Name: How Dare the Sun Rise
ISBN: 9780606413879

Sandra Uwiringiyimana

Abigail Pesta

In this powerful memoir, Sandra Uwiringyimana, a girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, tells the incredible true story of how she survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and overcame her trauma through art and activism.

Memoirs of a War Child

How Dare the Sun Rise

Nati

This profoundly moving memoir is the remarkable and inspiring true story of Sandra Uwiringyimana, a girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who tells the tale of how she survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and overcame her trauma through art and activism. Sandra was just ten years old when she found herself with a gun pointed at her head. She had watched as rebels gunned down her mother and six-year-old sister in a refugee camp. Remarkably, the rebel didn’t pull the trigger, and Sandra escaped. Thus began a new life for her and her surviving family members. With no home and no money, they struggled to stay alive. Eventually, through a United Nations refugee program, they moved to America, only to face yet another ethnic disconnect. Sandra may have crossed an ocean, but there was now a much wider divide she had to overcome. And it started with middle school in New York. In this memoir, Sandra tells the story of her survival, of finding her place in a new country, of her hope for the future, and how she found a way to give voice to her people.

Sarah Sammis

This is one of those books that should be read and is hard to explain without giving a full biography of the author. Things aren't glossed over, nor, though, are the horrific ones lingered over.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2018/comm...

This profoundly moving memoir is the remarkable and inspiring true story of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, a girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who tells the tale of how she survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and overcame her trauma through art and activism. Sandra was just ten years old when she found herself with a gun pointed at her head. She had watched as rebels gunned down her mother and six-year-old sister in a refugee camp. Remarkably, the rebel didn’t pull the trigger, and Sandra escaped. Thus began a new life for her and her surviving family members. With no home and no money, they struggled to stay alive. Eventually, through a United Nations refugee program, they moved to America, only to face yet another ethnic disconnect. Sandra may have crossed an ocean, but there was now a much wider divide she had to overcome. And it started with middle school in New York. In this memoir, Sandra tells the story of her survival, of finding her place in a new country, of her hope for the future, and how she found a way to give voice to her people.

Amanda Kordeliski

Fantastic memoir of Sandra Uwiringiyimana starting with her childhood in war torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, to her time in a refugee camp where she experienced a horrific tragedy and her resettlement and struggles in the United States. This is an excellent read for high school students (and adults) who need to understand the refugee crisis and why it is imperative for countries to help war refugees. Sandra's story was honest and heartbreaking and does not shy away from the issues she faced both in Africa and in the United States.

priya

Recommended for everyone! The writing style is quite simplistic but the story is still very important to read. 

TW: massacre, sexual assault of a minor, racism, PTSD episodes

“I remember feeling that I wasn’t entitled to cry because others had lost even more than I had.”

“It felt mortifying and also humbling to be among those people waiting for drips. I realized there were so many people struggling to survive. We were not the only ones.”

“we were definitely in need—but we are all just people. And everyone wants to look good, especially twelve-year-old girls.”

“Of course my first period would wait to arrive until I was sleeping outside on the ground in the middle of the woods, surrounded by boys.”

“Before I came to America, I was Sandra. I was a student, a daughter, a sister. I was African, Congolese. Did I ever define myself as black? No. My skin color didn’t determine who I was as a person. Everyone was black. My interests, my beliefs, defined me. My skin color was simply a fact about me, like the fact that I like candy. If you ask who I am as a person, I wouldn’t say, “I like candy.” That’s not a fundamental thing that describes me. But in America, my skin color did define me, at least in other people’s eyes. I was black. I was black first, and then I was Sandra.”

“I could see that my words stunned people. They looked angry, too, as they learned what we had endured. It made me feel angry as well. I wish I could have told the congregation that my experience was unique, an isolated event. But it wasn’t. Millions of people have been uprooted and displaced by war. In fact, I was shocked that the audience was shocked. I had grown up in a land where war was so common, we basically sighed and said, “Oh man, this again?” Any given day, you could be on the run. There, it would have been unusual to go for an entire school year without being interrupted by war.”

“for the first time in my life, I became a citizen of a country. I got a New York state ID. It was the first thing I owned that proved I exist.”

Stephanie BwaBwa

Incredibly moving and inspiring.

Sandra tells her story of surviving the Gatumba massacre as a child, and living to tell the tale. She walks us through every experience she faced from the injustice she faced before the massacre, her family escaping trouble, the horror of the massacre and her journey that followed. Though she faced extreme poverty and didn’t know if she could have a better future, the doors opened and she was resettled in the USA. The book is enlightening and shares the tales of another heinous crime against humanity that doesn’t get press. It’s a hard tale, but a moving one of hope, activism, and learning how to live again when you’ve been given a second chance. A beautiful memoir, an easy read. I would recommend this story to all.

How Dare the Sun Rise Memoirs of a War Child

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