Left to Tell: Chapter 22 Summary & Analysis

Kigali is so devastated that Immaculée finds it hard to believe she will find work. She asks Fari, who tells her the UN is likely the only option—but that she will need to speak English. Immaculée suddenly realizes that the vision she had in the bathroom is coming true. She washes her clothes, prays, and stays up all night practicing her English phrases in the mirror. The next morning, she travels to the UN and is greeted by a friendly Ghanaian guard. She believes he is speaking English but has no idea what he is saying. She responds: “How do you do? My name is Immaculée Ilibagiza. I am looking for a job.” The guard clearly has no idea what she is trying to say, but after learning she is Rwandan he switches to French. He points her to a waiting room, where she waits all day.

At the end of the day, Immaculée is told that there aren’t any jobs. Yet she remains determined, and returns to the waiting room every day for two weeks. At this point, she begins to lose hope. Aloise’s house is too noisy for proper prayer and contemplation, and Immaculée even finds herself missing the bathroom for the opportunities it afforded for deep, uninterrupted connection with God. Nonetheless, Immaculée prays to God to help her get a job at the UN, saying she knows that this is His plan for her. She begins to visualize herself getting the job, and to think about what she will need to do after she does.

Immaculée realizes that she will need her high school diploma and documentation demonstrating her university attendance, all of which are in her dorm room in Butare. Yet Butare is four hours’ drive away and she has no idea how she will get there. At this moment, Immaculée hears her name being called. It is Dr. Abel, a professor of medicine from her old university. He remarks on how thin she is and invites her to come and live with him in Butare. Immaculée explains that she has a place to live but that she would love a lift to the city, and Dr. Abel replies that he is planning to leave tomorrow. Immaculée realizes that once again, God has answered her prayers and provided a solution to her problems.

When Dr. Abel drops her at the university, she is told that the campus is “off limits indefinitely” and that she should go back to Kigali. Immaculée stands at the roadside and prays, holding Leonard’s rosary. Soon after, a colonel approaches her and takes pity on her, mistaking her for a child due to her extremely low weight. He agrees to accompany her to her dorm room. The campus is unrecognizable and is still strewn with bodies. Immaculée does not look closely in case they are any of her beloved friends. Everything in Immaculée’s dorm room has been stolen except some pictures of her parents, which she gratefully takes from the wall.

The colonel grabs some of Immaculée’s letters and suspiciously demands: “Who’s Aimable?”. Immaculée explains that he is her brother, studying in Senegal. At that moment, she spots an envelope on the floor containing her high school diploma, university progress report, and $30 of her scholarship money. Immaculée is thrilled—not only is she now “rich,” but she has documents to prove her education. She uses $1 to pay for a taxi back to Kigali, and then purchases clothes, shoes, perfume, and deodorant. She also gets her hair done for the first time in months.

The next day Immaculée returns to the UN, where the guard does not even recognize her. She introduces herself to the personnel director and explains that she is looking for a job. He asks if she is trying to say she needs a job, before switching to French. The personnel director directs Immaculée to his secretary, who is suspicious of her and tells her that they won’t have any openings for the next three or four months. Immaculée walks away crying, but as she is leaving a middle-aged man stops her. He hands her his business card and tells her to come back at 10am the following morning. His card identifies him as Pierre Mehu, a spokesman for UNAMIR. UNAMIR had been established prior to the genocide in order to improve the Rwandan government. 

The next day, Mr. Mehu reveals that he mistook Immaculée for a young woman he was close to who had been killed in the genocide. He takes a liking to Immaculée and promises to get her a job, adding that the UN will be her new “home” and he her father figure. Mr. Mehu’s secretary gives Immaculée intensive lessons in secretarial skills, and soon after Immaculée passes the UN typing test with a perfect score. She is soon given a job as a clerk, tracking the foreign supplies coming to Rwanda via the UN. Immaculée cannot believe that only a few months previously, she had been teetering on the brink of death in the bathroom.

Immaculée loves her job, meeting new people, and improving her English. She is also happy to receive a paycheck, which helps her to financially support her aunts and give back to Aloise. In early October, all her friends from the camp had left Aloise’s house. Over a million Tutsis who’d left Rwanda during the 1959 and 1973 massacres have returned to the country, shaping it into a different place. Meanwhile, over two million Hutus had left, many to refugee camps in other countries. Surrounded by ongoing turmoil and suffering, Immaculée decides that she needs to move on and find a new home. 

Soon after, Immaculée’s university roommate, Sarah, arrives at Aloise’s house, weeping with joy to find Immaculée alive. Immaculée sobs as she tells Sarah how Augustine and Vianney died together. Immaculée decides to move in with Sarah, who lives only five minutes away from Aloise. Immaculée is thrilled to live with Sarah’s parents, who are very devout Christians. Immaculée realizes that it is finally time for her to write to Aimable, a task she has delayed because of the unbearable sorrow it will bring them both. She puts Leonard’s rosary on the table beside her and begins to write “the saddest letter I have ever written.”