July 6th, 1994

Dear Diary,


It is the 6th of July in 1994 and yesterday was the saddest day in my entire life. My parents died. I'm in shock and I can't believe this is happening to me. We were staying with a little old man in a hut, when a soldier found us and forced my parents to immediately exit the hut. He told my father to kill my mother for his own chance of survival. My dad replied that he would never kill her in a million years. My mother then begged for him to kill her, so he would live. Since he refused, they were both shot on the spot and the old man covered my eyes, while holding Zike. That was the last time I will ever see them again. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but now I have to think about taking care of Zike. Then after that, we traveled to Kibuye, which was such a long and miserable drive. A soldier picked up Zike and practically threw him in the back of a truck and then did the same to me. It was so cold because the man was driving really fast, so the wind was harsh. The whole ride I was bawling and reflecting on what had just happened. We left in the morning and had just recently got here. It is latter in the day and for some reason there is almost no one here, but empty, abandoned houses. A little while ago, a man walked by and I could hear his radio partially say, "...it is ending...Tutsi rebels invaded...Hutus defeated." I couldn't believe my ears- I was ecstatic. It's over and we are free. No more pointless murders. Then something had caught my eye- a girl in the distance. She seemed to see me too, so I walked over with Zike. I talked with her and she said her name was Safina and is thirteen, a couple years older than me. She had lost her parents in April and takes care of her three-year-old sister, JAla. We found a lot in common and we're going through the same thing. We told our journeys with each other and we decided to stick together. I told her how I heard the man's radio and that everything was over and the Tutsi's will not be killed anymore. She was so happy and relived to hear that. Then we walked down the road, trying not to look at the bodies, and searched for a place to stay. There was not a person in sight and it was very quiet. We found a very small abandoned home with a roof, so we thought that would be a good place to sleep at night. I knew at that moment on, we would be the best of friends and things would change for the better.

~Kehinde