Friday was quite a nice break in all the bustling about we’d been doing (if you can call it that in Africa).
We started the morning with an 8 o’clock breakfast meeting with Festus, Mary Jean, and Emanuel from Hope International. The organization is based in Pennsylvania and is located in 14 different countries. It runs by savings and credit associations. It’s an interesting system – members of groups save their money and pool it for the needs of different members. Their savings stay with them and there is also no external injection of capital. They borrow each other’s money. This is how Hope intends to reach the poor – by helping them borrow loans of less than $50 in rural areas, rather than by small loans in more urban areas.
The groups make their own policies but Hope helps them in the process. Similarly to UOB, Hope integrates the financial and the spiritual through the structure of church networks. People who would never have access to loans have a chance in this set-up, and when they’ve reached a sustainable level, they can perhaps join a trust group. Mary Jean had a great testimony of how this sort of thing worked for her and a group of other widows. They are at this point looking to buy their own houses!
We had the rest of the morning to relax and then a lunch meeting with Kat and Mark from Bridge to Rwanda, and Claire from the Rwandan Development Board. What a group. Kat and Mark came first and just talked with us about random things like the lack of addresses in Kigali, the time their house was broken into, and Waco. When Claire arrived we got down to business and talked about economic development in Rwanda. She gave us the basics of what RDB is there for and why it was established in 2008. It seems that many of the ministries and organisations we’ve interacted with are fairly new. The RDB wants to bring business to the private sector in an orderly and efficient way, rather than have duplicate services and product providers. I’m not entirely sure how that would work and still allow competition, but Claire seems rather capable. She said the idea was to do business but not to compete with private businesses (who need income).
She talked about Vision 2020, the “development road map” for Rwanda. It’s an ambitious plan which focuses on economic growth and investment. Rwanda has been the fastest economic reformer in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is still so much to be done for growth.
Later on we went to a different market, which I liked better because it was individual little house-room things and each person had their own room of products that they would love to sell to you. I felt less hassled and more able to take my time because our bus was in a central location and it wasn’t a maze to get in and out. I bought the majority of my gifts there. I’m pretty sure I got ripped off, but I am choosing to call it a requested blessing. Also I was able to converse in French and I’m growing more confident – since it’s a necessity for communication I’m forced to use it, which I haven’t been in several years.
Then we went to a sportsy store which had jerseys, trophies, shoes, ballons, etc. Allison was twirling in her skirt outside and misunderstanding ensued after Parker remarked that her knees were showing and that was risqué. Hilarity ensued after we all realized that Allison had heard him say something else... Glad we got that cleared up.
Devotional/Debriefing Time:
Three points of focus…
- We should be careful of our words, and how we react to small disappointments.
- There is power in the group – having others to support and to lean on makes the whole group stronger, and things can get done.
- We need to meet people where they are, to get into their circumstances rather than trying to bring them to our level (whatever that may be). In terms of microfinance, you have to go to the rural people to serve them, rather than only looking after whoever is in town and able to come to the bank. This concept takes on myriad other forms.
For supper, we walked to the mall and bought groceries or walked around or ate at Bourbon (chique restaurant/coffee place). Some of us found Muzungu 1 T-shirts but left them for others of that name. I bought cheap bread from the galette in the grocery store. We saw Paul – not PK but our trip/tour guy. I can’t figure out how, when Kigali is so big, you find people you know all over the place. And that’s only for us – we’ve been here less than a week and we already can know people. This is fun.
The walk to the mall included a little boy walking with us for quite some time, wanting/needing food or money. We just aren’t supposed to give it so that the younger generation does not grow up with a mentality that begging works and is all that’s needed. But it is not easy to walk away.
On the way into the hotel, we met Peter Robinson from Pepperdine University, who knows Ken Starr. Now when I meet our new president, I’ll have something enjoyable to talk about! “Hi, Dr. Starr, I recently spoke with Peter Robinson about how great it is to take students to Rwanda. What are your thoughts?”
Later some folks played more Phase 10, a game that will continue to faze me for some time. I sat there and took down scores and notes, which was probably a needless job that someone else could have done but I stayed anyway. It was really fun, though, to hang out and laugh and be confused and see Joel’s facebook picture mysteriously morph into one of PK. All sorts of values go out the door during this game, such as honesty, compassion, self-control, selflessness… ah! the competitive spirit often drives out charity. Thankfully, it seems as though the door has been reopened to those pleasant virtues.
1 Muzungu means foreigner, white person, or other things too. We hear that everywhere we go.
Items of Note:
• Ms. Coldwell hears everything.
• Don’t give me the Muzungu price. That price is disagreeable.
• Nutella is expensive in Rwanda. Bring your own.
• I was told that I will be a good mother. Note to good mothers: always carry insect spray.
• It’s a bummer to be colour blind during the colour phase of Phase 10.
• I love my teammates.
23 May 2010
Gradual Restoration
Thursday P.M.:
After a delicious buffet lunch, we went to the Nyamala site. Before the guide explained things to us, we just walked around. It was a much bigger main building than the first one, which means that more people were hiding there; 10,000-11,000 people were killed there on the day the Interahamwe1 arrived. The layout was similar to the first church – clothes lying on pews, blood stains remaining, bullet holes in the roof. There were more bones displayed, and some were just in large bags in one area because they were remains recently found by family members. One family brought in the bones of their loved ones while we were there and laid them out. It was surreal and terrible. In the mass graves about the area, there are about 45,000 people buried. That number is less than 10% of the total number of people killed in 1994.
I don’t know how I would have taken all this if we hadn’t had to watch those films earlier in the semester. In March I could not understand why we needed to go through that but now I see that it has kept me from falling apart in these two experiences. At the very least, I was unsurprised.
Bosco told us lots about the genocide and things like that from personal experience. He told us some of his story, but also said that it was hard for him to talk about. I can't even imagine.
How we managed to move from that to normal activities again is beyond me…except that Emily had her Fujifilm camera that produces instant photographs, and a few children walking on the street got to take a picture of themselves home with them. Seeing the joy that this brought to them provided for a slight lightening of the sadness.
On the way to the market, we had some exciting moments. The first was seeing Paul Kagame, ol’ PK himself, driving down the street! We all freaked out, basically. The next time we freaked out was less desirable; Katey asked an RPF soldier if she could take his photo. The man’s eyes turned an angry shape in very little time. Oh and he was holding a gun. So that was a ‘no.’
The market was an interesting experience for me, mostly uncomfortable because there were so many people and they were all talking to you. This is not my preferred method of communication or transaction. Bargaining is also not too fun2; since I was so new to it and it was tiring, I gave up after buying a few things. I needed more time to take it all in.
While we were waiting at the bus for a bit for everyone to be done, Travis and Campbell prayed for a boy with a broken elbow. Then Campbell got our bus driver to translate while he shared the Gospel with a gathering crowd of men and boys (because we're told that the women are the ones doing the work and the men are always sitting around here, which I've seen and it's interesting...but great because they got to hear the Gospel! Fun stuff.) And others then went out and just started loving on people. It was beautiful. So awesome - anointed to preach good news to the poor, like in Isaiah 61. As we drove away, one man who had decided to follow Jesus shook Campbell’s hand through the window and said something like, “Thank you for the gift you gave me.”
Devotional/Debriefing time:
We reflected on the full day and our reactions.
- We talked about how it felt wrong to be taking photographs in the churches, but that it is needed so that we can help others remember.
- There is a view that some hold that Christianity is for and from white people, and is therefore distasteful to many who remember that white Europeans brought about the division between the people of Rwanda.
- The mothers in Rafiki Village sacrifice most other things in their lives in order to love the children. They’re supposed to be committed to raising those kids.
- Ways to market and sell things at home that we saw in the market.
- The incredible lifestyle gap – even just looking at the market kids and the Rafiki kids.
Dr. Wu encouraged us to think about where to go from here – how can we constructively use what we’ve seen and done and learned, and combine that with ministry? We should look to serve everyone better.
For supper, We walked to a sweet Indian restaurant of deliciousness. Our end of the table was ridiculous. Despite or because of that, we came up with great entrepreneurial ideas such as are listed in my Business Ventures page, a link to which you will see on the right.
1 The Interahamwe was not state-run, but was one of the main groups involved in the genocide – sort of a paramilitary collection of killers.
2 My personal reflection.
Things of note:
• An inchinyomoro is kind of like a wee pomegranate. Tide pens are hard pressed to get out the stains.
• Keeping the glass soda bottles is not kind. They always want them back.
• Bus rides are the perfect chance to drive people crazy with mind games.
• One of my Bibles now belongs to a new Rwandan Christian.
• Can you play this game? Listen to me: if Rwanda is a cup and my pet cricket likes sunlight, we will spend 3 days in Chicago. This is deep, but your teeth are profound. Bang bang bang! Who’s dead? It is Travis’s watch, which is not a cup.
After a delicious buffet lunch, we went to the Nyamala site. Before the guide explained things to us, we just walked around. It was a much bigger main building than the first one, which means that more people were hiding there; 10,000-11,000 people were killed there on the day the Interahamwe1 arrived. The layout was similar to the first church – clothes lying on pews, blood stains remaining, bullet holes in the roof. There were more bones displayed, and some were just in large bags in one area because they were remains recently found by family members. One family brought in the bones of their loved ones while we were there and laid them out. It was surreal and terrible. In the mass graves about the area, there are about 45,000 people buried. That number is less than 10% of the total number of people killed in 1994.
I don’t know how I would have taken all this if we hadn’t had to watch those films earlier in the semester. In March I could not understand why we needed to go through that but now I see that it has kept me from falling apart in these two experiences. At the very least, I was unsurprised.
Bosco told us lots about the genocide and things like that from personal experience. He told us some of his story, but also said that it was hard for him to talk about. I can't even imagine.
How we managed to move from that to normal activities again is beyond me…except that Emily had her Fujifilm camera that produces instant photographs, and a few children walking on the street got to take a picture of themselves home with them. Seeing the joy that this brought to them provided for a slight lightening of the sadness.
On the way to the market, we had some exciting moments. The first was seeing Paul Kagame, ol’ PK himself, driving down the street! We all freaked out, basically. The next time we freaked out was less desirable; Katey asked an RPF soldier if she could take his photo. The man’s eyes turned an angry shape in very little time. Oh and he was holding a gun. So that was a ‘no.’
The market was an interesting experience for me, mostly uncomfortable because there were so many people and they were all talking to you. This is not my preferred method of communication or transaction. Bargaining is also not too fun2; since I was so new to it and it was tiring, I gave up after buying a few things. I needed more time to take it all in.
While we were waiting at the bus for a bit for everyone to be done, Travis and Campbell prayed for a boy with a broken elbow. Then Campbell got our bus driver to translate while he shared the Gospel with a gathering crowd of men and boys (because we're told that the women are the ones doing the work and the men are always sitting around here, which I've seen and it's interesting...but great because they got to hear the Gospel! Fun stuff.) And others then went out and just started loving on people. It was beautiful. So awesome - anointed to preach good news to the poor, like in Isaiah 61. As we drove away, one man who had decided to follow Jesus shook Campbell’s hand through the window and said something like, “Thank you for the gift you gave me.”
Devotional/Debriefing time:
We reflected on the full day and our reactions.
- We talked about how it felt wrong to be taking photographs in the churches, but that it is needed so that we can help others remember.
- There is a view that some hold that Christianity is for and from white people, and is therefore distasteful to many who remember that white Europeans brought about the division between the people of Rwanda.
- The mothers in Rafiki Village sacrifice most other things in their lives in order to love the children. They’re supposed to be committed to raising those kids.
- Ways to market and sell things at home that we saw in the market.
- The incredible lifestyle gap – even just looking at the market kids and the Rafiki kids.
Dr. Wu encouraged us to think about where to go from here – how can we constructively use what we’ve seen and done and learned, and combine that with ministry? We should look to serve everyone better.
For supper, We walked to a sweet Indian restaurant of deliciousness. Our end of the table was ridiculous. Despite or because of that, we came up with great entrepreneurial ideas such as are listed in my Business Ventures page, a link to which you will see on the right.
1 The Interahamwe was not state-run, but was one of the main groups involved in the genocide – sort of a paramilitary collection of killers.
2 My personal reflection.
Things of note:
• An inchinyomoro is kind of like a wee pomegranate. Tide pens are hard pressed to get out the stains.
• Keeping the glass soda bottles is not kind. They always want them back.
• Bus rides are the perfect chance to drive people crazy with mind games.
• One of my Bibles now belongs to a new Rwandan Christian.
• Can you play this game? Listen to me: if Rwanda is a cup and my pet cricket likes sunlight, we will spend 3 days in Chicago. This is deep, but your teeth are profound. Bang bang bang! Who’s dead? It is Travis’s watch, which is not a cup.
If You Knew Me
Many of us woke up Thursday to nifty bird noises from an unidentified source. It was early. It sounded nice1.
Thursday was a full day and it took a lot out of all of us, I think. I will now proceed to tell you why.
Thursday A.M.:
We boarded our beloved bus in the morning and drove out of Kigali. Just for the record, bus rides are some of my favourite times with everyone. We get to just relax for a bit and hang out with each other. It’s so pleasant; it is also the source of jokes and quotes for my records.
The drive through the countryside (paysage) was so gorgeous. We were all plastered to the windows snapping away with our cameras. I’m very lucky that green is my favourite colour. The hills just keep going, and the land is covered with growth. We drove past a swamp where people probably hid during the genocide. The génocidaires would often send dogs in to find people who were hiding in the bush. That was a thought to help us prepare for what was coming…
We first visited the church at Ntarama, which is now a genocide memorial so that no one forgets what happened, in order that it should never happen again. People were all around as we parked; it struck me as interesting that they would hang around a place like that (although Bosco, our splendid driver, told us they were there to get their new national IDs2 so they could vote in the upcoming election). It would seem eerie to me if I lived there. Not that it wasn’t anyway. As we went into the main church building, the first things I saw were skulls. Sorry if that shocks…but that’s not the worst. There were shelves of bones and skulls. On the pews and hanging from rafters were the clothes of the victims, unwashed and dusty from the years they’d been there. Bosco mentioned that people fled to churches during the conflict because it was always generally known that “no one can kill you there.” How tragic that these places were desecrated so.
One of the buildings had been burnt with people in it. There were shelves of burnt and mangled belongings, books, Bibles, shoes, and other miscellaneous items. Somewhere was written: “If you knew me and you knew yourself you wouldn’t have killed me.” 5000 people were killed in Ntarama church in one day.
Fortunately, on our way to the second church site, we had a change of plans and rerouted to Rafiki Village, where we met and spoke with Patty Yoss. Rafiki Village is home to a good number of orphans who Patty and others have found based on recommendations from the government. They investigate the situation of each child and then accept some in to the Village. When the orphans arrive they are anywhere from 18 months to five years (and Rafiki only opened about 1 ½ years ago). The children live in cottages with a “mother” who cares for them. They are taught everything one would learn from a classical Christian education, plus English (required by the government) and other Rwandan curriculum items.
As the organisation moves further on in time, they plan to have the children stay until they finish secondary school, and then pay for each one’s university education. One of the goals of Rafiki is to raise the orphans to become Godly contributors to Rwanda, to help the country in many different ways with a generation of Christ-followers who, as someone said in our debriefing time that night, may end up being the leaders of Rwanda one day.
It was peacefully refreshing to play with the kiddos there after a very sobering morning. They were so beautiful and joyous. They spoke to us in English and we all played with blocks and took pictures. I got to hang out to Epa and Dadi, two little boys who were fascinated by Katey’s nice camera. The children sang songs for us, and at the end little five-year-old Naomi prayed. In that moment, I felt so small; it was pretty humbling to hear a sweet young one talk to her Father, though she has no earthly one, in such a trusting and knowing manner. As she prayed I really questioned whether the kids were supposed to help us more than we were supposed to help them.
1 My personal reflection.
2 The new IDs have no Tutsi or Hutu identification. They are just Rwandan.
Thursday was a full day and it took a lot out of all of us, I think. I will now proceed to tell you why.
Thursday A.M.:
We boarded our beloved bus in the morning and drove out of Kigali. Just for the record, bus rides are some of my favourite times with everyone. We get to just relax for a bit and hang out with each other. It’s so pleasant; it is also the source of jokes and quotes for my records.
The drive through the countryside (paysage) was so gorgeous. We were all plastered to the windows snapping away with our cameras. I’m very lucky that green is my favourite colour. The hills just keep going, and the land is covered with growth. We drove past a swamp where people probably hid during the genocide. The génocidaires would often send dogs in to find people who were hiding in the bush. That was a thought to help us prepare for what was coming…
We first visited the church at Ntarama, which is now a genocide memorial so that no one forgets what happened, in order that it should never happen again. People were all around as we parked; it struck me as interesting that they would hang around a place like that (although Bosco, our splendid driver, told us they were there to get their new national IDs2 so they could vote in the upcoming election). It would seem eerie to me if I lived there. Not that it wasn’t anyway. As we went into the main church building, the first things I saw were skulls. Sorry if that shocks…but that’s not the worst. There were shelves of bones and skulls. On the pews and hanging from rafters were the clothes of the victims, unwashed and dusty from the years they’d been there. Bosco mentioned that people fled to churches during the conflict because it was always generally known that “no one can kill you there.” How tragic that these places were desecrated so.
One of the buildings had been burnt with people in it. There were shelves of burnt and mangled belongings, books, Bibles, shoes, and other miscellaneous items. Somewhere was written: “If you knew me and you knew yourself you wouldn’t have killed me.” 5000 people were killed in Ntarama church in one day.
Fortunately, on our way to the second church site, we had a change of plans and rerouted to Rafiki Village, where we met and spoke with Patty Yoss. Rafiki Village is home to a good number of orphans who Patty and others have found based on recommendations from the government. They investigate the situation of each child and then accept some in to the Village. When the orphans arrive they are anywhere from 18 months to five years (and Rafiki only opened about 1 ½ years ago). The children live in cottages with a “mother” who cares for them. They are taught everything one would learn from a classical Christian education, plus English (required by the government) and other Rwandan curriculum items.
As the organisation moves further on in time, they plan to have the children stay until they finish secondary school, and then pay for each one’s university education. One of the goals of Rafiki is to raise the orphans to become Godly contributors to Rwanda, to help the country in many different ways with a generation of Christ-followers who, as someone said in our debriefing time that night, may end up being the leaders of Rwanda one day.
It was peacefully refreshing to play with the kiddos there after a very sobering morning. They were so beautiful and joyous. They spoke to us in English and we all played with blocks and took pictures. I got to hang out to Epa and Dadi, two little boys who were fascinated by Katey’s nice camera. The children sang songs for us, and at the end little five-year-old Naomi prayed. In that moment, I felt so small; it was pretty humbling to hear a sweet young one talk to her Father, though she has no earthly one, in such a trusting and knowing manner. As she prayed I really questioned whether the kids were supposed to help us more than we were supposed to help them.
1 My personal reflection.
2 The new IDs have no Tutsi or Hutu identification. They are just Rwandan.
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