How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

Irony

They were singing Christian songs. I had grown up singing some of those songs in church, and I wondered why murderers would be singing them. p5

Life Lesson

She would shush me. "It doesn't matter if he smells. He's still a person. A person is a person, no matter what," she said. "You must do what you can to help people. What you do comes back around to you." p34

"Beauty is in your head, not on your body," Dad would say. p141

It's exhausting when you think that you're not entitled to your emotions. p272

For genocide unit

description of school p46-47

They [parents] were determined to raise us peacefully, even though we were growing up in a conflict zone. They taught us tolerance and forgiveness. I didn't understand why the Congolese kids were mean to us. I wanted to say to them, "Don't you have parents who teach you respect?" p46-47

an attack p63-65

another attack p73

Interhamwe p86

watching Hotel Rwanda in class- p 165-166

talking about her story to other people/ misconceptions- p188 -189

forgiveness/ hatred- p190

If Deborah had a grave, I'd make sure that the flowers on it never died. My baby sister was disposed of, not buried. She was slaughtered like an animal and buried like one. p250

p276- a beautiful closing to the book and great statements about justice and hate

Cultural Differences

p50-51- twerking

p157-158- camping

p163-164- misconceptions about Africa

p228-229- encounters with "well-meaning" white girls at college

p232- more about college, making "statements" simply by being

#MeToo

chapter 12

The predators expect you to stay silent. You can prove them wrong. p102

Immigration/ Amnesty

chapter 13

Yes, we were refugees, but it didn't mean we had no fashion sense. p125

I think people have this perception that because you're a refugee that you'll take anything you can get your hands on. To some extent it's true-- we were definitely in need-- but we are all just people. And everyone wants to look good, especially twelve-year-old girls. p126

Your credentials from your home country don't matter. You could come here with a college education, like Princesse did, and it wouldn't mean anything. ... People in America don't care about college degrees or careers in Africa. p45

Everyone passed the test. And 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. p205

_______________

"Come on, what are you?"

When you hear questions like that, it makes you feel like you don't belong, like you have no right to claim American citizenship. I think it's why refugee children often develop low expectations for their lives. Even as citizens, they feel like outsiders. p208
_______________

It pains me that the world doesn't know what happened to my tribe. I wanted to talk about the Syrian refugee crisis, and about how some people want to keep the refugees out of this country, fearing they could be terrorists. But they are just people like us, mothers and children, fleeing from conflict. They are running from the very thing we condemn: terrorism. p261

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