Pictures and Things

These are just some pictures of things we have been up to these past couple weeks...



Every Sunday, GoED gives our house staff the day off, including our cooks Aidah and Janet. Because of this, we decided we would all take turns making dinner for everyone. Last Sunday, Ali, Sam and I made this stir fry dinner with fresh pineapple, green pepper, fried eggs, cucumber, carrots, egg plant and mango. It was SO GOOD.

The market is big, crowded, and has everything.

These are our dogs Bubbles and TJ. Rwandans would never have dogs as pets and are actually scared of them, so they think it's pretty      

funny that we have these dogs.

Sarah, Nicoya, Ali and I on day one of our Safari

One of the genocide memorials we visited. This is a church where about 10,000 Tutsi refugees were killed in one day. Their clothes were stripped and placed on the church benches in remembrance.

Achieving Peace

           photo cred to my good friend and roommate Alison Noelle Rogers; the Rwandan Flag

With two guest speakers coming to speak to our class about peace and reconciliation, I began to think more about the concept of peace. Recently I acquired a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies at Messiah College. How this came to be? I’m not really quite sure. The topic sounded interesting, so I decided I would take it on without much thought or consideration. However, I believe God has put this field of study in my life for a reason; and I believe He will use me to promote peace and reconciliation in many ways and in many places.

            Peace is something most humans inherently seek. Ignace Habimana, a Rwandan professor and peace advocate, came to speak in our “Issues in Peace Building” class. He had so many comments that really made me think about peace as a whole. He said to us, “reflection on the nature of peace is bound up with considerations of the causes for its absence or loss”. This made me think: What is the nature of peace? What is the nature of conflict? Why is there conflict? And, why is it implemented? Habimana gave some examples such as insecurity, injustice, and greed; but I believe conflict really stems from the evil nature of sin in our lives. Sin is inevitable; therefore, conflict is inevitable. How can we get around it? I don’t think we really ever can. It’s like the concept of poverty Dr. Jackson talks about: no one can eliminate conflict; we can only alleviate it to the best of our strengths and abilities.

            I then think about these questions: what sorts of programs or institutions have brought about peace and how? In other words, what has worked in the past? And, how can we alleviate conflict using the resources we have? Two institutions came to mind: the Olympics and the UN. The Olympics is an institution in which countries from all over the world come together in one place, first and foremost compete. However, peace happens here in other ways. Players meet, befriend each other, learn from each other, etc. The magnitude of the Olympics allows the world to interact on a different level than politics, economics, globalization, etc.

The other institution I thought of is the UN. An institution where so many countries from all over the world come together in unity to work towards the peace of nations - to work towards things such as eradication of poverty, women’s rights, education, adequate nutrition, and water sanitation – how can peace not be promoted? Peace is all-inclusive. It includes and it integrates. When you have so many countries coming together to work towards a common goal, peace can be present. 

Peace requires forgiveness, acceptance, sacrifice, love and selflessness. I think of the fruits of spirit in Galatians 5: 22. Can peace be fully achieved? According to Isaiah 2, peace cannot be achieved until the second coming of Christ; until the Kingdom of God is present. I’ve been reading a book called “Speaking of Jesus” by Carl Medearis. So many things Carl spoke about reminded me about our recent talks of peace. He talks about the disciples coming from different religious beliefs, sects and groups that hated each other. However, Jesus brought them together by a common relationship and a common goal; this bringing about peace with them. Carl states, “Jesus was their common thread. He was the one they all agreed on” (154). It’s as if people who originate with conflict come together to work towards a common goal, bringing about peace.

Safari Adventures

Friday morning was a 3:30am wakeup for our trek to Safari land. We all piled into three Land Cruisers - or what we liked to call them "legit safari cars" - and drove about three hours to a very secluded game park in the eastern province of Rwanda. We really got a taste of true Rwanda driving through the villages to our safari. Children were screaming and running after our cars yelling "muzungu! muzungu!"; it was as if they had never seen white people before - and it really is a rare experience for them. People just don't have cars in these villages, never mind white people sitting on the roofs of them. They acted as if it was the most exciting thing that has happened to them all week (to be honest it very well could be).

Besides getting two flat tires, getting stuck in a pile of dirt, a couple people falling off our cars, and getting our food stolen by a nasty baboon, our safari adventure was amazing. Sitting on top of land cruisers while driving over mountains, watching beautiful animals in their natural habitat on the continent of Africa is such an amazing experience. Apparently elephants live in Akagera (the game park we “safaried” in), but after driving for two days desperately looking, we didn’t find any. We did however, come across dozens of zebras, a huge family of giraffes, water buffalo, baboons, monkeys, impalas, warthogs, hippos, and more. After the first day of safari, our three drivers took us to the highest peak of the tallest mountain, overlooking a lake to camp out for the night. As soon as we took out our food, a huge baboon jumped into our campsite and stole our two bags of cookies and peanuts. With no hesitation every one of us ran away from this baboon because we knew of their very aggressive nature. After this baboon invaded our food, he sat himself down about 10 yards away and decided to feast on our cookies right in front of us. We decided to keep our food in very close quarters after this exciting event. The next morning we woke up at sunrise, ate our oatmeal breakfast and continued on day two of our safari. Although we lathered ourselves with sunscreen, just about every one of us got burnt between the two days – but it was so incredibly worth it. 

                                    

                                                    beauteous safari through the mountains

                                                                spotted some hippos 

                                                          a beautiful family of giraffes 

                                                 

This picture is for my father, who wants to see me hand washing my clothes in a stream... 

sorry dad, this isn't a stream but this is the closest i could find :) 

  Sorry about the bad quality of these pictures... this website doesn't like to convert my pictures too well.
                                            These are some of the essentials hanging up to dry

Today Pastor Anastase brought us to the biggest genocide memorial 

in Kigali. Here are some flowers laid on a mass grave there. Sunday we will go to another memorial. 

There is a third memorial that is optional for the group..this memorial is preserved dead bodies directly from the genocide. It's pretty tough to see and in the past some students had a hard time digesting this.. we'll see if i get the courage to visit this one... 

Some Pictures

                                                                      Ali and my room

                       

                                                      Some new things from the market

                                         A beautiful restaurant we went to overlooking the city

                            My favorite part of the house. We generally eat all our meals together,
                              do homework, and just hang out  at this table overlooking the city.

Our day on Monday started out with a "first day of school" picture. We headed over to the Procom office, a non-profit working mainly for self-sustaining agricultural development. This is where our professor Dwight Jackson, the founder of GoED Africa, lives and works. Our class is here at the office for the first week. Starting next week we will be staying here at our house to have class in the garage-turned-classroom. The class Dwight teaches is called Social Context for Community Development. Although our class is not in a traditional classroom and environment, it is very interesting hearing Dwight's perspective on development, poverty, growth, progression and community. He has been living in Rwanda for about 30 years so he really knows the needs of the community here in Rwanda. It takes a long time of someone living in a community in order to know the needs and understand the culture. I am solely in Rwanda to learn, not to try and "help". This is something i hope people will know about my semester here.

Our second class is taught by a Pastor Anastase who is a local Rwandan who pastors a church in Kibuye - a church we will be visiting later on this semester. He seems like a very wise, caring, fatherly man. This class is called Issues in Peace Building. We will be learning about Rwandan culture, the genocide, and peace building in Rwanda. Tomorrow we will be visiting one of the biggest genocide memorials in Rwanda. I think this experience will make the evidences of the genocide that much more of a reality for me.

On Tuesday night our group watched a movie called "Sometimes in April". This movie is a very clear depiction of the reality of the genocide. Rwandans appreciate this movie more than a movie such as Hotel Rwanda. Hotel Rwanda is such a hollywood-dramatized version of the genocide, they don't believe it is accurate at all. The movie is not even filmed on Rwandan ground. This movie, "Sometimes in April" was an eye opening, thought provoking, and extremely emotional movie. I think one of the hardest things for me watching this movie is the fact that i am here on Rwandan soil. I am standing on ground that was once flooded with dead bodies and murderous men. I have watched "Hotel Rwanda" and "Ghosts of Rwanda"; i have studied the genocide and written papers. None of this has made me cry like being here does. Knowing that as I walk down the streets of Kigali, as I walk down my own driveway and street, I am walking where these people were ruthlessly slaughtered. I am walking by hundreds of people each day that are survivors, that are killers, or people who stood by and witnessed - such a gut wrenching feeling.

What amazes me about Rwandans is that despite this history, they live with each other every day. Tutsis and Hutus walk by each other, work with each other, and live together knowing their families and friends have been killed by each other. How do they do it? How do they store up these feelings and move on? The Rwandan government is promoting peace and reconciliation by erasing the "Hutu" and "Tutsi" identities and allowing everyone to call themselves simply "Rwandan". In this movie, this man's entire family is killed. After being raped by her son's murderers, his wife is killed. His two sons are gunned down, his daughter is murdered and his best friend shot. How can he keep on living? How heroic of each and every person here. What amazing people.

                                                               Ali and my new desk

                          New fabric bought at the market today... a very overwhelming experience

This is the view from our house.. it seems that everywhere you go in Kigali has the same beautiful view


Sunday we woke up to an oatmeal-type breakfast, plantains with homemade peanut butter which really looked like charcoal - colored mush but was actually SO delicious. I like it maybe even more than American peanut butter. I also made myself scrambled eggs with some pretty sketchy - looking eggs. We walked to a church about 20 minutes away that you can see from our house because of the layout of our suburb of Kigali. This church is called Christian Life Assembly - an English speaking church pastored and founded in 1998 by an extremely passionate and expressive Canadian pastor and his wife. The church was big, friendly, populated by Rwandans and more American/Canadian ex pats than i had initially expected (which is true for the city of Kigali as well).

After church our group went out on a scavenger hunt to familiarize ourselves with the city (or Mumugi as you would say to the bus taxis), the mutatu (taxi) system, and the local restaurants and coffee shops.  I became so overwhelmed with the words we needed to know, the knowledge we needed to get around, the places i wanted to go, and the still-existing stares and "muzungu" expressions we got. I don't know that this will ever go away, but i think it is something we will have to get accustomed to. One stop on our scavenger hunt was the Hotel Des Milles Collines - most famously known for being a refugee haven for the victims of the recent genocide. Having studied the genocide, this was a cool experience just to be in the building. This beautiful hotel is still up and running. Something i love about hotels here in Rwanda which you don't find many other places is that the hotel serves not only as a place for paid guests, but rather a public recreation center (only much much nicer). Anyone is able to go to the hotel grounds, use the pool, eat the food, use the internet, do homework, or just hang out - some of this costs a little money.

Unfortunately, Rwanda is most famously known to the outside world for the 1994 genocide. As the emotional and physical effects are still present today, we refrain from using the word "genocide" all together - especially and most importantly around Rwandans. Today, Rwandans have erased the identities of being Hutu or Tutsi in efforts to promote peace and healing in their country. Everyone is simply "Rwandan". The only exception to asking a Rwandan their heritage or about the genocide would be if we became close friends, or if they initiate the conversation. This kind of "undercover" way of dealing with the genocide may not be the most healthy for each Rwandan as there are a lot of hidden emotion, but it is their best effort to heal from the emotional damage done by the genocide.

January 14, 2012

After a long 13 hour plane ride traveling from Washington DC's Dulles Airport, our group of 14, along with our house parents Jordan and Leah Bright (former GoED students) and their 7 month baby Zeke, arrived at the Ethiopian airport to wait for our next flight to Rwanda. Culture shock hit right away in Ethiopia as all of us girls hustled into the only bathroom to find no toilet seats in any of the stalls, no soap to wash our hands, and toilets that wouldn't allow toilet paper to be flushed. Four hours later, we boarded Ethiopian Air once more to fly home to Rwanda, stopping briefly in Uganda. Arriving in Rwanda was beautifully vibrant - such a difference to the dry, sand laden, and minimal vegetation of Ethiopia. Right away we could feel the stares of local Rwandans asking why these young Americans were here and what we would be doing in their country. Nine of us girls piled into a pretty small car which drove us down the redish dirt and very poorly made roads of Kigali to our new home in the hills. Arriving at our house gate guarded by our young guard Alfonz, it took us a couple failed tries to make it up this VERY steep driveway. However despite the difficulties, our home in Kigali has beautiful views, and a big porch to take advantage of this. At about 10:20pm right now and about 70 degrees, i am overlooking the city lights of Kigali on this very porch. We are all excited to get up early, when the air is still cool, to run next to this view.

As we got settled into our house, we were assigned bedrooms. I am in a room in the back corner of the house with four other girls. Our room is decorated with Rwandan paintings and the very essential mosquito nets. Dinner is made by our wonderful cook Ida, a very sparky, chocolate-chip loving, Rwandan woman who lives behind our house and cooks us great food every day.
Tonight we ate dinner together outside on our porch, and went for a walk around the city. We went to a huge soccer stadium right down the street to our house - a place where there are soccer games, presidential speeches, and national mournings in the month of April, grieving the recent genocide. This stadium is a place where just about anyone can go to run around the track, look around, and take aerobics classes- something we're all excited about doing together. The rest of the day was dedicated to just hanging out and settling in. I'm excited to be adjusted, settled in, to experience new and exciting things, and to read the weekly notes my wonderful family and friends have written me during my semester here in Rwanda.

                                   This is our open air garage-turned-classroom for the semester