Generose

I was sitting in the auditorium at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where a woman named Lisa Shannon stood before me. She had just returned from a trip to Congo, delivering money and supplies to the women that lived there. Her next slide came up. From this point on, I felt like I was alone. Just me and the picture.

This picture was not happy, not sad, but telling. It was of a woman that was not showing any emotion on her face. Instead, her face, her eyes-O those eyes-showed that she had had a life. Generose was a nurse, her husband a schoolmaster, and they had five children. One day, the whole family was at home, and a neighbor child was over playing with the kids. The interahmwe, a rebel group in Congo, approached the house, demanding from Generose all of her money. She quickly rounded up the $120 that was their life savings. The interahmwe took it, stating that they also wanted a contribution from the schoolmaster. She explained that they had no more, and they began to harass her. Her husband tried to stop them, and was immediately slaughtered. Generose, though distraught, asked what they wanted her to do-she had nothing left to give. They asked her to place her leg on a nearby chair. In front of the children, they chopped that leg off and divided it into six pieces. After searing this leg in the fire, they required that the children eat it. When Generose's 8-year-old daughter refused, she was also murdered. The rest of the children then ate Generose's leg. Generose awoke in a hospital.

Her eyes were just like anyone's eyes-full of love, full of pain, full of a life.

CHALLENGE: do not forget the people of Congo.