The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo

WARNING: POST DEALS WITH RAPE. SO IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH PLEASE DO NOT READ. THANK YOU

Listening to Rabbit Hole by Sanagi, I vaccumed the Living room when I heard a knock at the door. "Dottie!" I exclaimed. We quickly embraced, and then she told me about a film screening that she was going to go to with a few of her friends and asked if I wanted to join. Gladly I accepted. We reached Iternis where we met up with her friends, and drove down to downtown Salt Lake to view the film documentary.
It started off with a man by the name of Louis Gokumba. A refugee from Rewanda. He began by reading two poems about situations that he had witnessed. One of them I really enjoyed. It talked about how the Rewandans were going through so much trials and tribulations. It all seemed but a dream. Women getting raped seemed all but a dream. Violence in the streets seemed all but a dream. People being mutilated seemed all but a dream. It's true so many terrible things were going on. You hope that somehow you can wake up and it will all be JUST a dream, a nightmare, but sadly you have to face that is in only reality.
Then began the film that was a real eye opener for me. This Film was called "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo. Directed by Lisa F. Jackson. This movie started off by showing soldiers who were fighting the war in Congo.(which I had no Idea that there was one. Apparently this war is like an economic war. The Congo is overwhelmed in different kind of resources such as Uranium, diamonds, etc. But are being ripped off because more that 18 million dollars are being stripped from the people of Congo everyday. This war is so called trying to prevent that. But appears to make no difference at all.) These soldiers were asked about the women they raped. And why they did such a thing. They blamed it on they war. They said, "If the war never happened, this would never have happened." They then held up fingers about how many women they have raped.
These women were so violated by these soldiers in such a degrading way that I didn't even know was possible, or didn't even want to know or think about that it was possible. These rape victims ranged from the ages of 4-80. It brought me to tears to think that a man (he is not even considered a man to me) could actually bring himself to rape a little girl as young as four.
These soldiers did HORRIBLE things to the women. These women suffered, were humiliated, degraded, looked down on by their village and family because they were raped. And it wasn't even their fault.
The rapist soldiers that were being interviewed said that they do not regret raping women. If a women refused he would call his friends to come help force her down. One women would be raped by more than 17 men in one night alone. They would use their guns, tree branches, anything they could find, and tear up the inside of the woman's body. The rape victims that had this done to them were so damaged they had their uterus walls ripped right out. These women were dripping urine because they were damaged to the worse degree.
Tons of women ranging from 10 (maybe younger) to 50 (maybe older) years old were captured to be the soldiers slave victims. What one women said made me sick to my stomach and feel so much anger and hatred that I had never felt before. She said the children of these women were taken away from them. The soldiers would make the women eat their children. They would force the women to have sex with them. More than 7 men was very common. If the soldiers found out you were pregnant they made a child come sit or jump on your stomach so you can abort. They would gather the womb or placentea or whatever it was called, and made them drink it. These women were humiliated by these soldiers and not ONE of them regretted what they were doing.
What ticked me off, and what I found to be VERY hipocritical was what the soldiers had to say about rape. They all said they don't regret raping a women. But if they saw that their mom being raped or sisters, they would kill the man. How Hipocritical!!! One man even said, "If I saw my mom or sisters being raped I wouldn't do anything because I know it had to be done. Even if I walked in on it I wouldn't stop it." I wouldn't even want to consider that man to be my brother or son if he ever did that. That set me over the top.
But what I found to be more bizzare was the reason why they believed it was okay. It all came down to belief. The believed that in order to win the war they had to rape the women. They kept referring to the "magic potion" it was just so stupid to me I didn't even want to listen to the rest of what he was saying!
There was one seen where Lisa (the director who is white) went to go visit a home. As she walked in the children burst out crying hysterically. The translator later described it was because they thought the camera was a gun. These children live through so much terror they don't know that much about happiness.
The women, although having gone through horrendous ordeals, appeared to be strong and brave. They could have easily given up, and not have talked about the rape experience and left it a taboo issue, but they held their head up high and made the best of the situation they were in. You saw no one just abbondoning her family. Most victims kept the child they had from rape, they continued with their lifestyles. Some got married and had more children. Some though, weren't as lucky.
I can't even begin to tell you the amount of pain and struggles that these women have endured. Without women, the world will be NOTHING. We oftern refer our country as the "Mother Country" so when one women is being raped; the whole country is. The world will not survive without women. If you look to the streets of Congo, women are the transports. They are the Spine. The Head. The Neck. The EVERYTHING that anyone could ever need. So when you hurt a women, you're hurting yourself.
You hear about rape, you know that it exists, you know that is is a horrible thing, but I just didn't realize how much it can be taken to a higher extent. I probably did know that it could happen, but I didn't want to believe it. This film made me realize how lucky I am to be who I am today. Even though I know that rape does happen in the U.S; it isn't as bad as having a whole city being raped as in Congo, whole villiages of Women were being raped and mutilated everyday.
It made me feel stupid for even complaining about the problems that I face now. I just wish there was something that I could do for these women. I WILL find away to somehow make a difference. I don't know how.. but I WILL! People need to be informed on how severe rape really is. If we all speak out, W CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

More fun @ Seini's house. (:

Can you tell I was bored? Lol Just practicing my poses for when Seini takes our Senior Pictures! haha
I took some pics w/my cousin Tema.. But they got deleted! DAANNGG! lol

Time with my little princess (:

After a llonngg weekend consisting of packing, unpacking, packing, and unpacking cans it was about time I got to relax. I arrived here to my cousin's house and was going to call my best friend Kashmere to come and get me, but I ended up just chilling with my little princess Lehuanani. I've missed her since I've moved, and was glad when she wouldn't even let me leave her sight, or if I did she would cry a river. Some of my mom's sisters were here too, as well as her aunt from California. I played hairstylist and curled 3 of my aunts hair, straightened my moms, and pulled back my grandmas. I said, "That will be $5 each plus tax." They laughed and said wait 'til graduation. lol After Lehua, Lani, Eme, and I ended up just taking pictures of ourselves (: lol








I LOVE SEINI'S COMPUTER (: (: LOL

Lehuanani just makes me smile so big everytime I see her. We were sitting watching what she calls "my favorite show" Parenttrap. Any sad part of a movie, it can be Lion King or Finding Nemo, I just cry. lol She it was a touching part in the movie and i just started to cry. Lehua starts wiping my tears away with her tiny soft hands. Then she leans in, gives me a kiss on the forehead, and squeezes me into a big bear hug. I love this little girl. When there was a kissing part she started to cover her eyes, but was peeking through her little fingers while saying, "Ewww Kissing". I just found it funny how she knew a minute before that there was going to be a kissing scene. "They kissy," She would say. She would even quote lines from that movie. All from a barely 2 year old girl.

It's WAYYY late now though. There is seriously like A MILLION people here, and I know I won't be able to sleep. I figured I'd pass the time taking pictures of myself, and blogging (: lol

Senior Project.

In order to graduate from my school all 12th grade Language Art students are required to do a senior project. My group decided on doing a CANNED FOOD DRIVE at an elementary school. We decided to hit a wealthy area to get better and more canned foods.
Our goal was to reach 800 CANNED FOODS. Thats 2 elementary schools combined. So each elem school would've had to have 400 cans. We were unable to find 2 so we just stuck to one. We were going to run the food drive for 2 weeks, but had to caught it down to 1 to meet our project deadline. We didn't think we would reach 1000, let alone 400. but after collecting all the cans, we ended up with

OVER 1,400 CANNED FOODS FROM 1 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!

This is what my car looked like.


(more pics coming soon on how full my car was!)

The backseat was LOADED with cans as well! My car was SERIOUSLY low riding! I couldn't pull into my driveway w/out scraping the bottom of my car.







This isn't even HALF of the CANNED foods. All this Jackie's house (group member) There were still TONS AND TONS of bags and boxes still @ my house.


Here were are working at the Food Bank. We also had to volunteer there too in order to complete our project.



Someone donated a stick of crisco butter in a ziploc bag, and I was like.. "uhh.. what the...." lol

(more pics coming soon.)
So that's how I spent my friday and saturday afternoon. What joy. Lol Now I'm off to my cousin Seini's house for General Conference Weekend. woot woot!! (: (:

CASH CASH!

John Paul from CASH CASH



Wrote to me!

You don't know how happy I am. After feeling so horrible about myself (from a person who will remain nameless (haha) This really made me feel sooo special!
I can't wait for when CASH CASH comes to Utah Aug. 9th for the VANS WARPED TOUR (:




I LOVE CASH CASH!!

pondering moment. Testimony in a nutshell.

Here I was making Banana Cream Pie in Foods (which was disgusting by the way. NOT because I made it. Because I am a FABULOUS cook. ha. But because the recipe for the crust was yuck. anywho.. lol) when I heard this girl bashing on the LDS church and how hypocritical we were because we don't allow gays; it just got me thinking. The whole day I was pondering about how I felt about these situations, and this is what I concluded. Basically I guess you can call it my testimony.

We are all given certain trails in our lives, weaknesses that we can overcome; whether that is swearing, alcohol, disobeying, and even homosexuality. Given these trials it is our duty to not pursue or give into these weaknesses. Heavenly Father loves us and cares for us. He will NEVER give us anything that we can't handle ourselves. He knows our weaknesses, and he knows what we are going through. One of the most important things to realize is that if continue to give in to these weaknesses and continue to do the things which we know is wrong, it will only bring us further apart from our Heavenly father, but it doesn't mean that he still doesn't love us!

We are given these weaknesses, trials, tribulations, or obstacles in our lives to test how strong our faith is in the lord and our Savior! We have to understand that we can overcome ANYTHING that comes our way if we put our faith and trust in the lord! It is also important that we remember that if we are ever facing something that we feel is too hard to overcome; we don't have to endure it alone. There are people that love us, want to help us, and want what is best for us. The bishop, young men young women leaders, and our parents are all there to help us! Our Heavenly Father is always there when we need him!

There were times in my life where I have done things that I was not proud of, and I knew they were wrong. I felt that Heavenly Father was disappointed in me, and that I didn’t deserve to say a prayer to him. I felt like I would be a hypocrite to get on my knees and talk to my Heavenly Father. But when you’re struggling and you need someone to talk to OUR HEAVENLY FATHER WILL ALWAYS BE THERE! That is the best time to talk to our heavenly father. He wants us to come to him when we need help. Never feel that our Heavenly Father doesn’t want to talk to us. He wants us to come to him when we are struggling in our lives!

Our life is not supposed to be perfect! We are all given certain trials. Everyone in the world is given an obstacle that they are supposed to overcome. But we can overcome ANYTHING! . Never give up hope. Never give up faith. And never give up the Lord.

Even though I wasn't happy in what she was saying, I'm glad she did mention it because I wouldn't have been able to ponder really about how I felt.

Regret.

You threw it around like a meaningless thing.
To me it meant the world.
If I could take it all back in a heartbeat I would.
I don't know why I wasted it on you.

I wanted it to be special,
Something I wouldn't regret.
But that's exactly what it turned out to be.

I wish I never met you,
Never looked you in the eyes,
I regret every minute spent around you.

But I can't take it back.
It's engraved in my brain.
Why did I fall into pressure?
But its done now,
to late to turn back.
This feeling I wish I never felt.


(I know what you're thinking.. and THAT isn't it. I'M MARRYING IN THE TEMPLE!! haha)
Just feelings towards someone who; like I said. Wish I never met. hahaha (: