Finally Finished
It has taken a ridiculously long time but I have finally finished reading Shake Hands With the Devil. It was an incredibly difficult book to read.
It was loaned to me by Trevor a long time ago and I'm embarassed to say how long it took me to read it. It took me a bit to get into it and to have the courage to read it. Trevor left for a year in Zambia and told me to keep the book while he was gone. A few weeks ago I realized that his year is almost up so I'd better get reading. Then he came home early! He's gone again now, but I wasn't able to get the book back to him before he left.
As difficult as it was to read I would highly recommend it. The difficulty is in seeing how horribly the world responded to the Rwandan genocide, caring more about the OJ Simpson trial at the time than the hundreds of thousands of people dying in a tiny little country in Africa. So many mistakes were made and chains of events happened that could have prevented countless deaths.
If you're not into a 500+ page historical read then there is a documentary by the same name probably available at your local library.
As a separate plug, please follow the link I've listed above to Trevor's blog. Trevor is a recent Engineering grad who is working with Engineers Without Borders on water and sanitation projects in Zambia. He writes about his amazing experiences and the incredible people he meets along the way. Whether you know Trevor or not, it's a wonderful read and an eye-opener as well. You'll never think of water the same again!
It was loaned to me by Trevor a long time ago and I'm embarassed to say how long it took me to read it. It took me a bit to get into it and to have the courage to read it. Trevor left for a year in Zambia and told me to keep the book while he was gone. A few weeks ago I realized that his year is almost up so I'd better get reading. Then he came home early! He's gone again now, but I wasn't able to get the book back to him before he left.
As difficult as it was to read I would highly recommend it. The difficulty is in seeing how horribly the world responded to the Rwandan genocide, caring more about the OJ Simpson trial at the time than the hundreds of thousands of people dying in a tiny little country in Africa. So many mistakes were made and chains of events happened that could have prevented countless deaths.
If you're not into a 500+ page historical read then there is a documentary by the same name probably available at your local library.
As a separate plug, please follow the link I've listed above to Trevor's blog. Trevor is a recent Engineering grad who is working with Engineers Without Borders on water and sanitation projects in Zambia. He writes about his amazing experiences and the incredible people he meets along the way. Whether you know Trevor or not, it's a wonderful read and an eye-opener as well. You'll never think of water the same again!
posted by Sue Matthews at 1:29 PM
2 Comments:
This was a very hard book to read for me too. It described a series of events that was disheartening, sickening and atrocious and should never, ever have happened. Sometimes I would have to stop reading and just sit and think for a while.
Gen. Dallaire wrote so well that at times I could taste the dust, their hunger and even their desperation.
Absolutely. There were several times when I just had to set it down and take a break. There was an especially vivid description of a massacre some peacekeepers had witnessed inside a church that just wiped me out for a bit. So disturbing, and as you say, completely unnecessary.
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