(4/6) “After a year we were chosen for resettlement in the...

(4/6)  “After a year we were chosen for resettlement in the United States.  As soon as we arrived, I was separated from my grandmother.  She was put in a nursing home, and two months later she passed away.  It was the first time I’d cried since I left Rwanda.  She was all I had left.  I lived with my uncle for awhile but he was very abusive.  He treated me like a maid.  So I was removed from the home and put into foster care in Boise, Idaho.  But that was also a bad situation.  I was on the verge of running away.  And I’m pretty sure my social worker informed my school.   Because my art teacher started asking me about my plans.  Her name was Anne Peterson.  She was one of those teachers that you could talk to about anything.  So I answered all her questions.  I told her my story.  And I started bragging about my plan to take care of myself.  I think she decided: ‘Absolutely not.’  Because that’s when she chose to become my Mom.  Oh my God, it was amazing.  Ms. Peterson lived in a big, beautiful house.  I was the only child there.  I had my own room.  It was safe.  I didn’t have to worry about surviving.  Mom took care of everything.  She would wake me up to go to school every day.  She always made sure I had lunch.  She took me out to eat at restaurants.  It was amazing.  I was already fifteen years old.  But for the first time in years, I felt like a kid.”
(Kigali, Rwanda)