To hell and back: The Kemu's are home

At home in Thornbury, finally, the Kemu's sleep peacefully for the first time in more than three years.

Gustave, Arlette, Landry, Audrey, Vanessa and Benitta Kemu arrived at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on a cold but sunny afternoon, Thursday, February 11. Refugees from the turmoil plaguing their home country - the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Gustave, the father, said he knew nothing of Canada before arriving - just that it was cold. That wasn't going to deter them from coming. They spent the past three years facing the unknown - three years of unpredictable horror. Canada, whatever it held, had to be exponentially better than the hell they survived in Africa.

The Kemus had a home in DR Congo - perhaps not as modern as a North American family enjoys, but they had clean water, ample food and a bed for each of their five children - all of whom, were able to go to school when they reached the right age.

Baby Benitta was born and instead of celebrating another child, the Kemu's life, like so many others in DR Congo, was ripped apart.

Gustave says most of the conflict in DR Congo is tribal - not unlike the genocides in Rwanda more than a decade ago. In fact, some of the invaders have even come from Rwanda - that's where the weapons are from.

The Kemu's were first split up, Gustave fled the town to find a safe place for the family to flee to.

Then the worst came true.

Arlette and her five children were singled out by evil men who violated and murdered 16 year-old Jacquie Kemu in front of her mother and siblings.

Gustave lost contact with his family, not knowing the fate of his firstborn daughter, not knowing the fate of any of his children or his wife. He assumed them dead.

Arlette assumed her husband, the father of her four remaining children, was dead.

The Kemu children and their mother fled Congo, first they took a ship south down Lake Tanganyika. From there they rode a truck - but without any idea of a destination. They knew only that they needed to flee Congo. The exodus was massive.

"If you could only see the thousands of people walking hundreds of kilometres with their children," said Arlette.

"We were just going," said Landry. "I didn't know where we were."

They were dropped off in Zimbabwe and told to continue walking until they found a camp.

Gustave tried to stay in Zambia, but was warned not to. He made his way to Zimbabwe to a United Nations protected refugee camp. He spent one year without word from his family. One year believing they were dead.

Gustave thought his family gone, in desperation, he wrote a letter to Red Cross containing the names of his lost wife and children. They were registered at the camp.

All but one of the Kemu's were reunited at the refugee camp in Zimbabwe.

Gustave then learned of his daughter's murder.

"That is life," he said, not fighting a single tear running down his cheek, then wiping away the others that followed.

Zimbabwe may seem a poor alternative given the turmoil in the country, but a pocket of the land is protected by the United Nations, and that's where the refugees live. Families fleeing for their lives from evil in their own countries - Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Berundi, Somalia.

The Kemu's shared a shelter with a hundred others. There was no clean drinking water and food was scarce. There were small houses, but they were full long before the Kemu's arrived. The six of them, even two-year-old Benitta, lived on beans and rice.

They usually slept on the ground with only a blanket. Illness was rampant. Arlette spent nearly every moment crying - tragedy encamped all around them, encroaching on their hope, overwhelming their peace.

"Horrible. Horrible," said Gustave.

The Kemu's lived in the camp in Zimbabwe for two years as they waited to come to Canada. Finally they were brought to the airport.

Arlette remembers thinking their journey would not happen. That it was only a joke. Then, on the plane to Frankfurt, Germany - the stopover before Canada - she began to believe she and her family were leaving their hell.

They landed in Toronto and Landry said he had to pinch himself to believe it.

"I could not believe it was me in Toronto," he said.

They passed through one final smoked glass door to see a crowd waiting for them, cheering at their arrival. Arlette says she will remember that surprise - that day - for the rest of her life.

"I had deep joy," said Gustave. "I said, 'I'm abandoning the old, this is the new life. Thank God for everything."

The family, together around their kitchen table, Audrey serving tea and Benitta drinking milk - her favourite - tries to explain the best thing about Canada.

"There is peace," said Audrey, quietly and with a smile.

"Peace of mind," said Arlette, her head bowed. "In the camp, I spent all of the time crying, now I sleep well, I can eat something. I can see my children go school."

"Tranquility," said Landry. He motions across his face with his hands, "no more nightmares."

"Everything," said Gustave.