The dismay of a broken world

*It breaks my heart to read this article and know people are experiencing such horrific situations every single day. I cannot imagine living in so much fear 24/7. These women who have been violated repeatedly not only have to deal with the emotional and physical damage, but also with the reality of possibly having AIDS and not being able to go back to their families. Please pray God's love will penetrate this area and these people. And pray for His judgment on those who are so brutally hurting these men, women, and children.

*There is a video which goes along with this article, it isn't explicit or anything, but just gives the CNN reporter's documentary. It's good to watch because it brings the article more humanity as you see the faces of the men, women, and children highlighted in the article. The link goes to the CNN article and on the right side, under the green bar that says "Watch" is the video clip.

Rape, brutality ignored to aid Congo peace

By Jeff Koinange
CNN

BUKAVU, Democratic Republic of Congo (CNN) -- At a makeshift recreation center at a hospital here in eastern Congo, about 500 women surround one of their own, who's lying on the floor.

She clutches a cane as she struggles to get up. The women begin singing, slowly at first and then the song picks up momentum. Before long the young woman lifts herself, drops the cane and begins to walk around the room as if in a trance, singing and clapping. The other women clap along with her as the singing gets louder and louder.

The young woman's name is Tintsi and she's barely 20 years old. She arrived at the hospital three weeks ago on a stretcher carried by relatives who walked 100 miles to get here. Doctors weren't sure Tintsi would ever walk again.Tintsi, like everyone else in this room, is a victim of the worst kind of sexual violation imaginable. (Watch rape victims try to rebuild their lives -- 5:38)

"Some of them have knives and other sharp objects inserted in them after they've been raped, while others have pistols shoved into their vaginas and the triggers pulled back," said Dr. Denis Mukwege Mukengere, the lone physician at the hospital. "It's a kind of barbarity that only savages are capable of."

He added that "these perpetrators cannot be human beings."

The alleged perpetrators are men in uniform, part of the Congolese army. These troops are a compilation of various militia groups that had been fighting each other for years until a truce was reached two years ago.

A recent report by the United Nations found that Congo's own soldiers were responsible for the nearly seven dozen complaints of crimes and human rights violations over the past two months. Among the crimes committed were extrajudicial executions, disappearances, rapes and brutal beatings, according to the U.N. report.

'I wish they'd killed me'

Tintsi turns to the other victims standing near her and says in a soft, but defiant voice, "They can take away my womanhood, but they'll never be able to break my spirit."

Some women nod, others shake their heads. Some weep openly.

Also in the room is 28-year-old Henriette Nyota. Her spirit is all but broken. Three years ago, she said, she was gang raped as her husband and four children were forced to watch. The men in uniform then disemboweled her husband and continued raping her and her two oldest daughters, 10 and 8. The assault went on for three days.

"I wish they'd killed me right there with my husband," she said, "What use am I now? Why did those animals leave me to suffer like this?"

Nineteen-year-old Nzigire bears the result of repeated sexual violations -- her year-old daughter, Ester. The teenager acknowledges she often contemplates putting an end to what she calls a death sentence.

"I sometimes feel like killing myself and my daughter," she said. "I look at her and all I see is them. I look at myself and all I see is misery."

'Only revenge can make me forget'

Misery permeates this tiny hospital in this huge country the size of Western Europe. Last year there were more than 4,000 reported rape cases in this province alone, or about 12 a day, officials say.

And it's not just women who are being raped; so are some men with equally devastating consequences.

Fifteen-year-old Olivier was sitting down to dinner with his family when the front door of their house was smashed in. Olivier's father was the first to be killed followed by his mother, right in front of the children.

They then raped Olivier's three sisters, and when he tried to fight them they turned on him. One at a time, more than a dozen in all, he said.

"I will never forget what happened to me," he said. "How does one forget something like this? Only revenge can make me forget what happened to me."

Mukengere takes us from ward to ward, where the beds are filled with sexual abuse patients in various stages of recovery. Colostomy bags hang off their cots and bed pans are everywhere. Once in a while, you hear a woman scream in pain as she's raised by the team of tireless nurses to have something to eat or drink.

Mukengere, who attends to an average of 10 new cases a day, explains bed-by-bed the cruelty that has become the Congo.

"Helene, over there, is 19 years old. She first came here five years ago after having been raped," he said. "We treated her and discharged her, and off she went back to her home village. Five years later, she's back after being attacked and sexually violated over and over again. This is pure madness."

Equally troubling is that aid money designated for victims of sexual abuse here may run out at the end of June despite the relative success of this program, the only one of its kind in the region.

"It's so tragic that the world can afford to sit back and let these atrocities continue like this," said aid worker Marie Walterzon of the Swedish Pentecostal Mission. "Possibly because it involves poor, voiceless Africans," she said.

Sadly though, many of the people responsible for these rapes -- what is being described as the new weapon of war in a time of peace -- have yet to be arrested, tried or convicted. The peace process is too delicate at this stage, officials say.

The peace process is too delicate. And at this hospital in the eastern Congo, the rooms are too full.

Letters, Words, and the Imagination!

Number 3 on my 'Adore' list is Scrabble.

What a wonderful game! :) I have found quite a few interesting things about this board game...

• No matter what time of the day it is, Scrabble is always a great avenue for laughter. Especially when your friends attempt to sound out words that don't exist...like 'euu' at 1 in the morning!
• Apparently the person who puts the first word on the board receives 'double word score' because the star square is the same color as the pink 'double word score' squares.
• Playing Scrabble by looking at the board upside-down became increasingly harder as the hours ticked by and the wee hours of the morning grew closer. The brain begins to shut off until it reads the board right-side up and miraculously sees so many options on a game board that had once looked so dim!
• Delete Xray from your Scrabble vocabulary. It is not a word, and cannot be used...so much for the 'X' tile...Brandon, I still won that game fair and square. You didn't protest soon enough! ;) Considering 'xray' not a word, after the game was complete, does not negate my points!!
• "Id" is a word and can be used THREE times in one game...that was just ridiculous...and no I will not type out the l-o-n-g definition of such a short word...Freud was crazy.
• It is possible to get a total of 63 points with one word..."whack"
• You know you've been playing Scrabble too long when you wonder how many points your own name would give you! (8 points for mine!)
• It is not possible to get away with putting 'ab,' the singular word for 'abs' on the board. Who ever says they are working out their 'ab,' so it's always 'ab muscle' or 'abs' plural. Nice try Brandon.
• If you do not like how a player has grabbed muchos amounts of points by placing just two tiles on the board, it is ok to flick the said tiles off the board...even though afterwards screaming or complaining may occur.
• No matter how hard you try or how far over you place the starting word, inevitably only one side of the board will be used...the right side...especially if you're playing with Jimmy and Brandon.
• Who knew the words 'coccyx' and 'agog' would be played on a Scrabble board!
• Brandon has a keen knack for reading my mind and placing his words in the EXACT spot that I planned on using for my stupendous words...then when the 'turn' order was reversed, Jimmy inherited the same talent...Oh well! It's the way the game tiles fell!
• A player can manage to receive ALL vowels or ALL consonants in their tray. It's a sad day when that happens! Not a fun experience let me tell ya! You try finding words on the board when all you have is two 'D's,' two 'R's,' a 'K,' a 'Q,' and a 'G!'

*The picture I have placed in this entry is the game my sister and I played tonight. I thought it was a beautiful game, not only because I beat her (which is very difficult to do), but because the words are nicely spaced, unlike my experiences with the boys! However, there is probably one reader, I shall name him Mr. Scrabble Rulebook Enforcer, who looks with distain on this picture and finds fault with it. So, here would be a list of things he would disapprove of:

1. My sister and I decided to use all or those 'double word score' and 'triple letter score' spaces more than once. So if you added to an already existing word, like "miss" turning into "mission" turning into "missions" you could keep receiving the 'double word score' space, producing high number value! -->although I have to admit half way through the game we forgot to check underneath all the tiles and missed a few extra points!! ;)
2. 'Ap,' is a suffix and would not have been allowed in a game with Mr. SRE
3. The words, 'oh' and 'rah' would have been looked up and checked for proper definitions and to see if they are truly words and not just slang.
4. My sister and I wanted the word 'puddle' on the board so badly that we decided to conveniently look past the creation of the suffix 'ap.' We both decided since 'ap' was not a word, it therefore would not give the bearer points. The only points awarded were for the word 'puddle.'
5. Showing our tiles to each other was perfectly fine, even taking a turn for one another was perfectly fine. Tiles were not meant to be hidden, only re-arranged to spell cool phrases like "DEATH TR" or "QUIBBLE" --> I have to say though, Mr. SRE probably would make made-up words with his tiles too!! :)

Scrabble! What a game! Challenges the mind, stretches the imagination, and tests your ab muscles as they are pelted with showers of laughter!