Left to Tell

    This is a story about a young girl who found God by facing a horrible genocide in Rwanda. Rwanda is a small city in Africa. The genocide occured in 1994 against the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Hutus and Tutsis were two tribes in Africa. Hutus were shorter, darker, and had wider noses. Tutsis were taller, lighter, and had long, narrow noses. The genocide started because the Hutus thought that the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), or Tutsi rebels, wanted to take over the government and destroy all the Hutus. As a result of this whole "taking over the government" issue, the Hutus decided to act first. They killed millions of innocent Tutsis during this time. In the end, the Tutsis finally did win the war, but were not quick enough to save all the innocent lives of the millions of Tutsis.

    Immaculee Ilibagiza was a young girl who had an absolutly perfect life growing up in the village of Mataba, in the western Rwandan province of Kibuye. Their house was built by their own father and overlooked Lake Kivu. Immaculee had three brothers, all but one of whom died in the genocide. Amiable Ntukanyagwe was the oldest and most serious of the three brothers. He was very shy and didn't like violence. Amiable was the only member of Immaculee's family to survive the genocide. Damascene Jean Muhirwe was the second brother. He was three years older than Immaculee, but she was very close to him. He was her favorite brother: he was funny, kind, sweet, very likable, and handsome. The youngest brother was John Marie Vianney Kazeneza. Vianney could be annoying sometimes, but he was very sweet.

    Immaculee Ilibagiza was a Tutsi, but she did not find out until she was ten years old when they had to do an ethnic roll call at her school. Hutus hated Tutsi and believed that they were trying to take over the government. When the genocide had just begun nobody took the Interhamwe (Hutu rebels) threats, heard on the radio, seriously. Damascene had told their father about the Hutu death threats and to leave and go across Lake Kivu, but their father didn't believe him. Unfortunatly, the threats had been true and the Rwandan president, President Habyarimana, was killed by the Hutus. To make things worse the Interhamwe started killing innocent Tutsis, and burning their homes. There were killings in the streets and the Interhamwe were looting Tutsi homes. Immaculee and her friend, Augustine, went to the nearby pastor's house, Pastor Murinzi. Pastor Murinzi hid Immaculee and seven other Tutsi women from the Interhamwe killers. Unfortunatly, Augustine could not be hidden and was killed in the streets. Immaculee and the seven women hid in a tiny bathroom in the pastor's house for three months until the United Nations (UN) and the RPF arrived at Kibuye and they were saved from the terrible genocide.

    The bathroom where Immaculee and the other seven women lived was very small. There was only a tiny shower and a toilet, and there wasn't even enough room for a sink. The bathroom door was hidden by a wardrobe that Immaculee asked the pastor to put in front of the door. During the three months in the bathroom Immaculee started praying to God to help save them from the Interhamwe and to help her family, and all the Tutsis that were going to be murdered. She had a red and white rosary that her father had given her and she prayed it every day. She even asked Pastor Murinzi for a bible so she could read scripture, pray, and talk to God. When the pastor told Immaculee that all her family had died by the Interhamwe, she prayed for them, and God spoke to her in a vision. He told her that it was alright, and that her family was with Him in heaven. God said that He would keep her safe and He would never leave her. Another time when the Interhamwe were searching the pastor's house for Tutsis, Immaculee had another vision. The Interhamwe were right outside the bathroom door, and Immaculee prayed to God to keep them safe. God had told her that He would guard the door and protect her. When she looked up at the door, there was a brillant white light in the shape of a cross. God had protected her and the other Tutsi women from the Hutu killers.

    Near the end of the second month in the bathroom, Immaculee wanted to learn English. God had told her that she would need to know it. Immaculee spoke French and Kinyarwanda (the language spoken in Rwanda). She asked Pastor Murinzi for books in English and an English-French dictoinary. She studied English for the rest of their time in the bathroom.

    After three months the RPF arrived in Kibuye and rescued Immaculee and the other women from the bathroom, and took them to a French army camp where they were given food, water, clothes, and everything else they needed. When they got out of the French camp they were taken to another camp. This was a UN camp. Immaculee was taken in by an old friend of her mother, Aloise. She live with Aloise and a few other Tutsis who had nowhere else to go. After countless attempts to get a job at the UN, she finally became a secretary, with the help of a man named Pierre Mehu. As secretary, she had to learn to type and work a computer and also needed speak English. Since she had learned some English in the bathroom, with God's intervention, she got the job. After many months of living with Aloise, Immaculee went to live with her best friend, Sarah. Sarah's family had "adopted" her. One night at Sarah's, Immaculee had a dream that she was flying over her home town. Her family was looking down at her from the sky. Her brother Damascene told her not to worry about them, that they were safe in heaven because they were with God now.

    One day she went to a prison and asked to speak with the man who had killed her family. The man's name was Felicien, and he had been a friend of her father. Immaculee looked into his eyes and said, "I forgive you." Immaculee was instantly at peace, and she was happier than she'd ever been in her entire life. After the war she helped orphaned children whose parents were killed during the genocide, and helped many other people affected by this terrible event as well.