Today we were invited to attend a commemoration of a group of women who call themselves “Turikumwe Family” – which means “We Are Together”. This is a group of young girl survivors who have no surviving parents. So, they got together and decided to parent each other. Some elected to be in the ‘mother role’ some the ‘child role’. After HS they began to scatter, some got married. BUT they have remained ‘family’ ever since. They offered us their stories. There was another group there called, “Ndabaga”. This group was named after a girl whose name was “Ndabaga”. Her father had been in the RPF a long time and she was worried he was very tired and needed a rest. So she told him to come home and she would go to take his place in the RPF. So she dirtied herself up and dressed to look like a boy. Soon other girls were doing the same. This, they said, is the way women got into the RPF and became soldiers. My friend, Dora asked me to speak and tell the story of my father, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. I spoke after one of the women gave testimony. Part of her story was about going into labor during the first days of the genocide. She now has a 20 year old handsome son and thanks God and Kagame with equal vigor. But at one point, the soldiers came and wanted to take her handsome baby son. She wailed telling it. She said, if you kill my handsome baby, kill me too. Long story, but they survived. I told them, her story was my story. When my father’s village in Eastern Europe was evacuated & the Jews taken to the ghetto, my father ran to hide in the forest. From the ghetto, his mother sent him a note to “Come, let our blood be spilled in one place.” I also told them, for many years, I always light a candle for the Rwandan people in April and I promise,I will light a candle to remember them for the rest of my life, every April. Many tears, many hugs. Ola took pictures. Will post when I have enough connection. What a day!
Posted on: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 16:40:16 +0000
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