Page 35 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2016

Just down the street is someone with an amazing story.
In 1981 when Anna Bimenyimana was 13, her mother sent her away from Rwanda to a Catholic boarding school in Brussels. (Rwanda is a
Springs Residents’ Hopes, Proposals and Prospects for 2016
Phillip Ferguson: What an accomplishment it would be to produce more affordable housing in the Springs. Rents keep going up and up! It’s really tough for people here. (Plain Jane’s)
Maggie Baron/Jose Arellano: Finish the Highway! We want more soccer fields for kids. (Cleaners, Fiesta Plaza)
Martha Holtzman/Jim Black: We wish for a civil Presidential election! Also, peace with no more wars. (Dollar Store)
Debbie Poore: Two wishes, first, divert traffic from Sonoma Valley (around Highway 116) so residents can drive and walk safely, and second, insure that our returning veterans get all the treatment they need. (Dollar Store)
Maite’ Iturri, Principal, El Verano School: Prospects for 2016? Equity among Springs’ residents for housing, wages/income – basic needs! Let’s see more openness among residents. A goal should be to bring together more people trying to solve community problems.
Brittany Barrios: I would like to see the Boyes Blvd. bridge fixed with a sidewalk wide enough for people to walk! (Dollar Store)
Melissa Bingham: My hope is that people stop living in fear and choose compassion over hate! (Barking Dog)
Patrick Garcia: Let’s improve Highway 12 so people can ride bicycles and pods and pedestrians with children can walk safely. (Dollar Store)
Okey: We have a good community. We need a medical marijuana dispensary for people with cancer. Right now they have to travel too far for help. (Olde Sonoma Pub)
Sean Cusick: Build a new swimming pool in the Springs. I hope the Santa Rosa to Sonoma bike trail is constructed. Sonoma kids need these facilities. (Olde Sonoma Pub)
John Moore: Sonoma kids need a golf driving range with grass and first class tee boxes. We used to have a golf course and a driving range. (Olde Sonoma Pub)
Jane Raymond, Plain Jane’s: I look forward to more progress on the Springs Highway 12 corridor. Let’s continue with the County façade improvement program. I’m looking forward to see how each business completes its work.
Luisa Diaz: Please improve the intersection at Highway 12 and W. Thomson so people can see to make turns. (Fruit Basket)
Bob Rice, The Breakaway: I wish for an interesting and colorful conclusion to the Highway 12 project. It will hopefully be a street with colorful art, architecture, flowing gardens, and arboreal splendor.
Ken: I look forward to a successful conclusion of construction at the new La Luz Service Center on time - June 16. (Barking Dog)
Claudia Di Clemente: With the new year I look for greater public safety with improved street lighting. More pedestrian crossing lights are needed. I look forward to living more spiritually among people. The Springs is a unique living space for working people. We need a drug store. Folks need better dog walking areas. (Boyes P.O.)
Armando Saavedra, Armando’s Auto: I want the Plaza by the Churchmouse completed with green grass – a park. When the job is done look for for nice sidewalks.
Ellie Saavedra: My hope is for many flowers and trees planted along Highway 12. (Armando’s)
Heide Cullen: Among my goals is to be at peace, harmony and love within myself. Globally, I look forward to better leadership and peace in the world. Locally, let’s work to clean up around El Verano, particularly Maxwell Park’s west end. Remove homeless camping and drug exchanges in the creek area. (El Verano P.O.)
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former Belgian colony.) Her father had died, and her mother feared that Anna would not be safe at home while her mom was away, running the family business.
After Brussels she went to business college in Montreal. As a result, Anna was spared the genocide that occurred in 1994. Close to a million people were murdered in three months, directed by the Rwandan government. “They heard it on the radio, that they should go and kill Tutsis, so they did it.”
Together we are feeling the horror of what people can do.
“The human being is just this close to becoming like that,” said Anna, holding up a thumb and long straight forefinger with just a small space in between.
Anna and I were at Crisp, a bakery on West Napa Street. I had visited her recycled clothing store, Bon Marche, on Riverside and saw that the profits help Rwandan women fight chronic nutrition and start small businesses.
I was very interested. At the time, I was editing a book by a Rwandan woman who had been pursued by the Hutus as she ran through the forests with her little brother and sister. They survived, but the story of what they experienced is hard to read.
Anna’s family were Tutsis and Seventh Day Adventists. They were on the list of those to be killed.
“Seventh Day Adventist is big in Rwanda,” said Anna.
Anna is a handsome woman, fashionably dressed on this rainy day, with a beautiful white embroidered scarf around her neck, her hair worn becomingly short. She looks directly at me as we talk. “I tell my kids, Pay attention to people. When people talk to you, look in their face. Be kind.”
Anna has two daughters. She met her second husband in Montreal. He is a software engineer who helps the Rwandan government computerize.
How did she land in Sonoma?
“My husband Antoine, he is from here and he wanted to go back. I live in Paradise, he said.” They moved here in 2000.
In 2004 she decided to open an export business, buying second-hand clothing and shipping it overseas in big containers. Used American apparel is sold all over the world, in Africa, South America, Philippines, Turkey, even China. “In China they fix them up and sell them in Dubai.”
She rented a warehouse on Eighth Street East and ran the business for six years.
“I wanted to be able to grow my business and help my people after the war. But the work was too hard.
“When I closed it, I had tons of stuff left over. My girlfriend told me to open a thrift store. We already had nonprofit status. My husband was going back and forth to Rwanda, helping the government computerize. He told me, We need to help them.”
She opened Bon Marche in 2007. All profits go to Rwanda through the Kigali Center for Entrepreneurs (KCE). Now she has two stores, one downtown on First Street West. Last year in November a fire burned up the shop on Riverside and its contents. With the help of the community, she relocated down the street within weeks.
“When I wake up in the morning I ask myself how can I help more people. Older women come into the shop, you can tell they are homeless. I give them whatever they need.” She doesn’t need a piece of paper to verify that they are unemployed. “You can tell when people are suffering.”
Her mother, 84, still lives in Kigali, the capitol. “They couldn’t kill her. She helped too many people. She was on their list, but they would say, I can’t kill her, she helped my family, she sent my cousin to school.
“But one time, they forced my brothers to lie on the floor and said they would kill them if she didn’t give them money. She didn’t have anything left. She told them, Wait one minute. She came back with her Bible. When she held it up, they ran away!
“I told her, you are smart, mom. She said, ‘No, it just came to me.’”
Our stories are the true history of our times, but so many are lost. Beginning January 7th I will be offering a storytelling group. If you’re interested in joining us or in recording your own family history, please contact me by email.