Microfinance in Action

Wednesday was eye-opening. Well, I guess that can be said for every next day we're here.

Wednesday A.M.:

We visited Urwego Opportunity Bank. Urwego means ladder - the bank helps people climb out of poverty and into better welfare. It's such a cool organisation because its purpose is not only to improve the financial aspects of lives, but the spiritual part too. The bank trains people about money but also about living as a Christian. Legit! Some of us want to open accounts there - it just takes a small deposit. Then they'd have a little more money in there, too. And it would be handy for the next time I might come back. (who knows?)

We then drove outside the main part of Kigali to visit four different trust groups (we split up into two groups and each met with two). Our first one was called (if I can spell it right) Aviseranye, meaning "people who trust each other." That is lovely. We drove into a poorer neighbourhood and when we arrived, the people ushered us in to the living room, insisting that we sit on the furniture while they stand or sit on the floor. We opened with prayer and then Emory, one of the bank employees, talked about how the group was doing very well and had come far in their growth. Peace, another employee, translated as we interacted with the group. We got to ask them questions about what they do, how their lives are, what they hope for the future, etc. It was really neat to see the effects of microfinance and those it has impacted.

They asked us questions too, especially: What are you doing here? :) Then we got to talk about (through Taylor mostly) our hopes for learning how to do missions along with business or whatever else we're called to, and how UOB does a great job of this. They thought that was good, and they asked us not to forget them, to greet our families for them, and to come back to see them. What beautiful people.

The second group we met with was named Abishema, and they too gave us their furniture. We had a similar conversation with them. They told us we looked much older than we were, which is quite a compliment here because it means we have been well-nourished and are growing up healthily. They were wondering if we were married because we looked old enough. And they told us that because they have now known us and we share one faith, we are friends forever. I think I'm learning so much that I want to take back home; how to treat people and honour them, how to live simply, how to have patience, etc.

Also I was able to converse a little in French, which was exciting. I was beginning to feel it was useless in Texas (which it is) but I’m glad to know that it’s not useless in all places. Especially since I don’t know Kinyarwanda. But I’d like to.

Our tour guide, who is our age, is named Fred. He's awesome and always smiling. He's so helpful and friendly. And another interesting thing is that his father was an officer in the RPF with Paul Kagame when they came into Rwanda from Uganda to stop the genocide.

Wednesday P.M.:

We visited the Rwanda Trading Company, which is run (I believe) by our friend Todd Brogden, who we met last month when he came to Baylor. We had a tour of the coffee plant and then were able to taste it - like wine tasting. But different. I had a delightful conversation with the Taster, Leticia. She was beautiful and sweet. We talked about coffee, what we were doing, her life, etc. And then they gave us each free coffee.

We ate supper at a nice place, the New Cactus (I guess the old one stepped down)…and had pizza. It was nice, though. Our end of the table was unfortunately far away from Todd Brogden so we tried to amuse ourselves (which is not at all difficult). We took photographs of funny faces, folded napkins in fancy ways, tried to pronounce our names backwards, and found our blind spots. Nick took more candid photos, which everyone loves. Blake enlightened us as to why we think we see different colours when we see the same one, and other confusing things about eyes. Kelcy put her arm over a candle. Travis bravely tried the spicy oil first so we could all know how hot it was. Joel told us about a fun game where you shine flashlights at people and they fall over. Campbell was generally hilarious. I don’t know what I did other than remember these random things (which, no, were not things I took notes on).


Things of note:

• I heard a Nicole C. Mullen song as we drove past one part of town – When You Call on Jesus…
• The infrastructure here seems to be improving but could still use a lot of work.
• I can’t help everyone. I can help someone.
• I had an unlucky night with making weird faces for photos; I couldn’t do it on command!
• It’s refreshing to meet Americans in other countries who aren’t tourists but are here.
• I don’t have malaria.