Rwandan Adventures

After a 12 hour coaster (bus) ride, we arrived in Rwanda on Friday, August 28th. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be a celebrity? I feel like I have more of an idea now. People would be casually walking and going about their day, but when they looked up and saw white people in our bus they waved and yelled "mzungu!" (foreigner/white person). Kids were always the most excited. One little boy was waving at our bus, but when he saw white people his mouth literally dropped open and he started dancing and waving. I wonder if it was his first time seeing a white person. It was priceless! I do have to admit though, hearing people yell "mzungu" all the time did get kind of old.
We spent our first two nights at a church compound in Kibungo. There was one room full of beds where all of us girls stayed. We had 14 USP students and 10 UCU students. There were 14 girls in this one room. It was like a giant sleep over! On Saturday we participated in a community work day. It happens the last Saturday of every month. It's a beautiful thing where everyone in the community comes together to work on a project. This is a requirement by the government so of course there are pros and cons that go with it. However, I believe it enables citizens to get work done for themselves rather than relying on the government. It also builds community. We helped dig a trench that will be used to bury a pipe for water, providing water to more homes.
A crazy God thing happened Saturday night! We were making church plans for Sunday. Everyone was divided into 3 different groups. Each group was to go to a different church to lead the service. Our first African church service was to be lead by us! We were to have 3 songs, 1 preacher, and 2ish testimonies. My heart pounded a bit when testimonies was mentioned, but I tried to ignore it (like usual). When Reverend Emmanuel (our group leader) asked about people giving testimonies no one spoke up. He said that if no one wanted to share that was fine. So I was off the hook, right?! That's when Laura spoke up and she thought maybe she was supposed to share but she needed time to think and pray about it. I took her to the side and explained how I was feeling too. We talked about it, prayed about it, and talked some more. I then felt confident that I was supposed to share my testimony at church the next the day.
So guess what I did on Sunday?! I shared my testimony at my first ever African church service. Reverend Raymond (try saying that 10x) translated for me. The church building was basically a brick barn, still under construction. The church service was lively and fun! Full of dancing and singing praising Jesus. All in all, I shared and I hope others were blessed and encouraged. God is good!
Sunday afternoon we traveled to Kigali, Rwanda's capital. We stayed there for four nights. We slept in rooms with four people. My room was so fun! We had two USP students and two UCU students. We are all introverts so it was fun to have a calm, chill room. We had good conversations too!
Monday morning we went to a museum about the Rwandan Genocide. It walked through Rwanda before, during, and after the genocide. I don't think I've actually ever read that much in a museum before! It was very interesting and well organized. It was a bit challenging though because English was the third language for every caption. Of course that meant that the text was smaller and sometimes all the way at the floor, but we managed and it was still a great experience. That afternoon we went to the Nyamata Memorial which I discussed in my previous post.
Tuesday morning we went to a craft store called Amahoro. It is run by low-income women who need a way to support their families. They sold to most beautiful things! I bought a tie-dye Africa wall hanging. In the afternoon we learned about Hope International and met with some representatives. We went out into a rural part of Rwanda to sit in on a group meeting. It was held in a small community church building. I'm honestly still a bit confused about Hope and how the groups work. I couldn't hear the translator very well and I was also distracted by babies.... sorry.
Wednesday! That was a cool day! We visited and organization called CARSA (Christian Action for Reconciliation and Social Assistance). Their main mission is reconciliation and forgiveness post-genocide. We watched a video CARSA made about the lives of a few individuals post-genocide. Some were able to forgive and become friends with those that killed their families. Others, forgiveness is a longer journey that they are still working on. I didn't realize at the time, but most of the people in the movie were sitting in the same room with us. This made the movie so much more real. I saw the scars a machete had left on one man's face. I also saw the man who caused these scars and killed this man's family. They are now friends and can sit and have lunch together. There was also a woman there whose families had been killed. She said forgiveness is a journey that she is still walking. I hope I can find the video that explains it all. It was so well done.
That afternoon we went to an art gallery called Inema. It is run by brothers who use there talents to create artwork that is sold and used to benefit the community.
We ended our trip with debrief back in southern Uganda. We spent a day on an island and it was fantastic! It rained a lot of the time we were there, but it was so beautiful! I spent the night in the cutest little tree house. It had three beds, a small table, chairs and a table on the porch, and the toilet and shower was basically outside! It was so fun! I sat on our porch, enjoyed the view of the lake, listened to the rain, journaled, and enjoyed introvert time! I also got to swim and swing on a rope swing. It was a great ending to a wonderful trip!