“…In my youthful innocence, I believed that advancing to secondary school and escaping the menacing gaze of my primary school principal signaled an end to my ordeals. That belief proved illusory. In reality, starting school away from my family felt like emerging from a sheltered shell and finding myself engulfed in a storm of uncertainty. Against the backdrop of escalating animosity toward Tutsis, everyday life morphed into a precarious dance in an unpredictable world. Insults and public shaming, once shocking, became a familiar occurrence, each incident blending into the fabric of my evolving life. My homeland felt like a maze of confusion and danger. Instead of being seen as an equal citizen, I was labeled ‘other’—an alien, a cockroach, even a snake; an outcast marked for hostility…”

~ Stormy reading a quote from Prince:

    Beauty for Ashes