The Ghosts of the Hills

It has been several days since I have last written anything on my blog. The days have been busy, the days have been hot, the days have been emotionally pulling and very hard to get through, but I did and thats what matters.

As you all knew I have been in Rwanda in a small village called Kibungo in the south Eastern part of the country.

I have been working on a short film documentary over reflections from the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

For those of you who dont know anything about it - shame - you can go to a site like wikipedia and learn about it.

for 100 days in 1994, the 2 main ethnic groups in Rwanda, the TUTSI and the HUTU turned against each other (of course there is more to it than that though) actually mainly the HUTU turned against the TUTSI and had one mission...to expterminate every tutsi alive. In rwanda at the time, the tutsis nade up about 15 percent of the entire population. So after the presiden twas murdered and the UN was forced to evacuate the country, it turned into a planned Final Solution for the Tutsis, and propoganda from the hutu was comparable to the Nazis. Over night, the hutus turned on the family, neighbors, community, everyone. For instance, if you were a tutsi family, and your neighbor was a hutu, he would come over to the house, pound down the door, take his machete and violently kill the ENTIRE family. The Hutu men who were diagnosed with HIV AIDS would rape the women, they would take babies and smash them up against cement walls, I heard stories of women getting their eyes plucked out and then thown onto a highway where they would get ran over....wells were filled with kids and then the hutus would throw rocks on them till all of them were dead..even if you were a hutu who was sympathetic you would be found and killed. If you were a hutu and didnt want to be a part of the killings, they would just kill you and move on. So the tutsis were forced to flee into the jungle to hide but the hutu would send savage dogs after them. Families were separated, communities were burned down....in one instance, the WHOLE village went to the local Catholic church to hide from the killers. inside the church were 1000s of women and children, the men banded together and went to try and fight the Hutus. All of them were huddled inside the church, most of them with severe wounds already. The priest of the church was scared of what the hutus would do if they found him hiding the tutsi families so he went and told the hutu rebels that his church was filled with tutsis....the rebels came to the church, and with grenades, guns, knives, rocks, machetes and fire, killed EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE CHURCH. today, the church is still there and all the bodies are still there. The clothes have been removed and placed in a single room and the thousands of skeletons still litter the sanctuary of the church......a nightmare....this lasted for 100 days.

So the people I interviewed were survivors of this genocide. One old lady, maybe 70 years old, lost all 7 of her chiuldren, her husband, all of her husbands family, all her siblings, all of her relatives, and every single person in her entire town. Of the thousands of people in her town, she was the only one still alive.

The reconsiliation process has been amazing to hear. a lot of the killers have come out ad confessed their crimes and asked forgiveness from the families they killed. They serve a sentence in prisonm then do lots of community work, and then have been able to integrate back into society. I was amazed at this but it makes sense. This country depends on neighbors and friends to survive, its mostlky farming. So they have to forgive and keep on with life.

Remember the old lady i was talking about? Well, the hutus that murdered her family came to her and asked forgiveness....the killed EVERYONE. and they asked forgiveness. The Lady accepted their apology and forgave them. So the hutu family GAVE this old lady 2 of their own children. And since all the ladies children were dead, they offered to replace them with 2 of their children. SO now, this old lady takes care of 2 children who were born from the family that murdered all of her family. Can you believe that? And the 2 families now co-exist, are neighbors again, and the husband who did the killing is still in prison but he gets out and comes visits quite often. They have a good relationship now. The Old LAdy talked a lot about how God tells us to forgive, so why shouldnt she?

I think we americans can learn something from this.

Think to yourself.....have you not forgiven someone lately? Or for a long time? And is the reason something pitiful? (in comparison to this, it likely is pitiful) So if this lady can forgive thses hutus, then surely we can learn to forgive as well......when you see this old woman talk on cameram you are probably going to cry.

So we did about 15 interviews with people who had these crazy stories that blew me away...and what was fascinating was that most people didnt talk about the actual details of the genocide, but about how they are forgiving and rebuilding...i guess to them, thats whats i,portant and they have put the rest behind them....

Also, we did another story film about an even trelated to the genocide. Since the Hutu and Tutsi have been fighting for over 50 years, many rwandans have moved to Tanzania and other countries.

In 2006, the tanzania govt. said "ALL RWANDANS HAVE TO GO BACK HOME OR BE PUT IN PRISON" These are people who haved lived 50 years in Tanzania. So were loaded into a truck, lots of times separated from their husbands, and thrown onto a patch of dry land in the hills near the border.

These people, some of them who in Tanzania were very wealthy, now have no home, 5 kids, no husband, no water, nothing....they are living in tents up in the hills.

We went and talked with them as well. A gentleman from Kibungo named Ernest has put together a program that for 2000 US dollars, he can build a house for a refugee family. Last year, a couple from Colorado went with ernest and saw the camp, were told that 2000 dollars could build a house, went home, and in a few months had raised enough money for ernest to build 18 houses for these returnees (the familied with the most need - number of kids, no husband, health problems) were given top priority for the houses.

Right now, in this returnee camp, where the kids are the nicest, sweetest ever...there are 104 families....104 familes. of those 104 families, 18 live in a small cement house now, thanks to Peg and MArk from Colo. so that leaves 86 more families living in a tent smaller than our bathrooms. And it only takes 2000 bucks to give them a home.....so when I found that out, the camera waqs turned on, and a film to help raise awareness for these people was made. Im thinking Ill be able to raise some money for these families

IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN HELPING, LET ME KNOW AND LETS GET THIS ROCK ROLLING EVEN BEFORE THE FILM IS RELEASED. 2000 bucks.

By the way, for water.......the children are given a yellow jerry can. They walk 4-5 hours to the water source, nasty stagnant water, every day to get their mother water to cook with. They dont bathe, they cant. They cant even drink very much. Yes, 4-5 hour walks in the blazing hot of the hills, every day, and half of that walk was carrying heavy water. We took the camera and followed some of the kids. I thought to myself....how do I justify living like I do???

The old man of the returnee camp (who happened to be a TWA PIGMY, found out why we were filming, and he was so happy for us, he gave Amanda a cooking pot he had just made out of clay. That was a big thing. He siad this....many people might visit us and feel bad for us...but what do they do? Nothing. Will you please not forget us?

So yeah, my mind and heart is in this mess of confusion right now.......please comment if you have anything to say, Ive already been contacting places to start fund raising for houses for these people.

Today i leave for Tanzania to help stop the destruction of one of the most beautiful birds in the world...the Lesser Flamingo.

Cheers,

-ben

PS I will be coming back here. Nothing will stop me.