From chaos to campus – Pitt freshman fled Rwanda in 1994

Parfine Mudacumura’s father was away on business on April 6, 1994, when the Rwandan… Parfine Mudacumura’s father was away on business on April 6, 1994, when the Rwandan president, Juv’eacute;nal Habyarimana died after the plane he was traveling in was shot down.

A string of events quickly led the country into a period of what was later labeled genocide, when a sect of Hutus – one of Rwanda’s ethnic groups – began a war against other ethnic groups, namely Tutsis, whom they blamed for the president’s death.

Mudacumura, a Pitt freshman, was 6 years old at the time.

Along with her three sisters – who were 10, 8 and 1 years old – and her pregnant mother, she fled the mounting violence and immediately escaped to the safety of a neighbor’s home.

“My dad is Hutu but my mom is Tutsi,” she said. “Since I look more like my dad, I would be a Hutu.”

Mudacumura’s father, who didn’t hear from his family for over a month, had no reason to believe they were alive.

The United Nations estimates that 80,000 Rwandans were killed during the genocide, though other estimates are even greater.

After it became too dangerous to stay with their neighbors, Mudacumura and her family were shuttled to a nearby soccer stadium by the U.N.

This is when the graveness of the situation settled in with 6-year-old Mudacumura.

“I remember at one time I peeked [out of the truck] and all I saw was basically a grenade in mid-air,” she said. “My mom immediately pulled my head underneath the truck’s cover. I didn’t think they were actually killing people but that’s when I realized it.”

Her family spent about a month at the stadium.

“Then the U.N. said they could no longer house people so we went back to my old house,” Mudacumura said.

She remembers seeing dead bodies piled up in lines along the streets as they left the stadium. And upon returning home, the family found their house in ruins.

“Everything was ravaged and everything had been stolen,” she said.

Mudacumura’s father was still away at this point, but finally got in touch with his family.

“He thought we were all dead and he was so relieved,” she said.

Mudacumura’s father, who worked in the agriculture department of the Rwandan government, was in the United States and found an American man who was willing to help his family out of the country – as long as he paid up front.

“He got us to Uganda and he completely disappeared,” Mudacumura said. “We were there for about nine months because my little brother was born. We stayed with people who felt sorry for us.”

Then, the process of attempting to obtain visas to join her father in the United States began. During this time, Mudacumura and her sisters had to help her mother by doing small jobs that would earn the family money.

“I would go and fill up water jugs and then sell those to the local people around where we lived,” Mudacumura said. “All the money I made, I gave to my mom.”

Since Mudacumura picked up the language quickly from her friends, she also helped by translating for her mother.

“It was my own little way of helping out since my mom and older sisters did so much more,” she said.

While his family was stuck in Uganda, continually being denied visas to join him in the United States, Mudacumura’s father lobbied the U.S. government to help other Rwandan refugees make their way across the Atlantic. He continually told his family to have faith that they would be reunited.

“My family and I are very religious and experiencing the war really made it stronger just because there were many people we knew and some family members that did not survive,” Mudacumura said.

“And we thank God that not only did we survive with my mom, but for the fact that we were able to reunite with my dad and are now in the U.S. today living a better life.”

Mudacumura, her siblings and her mother were finally granted visas and arrived in Philadelphia. The family made Middletown, Pa., their new home.

“When we got here it was hard to adjust because the way of life is so different here,” she said.

And the trauma she had experienced followed her.

“I remember going to watch fireworks and getting scared because the sound they made was similar to the one made by bombs and grenades that went off back in Rwanda,” Mudacumura said.

Her parents did the best they could to create a new life for their five children by assimilating them into American culture.

Though she hated doing it at the time, Mudacumura now thanks her father for forcing his family to speak English at home. He even gave them what he called “English homework.”

Now, 13 years later, Mudacumura says she will always remember her time as a refugee. Her father plans to bring his children back to Rwanda to show them the place they once called home.

Mudacumura’s Rwandan heritage is still very much a part of her and she plans to find a way to give back.

“Someday, I want to do a lot to help out in that area,” she said.