(2/4) “We filled every hiding place with a person. Some were in...

(2/4) “We filled every hiding place with a person.  Some were in the ceiling.  Some were in the cupboards.  Some were under the floor.  There were even two people in this toilet.  That very first evening the militia came to my front gate.  Some were carrying guns.  Others were carrying machetes.  They’d been told that I was hiding people.  They demanded to come inside and search the property.  I stood in the doorway and told them that they’d have to kill me first.  ‘We’ll be back,’ they said. ‘And thanks for gathering the cockroaches into one place.  Because it will be easier to kill them here.’  Days passed by.  We were an abandoned, dying group.  Our food ran out quickly.  Thankfully some church members answered my call, and agreed to sneak us food after dark.  The nights were the worst.  We could hear gunfire and screaming in the surrounding hills.  Always we thought we were next.  Nobody was sleeping.  My wife and I lost so much weight.  All our friends abandoned us.  They pretended not to know us.  Only one pastor stood by our side.  He came to me one night and warned me that there was a plan to attack the church.  I told the news to my wife, and we both agreed that we were ready to die.”
(Kigali, Rwanda)