Intro

1. 1,268 people seeked refuge in Paul’s hotel for 76 days.

2. The Tutsis and the Hutus were the 2 racial groups in Rwanda
3. The artificial difference was a political issue. Similar to republicans and democratics, they are both
Americans with different ways of dealing with things.
4. Paul is a mixed child, but is considered a Hutu because his father was a Hutu.
5. Paul’s advantage was that even though he was a mixed person, he was considered a Hutu so he
wouldn’t be likely to be killed immediately.
6. Paul believes that ‘words’ were what caused the crisis (mostly harsh racial comments), and they
used to his advantage because he talked to the soldiers with words so that they wouldn’t attack the
hotel guests.

Chapter 1
1. The physical geography of Rwanda has a lot of hills and valleys in which people farm. So a lot of
the people deal with agriculture there.
2. Paul’s dad was a farmer and his mom helped his dad, and they have a decent house (comparing to
other African homes). Comparing to the U.S. economy, they would be in a lower class; but
comparing to other African economies (including Rwanda) they would be around middle class
3. Paul admires his father because of how big, strong, and healthy he is especially since he is
becoming rather old.
4. Banana beer is important to Rwandans because it is the ‘must-have’ recreational drink. It is just
like tea to a british person, or wine for a formal person, or even a beer for a country-southern
person.
5. The lion story foreshadowed Paul’s experience at his hotel. Despite the great risks, he still
admitted them and in the end helped a lot of people.

Chapter 2
1. a.1885- the conference of Berlin, this conference was a time in which several countries
organized who was going to control which parts of Africa
b. 1959- monarchy ended in Rwanda
c. 1973- Febuary of this year Paul’s best friend was expelled from school only because he was
considered a hutu because his dad was a hutu.
d. 1990
e. 1994- the year the mass murders in Rwanda started.
2. I think in 1959 Paul started to recognize the idiotic issues between the Tutsi and Hutu during
the ‘Hutu Revolution of 1959’
3. Paul’s Father was extremely nice and generous to the refugees that were hiding from the
killings, and because of this Paul got inspired.
4. Sometime around the 1500’s a dynastic king called Mwami came to power in Rwanda
5. A group of advisers known as abiru knew the royal families history.

6.
7. Tutsis were tall with delicate noses while the Hutu were generally shorter with wider noses.
8. These differences are completely idiotic to make such a huge deal with race. But somehow
the Rwandans believe it is a big difference.
9. The tale states that the Hutu were desents of Noah’s son Ham who was cursed for his sins. To
me, this tale probably means nothing towards the Hutu what so ever.
10. The Tutsis were considered to be better than the Hutus, even though there was almost no
difference between them.
11. What happens in Burundi effects Paul because eventually the problems get carried over to
Rwanda meaning there are a lot of refugees that are coming to seek shelter and hide from the
people who want to kill them.
12. The Germans gain control of Rwanda after the Berlin Conference.
13. The Germans were extremely laid back when they were in control of Rwanda and nothing
seemed to get done.
14. Belgium gains control over Rwanda when Germany’s empire collapses after World War 1.
 15. The Belgium government had more of an interest in the Rwandans and they started making
the racial differences to a level that started a lot of controversy.
16. The Belgians seemed to have singled out a ‘better’ racial group for there work and jobs.
17. The Belgians are a part of the Ethnic differences on account of the fact that they singled out
the Tutsis to get work done.
18. During 1933, Hitler was coming to power and was making a huge deal about ethnic
differences. And the Belgians did to in Rwanda.
19. The future generations of Rwanda were told of Tutsi Superiority all the time in everyday
situations.
20. I’m guessing Belgium left because of the rising power of the Hutus.
21. Belgium left Rwanda to a Hutu government which then led to the persecution of the Tutsis
22. Most of the refugees fled to neighboring countries, but he names Uganda in particular.
23. The Tutsi refugees were called cockroaches because they come out only at night and they are
hard to kill.
24. If a person was able to control the past, then they future would be controlled as well.

Chapter 3
1. Major African cities have luxury hotels because they are needed for rich foreign visitors and
charity workers such as the red cross.
2. For some reason the pool facing rooms were more expensive and had half diamond shaped
balconies that had he view of Kigali
3. Paul gets his name when he was baptized at the age of 13.
4. Paul marries a girl named Esther.
5.He feels as though being a pastor is the best job for him and his lifestyle. Because of this sacrifice he
is unaware of his future.
6. Kigali was chosen as the capitol because it was rapidly developing and it was located in the center
of the country.
7. He gets rejected because he is a nobody, but he talks to his instructor who took care of things. Paul
learned that there are multiple ways of solving things.
8. Paul meets Tatiana at a wedding. Paul and Esther got divorced and Paul obtained legal custody of
his 3 kids.
9. 10 o clock coffee by the pool was when a bunch of important people came in to talk or do business
work.
10. He watched lots of important decisions and discussions occur as he had his 10:00 coffee by the
pool.
11. Paul was called a muzungu (which translates to ‘white man’) because the other employees he used
to work with were jealous of his promotion.
12. He was employed as general manager of the Hotel Diplomates.
13. I agree, people need to negotiate to bring peace, even though you don’t get everything you want.

Chapter 14
1. RTLM is a radio station that was played through out the country.
2. The radio station becomes more evolved when people were able to have their voices on the radio
with any kind of talking.
3. People couldn’t turn it off because they were really interested in what people were saying.
4. According to Paul, the ‘tribal hatreds’ were a motive for the killers, not the root cause.
5. He says that the root reason was that people were afraid of being invaded by other people.
6. The Rwandan Patriotic Front was a group of men who became an organized military front under
the command of General Fred Rwigema and Paul Kagame.
7. The RPF was a threat the the Hutu government because they were more organized and effective in
combat than the Rwandan Army.
8. Rwandan Troops were shooting bullets in the dirt and up in the air to sound like they were under
attack. The next morning the government announced that they had stopped a rebellious invader.
9. Paul has constant problems with the president. It seems like everything the president does bothers
Paul.
10. I think that in the presidents eyes, Paul is a rebel. To lots of other people, he is believing in
something better than that.
11. The President was considered a hollow man. He was losing power and was constantly trying to get
it back.
12. Paul thinks that France stays with Rwanda because they want to preserve the language of the
French.
13. They started adding really harsh content about the Tutsis such as songs and preaches hating them.
14.
15. Machetes were typically used for everyday tasks that needed to be done around.
16. Machetes were being shipped into Kigali because of an apparent militia that was being formed.
17. Interahamwe is a group of people who stand or attack together.
18. The lists helped the government detect any possible security threats.
19. Etincelles was a man that stopped Paul’s wife on the road telling her that there is a plot that their
kids were going to be kidnapped.