A Day In The Marshes

Morning

Tutsi’s who were old, sick, and had families tended to hide in papyrus in the marshes.

Killers worked in the marshes from 9am-4pm.  If it rained, they came later in the morning.  They would sing, whistle, and play drums as if they were happy to go out killing.  The Tutsi’s would listen out for this to so that they could stay out of the killers’ sight.

The kids were told to stay in the water; the only part of their body that was allowed out of the water was their head.  Everyone would cover themselves with mud.  They drank the muddy water that was sometimes filled with blood to stay hydrated.

Afternoon

In the afternoons, the singing usually stopped and there would be conversations instead.  They would take breaks from killing to eat.  They slaughtered cows and drank their booze.

“For some of us, those taunts were just minor diversions. The important thing was not to let them get away. For others, the insults were invigorating, made the job easier. The perpetrators felt more comfortable insulting and hitting crawlers in rags rather than properly upright people. Because they seemed less like us in that position.”-Adalbert

Night

This was when the Tutsi’s gathered their food.  They went into the fields and collected beans and bananas (it was banana season).

They would wash themselves with palm leaves and try to sleep.

“During the evening assemblies, we could catch hold of no news from anywhere because radio sets no longer blared out, except in the killers’ homes. Still, we understood by word of mouth that the genocide has spread over the country, that all Tutsis were suffering the same fate, that no one would come to save us anymore. We thought that we would all have to die.

As for me, I no longer concerned myself with thinking about when I would die, since we were going to die anyway, only with how the cuts would hack at me; only about how long it would take, because I was very frightened of the suffering machetes bestow.” –Francine Niyitegeka

Sources:

“A Day in the Marshes.” The Old, the Sick and Parents with Children Spent Their Days Hiding among the Papyrus in the Marshes. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.rwandanstories.org/genocide/marshes.html&gt;.

“Rwandan Genocide Survivor Is Friends with Man Who Killed Her Child.” CapitalBay. N.p., 06 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.capitalbay.news/news/498510-rwandan-genocide-survivor-is-friends-with-man-who-killed-her-child.html&gt;.