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Excerpts by permission of Publisher
Chapter 7 – Amidst Friend and Foe
Adolphe Rwamuhizi, a Hutu … had a Tutsi wife, Illuminée (93).
When I realized that in the area of Butare where I lived the genocidal perpetrators had started to kill people because of their Tutsi background, I was very much grieved (155).—Adolphe
He grasped the extreme danger we faced because his wife was threatened, and so was he for having married her. He knew he had to come to our home. He had seen Tutsi being killed in his village. [He] took courage and came to see if we were alive or dead. He wanted at least to give us a decent burial (93-94).
Adolphe was so happy to find us still breathing. In less than ten minutes, he organized our escape. We had to flee in small groups to increase our chances of survival … I told Chantal it was time to go. She didn’t want to. Later, she explained: “I thought that leaving home was tantamount to suicide … . When Tharcisse threw open the door and rushed out, my heart was pounding wildly” (94).
As soon as we got onto the path to the valley, we met three men we had known for a long time. They were ordinary folk who had been sent to the fields to protect the ripening crops from small mammals and thieves. They wondered where we were going. We frankly told them we were trying to outrun the killers. The men immediately offered to help us find our way to Evariste’s across the river valley. They did not betray us (94).
