Immaculee Ilibagiza's Story

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza is our book club pick for April. I have never wanted to watch Hotel Rwanda or read anything about the genocide in Rwanda.  I thought this was just going to be a depressing story about evil. It was a depressing story about evil but there was so much more.  This is a story of how Immaculee's Roman Catholic faith guided her, made her bold, kept her safe, and freed her from hate. This book was worth reading.  Imagine, she was locked up in a small bathroom with a group of women for their safety and during the ordeal she kept her faith and obeyed what she discerned to be God's direction.  She even tried to teach herself English in anticipation of her vision to work at the United Nations.  Some of the characters mentioned in the book were interesting. One is the pastor who tried to hide the women yet seemed to regret getting involved with their rescue when the weeks turned into months.  The other is her university friend who had a plan involving electrocution if the Hutus turned on them and there was no escape. Her plan reminded me of the story about the zealots of Masada in Israel as told in the Dovekeepers.

This is not a long story and very easy to read.  There was one typing error in the book towards the end; it mentioned her Aunts and nieces when it should have been Aunts and cousins.

Pics For Fans of The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

Sharing pics of the ruins in Masada, ancient mountaintop fortress in Israel, which is part of the setting for Dovekeepers  It was rebuilt and redecorated by King Herod the great.  Top picture is supposed to be the dovecot where the doves were kept.  I am also including a picture of the Rabbi of Masada who is writing the Torah by hand in the ancient synagogue.