Africa New Life Ministries

Directly in the middle of each GoED semester, each student takes a one-month practicum internship. My internship is here in Kigali working with Africa New Life Ministries. ANL is first and foremost a church, but has tons of missions and projects – one of them being a child sponsorship program. This sponsorship is mainly what I work with during my internship. However, in the afternoons I also help with an after school program tutoring about 100 boys. These boys are mostly street-children, were into drugs/stealing etc., are orphaned, or come from families that can’t afford for them to go to school. Rwanda’s government claims that school is free, but because of all the other expenses outside of just the fee, most families cannot pay for their children to go to school- especially if they have 8 or 9 kids. These boys I tutor are all in the sponsorship program and are looking for child sponsors.

Africa New Life Sponsorship is comparable to Compassion Child – a widely known sponsorship program all over the world. However, ANL is a sponsorship program solely for children in Rwanda. We have ANL schools in four different parts of Rwanda – the school in Keyonza was recently praised for having the best test scores for all of Rwanda. I believe this magnified approach to child sponsorship enables the program to really focus on their children and the connection they have with their sponsor. Many of the families who sponsor children in ANL have actually visited Rwanda just so they can meet their child. These are truly people who care deeply about their child. Sponsors send letters back and forth with their child frequently and some even send packages with school supplies or clothes – things these children really need but have no money to buy.

Each day we tutor these boys English and help them with their homework. I have rarely seen the kind of passion for learning these boys have. They really want to learn and succeed in school. Every day we crowd about 100+ boys in two different rooms with no desks, no school supplies, and no materials or curriculum. Essentially, we have chairs and a chalkboard. Although their situations are tough, they have no money, and some get fed once a day (ANL provides lunch for them), they still come to tutoring. 

If you want to know more about Africa New Life Ministries, or want to sponsor a child – Which i think you should! Here is the link to their website –

http://africanewlife.org/

These boys in Kigali are my buddies! They are sweet and it breaks my heart to know that because of their circumstances, they are unable to reach their fullest potential academically and financially. Here are some of the boys who I tutor. Aren’t they the CUTEST?
We recently found out the boy on the top left has tested positive for HIV/AIDS. His name is Bizimana. His parents told us this, but they have decided that Bizimana shouldn't know that he has AIDS because if he knows, they believe he will give up on life. Bizimana's family is too poor to pay for medicine; he mostly eats one meal a day because they don't have enough money even to buy food. He will probably live until age 15ish if he continues being malnourished and unable to buy the medicine he needs to cure his HIV/AIDS. 

Food!

Our cook, Aidah, is so good to us. Here is some of the food we've acquired thus far.. she makes a good amount of Muzungu (white people) food, but most of my favorites are Rwandan.

    My personal favorite Rwandan food is called    Matoke. It's a plantain that tastes just like really good potatoes. Usually made with g-nut sauce (the purple stuff), sweet potato, and avacado (their avacados are about twice or three times the size of avacados in the US) Here the matoke is served mashed instead of in banana form. 

The mangos here are fresh, juicy and everywhere. 

We have fresh pineapple or fresh mango at almost every meal. 

fruit salad

Every Sunday night a few students volunteer to cook. The first Sunday, Ali, Sam and I cooked this stir fry with egg, pineapple, green pepper, cucumber, carrot etc. 

Chapati is Rwandans most famous and widely eaten food besides Matoke. It is a hand-made doughy bread eaten mainly with cabbage and beans.

         This Matoke and sweet potato is cooked 

               differently than in the first photo.    

  

                                                                  Rwandans don't like Ethiopian food;
so the restaurant we got this plate 

at was packed with White people 

Aidah and I

"When Hiding in The Swamps, The Snakes Weren't Biting, but People Were Killing. These Snakes Were Being More of a Friend Than Humans"

Okay, another sad story… I hope you don't think we are just depressed all the time from hearing these genocide stories; we have a lot of fun I promise!

Last week Pastor Anastase brought a survivor to our house to tell us his story. I definitely underestimated the impact this man would have on me. He is truly one of the most amazing men I have ever heard from. His name is Pastor Protais Nshogoza. Protais is a pastor and peace activist partnering with PHARP (Peacebuilding, Healing and Reconciliation Program) – a program that Pastor Anastase starter. He seemed truly genuine, strong, wise, peaceful, patient and humble to name a few.

He started out his talk with the concept of forgiveness. He explained that it isn’t easy to reconcile; however, Rwanda needs forgiveness. In order to heal and in order to reconcile, they need to learn to forgive. He told us that forgiveness stands on three legs. The first being love, the second being repentance, and the third being our beliefs. All these things produce reconciliation. In love we can find hope, patience, mercy and most important, repentance. He told us, “Repentance is like a key to open a closed heart”. It is freeing and it unbinds you. He said that when you are thinking about the person that offended you, remember that God is above all things.

Protais then told us his story involving the genocide:

46 of the people in Pastor Protais’ family have been killed from the genocide including his father (who had been killed years earlier in a Hutu attack), his wife, his mother, his two sons, and countless friends.

Can you imagine?

How to love God in a time like this?

On the 10^th of April, the Hutu militia came to Pastor Protais’ house. He and his family were beaten with sticks as they were separated from him. The militia took his uncle and chopped his head off right in front of Protais. They then beat him in the blood of his uncle.

What could be more traumatic?

This Hutu militia beat him and left him to die in his uncle’s blood and remains. A group of Tutsis found Protais and took him to a nearby church to be cleaned up. Here he recovered somewhat; although he had seen so many women and children being killed. He then fled to a swamp near a river running to Uganda. He hid there for 41 days. Amazing. He saw so many people dying in the swamps because they were starving and hurting. They drank the contents of the swamp to stay alive. He truly believes that God protected him here and kept him alive. He explained that Hutu militia came by planes and helicopters and shot people hiding in these swamps. He told us “When hiding in the swamps, the snakes weren’t biting, but people were killing. These snakes were being more of a friend than humans”.

Finally the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front, the Tutsi rebel group) came to rescue them. It took them quite a while to trust the RPF because they weren’t sure if they were there to rescue or to kill. Because he had gone so much time without eating, Protais took two weeks to eat again. As time went by after the genocide, he saw dogs eating bodies; houses and lives had been destroyed. “Imagine seeing someone from my family’s killers. I was very angry.”

After the genocide, Protais heard the verse from Matthew six which says, “Forgive us as we forgive others”. This made him think, how many people have I forgiven? How can I forgive my offenders? My father, my mother, my wife and my children – “these were the people who were to finish my descendents”. He was full of bitterness. He knew he needed to forgive; so he went to the prison that held the people who killed his family. He asked these men for forgiveness because in his mind, he had killed them and their families. He had wished them to be dead and he needed to ask for forgiveness.

Needless to say, these Hutu men were shocked. These men slaughtered Protais’ family right in front of him; shouldn’t they be apologizing? These men started to cry with Protais. He called it a “crying feast”. These men went back into their cells, but Protais felt free. His heart felt free for forgiving them. After this visit, Protais went back to the prison regularly to visit and to bring these men food. Another heroic act. How much courage it must have taken to befriend the men who killed your family.

Protais later found out that these men were the first Hutu to publicly repent and ask for forgiveness. His act of kindness and forgiveness had freed them.

Pastor Protais then decided to volunteer at PHARP. He asked how he could help to reconcile the killers and his “colleague survivors”. PHARP took Protais back to his village. They held discussions between the killers and victims. They found some perpetrators truly wanted forgiveness and freedom in their hearts. He told us, “It is not easier for everyone. When you lose someone you love, it is painful; however, with love, with repentance, and with what we believe, we can get out of that and forgive others”.

He explained to us how reconciling in Rwanda is crucial. In his village they have one hospital, one school and one water source. “My children and my perpetrator’s children meet at the same source of water.” Rwandans (Hutus and Tutsis alike) lives are interconnected. Their country is so small and some of it underdeveloped. They need to forgive each other because if they do not, their conflicts will continue.

He then told us of how he found his daughter. When Protais was separated from his family, the men who took his wife and children killed only his wife and two boys – not his daughter. This being, because they were able to produce and carry on the Tutsi name. As for his daughter, a Hutu woman asked these men to take her as a slave. Eventually the two fled the country. This woman found Protais and gave his daughter back to him. For one year and six months, he had no idea where his family was, or if they were alive. Protais seemed to remember every day and every detail, knowing the exact dates everything happened. I suppose the trauma of something like this can help you remember.

Pastor Protais is now remarried to a Tutsi woman – another survivor of the genocide. He has six children, one being his found daughter. When he tells his children now of the genocide, they seem to react the way many of us would react. They tell him he is crazy for forgiving and loving these people who killed his family. They tell him he is not human but an angel; because what human would have the courage to do that? Some one who is truly a follower of Christ I suppose. His story of forgiveness and love will stay with me for a long time. 

Lake Kivu, Kibuye

Sorry i haven't blogged in a while! I'm trying to be on my computer less here, and focus more on being in Rwanda. But i have lot's to catch you all up on! so i'll try my best...

Last weekend Pastor Anastase (our Issues in Peacebuilding professor) took up to Lake Kivu (the only substantial body of water in Rwanda) in the hills of Kibuye. Pastor Anastase use to pastor a small church here and had trained a lot more pastors around these villages - so EVERYONE knew him - even all of the  hotel staff. We took a long bus ride through the mountains, beside cliffs, and over the hills of Rwanda, driving through some of the most beautiful views i have ever seen. The air was so fresh and full of vegetation up in the mountains (compared to the city of Kigali we are use to living in). It was unexpected seeing so many little villages on the sides of these mountains; people walking so close to the windy road's edge. 

Finally we arrived at a small yellow hotel directly overlooking the lake. Our rooms were small, cemented and misquito-neted. Our bathroom light worked half the time, and our sink's leak filled up the bucket underneath every night; but we loved every minute of Lake Kivu. We swam a mile off land to a small island and hiked the steepest mountain i have probably every hiked. We took a long wood boat out to this mountain-island called "Bat Island" (although we saw no bats). This mountain hike was quick but rigorous. One bad step could sent you falling into the water below. Along the way we dodged tons of loose rocks and cow remains - seriously how these cows climbed this mountain and why is beyond me. Apparently, they swim there from other island - but what they do there is also a mystery. 

Getting to the top was beautiful - an awesome view over looking Lake Kivu and the other islands and mountains in the distance. After an eventful trek down the much steeper side of the mountain - involving scaling, falling rock, holding on to dead grass for dear life, and getting attacked by thorn bushes - we finally made it back to the boat. The boat then took us to a small island called "Amohoro Island" ("Peace Island'). Here sipped on sodas and lounged on hammocks by the African sunset until we finally made our way back to the hotel for and African buffet dinner and tea - my favorite. 

The Family

a link to my friend Ali's blog highlighting our "family" for these four months;
 in case you want to check in on who i'm living with :)

http://alrogers21.blogspot.com/2012/02/meet-fam_06.html

The PROCOM Farm

Last weekend we headed to the very eastern province of Rwanda - almost to the Tanzania border. We drove around three hours down very bumpy, dirt roads, through pretty remote and secluded villages on our way to the PROCOM Farm. PROCOM is a local non-governmental organization here in Rwanda run by the co-founder of GoED and our "Social Context for Community Development" professor, Dwight Jackson. PROCOM (The full name being The Organization for the Promotion of Rwandan Communities) is an organization which seeks to walk alongside vulnerable Rwandan families and communities to promote community transformation by means of Agricultural development, the implementation of water pumps and water sanitation, economic engagement, and community resilience. Dwight has been teaching us mostly about his farm which promotes agricultural development here in Rwanda. Essentially what PROCOM is doing is planting alongside Rwandan farmers, developing relationships with these farmers so they can understand more effective ways of farming. I found this method really new and interesting. Because Rwandan farmers have been practicing the same methods of farming for centuries, simply telling them to farm a different way won't change the country's normative structure. PROCOM instead farms alongside Rwandan farmers, using different methods by studying the land, the climate, and the crop to produce a larger yield at a better time. As Rwandan farmers have talked with PROCOM farmers and as they have seen the results of the PROCOM farm, they have already started implementing these new farming methods in their own farms - and hopefully these methods will catch on to many other farmers in Rwanda. By setting up the model farm in Rwanda, even the smallest local farmers will be able to see what is happening and learn about ways to improve their own farms. 


Farming is the most popular way of providing sustenance and doing business here in Rwanda(especially in the villages). If these village communities are able to not only provide essential food and water for their families, but find a way to build a market through farming, they will be able to keep up with the rest of Rwandan society as Rwanda is moving rapidly from a subsistence economy to a market economy. PROCOM is essentially striving to alleviate poverty in these villages by progressing their farming techniques. I believe the reason PROCOM is so successful is because Dwight has worked in Rwanda long enough to understand the flow of society, the changing nature of it's social structures, and the way its government and economy functions in order to make systematic changes within this society. Rwanda is starting from a very different place economically, governmentally, and socially than the western world; therefore, we need to understand their social economy before we can try to help in making changes to developing their country. I think it is genius of PROCOM not to push their ways of farming on the community. Instead they lead by example - and i think this is the most noteworthy way to lead. 

"He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths" Isaiah 2:3

After sleeping a very uncomfortable and stiff night on the cement floor of the new building recently built at the farm, we all woke up around 6:30 to participate in community work day in the nearest village to the PROCOM farm. This day in Rwanda is called "Umuganda" - a day in which everyone in the community stops their regular work to instead work on community projects such as building, weeding, planting, etc.. Although we had some inclination that everyone would be starring at us and gathering around us, we really had no idea what we were in for. It is probably around once a year these people see any white person traveling through their villages - and for some, it is the only time they have ever seen a white person. As soon as we got into town, we had acquired at least 20 kids walking with us. When we got to the center of this community, every single person in the village must have been crowding around us - i'm guessing around 200+ people. We knew now, not much work was going to get done. 


We finally ended up at a school yard weeding with these 100+ children - some weeding with us, most just observing or laughing or wondering why we were there. Weeding was pretty ambiguous as us Americans had no idea what were weeds and what wasn't. Apparently some grass was good, some grass was bad. We had no idea, so we had to point to different types asking children to say "yego" - Yes, or "oya" - no. We had fun hanging out with the kids, learning Kinyarwanda from the men and just interacting with the community. Walking back to the farm was going to be difficult as all 200+ children clearly were going to walk back with us - all trying to hold our hands. As you can see here, we gave in to a few :)

Coming back from the farm, it became so normal for us to see every - literally every - head turn and stare at us driving through the villages. It took about three hours to get home and it felt SO luxurious to have a real toilet, a shower, a bed, and clean clothes. 

Some children during Umuganda

      Coming back from the farm, we went to a small church way deep in the villages on the boarder of Tanzania. Dwight is working here in these villages to provide clean water and to fix their three water pumps that all do not work at the moment. This is a picture of the children's choir who sang Sunday morning. 

“If you knew me, and you really knew yourself, you wouldn’t have killed me.”

Recently we have been visiting various genocide memorials around Rwanda. Last week we came across one specifically at a church where about 10,000 people were killed. As we walked inside the visibly “grenaded” doorframe, we could see the hundreds of thousands of clothes that were piled around this church – very similar to the previous genocide memorial we visited.  Broken and machete-gashed skulls and bones were placed in a room below the chapel. One casket lay at the bottom of this display to represent the horrible ways that women were killed during the genocide. This particular woman lying in the casket was raped more than 20 times by the men who killed her family. After she had been raped, these men sharpened a stick and pierced it through her body – from the bottom up through her head. I cannot think of a worse way to die. This type of killing however was common during the genocide. 

Walking through the chapel, we couldn’t help but see a woman on her hands and knees washing the floor in the corner. When she saw our pastor she got up and they exchanged a hug. She seemed quiet and sad; however, I didn’t want to stare or make any assumptions, so I moved on. As we were leaving the memorial, our house parents told us that pastor Anastase was going to ask this woman to share her story with us. This was very shocking as very few people here in Rwanda talk about the genocide, much less their personal story.

We all piled back into our tiny bus with Seraphina and drove to a very secluded and remote field. She didn’t want anyone to see that she was telling us her story because if the wrong person heard what she was doing, her life could be damaged in more than one way. We stood in a circle as she told her story – which was translated by our pastor. I cannot accurately portray the power of her testimony as we heard it, but I hope that you can take away from this a bit of what it is like for the people of this country. It is a story of intense pain, grief and forgiveness. Although Seraphina was speaking in Kinyarwanda, as she started to cry and shake, we all started to cry and to shake. There is something about a story like hers that is more powerful than a language barrier. By the end of her story every single person there was crying. Seraphina told us at one point that although we could see her standing there alive, she was dead inside. The trauma of the genocide, her family dying, her country torn; this killed her inside.

These are the words of Seraphina taken from a recording of one of the students:

“On the night of April 6th, our president was killed. Suddenly our neighbors who had been our friends turned. The young men gathered together and began to kill our (Tutsi’s) cows and eat them. We knew that people had been coming from Kigali and telling the people that something was coming and that the Tutsis would be killed. But according to how we had lived together, we did not take this as the truth. We were ignoring it, but then we began to see it happen. When it began, I fled with my husband, children, and other people to a parish.

There were so many of us that fled and the priesthood of the parish protected us for some days. When we were hiding in the church, people from the Interahamwe [interjection: the bands of killers that formed from the general population] and militia came with lists of educated people, and they were finding them and taking them. They were saying they wanted to take strong people who could fight against us, but the women and children were saved to die last. The priest became afraid as he saw that situation had become very critical, and he knew he no longer could help us. He decided to take us to the district office to hand us over to the leaders, because he felt he couldn’t continue to protect us.

At the district office there were so many that they said that there was not enough room to shelter us. They took us to another place and people gathered from all over so there were hundreds of us out in the open air. As we were in the open air, people did not feel comfortable so they began to fend for themselves. They began to run to churches in the surrounding area. Some went to the Roman Catholic Church and others to the Pentecostal Church. Those who stayed behind in the open air were killed.

As we who went to the Roman Catholic Church reached it, there was no room. It was too packed, so they pushed us back. So my husband, my children, and I left and fled to the stadium. There were so many of us in the stadium. The killers came during the night and killed many people. A lady who I didn’t know but who knew me, surrounded my family and then hid us in the stadium somewhere. In the morning, we couldn’t stay at the stadium, so my family and I left and we headed to another Roman Catholic Church.

When we reached there, it was packed and it was hard to find any place to hide. In the church, the Interahamwe would come and take people and kill them. We decided that this place was not safe and we decided to flee again. As we were trying to leave to find another place, my husband was taken and he was killed there. When they killed my husband and the people together with him, I could not move but they did not kill me and my children. So we said we can’t move from this place, and we went into the basement of the church which was packed with women and children.

The husbands and the young people were just killed. We stood there waiting to die, because they knew where we were and they had killed all the husbands and young people. We waited days and days, but they did not come. There was no food and no water. We were not being killed but we were dying because we were starving. Overtime the children cried, we cried, and the children shrunk from hunger.

As we waited and waited, we heard that the soldiers of the RPF (Rebel Patriotic Front) were around. We heard them saying that you are not dying, we are here, and we are saving you, but we could not believe it. They came, pulled us out, packed us into vehicles, and took us away from the fighting. But they said that this place wasn’t safe because the killers were coming again, so they took us to another place. From there they took us to military base that had already been secured by the RPF.

As we were going I was separated from my children, because we were put into separate cars. For two months I didn’t find my children, and I was dying again. After two months, by the miracle of God, I saw somebody with my children. They were just skin and bones, and it was hard to recognize them as my children. The RPF, doctors, and nurses helped us by giving us food, water, and medication. We stayed there for some months, and life came back little by little. This is how we survived. I thank God because my children who almost died from hunger, became healthy again and they are alive. But my husband was killed, all my relatives were killed. I don’t have a sister or brother because they were killed. I survived with my children. This is my life.

What I want to tell you because you are still young, still learning, and will tell people what you have heard and seen, is that the death of the Tutsis was very,very bad. Of those who were killed with bullets, I would say they died a good death. But many were killed very badly, with machetes and knives. And few women died without being raped. This is what is hurting the survivors. There are many survivors who have not been able to open themselves up, but they themselves have been raped. Many dead bodies were thrown into the river, because the Hutus said they needed to go back to Ethiopia where they came from. Many of these bodies have not been retrieved.

This story is hard and it is long, but I have not been able to tell it all. I am telling you that we suffered, but we pray that it won’t happen again. Yes, we pray it won’t happen again because it was sad. You see me and you say that I am alive, but I am dead while standing. What you see is the physical, but the inside is gone. I am a Christian and I pray, and that is why I can smile through suffering. I have offered forgiveness and I have forgiven even the killers. We pray in church together and meet in groups that work together, because we forgive. I love God. That is how I can cope with the situation, smile, and talk to people. Thank you. God bless you.”