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Otherwise, we can make mistakes which may provide<br />
ammunition to our detractors.<br />
In such an unenviable situation I was in, it was not easy to<br />
express my feelings. Nobody could understand the pain and<br />
burden I carried in my heart. I could not tell anyone in Rwanda<br />
that I was being persecuted. I simply endured it. At some point<br />
I considered going back home in the hope that I would be free,<br />
but the thought of being jailed on 10 arrivals discouraged me. I<br />
was traumatized. Whenever I saw someone approaching, I<br />
thought they were after me. I soon developed fear and hatred<br />
for everyone I met. I isolated myself. However, God was with me,<br />
and He somehow hid me from those who were looking for me,<br />
even when I was right there with them. They eventually stopped<br />
hunting me down, thinking I had run away. I did not suffer any<br />
physical harm, but the emotional and psychological stress did<br />
take a toll on me.<br />
After a while, my persecutors thought I had abandoned my plans<br />
of staying with Patrick. For a short while they forgot about me.<br />
When the hunt stopped, nobody knew where I was because<br />
whenever information reached me that the delegation from the<br />
embassy was looking for me, I changed locations. When they<br />
were finally convinced that I was not there, they withdrew,<br />
although some people were still tasked with the responsibility<br />
of making sure I did not resurface. I isolated myself from the<br />
Rwandan community, which was difficult for me, given that I<br />
was still a young girl who needed friends and peers. Exclusion<br />
and isolation are the worst things that can happen to someone<br />
facing the kind of problems I was facing. It is very easy for<br />
demons to influence your life, or even take it. A spiritual prison<br />
is worse than a physical one, and it can best be described by my<br />
life experience.<br />
The challenge is that when you are victimized in this way, the<br />
one persecuting you portrays you as a bad person just to make<br />
you unacceptable in society and justify their reasons for<br />
tormenting you. They accuse you of many false things. For lack<br />
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