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when I heard several gunshots. My husband had travelled with<br />
my brother, and they had not returned. I had no news of what<br />
was going on. Apparently, my husband and my brother had been<br />
held up on the way after the plane that was carrying the then<br />
Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian<br />
counterpart, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down above Kigali<br />
airport on that fateful night of April 6, 1994. Many people were<br />
being arrested. My husband did not return, and I braced myself<br />
for the worst news. I concluded that he had been killed and I<br />
was sure I would be killed in the house alone soon after. I got so<br />
angry that for a moment I decided to go to my native place in<br />
the countryside with the hope of returning to Kigali after<br />
security had been restored. However, there was nowhere safe<br />
for me to pass because the state declared a curfew.<br />
When my husband and brother returned, they had been beaten<br />
up. It was like I was watching a horror movie. There was a feeling<br />
of death walking on two feet, standing there in our living room.<br />
There were gunshots throughout the night. With the smell of<br />
death wafting in the air, we fled Kigali. I strapped the baby on<br />
my back and we started walking to wherever our feet could<br />
carry us. As soon as we took a few steps from our house, we<br />
bumped into our neighbors a few meters away. “Look at you!<br />
Where are you going?” they exclaimed. Everyone looked at me<br />
suspiciously as though I was their worst enemy. My husband<br />
advised that instead of going with these people, we should stay<br />
home and wait for death. We went back home and locked<br />
ourselves in the house. I will always remember that it was the<br />
saddest Easter season I have ever experienced in this life. We<br />
literally sat up all night. The next day I got a miscarriage.<br />
There was a sea of blood everywhere. My heart was constantly<br />
in my mouth, the terror that was unfolding before our eyes was<br />
indescribable. I thought I was going to lose my mind. As wailing,<br />
mourning people fleeing with whatever little possession they<br />
could salvage filled the streets and many more watched in<br />
horror as their relatives lay dead on the highways, all the faith I<br />
had of ever staying alive evaporated! I wanted to die. That was<br />
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