March 10, 2004
Mapendo (love)
Mapendo was living in the small village of Uvira with her mother, father, and brother. She was 18 years old and still in school when their village was attacked in the night. A group of Interhamwe raided their house and ordered the family outside. Then, one of the soldiers ordered her father to rape his daughter. He refused, telling them they should kill him instead. So one of the soldiers shot him, in front of his whole family. Next, they turned to her 17-year old brother and told him that he must rape his mother or he too would be shot. He refused. Their mother started crying, asking them to kill her, now that her husband was dead, rather than her son. The soldiers shot her as well and then caught both Mapendo and her brother. One group left with the boy; Mapendo has never saw him again and can only guess that he must have been killed. Another three men took Mapendo with them into the forest. Each one raped her in turn and then told her that she would live with them as their “wife,” taking care of them and having sex with them.
She was forced to live with these three men, in their camp in the forest, for one and half years. Eventually, she became pregnant from the rapes. It was then that she decided that she had to escape. She had seen the men kill the baby of another woman in the camp by using a stick just as she was giving birth and, as much as she did not want this baby, she knew she could not go through that. She tried running away during the night but was caught and brought back to camp. On her second attempt, she left her clothes and her shoes at the camp, to make it look like she was just going down to the river. Instead, already five months pregnant, she ran into the forest and up into the mountains.
After wandering through the forest for three days without food, she made it to the road that headed to Uvira. A driver from her village found her there, sitting on the side of the road. “Is that you Mapendo?” he asked. She said yes and that he mustn’t ask any questions but take her away from there immediately.
He took her into his truck and drove her to Bukavu. There he paid her way on a boat to Goma. When the boat docked, Mapendo simply sat there, unsure of where to go, until she was the last passenger left. An officer at the port brought her home with him for then night and then to DOCS the next day. She arrived horribly traumatized, crying constantly. She was wearing the shreds of a torn dress, bleeding from numerous cuts, and her left breast was horribly infected.
Counselors calmed her and worked with her slowly, each day, as she began to share her story. She had an operation and also gave birth to her son, Moses. Initially, she did not want the baby and asked them to kill him. So one of the counselors offered to take the child into her orphanage and Mapendo accepted. However, two moths later, she is still with her baby, and the two of them have moved together to the orphanage.