Topical Whiplash

These passed few days have been exhausting and exciting. Yesterday we had Champions Day, which was a day to hang out with the kids, play games, worship, and just have fun. By the end of the day we were all exhausted, but it was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed it. I discovered that when organizing events in Rwanda be prepared to run late. People are never on time, and when the event finally starts any local leaders that are there will want to speak, but all in all it was really fun. The talent show and chubby bunny were definitely the highlights. Everyone loved it. But with the coming of Champions Day also comes the end of or time here. We’ve been planning Champions Day since the day we arrived and it’s weird to see it finally happen. I thought 1 month would go so slowly, but in reality it’s gone too quickly.

Today in church our supervisor, Carrie, came up at the end and talked about Ezekiel 37: 1-14. If you’ve never read it I recommend you do. It’s called the Valley of Dry Bones and it’s a vision God gave Ezekiel. It talks about how Israel was like dry bones with no life and no hope, but God tells Ezekiel to prophecy that He will breathe into the bones and they will come to life again. This is true in all of our lives. We all have things that we struggle with, and we feel hopeless and dried up, but all we have to do is ask for God to breathe life into us. We have to take action and God will “open your graves and bring you up from them”. That is a very powerful image. The grave is so final so absolute, but God conquered the grave and he can bring us up out of even the most hopeless situations.

At the camp I work at we have shirts that say “God is good, all the time” and the back says, “All the time, God is good” well they say that here too. The first time I heard them say it, it blew my mind. I thought people only said that at my camp, but God is so huge that people around the world talk about His goodness. Well now that I’ve essentially preached, I’ll talk more about what I’ve been doing at the center.

Besides getting ready for Champions Day, I’ve still been corresponding with the people from Orphans to Ambassadors and it’s been really good! They have offered to pay $1,500 to help with purchase of the 4 water tanks and they are going to install them. While this money is great and very helpful, that leaves us to raise the other $4,260 to finish paying for the tanks as well as to purchase stands. We also hope to have our stoves upgraded to rocket stoves which are much more efficient. This means we need to raise another $1,000 bringing the total amount we need to raise to $5,260 by May. So here’s where I ask for your help. Center for Champions has done so much for these boys (and for me in the short month I’ve been here) and they currently don’t have enough water for everyday activities. They are in great need of these tanks, but unfortunately the center hasn’t had the funds to install new ones. So if God is putting it on your heart to donate, please go to www.africanenterprise.org and click on “give now” then write a note in the comment box that says “Center for Champions water project, Rwamagana, Rwanda” that will ensure that the money goes toward the tanks. If you can’t donate, that’s fine, I ask that you will still pray for the project to be a success.

Well I’m sorry for the headache you probably have now because of trying to follow my train of thought during this post. In the words of one of the boys at the center, Leonard, “this is madness”. (check my facebook for pictures of my time here on Wednesday when I have better internet)

Ndishimye

It’s been over two weeks since my last blog post. Man how time flies, and we have about 10 days left here at the Center. 10 days before we have to say goodbye to the kids we’ve been building relationships with and learning about for the past 3 weeks. I’m not really looking forward to leaving. These kids have had such an impact on me. They’ve taught me patience (thank you annoying primary school kids), determination, hard work. They’ve taught me that even in the worst circumstances God is good and has a plan, I’ve really seen His love since I’ve been here and it’s been amazing.

One night after Bible study I was talking with one of the boys about how God has a plan for each of us if we choose to follow Him. I told him that I know for sure if I wasn’t a Christian trying to follow God I wouldn’t be in Africa right now. That got me looking back on all the things I’ve seen and learned since coming here, there’s so much. It got me thinking about little things that have happened that I didn’t even acknowledge was God working. My walk with God isn’t perfect, it never has been, but I think that God’s teaching me a lot about Himself and myself that is helping to bring me closer to Him.

Now some of you (however many that is that still reads this) are probably wondering what the title of this blog post means. It means, “I am happy”, and really I am happy. I love being at the Center and I love being in Rwanda (pronounced Gwanda by Rwandans). So while the idea of leaving the Center makes me want to say Si shimye (I’m not happy), I am happy that I even had this opportunity and I will never forget about my time here.

So now you’re probably wondering what have I actually been doing with my time here. In my last blog post I talked about a typical day here, well that has changed. After the first week we individually met with Carrie and talked about our job titles and the things we wanted to do here. For me that meant giving nutrition presentations to all the catch-up students, as well as corresponding with an NGO called Orphans to Ambassadors on them starting a project here in May. When I first started emailing with O2A we weren’t sure if they would be able to do a project at all because their budget was already set for this year, but now they seem pretty confident they’ll be able to. This is so exciting because the Center really needs it. God put an opportunity in front of us and we jumped on it and it’s really working out to our benefit. This passed week was very busy. Rae joined us as a new intern and she’s going to be doing gardening so the boarders can have vegetables in their diet. So Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to getting the garden ready so we wouldn’t miss the season. We frantically hoed, weeded, and planted, and by Friday the garden was looking good. Again it was evident that I am not cut out to be a farmer, but it was really great to be a part of something that would benefit the Center so much. Now all we have to do is pray that it will grow (since I’ve worked on it it will really take a miracle for those plants to grow) and wait. Unfortunately we won’t be around to see the fruits of our labor but I’m excited to hear about it and see pictures and come back and visit one day.

Center for Champions

Monday morning we arrived in Rwamagana where I will be spending the next month working at Center for Champions. We’re staying at this awesome guesthouse called Avega where we all have our own rooms AND bathrooms. Best ever.

So here’s a little background on the center, it’s a little confusing so I’ll do my best to make everything clear. It is a school for vulnerable children and orphans (kids are considered orphans when they have only 1 parent) these kids are older and haven’t had the opportunity to go to school normally so they go to catch-up school. They do all 6 years of primary education in only 3 years. Some of these student board at the center, right now there are 80 boys and only 2 girls. After they finish catch-up school they take the exam to get into secondary school where some of the students continue boarding and go out in the community to secondary while others go to a vocational school in Kigali. Next the center rents out two of their buildings to separate primary and secondary schools. When all of the students are running around it’s hard to tell who’s who. The primary students have red pants and skirts, secondary have blue pants and skirts, and the catch-up students have light blue shirts. The center partners with the primary school on a lot of things so we get to spend a lot of time with those students too. It’s a great time.

So Monday afternoon we met Melissa who works at the center and she showed us around and went over what we would be doing for the next month. We can pretty much do whatever we want when it comes to activities with the students. I’m technically the “health advocate”, but all 4 of us (Mikaela, Ryan, Arley, and I) basically just work together on everything. Right now we’re going around to the catch-up classes and giving a workshop on dental health and how to brush your teeth. It’s been really fun. We have a lot of fun things planned to do with the kids, I’m really excited for this entire month. Tuesday morning we met Carrie who is the director at the center and the go to person for just about everything.

So what does a typical day at Center for Champions look like? Well I’ll tell you. The day starts bright and early at 7am in the office for staff prayers. Then after that us interns go to the art room with Carrie where we have a little Bible study. The next 2ish hours are spent doing organization stuff like planning activities. At 10 the kids have a break from class so we get to hang out with them for about half an hour. Then we get free time to read for our classes next month etc. Around 12 we go to lunch and after lunch we get to spend the rest of the day hanging out with the kids, playing sports, going to dance class, and doing other fun things. About 5ish our day comes to an end and we get to go home and relax. Tired, sweaty, and bruised from volleyballs and soccer balls.

There you have it, a typical day at the center. Of course I left out some things like Tuesday night Bible study and Wednesday afternoon prayers, but you get the gist. Every day at the center is an adventure and you never know what will happen next, but it’s exciting and fun and I’m so happy that I have the opportunity to get to know these kids.

10 Days in 10 Minutes

So much has happened since my last post, I don’t even know where to begin! Well, last week was the end of our Issues in Peacebuilding class and we all presented our final projects. My group presented on the government in Rwanda before, during, and after the genocide. We wrote a pretty ballin’ poem about it. If anyone wants a copy I can send it to you! Then we spent the weekend in beautiful Kibuye at Lake Kivu. Before we left for Kibuye we visited PHARP, which is the organization that our professor works for. It stands for Peacebuilding Healing and Reconciliation Program. Their main purpose is to create an environment where people can begin the healing and reconciliation process and also get training for future work. We met a group of ladies who were being taught how to sew. We sat in on their morning Bible study and listened as they sang songs and praised God, I couldn’t stop smiling. At the end they asked us to sing a song so we sang Amazing Grace. After we sang a few verses we all sang a verse of “halleluiahs” together. It was awesome. Then they sang one last song that was about thanking God for everything that he had given them. They were dancing around and even pulled a few of us to dance with them. As corny as it sounds, seeing them like that made my heart leap with joy. So after that incredible morning we set off for Kibuye.

This is the view from one of the hotel balconies

There we swam, hiked, and just relaxed. On Saturday we took a boat ride to Napoleon island where we climbed to the top in like 16 minutes. It was the fastest and hardest hike I’ve been on. It was great.

Napoleon Island, from the boat

Scaling the mountain

View from the highest point of the island

Climbing back down was a feet in and of itself. At one point we were climbing horizontally across the side of the mountain trying to find a way down. Eventually we all made it down safe and sound. We then boated over to Amahoro (Peace) island where we relaxed in hammocks, climbed trees, and walked around the beautiful little island. Sunday morning we went to a little church that our professor had connections with. One thing you should know about Rwandans is that they love to sing. As a whole Rwandans aren’t very expressive, but when they do express their emotions they do it in song, so their songs are always very powerful. This little church had 3 different choirs that all took turns singing. The actual message was only 45 minutes and the other 2 hours and 15 minutes was all singing. It was great. Then after church we headed back to Kigali.

Last Monday started research week for our other class, Social Context for Community Development. We’ve been in rural Muhazi going around to different cells interviewing the people there and filling out a questionnaire. We were split into groups of 2 and each group had a translator. The questionnaire focused on 4 main areas, which are: general conditions, health, livelihood, and access. We spent about 6 hours every day out in the field collecting this data. On one hand the research was hard to do; to see and be in the conditions that these people live in everyday and to actually hear from them what the problems are. On the other hand it was good because now the program is better equipped to help these people in the future. We are spending today compiling the data into 4 presentations and on Friday we will be going back to Muhazi and presenting out findings at the sector office.

Now for what I’m really excited for! We found out our practicum placements a few nights ago! I’m going to be spending a month at Center for Champions in Rwamagana as their Health Advocate. Basically I’ll be teaching kids from ages 10-22 about nutrition, fitness, hygiene, disease prevention, etc. This is such an amazing opportunity that God has given me. It’s definitely out of my comfort zone, which is nerve racking but also really exciting. When we first talked about practicum sites I was hoping to be placed in a hospital malnutrition ward, but when I heard the description for Center for Champions I knew that’s where I needed to be. We head out to our sites on Monday and we’re there until March 20^th. I can’t wait to get involved and see what God has to teach me through these kids. I'll definitely be writing more about my time at Center for Champions in the coming weeks.

My GoEd Family

Here are all the lovely people that I get to spend copious amounts of time with here in Rwanda. Ali Rogers graciously conducted interviews and put all the info together in a nice blog post which I then copied so thanks Ali! and I hope you all enjoy this!

 "The Distractinator"

 Name: Ryan

School: Messiah College

Major: History

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Flynn Rider (Tangled)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “A police man told me he was scared of me.”

What Food do you crave the most?: Authentic Mexican Food 

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: The weather

Most desired super power: Teleportation 

"Little Miss Sunshine" 

Name: Kimmie

School: Messiah College

Major: Sociology/Anthropology with a minor in Peace and Conflict

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Russell (Up) 

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “Almost every experience, but being crowded by 150+ people in the village near Tanzania.”

What Food do you crave the most: juicy, crispy Gala Apples

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: Iced coffee, Mango, and the Kigali view from our house

Most desired super power: The ability to speak every language fluently

"The Sweetie Pie"

Name: Julie

School: Eastern University

Major: Economic Development

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Nala (The Lion King)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment:  "Hey, you two!" Julie responds…"Who two (Hutu)?" Not okay...

What food do you crave the most: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: People with colorful fabrics

Most desired super power: Teleportation 

" Doctah"

Name: Sam

School: Messiah College

Major: Pre-Med Bio/Chem

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Doc (Snow White)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment:  Being pick pocketed

What food do you crave the most: Whole Wheat Bread and Spinach Salad

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: Hills and the views

Most desired super power: Teleportation 

"The Napster"

Name: Aly

School: Houghton College

Major: Political Science

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Pearl (Finding Nemo)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “On the Matatu, a person tried to talk to me in Swahili and the person next to was laughing hysterically.”

What food do you crave the most: Kraft Mac and Cheese 

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: Climate/Weather

Most desired super power: Wisdom 

"The Quizzler"

Name: Carly

School: Houghton College

Major: Intercultural Studies with a concentration in Development

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Alice (Alice in Wonderland)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: "Getting ripped off at the market. There is more to come!"

What food do you crave the most?: Milkshakes

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: The Scenery

Most desired super power: Be fluent in every language

"Mr. Fix it"

 Name: Kevin

School: Messiah College

Major: Business Information Systems

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Flick (A Bug's Life)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “When I talk to kids, they are very robotic. They say, “What is your name?” or “How are you? I am fine.””

What food do you crave the most: Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chicken Cordon Blue 

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: Weather

Most desired super power:  The ability to fly

"Yogi"

Name: Nicoya

School: Santa Rosa Junior College

Major: Anthropology/Midwifery

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Jasmine (Aladdin)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “Having people mock me while I run. Also, learning how to squat correctly. I peed on myself.”

What food do you crave the most: Real chocolate, authentic Mexican food, and Kale

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: Avocados...they are huge and great quality

Most desired super power: Make chocolate show up wherever I want 

"Snarly"

Name: Arley

School: Greenville College

Major: Digital Media

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland) 

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “When I was walking up the street and a man followed me. He didn't speak English but just kept talking to me anyways.”

What food do you crave the most: Mac and Cheese (homemade) and ham sandwiches 

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: The weather, the adventure and the challenges 

Most desired super power: I want to be like Spiderman

"The Jokester" 

Name: Mikaela

School: George Fox

Major: Christian Ministries

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Timon (The Lion King)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “My most awkward mzungu moment was when we were getting out of the pool and a man began counting...one mzungu...two mzungu...three mzungu...out of the pool! Everyone stared.”

What food do you crave the most: Turkey Bacon Deli Sandwich

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: The fresh fruit from the market

Most desired super power: Wizard from Hogwarts 

"The Ultimate"

Name: Sarah (Me!)

School: Messiah College

Major: Nutrition 

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Bianca (The Rescuers) 

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “When we were coming back from bowling, we called the taxi guy to come pick us up. We accidentally got in someone else's taxi. When we saw our taxi man show up we got out and went to his.”  

What food do you crave the most: Reese's/ Things with Peanut Butter

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: Views/ Countryside

Most desired super power: “I would fly because I could go places faster.” 

"Teacher"

Name: Kelli

School: George Fox

Major: Elementary Education 

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Fiona (The non-ogre version from Shrek)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “I called a fly a Tutsi flu instead of calling it a Tsetse fly in front of our African safari driver.”

What food do you crave the most: Peanut Butter and ice cream

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far : Playing with cute kids

Most desired super power: Be fluent in every language 

"Kind Lady"

Name: Rae

School: Eastern University

Major: Economic Development

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Pocahontas

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “ A 15-year-old proposed to me.”

What food do you crave the most: Ice cream, twizzlers, hummus and pita chips

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: Experience new life and a new culture

Most desired super power: The power to dance

"Champ"

Name: Ali

School: Messiah College

Major: Elementary Education with a minor in Human Development and Family Science (HDFS)

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Jessie (Toy Story)

Most awkward Mzungu (white person) moment: “People talk to me in Kinyarwanda and I respond but then they go off on a tangent and I have no clue what they are saying to me.”

What food do you crave the most: Cereal with MILK, peanut butter, and banana nut muffins

Favorite thing about Rwanda thus far: Fresh Fruit...mango and pineapple are amazing!

Most desired super power: Invisibility

"Chuckles"

Name: Jordon

Job: Student Life Coordinators (“House Dad”)

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Robin Hood

Most desired super power: Teleportation

"What What?!"

Name: Leah

Job: Student Life Coordinators (“House Mom”)

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Agnes (Despicable Me)

Most desired super power: Know when people are lying 

"Chunker"

Name: Zeke

Job: Workout instructor; crawler in training

Disney Character personality assigned by group: Jack-jack (The Incredibles)

Most desired super power: Fly

 

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little introduction to my GoEd family. Now you have faces to put to any names I mention in stories! Thanks again to Ali Rogers for conducting the questionnaire for this! 

Of Farms and Kids

Well I guess it’s about time that I post about my weekend at the farm. Yepp, I finally got to live out my childhood dream and become a farmer. First thing I learned, I’m not cut out for Rwandan farm life. Reason #1: squatty potty.

You haven't lived until you've peed in a whole. But really it wasn't that bad; in fact it was really awesome to see what the staff at Procom (GoEd’s partner organization) is doing. They’re an NGO (non-government organization) that is focused on agricultural training for Rwandan farmers. Super cool stuff.

Here’s some of the farm and equipment

So the last Saturday of every month is Umuganda. What’s that you ask? It’s like community service day for all Rwandans and we happened to be at the farm on this day. So we took a nice walk down to the village and helped out. After a bit of confusion (and some Macarena) we headed to weed a garden. 17 Muzungus (what the Rwandans call us, it means “white person”) and who knows how many little kids got to “work” weeding. And when I say “working” I mean I had competitions with the kids around me to see who could weed the fastest. To stop me from winning they’d hand all their weeds to me after they picked them. 

Not fair

In all seriousness though these kids were amazing. They were so loving even though we couldn’t really communicate. One girl, Monica, latched on to me. Wherever I went so did Monica, she was the sweetest girl ever, she even walked me back to the farm holding my hand the entire way. 1 John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Bam, that’s Monica right there. No words, just action. I want to love like that; like a child, and like Jesus who not only showed us his love but told us too. 

Walking back to the farm, that’s Monica on the far right in the orange shirt

Two Stories, One Heart

Today we visited two more genocide memorials outside of Kigali, Ntarama and Nyamata. At each memorial we were able to hear a survivors testimony. Here are their stories.

Ntarama

Our guide was a very tall, skinny, and friendly man, probably around the age of 30; he showed us around and talked of the genocide without much of a problem. After our tour he told us that he himself was a survivor, he told us that this is part of his past and he’s not pessimistic about the future so he didn’t mind telling us his story.

            He lived in a town in the hills, and his town was one in the area that tried to fight and resist the Interahamwe. One day he had gone back to his house to clean up and change his clothes. It was lunchtime and he went out to the yard to tell his father that food was ready. The Interahamwe came then and shot his father in front of him. They shot at him too, but he was able to get away. He ran back to the hill where he discovered that his town’s resistance had fallen. He ran to the swamp nearby where he lived for 2 weeks, sneaking onto a plantation at night to get sweet potatoes and cabbage to eat. After the two weeks he decided he was going to go back up the hill where he might be able to get some information on what was going on. He stayed up there for two weeks and was eventually rescued by the RPF.

            He told us that he had left out a lot of details of his story, but said that it was horrible. I’m amazed that he was able to talk about it so freely. He had forgiven the killers. Forgiven the men who murdered his family. The men who forced him to live in a swamp for two weeks. The men who had deprived him of his childhood. Forgiven. I have a lot of respect for the survivors and even more for the ones who want people to know of their experiences so this will never happen again.

Nyamata

            The first thing we saw when we entered this second church was piles of dirty, burned, and destroyed clothes on the pews. When you looked up you saw a statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the scene in near perfect condition. On the other side of the room was an older woman cleaning the floor around the piles of clothes. Our teacher, Pastor Anastase, greeted her warmly speaking softly in Kinyarwanda. After we concluded our tour Pastor Anastase informed us that this woman was willing to tell us her story. We waited patiently for her to get done her work then we drove to a field somewhere in order to hear her testimony. She didn’t want to tell us in a public place because if people saw her talking to us they might have robbed her or burned her house. Standing in a circle Saraphina began telling her story with Pastor translating.

            She told us of how the people in her area were very peaceful before 1994; they were a true community and disregarded the rumors of a genocide coming. However after the president of Rwanda’s plane was shot down everything changed. Hutu in her town became violent so she fled to a nearby church with her husband and children. The church was packed, but the preacher there did his best to keep them safe until there were just too many of them so he told them they had to go to a nearby government building for safety. Once there her and her family were taken out to a field with hundreds of other terrified Tutsi. They knew that they still weren’t safe there so they fled to a nearby stadium. She later found out that all the people who stayed in the field were killed. The stadium was also packed far passed capacity, and the Interahamwe came. A woman who somehow knew Saraphina hid her and her family in a corner of the stadium for the night and in the morning they fled to another church. Here she watched as her husband was shot and killed. She said that she was unable to move, but for some reason the Interahamwe didn’t harm her or her children. They then fled down to the basement of the church where the other women and children were hiding. Saraphina watched as the people around her died from starvation and hopelessness, but eventually rescue came. The RPF found them and they were moved to a camp, but they still weren’t safe so they were moved again. In the second move, Saraphina was separated from her children. She went for two months without knowing the fate of her children. Finally someone brought two children to her. She said the children were as thin as skeletons and she couldn’t even tell for sure if they were actually hers. Luckily they were and they were able to make a full recovery.

            Again many details of her story were left out, but she wanted us to know that it was truly horrible. Even though she told her story in Kinyarwanda we could all feel her pain as she told of losing her husband and not knowing what happened to her children. Yet somehow she was able to forgive. It was heart wrenching to hear her talk about her experience and I was completely awestruck by her faith. She is a strong Christian woman who is relying on God to get her through each and every day. I would think that she would be furious at God for not stopping the genocide, instead she talked of her love for God and the hope she has. She is an amazing testament to what faith really is and I admire her for her courage and love. Thank you Saraphina, you are truly amazing.