there... hundreds of them looking for you. They are legion, and you are one. You can't possibly survive- you won't survive. They're inside the house, and they're moving throught the rooms. They're close, almost here... they're going to find you, rape you, cut you, kill you!" She clutched onto her red and white rosary that her father had given her, and prayed intensly, though the voice would not leave. "Dead bodies are everywhere. Mothers have seen their babies chopped in half, their fetuses ripped from their wombs.. and you think you should be spared? Mothers prayed for God to spare their babies and He ignored them- why should He save you when innocent babies are being murdered? You are selfish, and you have no shame. Listen, Immaculee... do you hear them? The killers are outside your door-they're here for you."
The Pastor had come to give the ladies a plate of food to share. Every now and then, whatever was left of dinner, Pastor Murinzi would bring. Although after everything that had happened, they couldn't eat. He told them that they got lucky that day. The killers had searched every part of the house and I mean every part. They searched the yard, dug through the dung heap, crawled into the ceiling and under the furniture. They even stuck their machetes into his suitcases to make sure he wasn't hiding any Tutsis babies. He claimed the killers to be on drugs due to their crazed behaviour and glazed red eyes. But when they reached his bedroom, they saw that it was neat and assured they'd leave it for now, but they'd search it the next time. To make matters worse, the next day the Pastor came running into the room with bad news. He had said that a friend of the leader of the "death squad" thinks that they did a bad job searching the house, that some of the ladies were seen and rumours were flying that they were hiding here. That was the end of them, they thought. The killers had found them, and they were now going to rape them, torture them and kill them all. They continued to pray pray pray until God put an idea into Immaculee's mind. The Pastor owned a wardrobe that miraculously had the exact same dimensions of the bathroom door. Tall and wide enough to hide the door completely. At first the Pastor hesitated, saying that it would just cause more suspicion, but Immaculee assured him that her idea was all God's doing.
And so, it was done.

RELATE

As I continue to blog, this book gets harder and harder to relate to. Clearly, Immaculee never lost faith EVEN during the times the devil tempted her. Keeping faith in a situation like this would be almost impossible for me. I'm sure most of us today would agree. This is why it is good to never abandon on God, especially in a time such as Immaculee's, where you need him most. I was touched when I heard that the killers were sticking their machetes through the Pastor's suitcase, making sure there were no babies. My mom's friend, Anita, the genocide survivor, had been hiding in a suitcase at the beginning of the war. Her once friendly neighbours and friends, now killers were looking for her screaming her name, convinced that she was in the house. Not knowing where to hide, she came across a huge suitcase with clothing. She quickly emptied the bag, got inside and blindly covered herself with the clothes. So one by one, she threw pieces of clothing on top of her, hoping to be fully hidden. She made sure to be as silent as ever, not even flinching. The killers soon arrived in the house, looking everywhere. They searched the washing machines, driers, wardrobes.. everywhere. They did see the suitcase, but thanks to God, they were only dumb enough to just kick the big "metal" bag. I suppose I can relate in that sense.

REFLECT

Anybody can learn from Immaculee. I have learned to never give up hope. If a woman who endured a genocide stuck in a cramped bathroom with several other people, and still had faith, what stops us? She was a very religious individual, and I strongly believe that is what kept her going. I have already said this, and so has many other people in their blogs, but we should not take life for granted one bit. Most of our biographies are just living proof that we should be thankful to be in Canada where GENOCIDES are not present. Yes, hatred is still out there but thank God it is not the extreme of the Hutus.

Goodbye my dearest Damascene.

In my previous post, I had talked about the beginning of the genocide and ended with Immaculee arriving at a great Hutu family friend's house, Pastor Murinzi. (Along with her little brother Vianney and his dear friend, Augustine) In this post, I will talk about chaos that occured, before she went into hiding.


RETELL:

Immaculee, Vianney and Augustine were now at Pastor Murinzi's house, hoping to find refuge hiding somewhere in his house while the genocide continued. Arriving there, they saw many people they recognized, all there for the same reason. (Although most of them were Hutus, just visiting) The first person she saw was her old elementary school teacher, Buhoro. So relieved to see someone she knew, she ran to him and gave him a warm smile and put her hand out for him to shake. He looked down at her hand, rejecting the shake and clicked his tongue in disgust before turning away. She had always known he was a Hutu man, but until that very moment, she did not know he was an extremist Hutu, meaning he 100% detested Tutsis. Leaving the room in shame, she was so happy to have seen her BEST friend Janet from primary school. Throwing her arms around her, she yelled, "Janet! Oh, I'm so happy to see you. It's been so horrible for me these past few days; the world has gone crazy. People are being murdered all over the village, and we've been treated like dogs... Thank God you're here, it's good to see a friendly face." Wouldn't you be glad to see your best friend in the midst of all this horror? Janet clearly wasn't. She responded, "I don't know what you can be thinking Immaculee, I'm certainly not going to hide you, and neither will my father. We don't hide Tutsis in our home." Disgusted, she grabbed her purse and walked out of the house without daring to look back. Immaculee was completely heartbroken. Everything was just going so wrong. Now, Augustine was demanding he go home, back to Kigali. Immaculee assured him that it was not safe out there whatsoever, and that they could not harm him because he was Hutu. Obviously at this point in your life, you start to lose optimism. You think of all the negative things that could happen to you. In Augustine's case, he ressembled a Tutsis. He had overheard people in the house whispering that he was a member of the RPF (Tutsis rebels determined to stop the genocide) who came to spy on the Hutu citizens. Although he was Hutu himself, he was terrified they would not believe him and give him the chance to prove this by showing them his identity card. Somehow, Immaculee still managed to stay positive and comfort him.

Later on during this awful day, while Immaculee had been resting, she heard her brother Damascene's voice, thinking she had been dreaming. She hurried down the hall to find her brother who soon informed her that he had been separated from his parents after the killers had burned down their house. Their beautiful house that their father had recently finished building for his wife with his own two hands. It was to be their retirement castle, and seeing it destroyed surely broke his heart. He then explained that Dad felt responsible for the presence of all the thousands of Tutsis stationed in front of their house, so he marched down to the burgomaster begging for protection. Little did he know, he was being fooled. Mr. Kabayi had granted him his offer sending two soldiers to walk him back home. On the way, one of the soldiers asked, "What kind of idiot are you? How stupid can you be, thinking that the burgomaster sent us to protect you and all the cockroaches? These cockroaches need to be exterminated!" The soldiers fired their guns, gesturing for the killers to arrive on scene. This is when all the scared Tutsis ran for their lives watching as the house burnt down.
It was now time for Damascene to leave the packed house, not being able to stay with the others because many people had seen him make his way over wich would lead the killers to Immaculee. (And the Pastor did not like their father to begin with, so he would not accept Damascene) Instead, he would make his way to a great Hutu friend, Bonn, who would certainly hide him. Immaculee walked her dearest brother to the gate, not able to say goodbye knowing that that may be the last time she'd ever look at his beautiful face. He put his hand in hers, until he slowly let go, smiled sadly and stepped through that gate into hell.

RELATE:

I think I chose the hardest book to relate to? I, in no way possible can relate to this outstanding story. There have been no situations in my life where I was forced to leave my house due to killers out in the street wanting to do horrific things to not only me, but my whole community. I don't think I have ever had as much faith at this courageous woman has. She hardly gave up always able to comfort people in their time of need even when she herself was living in the same problem. I guess I could relate to her in that sense, because I am always willing to help others in THEIR time of need. I just don't think I could keep up with the optimism in such a time, at all times.

REFLECT:

Immaculee's story is truly outstanding. I know what it feels like to want to kill a person, but what really puzzles me is how a human being would actually have the idea and put it in action. Her story has really touched me and I'm sure anybody who reads it would feel the same exact way. Ever since reading this book, I honestly try my best to not take life for granted and thank God for the life I have. And sometimes even just being grateful for being in a country where none of that is common is enough.

This is a picture I scanned from the book of Immaculee with her big brother, Damascene, a few years before the genocide begun.