New Header

So... in case you haven't noticed, I have a new blog header for February! I probably should have waited until tomorrow, but I'm bored right now. I'm sorry you have to look at such a large picture of my head, but I couldn't figure out how to shrink it. Good thing February is a shorter month!

I probably won't be blogging tomorrow, because Ansley and I have to pack. We're going to Itu, São Paulo to take the ACT. It was the only place they had to take it before I go to Rwanda. I also have to get a shot tomorrow. For meningitis. Have you ever googled how to get meningitis? Apparently people who hit their heads often (clumsy, otherwise known as me) have a greater chance of getting it.

Also, does anyone ever wonder why February is spelled with the R after B? Because you don't pronounce the R. I know this because I spelled it wrong and had to redo the blog header. I'll do great on the ACT, right?

It's so extremely hot here. Right now, at 9 pm, it's 86 degrees but it feels like 99. No air, just ceiling fans. Anderson just came in the den to tell me, almost crying, that he was so hot and nothing could help him. He already took a cold shower and he knows, it doesn't help. He didn't want a hug because of the heat.

Books I've Read - Part 4

Okay, this is the last one I promise.

The last book is called "Machete Season - The Killers in Rwanda Speak". It is written by Jean Hatzfeld, the same guy that wrote the last book I talked about.

So, in the last book, he interviewed only the survivors. He said that he had no interest at all in interviewing the killers. But, after tons of people sent him letters asking him about the killers, he decided it wouldn't be too crazy to try to interview them. He interviews 10 men in a prison. Before and after the genocide, they were a close group of friends... he calls them a gang. Out of these men, only 1 is different than the normal Rwandan farmer (a school teacher), most of them are in their 20's or 30's (2 of them are in their 60's) and they all lived in the same village at the time of the genocide.

This book is kind of hard to explain. It's really good, but creepy at the same time. When I was reading it, I marked all the parts that I liked (not really sure if this is the right word... I don't really like talking about people being killed). I'll put the parts here.

"I saw papas teaching their boys how to cut. They made them imitate the machete blows. They displayed their skill on dead people, or on living people they had captured during the day. The boys usually tried it out on children, because of their similar size."

"We were well prepared by the authorities, We felt we were among ourselves. Never again did we think even for a moment that we will be hampered or punished. Ever since the plane crash, the radio had hammered at us - The foreigners are departing. They had material proof of what we are going to do, and they are leaving Kigali. This time around they are showing no interest in the fate of the Tutsis."

"Saving the babies, that was not practical. They were whacked against walls and trees or they were cut right away. But they were killed more quickly, because of their small size and because their suffering was of no use."

I marked a lot more, but I didn't want this post to be too long. One thing I noticed during the whole book is the lack of emotion in their voices. It may seem that it's kind of weird because it's a book, but I could kind of tell that they really could care less about the things they were saying. When I got to the end of the book, this is what the author says about that:

"Not one of them presents the slightest symptom of psychic distress. Not one of them shows signs of any disturbance. There are regrets, complaints, homesickness, dejection, and ailments due to imprisonment-but never any fits of depression about their machete blows... At every interview, the men speak in even voices with a familiar tone that denotes astonishing impassiveness."

At the end of the book, there is a picture of the men(which I couldn't find anywhere on the internet) and an explanation of what happened to them. Only one of them remains in prison. He has a life sentence. The other 9 were released in 2003 or earlier. They all returned to their village and live with people that they tried to kill.

Random Stuff

Today...

- I went to the mall with Júlia (one of my best friends).

- Júlia passed on the vestibular!! It's one of the hardest tests in Brazil. It's for you to be able to go to college. WE'RE SO EXCITED!!!

- I've had the hiccups the WHOLE day. All the time. So much fun.

- Me and mom are awake making prizes for our bunko group tomorrow. Tomorrow night is our first time playing. Fun!

- I discovered that one of our new dogs (Rex) sounds like a squeaky toy.

That's all.

Since my last post, I have learned that dork is a bad word. Sorry Dad and Anderson.

We also have gone from 97% sure that we don't want a dog to being the owners of Rex and Lucky. See here for the whole story.

Studying...

for the ACT with this dork.

French Class

Today I would post about the last book I read about the genocide, but I haven't exactly finished it. Oops. So instead I'm going to tell you about my French classes. I decided to take French because it is the second language in Rwanda. I know that I won't speak fluently, but I wanted to at least know how to say my name, age, etc. and to understand fairly well what people are saying.

I have this friend Grace that also wanted to take French at about the same time I did. We decided last September that we would sign up for classes and take them together. The problem is, we had to change our furlough to Sept-Dec instead of later. So I ended up not being able to do it and Grace couldn't do it either (she really could, but she missed me so much that she spent everyday crying, not able to leave her house... right, Grace?).

About a month ago I called Grace to invite her over for our craft night and she told me that that day had been her first day of French class. She said that she loved it and that I would like it too. So the next morning I went to the French place (the place in the picture) and signed up for class.

Now, we have class Monday through Thursday for 3 hours every morning. Yes, 3 hours. Good thing there's a coffee break and they have the best coffee machine in the whole world. There is seriously a line that winds around the whole lobby area just to get coffee.

I'm sad because Thursday is the last day of class. I'm not sad that, as I write, I should be studying for the final exam. I'm not sure if I'm sad or not about the fact that now, all the time, I have a bunch of random French words running through my head (like 60, what's your name?, I'm 18, I'm American, sorry, good morning, yes, no, teacher, party, coffee, 39, 13, 77... you get the picture). I'm sad that now I don't get to see Grace everyday.

Je t'aime Grace! See, I did learn something!

Excuses & Books I've Read Part 3

Okay, so I know I haven't blogged much, but this time I have an excuse! I started French class last week. I have 3 hours of class every morning Monday through Thursday. It's kind of tiring, but I love it! Also, I just spent 2 days with my best friend... it was her birthday. So see, I do have an excuse!

Today I figured I would tell about the third book I read (don't worry, after this one there's only one more). This book is called "Life Laid Bare - The Survivors in Rwanda Speak" by Jean Hatzfeld. It's a book of conversations between the author and the survivors of two villages called Nyamata and N'tarama. These villages are in a region with hills and marshes. During the time of the genocide, the Tutsis hid in the marshes during the day, under plants and mud.

The author spoke to 14 different survivors. They were teachers, kids, mothers, teenagers, etc before the genocide. Now, it seems like most of them just wander in the streets or take care of orphans. These people are completely different from one another except for the fact that they all suffered through the same thing together.

The saddest people to me are the kids and teenagers. The author interviews 2 little boys and about 3 or 4 teenage girls. The little boys aren't even kids anymore. One of them has no family at all. He lives with another family that took in a few orphans. All he does is go to school and walk back home. He can't go any where else because everywhere he goes has memories of his parents and his siblings... all of them were killed.

The second little boy isn't a kid either. He only has one older brother left. During the day, while his brother works on their farm, he has to take care of their cattle. He can't go to school, because he is working so hard just so they can eat.

But the teenage girls are the saddest to me. All of them have "adopted" kids that aren't their own - other orphans of the genocide. They take care not only of these kids, but also their siblings and cousins. Their parents and older relatives are all dead. Most of them were raped during the genocide and have babies because of that. They don't think about having husbands because the only men who would like them and take on the responsibility of so many children are dead.

This was my favorite book because these people, who have lost so much, have so much responsibility that shouldn't be theirs. But none of them complain. Not even once. Also, these mostly uneducated people give such good explanations of the genocide. They explain such a difficult thing in such an easy way to understand. I think everyone who had any interest at all in Rwanda should read this book.

New Favorite Song

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. I'm lazy. Dad showed me today a post his friend left on our family blog. This is what the post said:

Hi Kevin and Benay

Just wanted to share about a New Zealand christian singer called Brooke Fraser, she is beautiful inside and out and her voice is wonderful. She does a lot of work in Rwanda, and you can find her music and a couple of interviews on youtube, about her time there. I thought Bronwyn might like it :)

Hope all is well

Roberta in NZ

So I decided I needed to go right then to check out her songs. It may or may not be because I was supposed to be studying for the ACT. Just saying. I now have a new favorite singer and favorite song. I love her voice and her songs. She seems like she has the same feelings I do about things (from the 2 or 3 songs I have listened to so far). Here is my new favorite song. I'm going to put the lyrics on the bottom. Please oh please read them. They are so special.

I am sitting still
I think of Angelique
Her mothers voice over me
And the bullets in the wall where it fell silent
And on a thousandth hill, I think of Albertine
There in her eyes what I don't see
With my own.....

Rwanda
Now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
Now that I have held you in my own arms
I cannot let go till you are....

And I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
And the dust on, the dust on, the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet....

Rwanda
Now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
Now that I have held you in my own arms
I cannot let go till you are....

I will tell the world, I will tell them where I've been
I will keep my word
I will tell them Albertine

Rwanda
Now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
Now that I have held you in my own arms
I cannot let go till you are....

And I am on a stage, a thousand eyes on me
I will tell them Albertine
I will tell them Albertine

Thank you so much Roberta!

New Blogs

Check out everyone else's blogs over on the right. Especially Carys' blog. She's awesome and so creative!

Books I've Read - Part 2

The second book I read is this book called Genocide In Rwanda: A Collective Memory. The book is actually just the speeches of survivors who participated in a conference in Kigali the year after the genocide. It was edited by John A. Berry and Carol Pott Berry. They lived in Rwanda for 3 days of the genocide, hid a Rwandan family in their home and were evacuated.

The book is basically a copy of everything everyone said at this conference in 1995. The people that spoke included genocide survivors, academics, human rights activists, journalists, members of the government, officers of the army that stopped the genocide, etc. The book starts (as all of the books I've read so far) with a time line starting in 1885 and leading up to the genocide. The chapters of the book are based on different perspectives of the genocide.

Chapter 1 - Historical and Political Perspectives. I liked this part because it was good for me to understand what caused the genocide. Even after reading this part and other parts like this, I still struggle to understand why perfectly normal people just one day wake up and start killing their neighbors. But this helped me a lot.

Chapter 2- Unity and Division. This part I liked because it was about things that happened after the genocide. In this chapter people talked about the way that the outside world sees the genocide and how that (most of the time) is wrong. One example that they use a lot is about how the press cared more about the camps in Congo (where the killers ran to) than in the survivors who were in Rwanda.

Chapter 3 - The Voice of Extremism. It talks about how the radio was used to influence the way people thought. It shows a letter that the old government (that planned the genocide and is now hiding in Zaire) wrote to the world. I actually found this really funny. It's completely outrageous and I can't believe how they expected anyone to take them seriously. The whole letter is pretty much accusing the rest of the world for things that they, themselves, planned and carried out. In this chapter, there is also a part called "The Hutu Ten Commandments". You can read them here. I really liked this chapter.

Chapter 4 - Legal Interpretation of the Genocide. I have to confess that I read one paragraph of this and skipped the rest. It really just doesn't interest me to know legal definitions of certain words and terms.

Chapter 5 - Before, During and After the Genocide. This part is to explain the role of people or organizations that were present around the time of the genocide. For example: United Nations, Women, Church, Red Cross, etc. This chapter was helpful for me to understand how the genocide affected people because of the actions of these organizations.

This book is different than the one I read before because it isn't an author that writes it. It's just people that participated in an event and had their thoughts recorded. Besides the legal stuff, it was a really good book.

New Year

Yesterday I was thinking about how so far I haven't posted anything with very many pictures. So I figured that today I would put some pictures of our New Year's Eve party. We had a lot of fun!

Our awesome chefs.

A famous soccer player. He told us that he will be not only the best soccer player in the world, but also the best scooter rider. By the time he's 12.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

The family photographers and a really cute baby.

Joe Jonas also paid us a visit, but since he wasn't wearing a shirt, he didn't allow the picture to be posted.

My blog and the family blog (blumesinbrazil.blogspot.com) have gotten New Year's makeovers! I think they both look so much better than before.