Bosco

I hired Bosco (not his real name) to do some work on my house. He came highly recommended and we needed some serious electrical work done. Tuesday we decided that we would travel into Kigali together and he would help me shop for all the supplies. I picked Bosco up at his work and we headed out to Kigali. Bosco's English was very good and soon we were talking about his family. Bosco shared that during the genocide his family fled to the Congo. His mom, a Hutu and Dad, a Tutsi, felt their lives threatened and so they packed up their 12 children and drove to the Congo just West of Rwanda. There they stayed in exile. Bosco became part of the Congolese army where he served for 10 years. The year was 1994.

The family returned to Rwanda after it was safe...so they thought. Bosco remained in the Congo in the army while the other 11 family members returned. The year was 1998 when revengeful army guys came and killed all but one family member as well as seven others who were in Bosco's family house. Apparently this was a common thing that was happening. Since Bosco's parents were from both tribes they were targeted. Only one sister and Bosco survived.

Bosco now faces on a regular basis one of the Major's in the army that killed his family. Bosco shared that he is good friends with his son. He would never dare to share his knowledge. The Major doesn't even know about Bosco's situation.

Bosco says that healing dialogue needs to take place for true healing. The government is so pro-peace that they forgot that people need to share honestly their feelings and hurts. It is typical for Rwandans to suppress their feelings. When Rwandans are asked about how they feel about the genocide there is too quick a response for forgiveness and not enough dialogue on feelings that are deep inside people.

Bosco is concerned that if another President is ever elected and their is a change in policy there could be a "genie out of the bottle" type event that could lead to more death. I thanked Bosco for sharing with me. My heart prayed that Bosco's dream of true healing would be a reality.