Expectations:
-
Recommendation:
Beth Paz
- When:
July 19, 2020
- Date
Became Aware of Book: July 19, 2020
- How
come do I want to read this book: Beth read an excerpt from the book
during a Sunday sermon. It tells this ladies experience from the
Rwadian genocide.
- What
do I think I will get out of it? Background to why the genocide took
place and her reaction as a Christian to the killing of her father, mother
and brothers
Thoughts:
It
is obvious that Immaculée is an intelligent woman. Both from the way
she writes: simply but not dumbly, and from how she works through
issues in her life. She has a strong Catholic faith. Even through the
struggles during the genocide, her faith grew stronger. What is
impressive to me is the emphasis of forgiveness she placed. In many
ways she echo’s Desmond and Mph Tut’s book, The
Book of Forgiving.
I
am not sure what a Rwandan village looks like. When I Google
Immaculee’s village of Mataba, it looks like it is constructed in
row houses made up of cinderblock. But I do not know if that is now
and it has changed since 1994.
In
a 2003 article in the New
York Times,
it says that During
the ethnic violence, many Rwandan clergymen and church workers took
sides, as did much of the country. Some 300 clergymen and nuns were
slain themselves because they were Tutsi or were helping the Tutsi.
But many other men and women of the church, most of them Hutu,
encouraged or actively collaborated with the killers.
Introduction
- My Name Is Immaculée
I
have always imagined that fear was more of a mental thing. But
Immaculee’s reaction was also physical. Not only did she feel it,
it hurt.
She
spent 91 days in a bathroom with six other women. She notes that
being spared is different than being saved. I think she is saying
that being saved has an element of being restored. Being spared
leaves scares.
She
says that this
is the story of how I discovered God during history’s bloodiest
holocausts.
PART
I: THE GATHERING STORM
Chapter
1:The Eternal Spring
Immaculee
gives background on who she is. She feels that Rwanda is paradise.She
was shielded from understanding the racial tensions between the
various sects. For example, in school, she needed to say if she was
Hutu or Tutsi. She did not know what she was. (chp 2)
Kinyaranda
is the language of Rwanda. Her Dad chose her name, Ilibagiza, out of
his love for her. It means: shining
and beautiful in body and soul.
Her
family was Catholics. But they were ones who practiced more of a
universal Christianity than a narrow sense of Catholicism.
There
was a symbiotic relationship between the village and her family. Her
parents treated the village as an extended family. The village
treated her parents as their own parents. Shouldn’t this be how it
is with Christians? There is an adoption as Christ loves us, we love
those around us.
Immacule
ealso had three brothers. In Rwandan society, a good family name is
most important. Living up to that name is paramount.
She
feels that it is ironic that it is her place to tell the story, she
was the one who was left to tell it.
Chapter
2:Standing Up
The
whole family, probably except for the father and mother, seemed to be
clueless about what tribe they belonged to. I think the Mom and Dad
were trying to make them feel that all belonged to the human family.
But in some ways, this did not make them safer. They were not aware
of the tensions that were around them.
Apparently
a lot of the tension was from when the Belgiums were the colonizers.
They created a system where the Hutus and Tutsis were identified and
one was favored over the other. It is not easy to spot the difference
between the two tribes. There is inter-marrying as well, causing even
more similarities.
There
were a couple previous times of mayhem of Hutu against Tutsi. The
first in 1959. The second in 1973. Juvenal
Habyarimana
seized power in 1973. One of his platforms was that both school
placements and governmental jobs must reflect the ethnic make-up of
the nation. What this really meant was that there was discrimination
against the Tutsi’. 85% of the population is Hutu, 14% Tutsi.
Makes
you wonder about the striving for statistical equality in the United
States. Is this really a good thing? On one hand there is the need
for those who are discriminated against to be given a fair
opportunity. Looking at the stats seems to be a good measure. This
does have the assumption that all groupings and categories will have
the same abilities and qualities. Is this true? I think generally it
is. But will we in the US get to the same point as the Hutus?
Immaculee
succeeded in the lower grades, enough so she was eligible to go to a
private quality school. But because of the system in place, she could
not get a scholarship. Her Dad sold two cows so that she could afford
the tuition. By this, Immaculee knew her Dad loved her-actually this
was more the tangibleness of his love for her. She knew it already.
Chapter
3:Higher Learning
School
at this higher level was good. But a Tutsi rebellion started which
affected what was being told to the students. Locals were starting to
be hostile to Tutsis. Her father was arrested for being a Tutsi, but
then was released.
Chapter
4:Off to University
Immaculee
was awarded a scholarship to the National University. She studied
hard. Got a boyfriend named John.
The
Interahamwe
force was formed. This was a paramilitary group, not very
disciplined, but wanted blood. It was under Presidential protection.
She witnessed an attack on a middle-aged woman where she was
basically robbed and attacked. They stripped her naked and left her
to find her way home. Immaculee thought was If
we let devils like these control our streets, we’re in deep
trouble.
Chapter
5:Returning Home
The
sounds of hate invade Immaculee’s life. One particular radio
station starts to do programming for Hutu power, calling for the
extermination of the Tutsi cockroaches.
Because
of school, Immaculee felt she could not break away for Easter break.
Her father wrote back and insisted she come home. When she got home,
she felt like it was good and joyful. But Damascene was advocating
that the family leave and go to Zaire. Immaculee’s father did not
think the danger was that great. He had heard about a list of people
which the Interahamwe
wanted to kill. The family was on it. But that did not convince them.
The
family and probably throughout Rwanda, it is the father who holds
sway when a family decision is to be made. So the siblings struggled
with trying to override him. In the end, they decided to wait until
morning.
President’s
Habyarimana is shot down. The Hutu’s blamed the Tutsi, starting
the genocide.
Chapter
6:No Going Back
They
felt trapped in their home. There were radio warnings about not going
out. She was realizing that her father did not have a basis in
reality concerning any rescue by the rebel Tutsi soldiers.
That
night the Interahamwe
started attacking homes. The family could see them coming down the
road towards them. Other Tutsis were arming themselves with sticks
and rocks. The Tutsis were calling on her father to lead them. The
next morning 10,000 Tutsis were camped out in front of their place.
Her father spoke to them. At the end, asking them to pray. Her father
said It
doesn’t matter if we live or die--the important thing is that we
fight against this evil that has come to our homes. He
went on and said Find
a spear, arm yourselves, but don’t kill anyone! We won’t be like
them--we will not kill--but we won’t sit around and be slaughtered
like sheep either.
They
were attacked and repelled the Hutu. More Tutsis came.
Fear
paralysis action.
The
family convinced Immaculee that she needed to hide at a local
Pastor’s house. She resisted, but gave in. Augustine went with
her. They met a band of Hutu, but one of them was a friend of
Immaculee, so they were left alone for now.
Chapter
7:The Pastor’s House
Immaculee
and Augustine make it to the Pastor’s house. Not sure if he is too
happy to see her. But he provides refuge for Immaculee. Two Hutus
who she knows are there. Her teacher gives off vibes of this Tutsi
scum. Why is this dirt in this man’s house? Immaculee’s thought
is how can this teacher reject her that God has made as a Tutsi? The
second is her friend Janet who was her closest friend in school.
Janet also rejects her. But there is one person, Lechim who takes
care of her and Augustine. He is Immaculee's closest male from
outside of her family. This is of comfort to her.
What
Immaculee raises is good to remember when dealing with people not
like me. That God has made us as we are. Into whatever tribes or race
we are in. What God has made, we should not reject. And that is the
big question, discerning what God has made and what has gotten
corrupted.
Augustine
is Hutu, but looks Tutsi. He is upset because he hears people talk
like he is part of the rebel army. Even if his card says Hutu, they
will say it is fake. That is the problem of not accepting what is
true and only bending things into how you believe they should be.
Immacule:
All
we have left is hope, so let’s hold on to it..
Chapter
8:Farewell to the Boys
But
for Augustine and Vinney, there is too much danger. He is already
hiding five other women in a small cramped bathroom. This was there
death sentence. The pastor turned them out. Immaculee would go
between distrust of the pastor and hatred, to understanding. It seems
like the pastor was put into a no-win situation. He could not keep
the two boys without endangering not only himself and his family but
the six women who he was sheltering. So he did do what he could. But
that meant the death of the two boys.
The
Pastor notes that once the bloodlust gets into the air, there is no
one to trust. There is no rational thought
PART
II: IN HIDING
Chapter
9:Into the Bathroom
The
six women get introduced to a small bathroom which will be their home
for the next 91 days. No sink. It does have a shower they cannot use.
There is a bathroom next to this one. The only time they can flush
the toilet is when someone else flushes the toilet on the other side.
Nobody besides the pastor knows that they are in there. They found an
arrangement to sit on the floor, one in each other’s laps.
Occasionally they would stand in unison to stretch, without making a
sound.
Immaculee,
while being religious and devout before, really starts to pray. One
of the first things she prayers about is for God to give her a heart
to forgive the pastor.
When
the first morning comes, she hears birds talking and singing. Her
thought is How
lucky you are to have been born birds and have freedom-after all,
look at what we humans are doing to ourselves. This
is something to meditate on, particularly as each party is trying to
stir up what sometimes feels like hate against each other. By the
way, there are times I see birds of different species attack other
birds. So they are not completely innocent.
The
Hutu’s came to see where the pastor had hidden the women. He lied
to them to save the women he was hiding. Immaculee semi-justified it
as if he said the truth he too would be attacked. Still that must
have cost the pastor some sleep to lie.
The
pastor would feed them scraps of food left over from the meals. That
way nobody in the household would see that he was fessing extra
people. This also meant that the women were an an infrequent schedule
of eating. Also they were on a malnutrition diet.
Immaculee
got a glimpse of a crowd, hundreds of people, who were dressed as
devils. These were not the army, but local townspeople. They were her
neighbors. She recognized many of them. People who she had grown up
with. People who had been to her house for dinner.
Because
of the tenseness in the situation, she forgot how to pray. The devil
was tempting her that God did not care for her. She ended up forming
an image of God in her mind and remembering that He loves her. All of
the women prayed for seven hours. When the pastor came, he said that
the killers had left hours ago. She realized that there was evil all
around. She also remembers that her father said that you could never
pray too much. She also realized that the battle to survive would be
fought inside of her.
The
pastor came back later and said that he was warned that the killers
would be back later to do a more thorough search. After praying,
Immaculee demanded that the pastor’s wardrobe be placed across the
door to hide it.
Chapter
10:Confronting My Anger
There
was tension as the killers were taking their time in coming, but they
were in the neighborhood.
She
spent her time in prayer and meditation. It was when she stopped did
she feel tempted by the devil.
She
ponders that Hutus and Tutsi have been segregated. They were called
snakes and cockroaches. This all lead to a dehumanizing of the
Tutsis.. Hutus
witnessed the segregation of Tutsis every day, first in the
schoolyard and then in the workplace, and they were taught to
dehumanize us by calling us “snakes” and “cockroaches.” No
wonder it was so easy for them to kill us—snakes were to be killed
and cockroaches exterminated!
It made it easier to kill since you exterminate both. What does this
say about us in the USA? Our political discourse should never lead us
down this path
The
pastor noted that the whole country was shut down until the job was
done. What is the job? Killing all the Tutsis. The pastor talked
about what was being done and the killings taking place. Immaculee
anger and hatred grew, against the pastor, I think as a place holder.
Chapter
11:Struggling to Forgive
She
gets to the root of that troublesome part of the Lord’s Prayer
where we pray to God that we be forgiven as we forgive others. I
knew that God expected us to pray for everyone, and more than
anything, I wanted God on my side.
As the days pass, she occupies herself with prayer. But the more she
prayers, the less she feels close to God. It
was no use—my prayers felt hollow. A war had started in my soul,
and I could no longer pray to a God of love with a heart full of
hatred.
In
between the two quotes above, the killers came back and rampaged
through the house. They even went into the pastor’s bedroom, but
did not move the chest of drawers which hid the bathroom door. But
the women could hear the killing these people were doing. This is
where Immaculee was having troubles with her prayers. She could not
pray for the killers. How could God expect her to pray for them?
God’s answer was that they are also his children. Eventually she
comes to the place and prays as Jesus did for his killers, Forgive
them, they know not what they do.
Immaculee’s
path to God was not a straight line. She was tempted by the devil to
blame God; to say that she had lost faith; she could never pray as
God wanted her to pray; … And countless other doubts.
Chapter
12:No Friends to Turn To
Immaculee
retreated into her special space of prayer. There she could be
isolated from the sights and sounds around her, including the other
woman. This was more n her mind, than reality.
She
was having a hard time with the pastor. After a month, he fed them.
He told Immaculee that her father was a very bad man. He had received
information from the government that Immaculee’s father was helping
the rebels, that he had housed a whole depot of weapons. But that was
far from the truth which Immaculee knew. Her father helped all to
improve their lives. This was a place which Immaculee battled with
herself not to hate the pastor as well.
Immaculee
could hear Janet talking with her friends, saying that she hopes they
find Immaculee and kills her. She has been told her father wanted to
kill Janet’s family.
Another
Tutsi woman came to the pastor seeking shelter. But he turned her
away. Shortly afterwards, Immaculee heard her scream. The killers got
her.
Chapter
13:A Gathering of Orphans
The
whole Rwandan governmental apparatus had been turned into a”hunt
Tutsis” action. Radio stations had been taken over, supplies were
given out to aid in the hunt. The pastor was not sure what to do with
the women. If the war lasted a long time, he would run out of food.
He asked that the women pray to end the war in the Hutus favor. He
also let them know that if that did happen, he was making plans to
get them to escape. But escape by marrying into a different tribe of
primitive Africans.
The
pastor needed help in taking care of them. So he recruited two of his
children whom he trusted the most. Later two more women joined them
in the bathroom.
Immaculee
had a dream/vision where she knew that her family had died and were
with Jesus. Later on she heard people talking outside of the
bathroom. They talked about killing this smart young man who had a
master’s degree. She could only think it was her brother-it was.
Chapter
14:The Gift of Tongues
They
were on a starvation diet. Clothes were extremely loose. Also since
they could not clean themselves, they started getting infested by
various bugs. She got sick twice. Once with a high fever. The second
time with a UTI. God cured them.
There
is a difference between how you look and how she felt. Because she
was more in tune with God, she felt beautiful.
God
never shows us something we aren’t ready to understand.
One revelation was that Immaculee should learn English. Rwanda uses
French as their second language. But the UN uses English. That is
also what the rebels learnt as well. The pastor had some English
literature which Immaculee learned from.
She
learned English from an English -French dictionary and books. Her
life was praying and meditating to God and learning English. This
probably saved her from going crazy.
Someone
had once told me that it was important to visualize what you want to
happen in the future, because doing so could actually help make it
come true.
Immaculee
had been engaged to a man by the name of John. John had been friends
with the pastor’s family and ended up taking refuge at the pastor’s
house. In their meeting, John could not hide that Immaculee was too
skinny now to be attractive. Immaculee. realized that what was
there was not love.
God gave us all the gift of love to share and nurture in one another.
It is a precious gift, one that John had squandered
Chapter
15:Unlikely Saviors
Occasionally
they would hear through the vents the atrocities being committed by
the Hutu’s. They were truly revolting.
One
of the gossips being heard was that the French would be coming as
part of the UN Force. The Hutus who had close ties with the French
thought this was good. But Immaculee thinking was that the world
would be watching the French and that the French would not let the
genocide continue. Her thought is that God works in mysterious ways.
Pastor
thought that it would not be safe to have the French rescue the
women. But the women felt that if the French was there to kill them,
they would rather be killed quickly by them than the slow, painful,
humiliating death the Hutu’s were killing them by.
But
it may have been possible that the pastor was found out by one of the
house boys.
Chapter
16:Keeping the Faith
The
killers come back and they are particularly looking for Immaculee.
This leads her to terror.
There
are two statements she makes. The first is a good description: that
she was fumbling her faith. Just remember that fumbling one’s faith
is not the end of your relationship with God, just a speedbump.
The
second showing of faith is what she dreams while the killers are on
the other side of the wall. She sees Jesus who tells her that
Mountains
are moved with faith, Immaculée, but if faith were easy, all the
mountains would be gone.
A
different houseboy is suspicious and starts looking around and thinks
he knows where the women are, but after the last episode, he wants to
make sure. The pastor is nervous, but wants to find the French troops
which are reported to be in the neighborhood. They agree to take the
women.
But
there is a report that the killers are on to him and will be coming
back soon. The pastor finally tells his own family about the women.
For the most part they feel compassion. The pastor’s point is to
take a good look at these women. He says to his family:
If you have a chance to help unfortunates like these ladies in times
of trouble, make sure you do it—even if it means putting your own
life at risk. This is how God wants us to live.
This may be the most important lesson in the book.
Immaculee
realizes that the pastor while not being perfect has protected them
at great cost to him and potential cost to his family.
PART
III: A NEW PATH
Chapter
17:The Pain of Freedom
Even
their walk to the French was not without terror. They were being
escorted by the pastor, John and the pastor’s sons. A band of
killers came down the road. Immaculee felt that God must have blinded
them to the Tutsis presence. Even with being as weak as they were,
they ran the last 500 yards to the French encampment.
In
the camp, she met two brothers who were friends of her brothers. They
talked about how they were saved by a Hutu friend. The Hutu friend
would stay with them at night, then go with other Hutus, hunting for
Tutsis to kill. The genocide is happening in people’s hearts, Jean
Paul,” I said. “The
killers are good people, but right now evil has a hold on their
hearts.
Not sure this is the “correct” explanation of the human
condition. But this is how Immaculee saw things, and it makes sense
from her perspective. These were her friends and neighbors who were
doing the killing. She knew their goodness. Now she knew their evil
as well.
These
friends, Jean Paul, knew how here parents and family had died. They
told her about how her father died trying to save other Tutsi’s.
Her mother died a few days before.
She
found some of her aunts and cousins in another camp and got a letter
from her brother Damascene.
Chapter
18:A Letter from Damascene
Read
his final letter. Bonn tried to hide Damascene, but in the end could
not. He tried to slip him across to Zaire. But it did not work out.
Damascene was betrayed by a friend’s brother. His last words seem
to be similar to Stephens: I
pray that you see the evil you’re doing and ask for God’s
forgiveness before it’s too late. I
do not think I would be in the spirit of forgiveness in his shoes. I
am far from being that good. The killing was brutal.
Chapter
19:Camp Comfort
The
French camp’s basic purpose was to keep Tutsis and Hutus separate.
Immaculee became friends with the French captain. He offered to kill
any of the Hutus which she wanted, particularly those who killed her
family. She had forgiven the killers and did not want anymore blood
shed.
Florence
tells her story of being stabbed and tossed from a cliff, left for
dead. She had prayed to God that she would live and now she was
trying to understand the purpose. Immaculee says that she is like
Immaculee that God has left them to tell their story.
A
French soldier, Pierre falls in love with Immaculee. She is too fresh
from her hurts to be in a relationship.
Immaculee
became the translator and processor of the Tutsi survivors. Doing so,
she processed several orphans, children too young to know what that
meant. Immaculee felt that she understood a bit about what her work
would be like in the future-to care for the parentless.
A
woman was wheeled into the French camp on a wheelchair. She was
coming in with a hearty laugh. Her name was Aloise. She was famous
throughout Rwanda as having contracted polio as a child and could not
walk. It turns out the Immaculee mother had saved Aloise’ life by
supplying the tuition for her to go to school. Aloise invited
Immaculee and all her friends to come live with her once the war was
over. The thing which Aloise brought to Immaculee was the thought
that she now needed to think about her future.
Chapter
20:The Road to the Rebels
But
was the French camp really a safe haven, even with the goodwill the
captain showed to Immaculee? The French were leaving Rwanda. So the
Tutsis were being moved to another camp. This one being run by the
rebels. As Immaculee was packing to leave-there was not much, she
decided to make a clean break with her past and left a sweater and
two books at the schoolhouse. She kept her father’s rosary.
Half
way to the new camp, the truck stopped. There was reports of gunfire.
The French had orders to avoid all fighting. So the survivors had to
walk the rest of the way, through where the Hutu killers were waiting
for them.
Chapter
21:On to Kigali
Just
when Immaculee thought she was safe by going to the Tutsi rebels,
they seemed to disbelieve that she and the men accompanying her were
Tutsi. It was only after one of the soldiers recognized her did they
believe her. The rebels went and rescued those who were left behind.
Immaculee
is shown a pit where there are countless dead Tutsis. The stench was
unbearable. They could only do a mass burial. Immaculee asks herself
the question, how long will it take for Rwanda to recover from this
genocide? How long will it take before their hearts are softened
towards each other? It was here where Immaculee knew she would need
to leave Rwanda in order for her to be healed. There was too much
memory for her, too much bitterness for her to overcome.
The
rebels sent Immaculee, Aloise and the others to Aloise’s home and
included food as well as the truck for transportation. Aloise’s
husband, Fari, was still alive.
Fari:
A
home is a prison without love.
Immaculee’s
next step was to get a job.
Chapter
22:The Lord’s Work
The
problem was that nobody, no business was hiring. Each was trying to
recover from the civil war. The only place which needed workers was
the UN. But according to Fari, they wanted English speakers. She now
knew way she was studying English in the bathroom.
Immaculee
is a great believer in her own destiny. After two weeks of nothing,
she started visualizing what it would be like to have a job at the
UN.
After
more rejection, she fled to stairs in the UN. There she is mistaken
for someone else and is told to report the next morning for a job
with the UN Spokesman.She gets hired and is eventually put in charge
of coordinating the supplies coming into Rwanda for the UN.
Chapter
23:Burying the Dead
Immaculee
was able to write to her only remaining brother in Sengal. He could
not come-he was on scholarship and could not afford the $2,000 trip.
So they communicated in writing.
She
made friends with some people in the UN forces who gave her a lift to
a base close to her hometown. The men at the base gave her an armed
escort to visit her home. There was nothing left. She visited where
her mom was buried. She struggled with hatred to those who created
such mayhem and torture for her family..
I asked God for the forgiveness that would end the cycle of
hatred—hatred that was always dangerously close to the surface.
She
resolved that she could not help the anger and hatred which these
things reminded her of. But that as soon as she felt them, she would
turn to God.
She
resolved to give her brother and mother a proper burial. So they dug
him up and reburied him. She fainted.
Chapter
24:Forgiving the Living
Rwandan
song: Mwami
Shimirwa
means Thank
you God, for love that is beyond our understanding
There
is something telling about an exchange with her aunt. Immaculee tells
her that if she is not afraid to go out, to go ahead and harvest the
beans from the family’s coffee orchard. The aunt replies that she
is not afraid. Why? Because the
next time
she has a gun. When you have experienced something horrific, such as
the Rwadan genocide, there is a feeling this will reeat. This
sustains a series of revenge and revenge for the revenge cycles. The
other thing is that she has a gun. There is a sense that violence
will cure the issues.
The
leader of the gang which killed her mother and brother is in prison.
Immaculee has a chance to meet him. She forgives him. She sees the
evil which entered him and wants no part of continuing it. When asked
why did she forgive him instead of cursing him, spitting on him,
questioning him. Immaculee replays, Forgiveness
is all I have to offer.
This is a good way to end the story. Note from Sept 2020: Last
month, this man, Felicien Kabuga, was sentence to life in prison
according to the APNews.
Epilogue:
New Love, New Life
She
does not know how long she will live with a broken heart. She was
able to live quietly for two years.
She
was reunited with Aimable in late 1995. But it seems like they came
from two different worlds. There was caution in their reunion. There
was love, but no discussion of what happened during the genocide.
She
was not sure that marriage was for her after what happened with John.
She gave God six months to come up with an answer to that question.
Three months later she met Bryan Black who came to set up the
criminal tribunal for the UN. They got married two years later and
moved to the USA in 1998
Her
conclusion is: He
[God]
left
me to tell my story to others and show as many people as possible the
healing power of His love and forgiveness….. Anyone in the world
can learn to forgive those who have injured them, however great or
small that injury may be.
And
finally, The
love of a single heart can make a world of difference. I believe that
we can heal Rwanda—and our world—by healing one heart at a time
Evaluation:
Immaculée
Ilibagiza livved through the Rwandan genocide of 1994. This is her
story. A story of both what happened to her and the faith she
maintained which brought her through this time of terror.
She
takes her story through who her family was, along with her drive to
succeed in school. Then along comes the genocide. She and six other
women are locked up in a bathroom for 91 days. This is not a big
mansion type bathroom, but a small bathroom off of the master
bedroom. From there she could hear Hutu’s searching for her,
wanting her dead. Not because of what she had done, but because she
was of a different tribe than them. But she made it through, even to
the point of being able to create a new life. First in Rwanda, and
then marrying and coming to the United States.
This
is a worthwhile read first for her personal story. She says right up
front, this is not Rwanda’s story, but her. Next how her faith and
prayer life grew even as the times got worse. Immaculée is
someone who can show us how to live a life when under stress.
Notes from my book group:
In
the Introduction, Immaculee talks about being spared.
Why does she use this term rather than either saved or survived?
Also
in the Introduction, she says that this
is the story of how I discovered God during history’s bloodiest
holocausts.
Is hers a story worth reading? What makes it so?
Talk
about the tension between the Hutus and Tutsis. How did the Hutus get
so worked up to kill Tutsis? Are there any lessons we can apply to
our country?
Immaculee’s
family treated the village, Hutu and Tutsi alike, as part of their
extended family. Why did Immaculee’s family do this? Did it do
anything to decrease the tension between the two tribes?
Why
didn’t Immaculee and her brothers know which tribe they belonged
to? What was the father trying to accomplish through their ignorance?
Immaculee’s
family was warned that they were on the Hutu hit list. Why did they
not flee? Do you think that they did not believe that it was true? Or
that they were frozen with fear? Or some other reason?
If
you were the pastor, would you have taken Immaculee and the other
women in? Even at the possible death of your own family?
When
Immaculee took refuge at the pastor’s house, her brother’s friend
Augustine was brought along. Later her brother joined them. The
pastor said that she could stay, but they could not. Why did the
pastor make that choice about who to stay and who would not? Was this
the appropriate choice? Did he have other options? Later a woman whom
Immaculee knew was turned away by the pastor.
When
the pastor was having the women leave to go to the French, he showed
them to his family. He tells them If
you have a chance to help unfortunates like these ladies in times of
trouble, make sure you do it—even if it means putting your own life
at risk. This is how God wants us to live.
How does this explain the actions of the pastor? Does this clarify
for you thoughts about why he saved them? Does it shed any light on
why he let her brother and friend go to their death?
Immaculee
wonders how what God has created, how could the Hutu reject? What
lead to this rejection? How does the terms snake and cockroach make
it easier to de-humanize people? In our current political climate are
there terms being used which de-humanize people? How can we bring to
light rejected people’s createdness in God? What part does
segregation play in this de-humanizing?
She
views the killers as ...
good people, but right now evil has a hold on their hearts.
Would you agree with this? Or do you have another view of human
nature? Also there is a tendency to break people into good vs bad
people. Would you extend this out to others in the United States?
Damascene
was betrayed by a friend’s brother. As his killers were ready to
butcher him, he said: I
pray that you see the evil you’re doing and ask for God’s
forgiveness before it’s too late.
Talk about what you are thinking when you read these words.
One
of the more amazing stories was with Aloise. Describe her. What made
her tick and still be joyful though the drama she went through. How
did a prior family relationship play into her reception of
Immaculee? Is this a case of the good you do will eventually come
back to you or yours? Or that this is all part of God’s plan?
One
of the most heart-wrenching stories in the book is the reunion of
Immaculee and her brother Aimable who was in Sengal. They could not
talk through what happened during the genocide, nor where Immaculee
was now in her thinking. Why do you think they could not talk? What
would have helped them to work through their issues?
Malcolm
Gladwell uses the term, “defaulting to truth”. Augustine looks
like a Tutsi, but is a Hutu. He even has a card to show it. But he
thinks that the Hutu’s will not believe him or the card. How does a
climate described before the genocide lead to disbelief? Do we make
our beliefs fit the facts or the facts fit our beliefs? How is this
important in understanding and living with each other?
Look
around your neighborhood. Which one of your neighbors could be
incited to kill you? This is what Immaculee faced. What would you be
feeling when you found out that some of your friends were now hunting
you?
