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)