Saturday, March 29, 2008
This morning is a hazy day in Kigali. It is the last Saturday in the month. This means that from early morning until around 12:30 PM, all Rwandans are required to do community service. All shops are closed and the President has threatened people with fines if they do not participate in this activity. I am going out shortly with my fellow therapist Ruan Humphrey from Orlando, Florida. She is helping a lady named Peninah with her trauma work in Kigali and the surrounding areas. This afternoon Mark and I have been invited to a Rwandan wedding. There is supposed to be a lot of dancing and music, so it will be very interesting to witness all of this. Tomorrow afternoon, Rick Warren will be holding an enormous crusade in the city. The Archbishop gave Mark and me personal written invitations to attend.
Monday, March 31, 2008
So much to tell…. It is raining nonstop outside. However, the rain does little to slow the steady walking of the Rwandans going to work. Some have umbrellas, most do not. They will either work in wet clothes today or perhaps if they are lucky they will have some dry ones to change into once they arrive at their jobs. This past week we met with three groups for our research. The first group was in the village of Maranyundo. It is near the town of Nyamata in the Bugesera region of Rwanda. This region was completely wiped out by the genocide and all of the people living there are “new” to the area. Interestingly, the parish at Maranyundo is the sister parish to Christ Anglican Church in Mobile, Alabama. I had lunch in Rev. Marcel’s home. He is the priest that we pray for each week at Christ Church. Marcel is currently studying at the seminary in Kigali. His wife hosted us for a lovely meal which included greens—something like collard greens. They were amazing.
To get to Maranyundo parish, we drove on a new “tarmac” road for about 40 minutes. At times the road was rather steep. All along the way we saw beautiful countryside and even crossed over a river that is the source of the Nile in Egypt. There were few vehicles on the road, but quite a number of people walking on the edge of the road. Quite a few were carrying bundles on top of their heads. Some people used their bicycles to haul items while they walked alongside steering them. There were also bicycle taxis for hire and lovely African women in colorful print dresses with matching head wraps sat “side saddle.” They sat straight and tall and seemed nonplussed even when descending a steep hill. The church in Maranyundo is an old—at least it looks old—block building with dirt and cement floors. It is about 50 or 60 feet long with an open ceiling. There are no individual rooms in the church, rather it is one open building and has the feel of a large barn. There are small backless benches for seating. Upon entering the church we found about 45 people participating in a workshop let by Peninah from the Diocesan Office in Kigali. Following the workshop, we were to introduce our trauma research, test the group, and then teach them a stress reduction technique to practice for two weeks. With my able interpreter and host for my time here, Emmanuel Ntaganda, I explained my program to the group and began. The trauma assessment which was designed to take about 15 minutes actually took around one hour and 40 minutes. However, the group was respectful, kind and patient throughout the process. After the testing, we took a break for lunch. Our team, which included, Mark, Emmanuel, Ruan, Peninah, her son, Innocent, Jeanne, and I, walked over to the rectory for lunch. Marcel’s home was neat and clean, but quite small. I am not sure if the home had electricity. The house had been there for some time. I was told that in the 1960’s, the priest there at the time was taken from that house, driven to the river nearby, shot, and thrown into the river. This crime was simply a foretelling of many more evils acts to follow in the coming years.
After lunch, we returned to our group and shared with the teaching for that day. Afterwards, each one came to me to shake my hand and thank me for coming. They are amazing people and I already love them. I will be returning to Maranyundo this week for two days of one on one with each person in the group.
Mark did a great job assisting with the testing and taking photographs and videos of the people. He connected very well with the children and youth and even taught them a few moves on the basketball court in the compound. The people in Maranyundo see few abazungu (non black foreigners), so they found us quite interesting. I do not know about Mark, but the children continually touched my skin and even my hair. Most of them could say quite plainly in English, “Good Morning, how are you?” and “My name is…” One tiny girl named Diodomo won my heart. I, of course, wanted to pick her up and bring her home to my wife. When we were preparing to leave the oldest man participating in our study was on his bicycle pedaling home when another bicyclist crashed into him. The man was thrown from his seat and suffered a large gash on the back of his left heel. Fortunately, Rev. Emmanuel put him in our vehicle and took him to the “hospital” in Nyamata. We will check on him when we return and pay his medical bill.
Upon going and returning to Maranyundo parish, we passed at least one, if not two, genocide memorials. As I shared with your earlier, the Bugesera region of was completely decimated by the genocide. It was especially targeted because of the large number of Tutsi which lived there. During the genocide all of the residents of the town of Nyamata were herded into the church there. Only one came out alive. She was a three year old little girl and happened to be a cousin of Rev. Sam Mugisha. By a miracle Sam’s mother located this little one in a nearby holding area where orphans were being housed. This girl suffered a bullet wound to her neck and a large gash in her skull where the bullet exited her body. But she survived. Please pray for this girl. She is now 17 and is currently missing from Sam’s mother’s home in Uganda. They do not know if she ran away or was kidnapped.
Our second testing site was the Hope Village in the outskirts of a town called Kabuga. It is very near the Anglican Seminary. Hope Village is a small group of very modest brick homes on the side of a hill that is home to “child-headed households” of about 33 young men and women. “Child-headed households” is a project here in Rwanda to assist in the resettlement of orphans of the genocide. Today, the children who live there are actually young adults between the ages of 16 and 25. However, one of the young men is 32 years old. These individuals are orphans from the genocide who came together to form a family. Their homes are quite simple, but very neat and very clean. The house I visited had three small rooms. The “bathroom” is outback in a clean out building. Next to each house was a large container which collected rainwater from the roof. All around each house were gardens growing sweet potatoes, sorghum, and other crops. We were privileged to meet the woman who keeps this group on track. Her name is Aunt Harriett. She is an amazing woman with a beautiful smile and lovely eyes of compassion. She spends each week at Hope Village caring for the needs of the residents there, only returning to her home on the outskirts of Kigali on weekends to care for her four children. Harriett’s husband works on Uganda and she sees him about every four months. She appears to have quite an indomitable spirit and I sensed an amazing depth about her as I shook her hand.
As in Maranyundo, the people of Kabuga rarely encounter non blacks. I was the lone mazungu on the visit to Hope Village as Mark had gone to see the gorillas in Ruhengeri with some new friends. I was quite the celebrity wherever we went there. The children cried, “Muzungu! Muzungu!” whenever they saw me pass in our vehicle. In the town of Kabuga, I drew a crowd just sitting in the vehicle waiting for Rev. Emmanuel to make a purchase in a local shop. One very old and obviously very disturbed man approached my open window and became quite animated insisting that I buy whatever it was he had on his head in a sack. I was later told that he was quite drunk.
The residents of Hope Village were amazing individuals. There were very bright and I was dumfounded as to how they were able to stay so clean in a place where dirt was everywhere. Their clothes were immaculate and they were well groomed, despite the somewhat earthy conditions.
The third research group with whom I met was pastors from all over the country of Rwanda. They were in Kigali for a Pastor’s Conference. Adriaan Verwijs, one of the priests at the Cathedral is in charge of ongoing training for the priests in the Anglican Church here. He and his wife, Luzette, are from the Netherlands. They are both very dear and loving people. They ooze the spirit of Christ. Formerly missionaries in Columbia, they have jumped in with both feet loving the Rwandans as well as an assortment of abazungu from Europe and the US. Adriaan and Luzette are just about as solid as people come. We also met two of their sons, Teunis (pronounced Tune-is) and Jope (pronounced Yope). They are energetic and seemingly well adjusted young men who attend an American boarding school on Kenya. They are currently on a small break from school. While Jope definitely has a Dutch accent, Teunis’ English is flawless. He could be easily mistaken as a teenager from Chicago.
I met with the Rwandan pastors in the evening after they has been in workshops all day. They seemed rather tired and a little suspicious of me. However, I saw in many of them a deep love for our LORD and an untiring commitment to the Body of Christ. I was particularly impressed by one of the Canons. He was the senior member of this group. He was of the Twa people, very bright, and spoke both English and French. His eyes were so loving and compassionate. When he looked at me and talked with me, I felt he really saw me—not my white skin or brown hair, but me. And I felt his love, respect, and kindness.
On Saturday, we were invited to a Rwandan wedding. An associate of Rev. Emmanuel asked us to come. Earlier in the day, Rev. Emmanuel took Ruan and me out to run errands. Upon returning, I decided I should stay in and rest. However, Mark still wanted to go along to the wedding. Shortly before Mark left, I slipped on a very wet set of cement steps while exiting the bathroom. I went down on the right side of my lower back onto the edge of one of the steps and then ended up on the cement floor with a thud on my bottom. Three days later, it still hurts a good bit to move. Thankfully, I did not break anything and there was no need to be airlifted to Europe. However, the whole episode really scared me and to say it felt unpleasant would be an understatement.
Mark told me later that the wedding was very interesting. I think he was the lone non black and this brought him a number of unsolicited stares from the other guests. The next morning I managed to make it to the second service at the Cathredral—the Kinyarwandan one. While I could not understand a word that was spoken, I was glad to be in God’s house with His people. A priest named Emmanuel Ubito saw me walk in and found his way to me. He speaks very good English and shared the sermon with me as the preacher spoke. The text was from Exodus and it concerned the Passover. Something interesting happened during the service, I heard the preacher say in the plainest of English two statements: “What is your position in God?” and “What is your relationship to Jesus Christ?” I do not know if he really said these statements in English or if I heard this supernaturally. There was nothing else said that I understood and these statements were in the very middle of his remarks.
After the service, Rev. Emmanuel drove Mark and me over to the Kigali Stadium. Rick Warren delivered a sermon to about 20,000 Rwandans on the topic of a purpose driven life. Archbishop Kolini has spearheaded the efforts to have Rick Warren and his ministry in the country of Rwanda. The Archbishop was on the program and did a fine job. He warned the journalists present to refrain from speaking unflattering words about President Kagame. There was wonderful praise and worship, dancing by traditional Rwandan dancers, an appearance by the President’s Brass Marching Band, and even an impassioned speech by President Paul Kagame. It was a banner day for the cause of Christ in Rwanda as the President gave his support for the work of the church facilitating genuine healing in the hearts of the Rwandese people.
While I did not include this fourth group in my research, I have to tell you about the “street kids.” Mark and I were privileged to meet with about 12 young women who are homeless. They represent approximately 2000 homeless young people in the city of Rwanda. Rev. David Nzugize, the youth pastor at the Cathedral has been charged with ministering to these young men and women in Kigali. It is a huge task and he works tirelessly to meet the tremendous needs of these youth. These young people are from the ages of around 15 to 25. They live on the streets and from “hand to mouth.” They are on the streets for a variety of reasons. Some are orphans from the genocide with no place to go. Others have been abused by their family members. Still some have gotten into substance abuse. One of the girls was kicked out of her house because she was pregnant. Of the 12 girls we met with, two of them have two children each and four of them have one child each. A seventh girl is now pregnant with her first child. A number of the girls are HIV+. On Mondays and Fridays, the church opens its compound to the girls so that they may come and bathe in the yard behind the church building. They are given soap and allowed to use the water at the church. They have few clothes, some have no shoes and the babies are generally very dirty and smell at least of urine. Typically, the babies do not have anything on their bottoms. We spent time with these girls and their children. They shared their stories of trauma, heartache and rejection. We gave them shirts to wear, toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap. For the children, we gave them colorful blankets sent here by a lovely woman from the US. Today Mark and some of the staff from the Cathedral have taken the group to buy shoes for the girls, shirts for their children, and more soap. Each time we meet with them, we give them money—about $10 total so that they may but a meal for the day.