Summary

Chapter 22 takes place on April 7, 1994. The telephone rings and rings, but Michel is not there to answer it. Finally, Gabriel picks up to find his mother on the other end of the line. She comes over to be with them, bringing news that both the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda were assassinated in a plane crash the night before. Maman and Eusébie talk on the phone, and Eusébie is pessimistic about the family’s chances of surviving the violence alive. “Live for us…” (134), Eusébie tells Maman before hanging up. For days, Maman and Michel try to reach their contacts at the United Nations, and the French and Belgian embassies.

For the next three months, as violence continues, the news from Rwanda is grim. LIsts announcing recent deaths are broadcast and Gabriel explains that he has no personal recollections of this...