Back in the Saddle Again

I have heard from several of you that I need to put a new blog entry out here, so here it is!  We successfully returned on Friday afternoon and have been busy trying to catch up on sleep, tell our stories, return emails, check voicemails, and re-acquaint ourselves with our families. 

The trip was beyond amazing; the life-change that will happen in us is truly transformational and we are believing for cool things in East Central Minnesota and the end result in Kivuruga, Rwanda. 

I’m not sure how to summarize other than saying the following things:

* The World Vision infrastructure, leadership, and volunteer commitment is off-the-charts.  I have come back an even greater advocate for the work they are doing than when I left.  We were able to see and ask questions about the entire program from where the sponsorship dollars go, to how sponsored children are cared for, the vision for the future including area priorities, etc. As an MBA holder in Non-Profit Management I was looking for certain things which were there with intentionality and excellence. I left there a huge World Vision advocate.

* I have a huge sense of hope. I’m not returning with just brutal stories of devastation and poverty (although they are there), but I’m returning that this community has a lot of assets (in its people, resources, land) that if resourced and developed, can become more productive & sustainable to increase dramatically the overall standard of living (without Westernizing them).  I believe we can see the life expectancy move past the 40s and infant mortality be reduced from 15%; I believe we can see more than 47% of children being educated beyond primary school.  I believe we can see an establishment of an economic framework which will lead to greater nutrition, water, health, education, and HIV & AIDS prevention.  I’m hopeful for Kivuruga.

Those key issues along with my own personal transformation provide the summary for the trip (at this point). Certainly there are a billion sub-bullets and details, but wanted to share my key learnings at this point.  Thanks so, so much for your support and encouragement.  Invite everyone to December 3rd, 6:30pm at Spectacular Events in Isanti, Minnesota (about 1 mile East of Highway 65 on County Road 5).  There will be cookies and coffee served (no supper) and there will be a chance at the end to sponsor a child in Kivuruga.

Post for Tuesday

Tuesday  11/10 @ 11:00pm at the Masaai Mara in Kenya (2:00pm CST)

Jamba (hello in Swahili)!

It is Tuesday night and we don’t have internet at the moment here on the Masaai Mara in Southwest Kenya (we are supposed to by tomorrow night…. I certainly hope so).  Today was the day we left Rwanda and returned to Kenya.  We left at 5:30am for the Kigali airport where we flew back to Nairobi, Kenya.  We had some time before our flight to the Masaai Mara so we went to a nature conservation area and visited where they fed the baby elephants; it was quite fun and the staff was very knowledgeable.   After that brief visit we had lunch at a local pizza place before heading off to a different Nairobi airport called Wilson Airport.  We eventually boarded our small, 50-person plane headed for the Masaai Mara.  By this time it was about 5:00pm so we had travelled all day and were exhausted, but this place ignited each of us!

First, we landed in the middle of the Masaai Mara which is basically an extension of the Serengeti (the only difference is that it is over the Kenyan border from Tanzania – where the Serengeti is).  So we fly into a landing strip in the middle of nowhere with this beautiful resort, called the Serena Lodge. Mark and I quickly unpacked and then asked at the front desk if they had any binoculars we could borrow…. We got the last pair.  We started looking off the deck of the lodge out into the Masaai Mara and we started seeing amazing natural wildlife.  We saw about 8 elephants including 2 babies, many zebras, gazelles, & impalas, warthogs, and some marmot (we think) that were coming near the lodge a bit like prairie dogs.  A few others from their rooms saw things like lions and water buffalo (yes, they have the pictures to prove it).  We are getting up tomorrow morning to leave for a 6:30 “game drive” where we will watch the sun rise over the Masaai Mara and hopefully see a ton of awesome animals.  One group that has to leave early tomorrow was allowed to catch the late drive tonight and they saw a ton of stuff including something very rare, a cheetah with 3 cubs.  They also saw a hippo and several giraffe, in addition to the stuff we saw.  We heard that the morning game drives are even better.  I cannot wait!  We saw one other wild animal and that was a gecko in the wall of our closet… sorta cool / sorta creepy.

Throughout the day, we informally found other people who went to other areas and shared our stories.  The stories are similar, yet different; the heart change is evident in each one of us.  There was some stuff that was very, very hard to hear, but seeing what we saw, we believe it.  There is a lot of poverty and struggle to go around.

After watching animals for quite a while, we had an amazing dinner followed by dancing by people from the Masaai tribe…. They danced in the lobby of the lodge and one dude jumped amazingly high.  Their singing and jumping were pretty cool.  After that our entire group gathered to share one “mental picture” from the trip for each group.  On behalf of our group, I shared my mental picture of Jean and Nadine from the HIV & AIDS association – Jean was the leader of the group & Nadine was the young girl next to her who is living with HIV.  The entire story is amazing and inspirational.  I have a TON of mental pictures, but I tried to share one that wouldn’t make me cry (too much).

With that, it was bedtime.  We are laying here listening to strange noises outside our window… birds, frogs, lizards, etc… who knows.  Tomorrow will be a great day of enjoying the beauty of Africa and sharing even more stories of what we all experienced in our different areas.

Good night (or whatever it is when this finally gets posted).

Monday 9:30pm (Rwanda time); 1:30pm CST

Today (Monday) was the final day of what I’m calling phase 2.  In phase 1 (orientation) we got to know the World Vision staff & volunteers, the other team members that were going to different places, and information about World Vision’s organization and HIV & AIDS as well as things like cultural sensitivity, etc.  All of this while allowing us a chance to adjust to the time change and the new culture.  Phase 2 (ADP visit) was all about getting into the Area Development Program (ADP) and getting to meet the local World Vision staff & volunteers, community leaders & pastors, and the residents while seeing first hand the community needs, strategies & programs of World Vision, and building relationships will the people of Kivuruga.  Tomorrow begins Phase 3 (Decompression) as we will fly out early (7:30am; leave hotel by 5:30am) to go to Nairobi, Kenya and then another flight to the Masaai Mara (google it!).  This is one of the premiere wild game parks in the world and it borders the Serengeti.  We will spend a couple of days there having meetings, sharing experiences, and enjoying the beauty of Africa.

Today was a very emotional day.  We first went to a 7th Day Adventist church where they are doing phenomenal work with those who are the most needy in their community.  We saw the sewing machines that had been donated to them; some of them work manually, but for the electric one they are believing God will provide them with resources to get a solar panel to operate it.  The sewing machine was on display right before us and looked upon as a tremendous asset to this community – once operating, they feel it will help transform them economically.  In addition to sewing, the Adventists run two other programs: training for construction work and a literacy program.  These folks are heroes.  Once again we were greeted at that church with hundreds of kids laughing and trying to touch us, groups of people singing & dancing, and leaders pouring out their hearts in gratitude for our visit.  It was so humbling and totally undeserved.

Our next stop was to be a quick stop back at the World Vision ADP building for a spot of tea.  This ended up being longer than suspected as we had to say good-bye to some close friends.  Although we would see the ADP Coordinator (Jean Baptiste) and interpreter/WV National Staff person (Jean Paul) later in the day, we had to say goodbye to people like Silas, Nathan, William, Vivienne, Peter, Adeline, Geoffe, and so many others who served us & welcomed us & helped us understand our opportunities in Kivuruga.  As a sign of their gratitude to us, we were each presented with a woven hat made in Rwanda so “that you will never remember the people of Rwanda.”  We told them thank you, but the people of Rwanda are in our hearts and we don’t need a hat to remind us (OK, more tears… ugh).

We then continued on to return once again to the Anglican Church we had been to each of the past couple of days.  This time, the primary group gathered was an association formed as a support group for those impacted by or living with HIV or AIDS.  There volunteer lady, a gal named Jean, was incredibly impressive – she also leads the association for healing & reconciliation.  Sitting next to her was a young gal (perhaps 12) named Nadine who is living with HIV.  Around them were many individuals (young & old, male & female) who either lost a spouse to AIDS or are living with HIV or AIDS.  To hear the conviction in their hearts and the hope in their words was powerful (I can barely keep it together writing this… OK, now I’m not).  This is the same emotion that overwhelmed me the other night talking to Tracy – waves just come out of the blue.  I don’t know exactly how, but I will never be the same again (I hope).  After the program I was able to find both Jean and Nadine, give them big hugs, and tell them (through our interpreter) that they are heroes of mine.  I did the same thing for Jean Baptiste, the pastor of this Anglican church, who is doing so much for the most vulnerable in his community.  I little told him that he is my hero. 

So, with that long, emotional goodbye, we jumped in our van and headed out of Kivuruga toward the capital city of Kigali, where we would spend the night so we could be closer to the airport for our early morning flight.  During the 2.5 hour van ride, the driver of Homer & Bob’s van (Oscar) invited us all over to his house in Kigali to meet his family and share in a drink.  When we got to Kigali, we unloaded our stuff, and then Oscar drove us to his house just about 5-10 minutes from our hotel.  Oscar and his family live in a poor neighborhood; we parked once we went as far as we could and then we walked the beaten dirt path to his house.  Mostof the houses had brick walls around them with holes drilled into the top of the walls and broken glass stuck into the holes for the security system.  Next to Oscar’s house (they rent) someone was builing a new one so they were making the bricks.  As we were walking there, Oscar’s wife was walking down the path so we met her and walked there all together.  After we got to their house, they woke up their sleeping children (who were being watched by the house girl) so we could meet them.  They opened some peanuts for us to share and provided some passion fruit juice for us.  We chatted for a while and shared a great time of pure, authentic fellowship even through the language barrier. 

When we left Oscar’s house, we returned to the hotel and met up with some of the New York group.  After catching up for a while, we went with them to the “formal” meeting at 6:30pm which included an amazing dinner (partly amazing because I hadn’t eaten all day!).  We all had a chance to briefly describe what we were feeling, how the trip went, etc…. it was crazy to think that could be done in a couple of minutes… at the end of the day, most of us shared something with the comment that we were just beginning to sort it out and it may take months to do so (if ever).  Most agree that this will somehow radically change something in their life (either externally or internally or both).  After dinner, it was time to say goodbye to the two people which had come to mean the most to me (and I think most of us): Jean Paul (the WV National Rwandan staff member & interpreter) & Jean Baptiste (Kivuruga ADP Manager).  This was tough… the bond formed in about 3 1/2 days was irrefutable.  We were able to get a picture with them and us four, which I’m sure will be a treasured memory for us.

So, with that, it was about 9:00pm and time to head back to the hotel (another full day!).  I figured I better blog now because someone mentioned there is no internet at Masaai Mara.  If that is the case, you may not hear again from me until the 12th or 13th.  Hopefully I will have some option, but it’s highly likely I will not.  Thank you so much for the encouraging responses on this blog and on Facebook; I’ve tried to read them when I can but really don’t have time to respond.  I’m looking forward to reviewing them all when we get home.  We’ll also have a few thousand pictures to figure out what to do with and a ton of audio files. 

It’s time I bid adieu…. hope to yap at ya soon, otherwise you should assume we are having a great time at the Mara and allowing the experiences of the past week or so to sink in and settle where they need to settle.

Sunday 11/8 6:30pm (Rwanda time)

Sunday 11/8 @ 6:30pm in Rwanda (10:00am CST)

Muraho. Amuruku?

I can’t believe we only have one more day left in our Area Development Project in Rwanda.  We will spend time with the people of Rwanda tomorrow before driving town tomorrow evening to Kigali (Rwandan capital) where we will spend the night closer to the airport before getting up Tuesday morning and flying back to Nairobi. 

Tomorrow night we will be reunited with the other folks from New York who travelled to a different part of Rwanda and then Tuesday we will reunite with all of the people on the trip (those that travelled to Ethiopia and those who remained in Kenya).  It will be a great reuniting time.  We will spend a couple of days at the Massai Mara and will have a chance to share learnings, de-brief as a team, and relax at one of the most beautiful places on earth (although they have some things to prove to me if they want to out-do the beauty of Kenya).

We spent the bulk of our day in church.  I heard it said the “Americans have all the watches, but Africans have all the time.”  I’ve learned that to be true!  We got to the church around 9am (I think) and left there around 12/12:30 (I think).  Mark Radeke & I visited a Pentecostal church and we were treated like royalty including several songs of greeting, flowers, and hugs from everyone.  At one point our interpreter (Jean Paul) burst out laughing and couldn’t stop; Mark was finally able to ask him and it was because one child had said they were so blessed for having touched a white man.  One older lady said that this was the first time she had ever seen a white man in her church.  They were so gracious, thankful, and joyful that I couldn’t help but smile, yet at the same time feeling dreadfully unworthy and more committed than ever to help in any way I can for the people of Kivuruga.  After a while (hour or so), I was asked to share a bit, which I did and then shared a bit about what God requires from us – not the sacrifice of animals, but to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).  The main message, however, was reserved for Pastor Radeke who shared out of James and how good gifts come from God as we endure hardship and trial (and in fact there is joy in that trial because we know that endurance will produce good gifts).  He did awesome and it was well received.  I’ve got the entire service on digital audio so if Radeke’s ever out of line I can bribe him with releasing him trying to speak Kenrwandan.  Our tour host, Mary, attended the Anglican Church (near the Pentecostal church) along with Mark Holm and Bob Jonsson.  It sounds like Mary & Homer both shared, with Bob deliver the main, 3-hour message.  The funny thing is that the Pentecostal service got done before the Anglican! 

An interesting part of the church service (in both cases) was the offering.  They have people bring their tithes & offerings during a song to the front.  Many of the people do not have currency, so they bring what they have and lay it on the ground at the front.  At the Pentecostal church this included 3-4 stalks of sugar cane (from different people), bananas, potatoes, eggs, and even a rabbit.  Then someone auctions these items off to the people of the church and the highest bidder pays for the item with the money going into the offering.  Watching that rabbit being held up & walked around was both beautiful (as a gesture of someone’s sacrificial gift) as well as surreal. 

At the end of our service, the congregation gave us a bunch of eggs wrapped up in bark from a banana tree – it was beautiful and incredibly generous of this very poor congregation.  Because of our travels, we gave the eggs to the World Vision local staff to do with as they feel is appropriate (after getting our picture with it).  Bob, Homer, & Mary also received gifts that they will be bringing home with them (don’t want to ruin it for you, but they are very cool!).

In each church, after the service, we met with the kids of the church and their Sunday School teachers to find out what they are doing, their successes, & their main challenges.  The ongoing theme for me in Rwanda is that they have so many people that are so unbelievable committed to the work of their community, but lack some of the basic resources.  Walking 60-120 minutes to get somewhere is very common in this part of the world; when I asked people how long it takes to walk somewhere, the answer is often 90 minutes (but with no scowl or negative tone). 

When church meetings were finally done and we were able to pry ourselves away from the people (both kids & adults), we drove up to the Kivuruga ADP headquarters again to chat about the process of Child Sponsorships.  The usual suspects were there once again including Jean Paul (perhaps the most impressive human being I’ve ever met, one of the 3 Jean Baptist’s we have met, Adeline, Tiffany, and William as well as others.  We were also joined by the person in charge of the sponsorships for Kivuruga; her name is Bibienne (unsure of spelling).  She was very impressive and her explanation of the sponsorship program was so helpful.  She did a great high-level overview and then we asked a lot of questions about specific areas we were wondering about.  We were so moved by the commitment by the many World Vision volunteers that make a program like this work.  I think of William who is the volunteer leader of the ADP Committee – he walks where he needs to go including twice/week meetings for the ADP Committee.  We were stunned to learned that there are 2 caregivers in every village (about 18 villages currently being served in the ADP out of the 38 in the ADP).  Also there are many volunteers that check on every registered child (includes all sponsored children) at least every 90 days to find out how they are doing on the schooling, health, and everything else.  They go to their house and organize birthday parties; they check in on them and their family; they bring letters from sponsors, read them to them in their native tongue, have the child write a letter & drawing back, and then return those things to the ADP office.  The people of Kivuruga are so committed to the well-being of the community and every resident, it was overwhelming.  This is one of the many things we have to learn from the people of Rwanda.  The value of family and community are something we have very little grasp of in America.  We catch glimpses of it, but you need to see how these people rally around each other.

One of the things that was very helpful to us was to understand the value of child sponsorship to the children.  The regular money goes to the community to increase the well-being of the specific child, but also the entire community.  That child then is also a recipient of the work done from the other child sponsorships.  The focus is on individual well-being through community well-being.  However, sponsored children receive the regular visits I talked about earlier, special birthday parties, the opportunity to write back & forth with their sponsor, the ability to receive special gifts from their sponsor, etc.  These children are chosen because they are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable and need the extra attention; child sponsorship is the mechanism to make sure that happens while improving the standard of living for all of Kivuruga.  Please consider sponsoring a child and joining us in this effort; $35 goes a LONG way in Rwanda. At the church offering auction (as I call it), consider that a rabbit went for about the equivalent of one U.S. dollar; that a group of about 15 fresh bananas (just picked) went for the equivalent of 30 cents.  Also keep in mind that we were told these prices are higher than market prices, because people pay more because the money is going to the church.

We came back and did a little shopping at the gift shop here; I got a few goodies which feels a little guilty, but I also know we are putting much-needed money in the local economy (and the store we were at had several articles showing how the people who make the crafts are those suffering from HIV & AIDS and this gives them some income).  The cost of the items once again solidified the impact the dollar can have in Rwanda.

Well, gotta run… we are going to have a meeting at 7pm local time (about 30 minutes from now).  We are all looking forward to seeing you upon our return.  We’ll need about 10 hours to tell you all the stories and transformation that has happened in us.

Murabeho, Steve & gang

Sunday 11/8 at 6:30am Rwanda time (10:30pm 11/7 CST)

I finished the blog as a separate document last night, but was just able to post it this morning (Sunday here).  Enjoy & thanks!

Saturday 11/7 @ 11:00pm in Rwanda (11/7 at 3:00pm CST)

Muraho….

Another amazing day in Rwanda.  I’m telling you the people are so amazing here, it would blow your mind.; so friendly, generous, and joy-filled.  It’s like I’m in a movie, because the experience is so contrary to my normal American life (including how I approach life most of the time).

This has the potential to be another mega blog, but I’m going to try to keep it reasonably short (we’ll see).

We started the day at the ADP (Area Development Program) office once again meeting with the World Vision Rwanda staff and several church & community leaders in the Kivuruga area.  We received more detailed information about how the top priorities, strategies, and challenges with the Kivuruga ADP and what has happened so far in these areas.  There are certainly some excellent steps being taken in the early stages of this program.  This meeting lasted for 2-3 hours and was excellent.

After this, we were able to visit with 11 of the 20 children that have already been sponsored by World Vision.  I had a chance to visit personally with six of them representing children our family is sponsoring and those from others who I was representing and brought gifts for.  Each of us had an interpreter with us so we were able to communicate with the kids.  Some of them were extremely shy while others were more outgoing & confident.  But overall, it was a highlight of the trip for each of us.  There will certainly be pictures of this floating around once we have time to really get a handle on all we have seen and done.  This time meeting the sponsored children lasted well over an hour; it was a beautiful time.

After meeting the sponsored children, we were off to a tour of 2 difference churches and a school. The driving to these places was quite brutal and all of our backs, butts, & necks were sore.  I found myself asking, “how do they drive on this every day” before realizing hardly anyone does… they all walk.  Many of them walk 90 minutes to go to school or to church; we talked to several people that walked 90 minutes or more each way just to be there to greet us in the church or school.  They really don’t realize that none of us are that great (well, maybe except Pastor Jonsson).

At each church and at the school, we were greeted by choirs singing, clapping & dancing; children absolutely flocked around us constantly.  At each place, I spent so much time hanging with the kids, taking their pictures, and then showing them their pictures that a World Vision staff member had to come and rescue me… they were surrounding me.  Everywhere I went kids would be holding my hands … usually 2-3 on each hand.  At one point I was talking to kids on my left and 3 little boys were giggling as they were rubbing my hair up & down my arm… I reckon they’ve never seen a winter coat on someone before.  It was so sweet and humbling; they were all so welcoming & joyful.  I could go on & on here about the welcomes we received in each of the churches & school; I could talk about how at each one they gave us an update on what was happening with them including clubs that formed to fight HIV & AIDS, for Peace & Restoration, and the workings of the primary school from the Headmaster.

I left my digital recorder on almost the entire day; we also took a TON of pictures and even some videos.  It’s impossible to think we can get all that organized while here in Rwanda, but I’m hoping I can spend some time right away when we get back to try to tell the story in a more comprehensive and fluid manner using multi-media.  Radeke already wants me to put a DVD together the day after we get back for his River of Life crew….. and I’m hoping I can make that happen.  But that is tough to figure out what to pick out for a 3 minute video when we have an hour of video, probably 2,000 pictures by the time we are done, 20 hours of digital voice recordings, and countless encounters & conversations with hundreds of people.

 This truly has been life-changing, but we are not done yet.  We have 2 more days in Kivuruga, Rwanda.  Tomorrow (Sunday) morning, we will be splitting up and hitting a couple local churches (I believe the churches we visited today).  Pastor Jonsson will be preaching at an Anglican church and Homer and our World Vision U.S. guide Mary will be with him.  Mark Radeke will be preaching at a Pentecostal church and I will be going with him.  Jonsson’s got more of a schedule where as Radeke is not on the clock – in fact, I will get to preach a little bit too (supposed to be short, but God bless the Pentecostals who will give me grace if I start PREACHIN’ and get caught up in the momentum of the Amen’s).  After church, we will go back to the ADP headquarters and talk with the director of sponsorships so we can get more detailed information behind how sponsorships work, the process of donor/child letters, etc.  That is a very good and important meeting.  We will likely be back to the hotel by 4pm and will take that as some downtime, or go walking around town a bit.

Monday is some more meetings and visits before driving that evening to Kigali (capital of Rwanda) where we will stay one night close to the airport so we can get up for an early Tuesday flight back to Kenya and the Massai Mara for two days of de-brief, decompression, and reconnecting with our full group.  Then Thursday we head out arriving back in Minneapolis early Friday afternoon.

Murabeho, Steve & gang

Saturday 8:15am (Rwanda time)

The internet connection wasn’t working up until now… so here is the post I did last night… what a day!

Friday 11/6 @ 9:00pm in Kivuruga, Rwanda (11/6 at 1:00pm CST)

Muraho (Hello in KinyaRwandan) – Nitwa Steve (my name is Steve).  Witwa nde? (what is your name?)

This has certainly been an amazing day.  I’ll apologize up front for the length of this because I expect it to be large.  I’m writing in Microsoft Word in hopes that the wireless internet this hotel is supposed to have gets fixed sometime tonight (I’m not hopeful, but I’ll write my thoughts anyway for whenever there is a chance to post this).

The day started for me about 5:45am from Nairobi, Kenya (8:45pm Thursday night in Minnesota).  The family and I video skyped a bit before I had to pack up for our early morning trip to Rwanda.  We left Nairobi about 6:30am and drove for two hours to the Nairobi airport.  We knew we should be nervous when the driver asked for our permission to “take a short route”.  First let me say, he got us there on time… but it wasn’t without a sense of adventure.  The roads were mainly dirt on the way there, travelling through some back road construction projects; where there was asphalt, there were more potholes than road (or so it seemed).  If you had a bad back or had to go potty, it made it quite an adventure.  For the last 30 minutes or so, our van’s fuel light came on – I’m certain we got there with fumes.  We traveled through many very poor parts of Nairobi and it was amazing to see all of those living or selling their wares in such tough conditions; I will say that there seemed to be a great sense of community among the people that I was a bit jealous of.

We got to the airport, through customs, through screening, and through immigration finally boarding about 9:30am.  When it was time for our flight (about 9:50am), we walked out onto the tarmac and boarded a small plane (holds 90 people and had about 80 on the flight).  This was a nice RwandaAir jet.  We ended up waiting on the plane for about 20 minutes before finally taking off for Kigali (the capital of Rwanda).  The flight took about an hour and 10 minutes (actually about 10 minutes given the time change) and we arrived about 10:30am in Kigali.  Even on this short plane ride and the early time, they gave us a beef sandwich, shortbread, and a diet coke.  It was striking that we couldn’t go an hour without a snack when below us were so many people that literally have nothing.  There was only one instance of turbulence, otherwise it was a smooth ride.

Shortly after arriving in Kigali, Rwanda (and filling out more forms) we met some of the World Vision staff including Ananias (the Director of U.S. Donor Relations in all of Rwanda).  Ananias has 4 girls and 2 boys; one of his sons named Christian (7 years old) was with Ananias.  Also we met Jean Baptist who is the Manager of the Kivuruga ADP (where we will be working; Jean has 2 boys & 1 girl ages 19, 17, & 12).  We also met Geoff who has a role with World Vision, but was really helping out with many of our interpretation needs.   As we talked with them we learned that Kivuruga is 2 years into the ADP (expected 15-18 year commitment total), that there are 1,200 Registered Children (available for sponsorship at this point) and 600 of them have been sponsored (we are going to close that gap and have more).  The goal would ultimately to have between 4-5,000 children sponsored in Kivuruga.  We also learned that there are 25 ADPs in Rwanda, 7 of which are backed by U.S. sponsors and these 25 ADPs are supported by 300 Rwandan World Vision staff.

There was another group from New York (stupid Yankees) that were also travelling to Rwanda, but to a different part (Maraba).  We travelled with them to this point but then brought them to their hotel.  We shared a soda with them and the WV staff (and I took a shining to young Christian).  As we were leaving that hotel (and that team behind), someone noticed what looked like the Rwandan National Soccer team.  I went over and met each of them, shaking their hands.  I was trying to get a group photo when we had to leave as our van had pulled up and was blocking traffic (I was hoping to show my son Ryan that – it was very cool).

From there we were surprised to learn that we were next going to the Rwanda Genocide Memorial in Kigali.  This was a devastating experience.  Certainly we had heard and read a bit about the genocide, but to really learn about what it was like, the brutality of the genocide, and the long-term ramifications of it brought me to a deep place of grief.  We arrived at 12:15pm (4:15am CST) and had to leave by 1:00pm so we only had 45 minutes (I’m actually thankful I needed to hurry through it).  There were no pictures allowed inside the museum which was filled with educational videos, pictures, and narrative.  The entire thing was moving, but what hit me the most on the inside part were separate rooms that were dedicated to the victims.  In one room hung pictures of many of the victims, provided by family members.  In another room were many bones (skulls & leg bones) from bodies that were recovered and never identified.  In another room hung clothes that were worn by the victims when they were slaughtered.  In another room were stories of some of the children including their favorite things, etc.  The final part of the inside museum focused on the next steps for Rwanda & how it might come out of the ashes – it was a great attempt at feeling like there is hope, but frankly after what we saw it didn’t matter if there was hope – I was so ticked off and wanted to blame anyone & everyone for letting it happen (as an aside, after now meeting many Rwandans and seeing their joy & love, it tears me apart even more).  The saying around Rwanda in 1994 (after the 3-month, 1 million death genocide) was “And Rwanda was dead.”

I then had about 10 minutes to go around the outside part of the museum.  Pictures were allowed here and I took a couple, but it felt like sacred ground.  There were many huge cement slabs that were covering up mass graves.  Nearly 260,000 dead Rwandans are buried at this museum.  Earth shattering.  And to think this is only about one-fourth of the total is unbelievable.

After this trip, we recovered during a 2 hour 30 minute drive to the Kivuruga ADP (Area Development Program) where the East Central Minnesota partnership with World Vision (called Our Response) will be focusing our efforts.  I know Wisconsin folks like to call their land, “God’s Country” – and, you know what, it is beautiful.  I’ve also been to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) with Keith Plaisance and crew… and it is breath-taking.  But I have never seen anything like what I saw in Rwanda.  I hope some of the pictures do it justice, but I’m sure they won’t.  Rwanda is known as the “Land of a thousand hills” and it is amazing; with its banana trees, beans, potatoes, coffee beans, natural forests, etc.  It is so green and luscious – I guess it’s how I picture Ireland might be a little (don’t laugh if you know Ireland and I’m off base).  Certainly there was poverty all around us on the drive up into the mountains, but it was different than the Nairobi poverty – perhaps just because of the green-ness of it and the fact that it didn’t seem as populated (or at least once we were out of the capital of Kigali).  You will see pictures (hopefully) of the bikers & walkers going to market up & down the steep hills while also seeing the market places that have cropped up throughout the Rwandan hill country.

We finally arrived at about 3:30pm (7:30am CST) at the Kivuruga ADP.  We pulled into the facility and there was 30-40 kids and adults decked out in beautiful color singing, clapping and dancing for us.  It was amazing!  I was reluctant to take pictures, but some of the others guys took some.  Luckily I had brought a digital voice recorder, so I quick started it before I jumped out of the van to greet them.  I left it on the entire time and think I caught the song – I will post if I can figure out how.  After a while of greeting them and listening to them welcome us, we went inside with the World Vision staff and those in the community who were volunteers on what is called the ADP Committee.  We sat around eating muffins and drinking hot milk tea (it was quite good).  We introduced ourselves, heard about each others families, and just started to build our connections.  In the group was Alfredis (who just started on staff at WV), William (the chairman of the local school & teacher who has 2 girls), Adorena (teacher with 2 boys & 3 girls), Silas, Tiffany (the office manager), Amerita (teacher of 4^th grade and has 2 girls and 3 boys; she is a widow), Nathan (3 kids; he works on the judicial committee regarding the genocide), and Daniel (a pastor in the area).

We were also able to meet three of the World Vision volunteers who work to read sponsor letters to the sponsored children and also help translate their message back into English for the U.S. sponsors.  It was pretty cool to see them working on those – the end result of where sponsorship relationship happens.

After some pictures with the different groups, it was time to head out.  But, by now it was raining like crazy.  So we hung out for a while on the porch with all the kids & community members & WV staff/volunteers.  We decided to bring out a bag of hard candy, so Homer got his back out of the van and we had fun distributing the candy – the adults were just as excited!  After a while some spontaneous singing & dancing broke out with the kids so we all sorta joined in.  Homer got his groove on and I was able to have a dance-off with a few of the kids that really got my heart pounding and my knees shaking – it was an absolute blast.  (transparency: it’s been a while since I felt that free – the guys on the trip only moderately mocked me to my face – I imagine there was some additional behind my back – but it was worth it).  There was such joy and fun there.  One of the kids (I forget his name now, but I’ll listen back to the digital recorder, was a fabulous dancer).  As I was having my dance-off with him I took the shades from my head and put them on him – he looked awesome!  Hopefully a picture will get posted of him; later, when it was time to leave I totally forgot about them, but I am happy to think he’s got them.  There was a younger, sweet kid that I also did the Danny Terrio (dance fever) with – he was a kid I was ready to put in my backpack, head home, and call it a day.  We’ll see if any pictures emerge from that fun.

With the laughter & fun, the rain relented a bit and we had our window to try to get out.  We waved our way (as did they) away excited to see them tomorrow.  We took the 30 minute rough ride to the hotel in Musanzi (in the Kivuruga area).  It’s a nice hotel, but it took nearly 2 hours to get dinner (we were the only ones in the restaurant) and I’ve been typing this waiting for the wireless to connect for well over an hour (sure hope I can get this to you!).   I think at this point we are all a bit exhausted – the day started in Kenya and ended in Rwanda with a ton packed in between.  There is rumbling that we might actually get to meet our sponsored children tomorrow (instead of Sunday) – I’m very excited about that!  I couldn’t help but wonder if any of the kids we saw today are among our sponsored kids .

As I got to know these Rwandans for just a brief time, I am struck by how beautiful they are in spirit; I am struck how beautiful the land is; and I am excited that we will have a chance to help the poorest of these (who do not have basic needs being met) to raise their standard of living and regain hope in their life.  They may or may not have been directly impacted by the genocide, but they are in need of the hope that we are trying to offer through World Vision.

Murakoze (thanks).  Murabeho (good-bye)

Thursday Nov 5 10:00pm (Nairobi time)

Jamba… It is Thursday night (about 10pm in Nairobi, Kenya) and I’m just getting ready for bed (certainly the earliest I’ve gone to bed yet).  We have finished the orientation phase of this trip having had another fantastic 5-hour session from our World Vision staff.  Today we focused on the World Vision model for community partnership as well as the financial elements of child sponsorship and other funding. We also had training on cultural dos & don’ts while we are in our ADP (Area Development Program – for us, Kivuruga, Rwanda).  It was very helpful & informative in understanding the role of Child Sponsorships, the impact our efforts will have, and how our efforts are supplemented with other sources.  I am even more confident and aligned with WV model after talking about it and asking a number of questions; I’ve never been more convinced Our Response chose the right partner for this effort.

Another experience we had today was going deeper into Nairobi and going to one of their local markets; this is basically a tin roof with a series of 5 foot by 5 foot (or less) area of people selling things.  The amazing part is how intense they are at their sales practices; there were times I (and others) felt physically trapped in the store wondering if we had to forcibly remove ourselves to avoid buying anything.  The good news, however, is that everything is negotiable.  I was asking the prices of things at one of these slots and they kept telling me they would give me a good deal on a “package of things” – so I was to pick out everything I wanted and they would tell me the price for the package.  So I did that and he came back with the price of 14,400 Kenyan Schillings – this is about $175 U.S. Dollars; I said that we weren’t even close to a deal and started walking out.  They said 10,000…. To make a very long story short (because it was a long story), I walked away with everything I wanted at that store for $3,000 Kenyan Schillings (about $36).  The only other store I bought stuff at talked them down from 4,000 Kenyan Schillings to 400 (or about $50 to about $6).  I got a lot of cool stuff, I think… we’ll see what others think.  I had brought more money to buy stuff for Our Response as giveaways, but ran out of time to really negotiate for those things – we had a set meeting time back at a more traditional mall (which required walking through crazy traffic and deep puddles – trust me, you have never seen traffic like this… insane).

Food, as always was amazing.  Had a great breakfast and supper, but I didn’t even bother eating lunch – I was just too packed and wanted to start scaling back as we prepare for the next leg of our journey.  I think about this trip as 3 phases: Orientation, Experience, and Decompression.  We leave the hotel tomorrow at 6:30am to go to the Nairobi airport for a 10:00am flight to Kigali, Rwanda (the capital).  The flight is about an hour and then we’ll have about a 3 hour drive to get to the area of Kivuruga, where we will be focusing the efforts of Our Response.  Each of the next four days will include part of the day discussing various items with the World Vision staff & community leaders of Kivuruga with the rest of the day being spent with the residents of Kivuruga; I believe it is Sunday we will be meeting the sponsored children which is certainly one of the highlights of the trip.  We return on Tuesday (I believe) to a different part of Kenya where we will have a couple days of meetings and decompression at Massai Mara before finally heading home; arriving around 1pm in Minneapolis on Friday 11/13.

So, tonight I am reflectively on the verge of seeing Kivuruga – the pinnacle of this long-awaited trip; to meet the people that we will spend the next 15 years trying to build support for.  To look into their eyes and see not only the need & the pain, but also the hope.

Thank you for your comments and continued support; you have no idea how much that builds us up just to know you are tracking with us and praying for us.  We are so excited to bring this story home and see East Central Minnesota awakened in the area of global compassion – and to do it as a community is very, very cool!  Remember, keep telling people to check out the blog and clear 12/3 on their calendars.

Wednesday Nov 4 11:45pm (Nairobi time)

Hey y’all.  Wow, this was quite the day and this blog post certainly won’t do this justice.  Started with another great breakfast, but went more “American” other than the beef bacon and passion fruit.  We then enjoyed a time of worship led by some local World Vision staff with the words “Mambo Sawa Sawa, Jesu Akiwa Enzime” which means “everything is alright with Jesus on the throne”; we followed that up with a devotion on Romans 8:31-39 realizing that nothing (no famines in Kenya; no AIDS in Rwanda) can separate us from God’s love.

Steve Haas, a VP for World Vision U.S. then led us in a 5 hour studyon HIV and AIDS to make sure we understood how the disease works, the role stigma plays in the disease & in these African communities, and the facts about African AIDS.  There is way too much to share, but here are a couple of thoughts.  He started out talking about a story from James Michener’s “Rights of Spring” where an elderly lady would catch flies, shake them so they got dizzy, pull the wings off, then take some spit and draw a circle on the table, then set the wingless & dazed fly in the middle of the spit circle.  When the fly meandered outside the spit circle, she would squash it and when she had five, she would eat them.  She repeated this every day.  The point Haas was making is that we all draw our spit circles; those areas that people should dare not go out of lest we squash them.  The question was then posed, “Where did Jesus spend His time?” The answer, of course, was outside the spit circle – with those who were unacceptable (sinners, tax collectors, lepers, beggers, prostitutes, etc).

Certainly there are HIV & AIDS issues in the United States, so why Africa?  Consider that 73% of all global AIDS cases are in Africa.  There are 33 million diagnosed with AIDS in the world – 1.3 million in all of North America and 22.5 million in sub-Saharan Africa (south of the Sahara desert).  Consider new infections of HIV – in 2007, North America reported 46,000 new cases compared with 1.7 million in sub-Saharan Africa (almost 40 times more new cases).  In 2007 there were 21,000 North American adult and children deaths from HIV & AIDS; compare this to the 1.6 million in sub-Saharan Africa (about 80 times).  Certainly HIV & AIDS is an issue in the U.S., but the magnitude impact in Africa is startling.

Our bodies have lymphocytes (white blood cells) that fight off disease by basically sacrificing themselves in taking on those sick cells.  These lymphocytes are instructed to do what they need to do by their master sergeant, the “T-cells” or CD4 cells which give orders to the lymphocytes.  Most infections & viruses come into the system and are attacked by the lymphocytes at the direction of the T-cells.  HIV is a virus (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) that actually attacks the T-cells and renders them useless (the picture here is HIV putting hands over the T-cells eyes & mouth so it can’t see what is happening or tell the lymphocytes where & how to respond).  With the T-cells rendered useless, any other infection occurs in the body and although the lymphocytes are still there, they don’t react.  Once the number of T-cells is reduced below 200 or less per milliliter of blood (compared to the normal thousands), the individual is considered to have AIDS (Acquired immune Deficiency Syndrome).  There is much more to say here, but that is good for now. 

ARVs (Anti-Retro Virals) are known to fight or suppress the HIV virus, but are not started until the body has been compromised with AIDS.  The HIV virus is a “smart” virus that unlocks the ARV cocktail and finds ways around it, thus requiring a new cocktail (mixes of drugs).

Ask yourself this question before reading on.  What percentage of AIDS cases in Africa were transmitted by the homosexual lifestyle?  What is your guess?  Let me first say that 87% of cases were transmitted through heterosexual intercourse (that is hetero, not homo).  10% are from mother-to-baby.  2% is through blood transfusions.  1% is from drug use.  Yes, less than 1% is from homosexual transmission.  Consider also that the fastest growing incidence of AIDS is in Russia where drug use is the number one reason; in China the number one reason is because of how the donate & pool blood – one infected person gets mixed in with 39 healthy people, and the result is 40 units of blood are now tainted to be passed on.

Consider another amazing stat – 60% of AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa are women; and the percentage of women as AIDS victims is growing in nearly every African country.  We talked quite a bit about how women are very susceptible to AIDS in Africa for a number of reasons including physical, socio-economic, cultural practices, and age. 

We talked quite a bit about the stages of living with AIDS (shock, reality, remembering, rebuilding) and what World Vision is doing in response to AIDS through Channels of Hope (activating communities of churches to have open dialogue, reduce stigma, and create environments for healing).  There is good news amidst the bad news; there is impact happening and as we continue to fight this battle, the future looks much brighter through these efforts.  For example, Uganda has moved from 20% of its population infected with AIDS to 5%; this is great progress.

We then heard from Perry, a lady who lives in Kenya who told the painful story of how over several year period she found out her husband was HIV+ and then died from AIDS, that she was HIV+ (and has been trying everything and battling) and then both of her sons (at different times) were tested HIV+ and both died a couple years apart.  This was a heart-wrenching story and she received a standing ovation for her courage in sharing it.  Perry’s plea to each of us was to do whatever we can in our areas of influence to de-stigmatize HIV & AIDS; that it is largely the stigma from the disease that causes people to take wrong courses of action (or avoid taking proper action).

We then had lunch and took a bus ride out to a Giraffe Park where we spent about 45 minutes (I’ll try to get some pics posted at some point); Mark Radeke French kissed a giraffe – that’s really all we need to know!  We all had great discussions on the bus; for me it was with Kevin from North Carolina who is their missions minister and has been involved in just intense, great ministry including bringing in 4 tons of food on helicopters as a last result for hurricane victims.  His role in global participation was mind-blowing yet encouraging.  The bus rides were a couple hours each way, but we saw so much of Nairobi including some just brutal sights of poverty.  At one point, there were a bunch of cows on the road that we had to wait for (we got some pics of those).  It was sort of tough driving back into our resort after that experience.

For supper we had a ridiculous meal of all meat – yep, that’s it.  Any meat we basically wanted to try. This included goat, crocodile, beef, chicken, and camel.  There was more, but it’s almost 12:30am and I’m losing it.  I actually liked the goat the best; the camel was sort of greasy.  The crocodile was more tender than I thought it would be and quite tasty.

The night ended with us talking to Mary (our ADP leader) about the details of our trip into Rwanda.  We’ll leave early Friday morning for that.  I was very tired and not in the greatest of moods; we came back to our room and the four of us talked and prayed together.  When it was Radeke & I we had a great conversation; he encouraged and challenged me in some cool ways.  I went out for about 30 minutes on my own and wrestled with some things and came to a good spot.  Africa seems to have a way of challenging priorities. 

Thanks for your ongoing support & encouragement!  Good night!

Tuesday Nov 3 11:15pm (Nairobi time)

Jambo (hello)… had a great meeting tonight to kick-off our time together.  We met all the other folks that are on this African journey together; the others are all parts of groups going off to other parts of Africa after our first few days in Nairobi together (don’t worry PB, I walked across the room just fine!).  One of the highlights from tonight included an extended chat I had with a gentlmen named Dow from a church in Charlotte, North Carolina – I got to chat with him quite a bit about the things their community is involved with, what has worked, and what has not worked.  Dow has been to projects in Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, and now here in Kenya; what a wonderful resource and wealth of knowledge (interestingly they just had Shaine Claiborne speak at their church on a Sunday night).  We also heard briefly from some of the World Vision staff who are with us on the trip; we’ll here more from them in the next couple of days.  Included in this group are Paul Mooma who is the Senior Advisor for East African Commitment and Germa Begeshaw who is the National Director for Kenya.  The other big highlight for all of us was an extended discussion after the meeting with Steve Haas who is a Vice President of World Vision U.S. and sort of overseeing the entire trip.  We chatted for quite a while about a number of topics including World Vision’s new microfinancing program, which sounds very encouraging.  As we were talking about getting the young adults & youth in our area charged up about this injustice and releasing them to do cool things to advance this cause, Mr. Haas mentioned the work of a gentleman named Chip Hoover who transformed Wheaton Academy into a group of young world changers.  He mentioned we get connected with him and learn about how he led that school & young adults into transformational, world-changing activity.

Our dinner tonight included some great tomato soup (something I normally despise) as well as a selection of different meats (lamb, beef, and fish) – I tried & enjoyed them all. There was also something that is made up of maize flour, but I forget the name (I had it on my digital voice recorder, but don’t want to wake up Mr. Radeke – who is being smart and getting his beauty sleep).  We also had rice with some spicy sauce on top.  And again, I hammered the mango juice.

As we chatted with Steve Haas, he mentioned how the pace of this first full day is intentionally slow, allowing all of us to ease into adjusting to the time change and releasing some of the work stuff we might still be hanging on to.  Tomorrow we are looking forward to an early breakfast with the morning dedicated to some HIV/AIDS orientation.  The afternoon will include lunch and an opportunity to experience the Giraffe Park and the Karen Blixen Museum (apparently where “Out of Africa” was filmed).  We’ll then have dinner at Nyoma Choma Restaurant which specializes in all sorts of wild game.  Should be a great, information filled 5-6 hour session followed by a chance to experience more of African culture & beauty.

Tuesday Nov 3 12:30pm (Nairobi time)

“Good mornin’ America, how are ya?  Don’t you know me, I’m your native son…” – OK, I guess the song sorta falls apart after that.  It’s about 3:30am there on Central Standard Time, but it’s about 12:30pm in the afternoon here.  At some point we’ll start getting some pictures up here, but that is not my expertise. 

We all had a great nights sleep last night, which was fantastic.  The beds were super hard, but I think our tiredness trumped any of that.  I had a chance to do the video Skype thing last night with the family, which was so cool… so see each other from the other side of the planet.  I got to even show them Mark Radeke sleeping!  It was pretty cool.

Anyway, we are at this very nice Nairobi hotel/resort…. finally this morning got to walk around a bit and see how big & nice this place is (again, we’ll take pictures and get them posted at some point).  They put out an amazing food spread/buffet – Radeke told me I had to eat stuff I never have.  So, in addition to an omelette & bacon I had Sour Wabi Porridge (tasted like a watered-down Malt-O-Meal with some other taste that was new to my pallette).  I also had something called Wheatabix which is basically like Shredded Wheat only you just eat it (no milk, sugar, etc)… quite the fibrous treat.  And then washed it all down with a glass of Mango Juice.  It was an amazing breakfast/lunch/brunch.  Jonsson and Homer went to breakfast before Radeke and I.  Radeke went and worked out (loser) at their facility and wasted some more time before finally getting me up (I was crashed and sleeping hard!).  Radeke & I joined Jonsson & Homer around 10am for breakfast and we hung out there for a while looking at some unique birds and several military planes that were flying over head (that was sort of cool in a disturbing sort of way).

After that we headed back to Radeke & my room to hang out on the veranda overlooking some plants & birds.  We chatted about life stuff for quite a while and then enjoyed some time of prayer for each others, our families, our community, the trip and thankfulness for the lack of sickness and how smooth the trip has gone so far.  It was a great time of getting to know each other even more; I’m honored to be part of this group and to be able to report back on our behalf.

Bruce Dahlman just picked up the other 3 guys and is going to give them a tour of Nairobi.  Bruce, as some of you know, is a former Cambridge resident who is a doctor now in Africa.  He works in & around Kenya including a community that is only about 10 miles from where we are going near Kivuruga, Rwanda.  It’s a very cool connection – we were able to chat with Bruce a few weeks ago when he was back in Cambridge on family business.  I decided to opt out of the tour so I could spend some time updating y’all, skyping my family in a couple hours, touring this place, reading, and frankly, pacing myself & emotionally preparing myself for the opening of our orientation which starts tonight.  Apparently, as the youngest of the group, I run at a slower pace!

Thank you all for your continued support & encouragement; it is felt.  I’m guessing the next update will be about midnight our time, so about 3pm your time.  Hope you enjoy this update over a nice cup of coffee – have a great morning.