Travel to be reborn

Illustration Johanna Reynaud

Frederique Giguere

Sunday, 28 January, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Sunday, 28 January, 2018 01:00

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The victim of a sexual assault of a violence unimaginable, there is a little more than two years in Montreal, a young student was so afraid of dying that she has given up everything to start the tour of the world of his dreams.

“All my life I’ve dreamed of traveling and experiencing new adventures constantly, told Stella (fictitious name), who is now 25 years old. My aggression took me back to this dream. I almost died that night. He raped me for an hour, and during that time I didn’t know if he was going to kill me when he had finished. I survived, and I decided to realize my dream. “

A native of Russia, the young woman had come to study a few months in a university in the city in order to fine-tune his English and his French. What was supposed to be one of the most rewarding experiences of his life, however, is transformed into a veritable nightmare in the night of November 4, 2016.

A safe city

Like thousands of other students of her age, Stella has spent an evening with friends in a bar in the Plateau that evening. She drank one beer and left the restaurant at about 3 a.m. to return to her home. Arrival in Montreal for about two months, while the world around her had touted the metropolis. His friends and his teachers insisted on the fact that it was a great city, very safe crime-free in the middle of the street were rather rare.

In the hope of saving a few dollars, the student is therefore preferred to return home on foot rather than take a taxi.

Shortly after, while she was walking on the street d’iberville, not far from the boulevard Saint-Joseph est, a pure unknown man approached her. He hit her in the face and in the back with his elbow.

“I’m going to rape you and kill you,” he said, before the drag force up to the back of a car dealership, to the shelter of the glances.

“It was like a movie,” she says. My mind began to work slowly, as if it was happening to someone else. Rather than crying, I was trying to think of how I was going to get me out of this situation alive. I tried to scream, but he struck me still more violently. So I stopped shouting. “

Freeze the pain

In addition to the broken nose she sustained injuries to the eye, the hands, fingers, lips, knees, back, neck, and brow bone during the attack.

After her rape, Stella tried to anesthetize his pain with drugs.

“I didn’t want to let it do harm to my spirit,” she recalls. It was important to me to be strong and not let myself fall into depression. “

The assault occurred on the night of Thursday to Friday. The following Monday, she was back in class.

“I was wearing a cap, sunglasses and plenty of makeup to hide the wounds on my face “, she says.

Unsurprisingly, the reality has quickly caught up with Stella. Nothing restrained her in Montreal and she hated now the city.

“The life that I chérissais formerly, having a stable job, a home and a family did not seem to me more enticing,” she says. For the first time in my life, I decided to let it go and realize my dream of doing the world tour. “

Difficult to confide

Thus, four months after the assault, she left Montreal. His student VISA was going to expire and, anyway, she had no interest in this city, the one that had broken. Fearing to suffer even more, she did everything to hide what had happened to their loved ones.

“Even today, it is inconceivable for me to tell my aggression to my parents,” she says. They would suffer even more than me. It is always difficult to know that the people you love are hurt. “

Stella, who had a good circle of friends, wanted more than ever to be alone. Take the time to think how she might one day regain that which has been torn out in the back yard of a car dealership by a man, visibly disturbed.

His project of study in Montreal had cost him almost all her savings, but she had dreamed at all costs to discover the world.

“So I used the miles I had accumulated, to buy me a one way ticket to Cuba, and this is how my adventure began. “

Since then, she has visited Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile. Stella has worked sporadically in the cities they visit in order to continue to travel.

She fucks completely where she goes to sleep, and prefers to plan his life one day at a time.

“Today, I can sleep in a tent on the grounds of a gas station, and tomorrow in a villa in the Bahamas,” she said. I jump on the opportunities available to me. “

Never alone

His aggression, however, has become very vigilant, and she feels the effects on a daily basis.

First, she never travel alone. Stella always makes sure to create a small group of friends who will accompany her to her next destination. The young woman is also avoiding the large cities as possible. When she visits, she ensures to be with a group and prefers to return to it quickly in the neighbouring villages.

The globe-seconds hand has also sometimes flash-back fist to the face and she avoids being alone with men that she knows little.

However, rather than withdraw into itself and to hate the human race, Stella has decided, instead, that his recovery was going to be done by kindness.

“I love people and I strive every day to be a good person,” she said. There is nothing in the world that justifies to hurt someone. We are all weak human beings. It is the easiest thing in the world than hurting someone. It is much more difficult to learn to love people and to live with their defects. This man has broken my body, but it has not reached my soul. “

Dangerous offender

The attacker Sella, a man of 28 years, holds a heavy criminal past. François Dulude, who has been detained since his arrest, pleaded guilty to the charges leveled against him and admitted to having been made to undergo an ordeal to Stella that night.

Steps are also undertaken by the Crown prosecutor to declaring him a dangerous offender. The decision will be made in a few weeks.