Rwanda 2017 | Days 7 and 8
Woohoo! I’m here today with the next installment of our 2017 Rwanda trip. Our first two days back in the capital city of Kigali were busy but wonderful days as we got to visit the Genocide Memorial and head to our second church service of the trip.
Saturday | October 21st
We rose bright and early and got all dressed up for the presentation of the Randy Ruble Scholarship, a merit-based scholarship given by RCRI to kids who finish the program and attend college. This ceremony was to be a grand affair, with government officials and three media stations in attendance to hear words from Ben, Joel, and Cory, and for us to present the scholarship and a laptop for every student. However, just as we prepared to leave, we received word that the government officials had told us to reschedule the event due to an emergency meeting they had to attend. The event got rescheduled for Monday.
Since our plans changed and everyone was ready to go, we changed into more comfortable clothes and went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. The memorial is an extremely emotionally and spiritually heavy place, complete with history of the causes and events of the genocide, stories from survivors, stories of children who were killed, and mass graves of over 250,000 individuals. The team left with new perspective on the struggles Rwanda still faces.
They wouldn’t allow Baker in (no small children allowed) so Cory hung out in the cafe with Ben since he had already been through the museum multiple times.
Apparently, meeting with Daddy and Uncle Ben puts her to sleep. Mouth hanging open and all.
This seems so dangerous to me but at least put the helmet on the kid! I mean there’s an extra hanging on his handlebar.
After the memorial, we drove to Gahanga to eat lunch at J.Lynn’s and visit homes.
Gahanga is known for their pottery and a few of the folks we visited were working on pieces when we arrived.
Joel, Jordan, Greyson, and Keneth went up one hill (you can see their tiny figures in the picture below) and Ben, Cory, Donnie, Dorian, and I took another hill. We talked and prayed with each family, and Joel, Kenny, and the Holy Spirit led two people to Christ!! What an incredible day!
We started down near the green valley–as you can see, it’s always a big hike up to some of these houses.
We visited the house that the guys would begin work on and Ben pointed out what all needed to be done.
The mother in this home is a single mother to four daughters and one son. The youngest two are twins who aren’t that far from Baker’s age and the middle girl was only a year older than the twins. Her situation hit me hard because I have one baby, a home that was solid and secure, and a husband who supports us daily and I know how hard it still is for me sometimes. I can’t begin to imagine how she feels but her strength is incredible and incomprehensible. She seemed defeated to me, which isn’t an uncommon emotion we encounter, but my heart ached for her. I wanted to hold her and tell her how amazing she is and that she is doing a wonderful job. We tried our best to speak words of encouragement into her life and prayed over her and her family.
This sweet crowd followed us up the mountain and patiently waited outside each house for us.
While visiting the homes, Ben shared that the goats that were given to the community were working! One lady was able to buy health insurance for the first time in years with money from selling one kid from her goat. She was also able to buy rabbits and sold 3 rabbits for $11000 RWF (about $13) to pay for her son’s sickness. These changes are huge to this community. HUGE!
Martha, the little girl in the orange and white dress, and her family are very dear to us. Cory worked on their house in 2015 after she and her four siblings were abandoned by their mother. Shortly after we left, the oldest sister and caretaker of the younger siblings was killed in an accident while working at the local rock quarry. This left her older sister Maria, who wasn’t even a teenager yet, to care for the remaining two siblings and the young baby of her recently deceased sister. Within our extended family, we sponsor two of the siblings and Martha is also sponsored.
We visited the home of Josephine, a lady in the community that volunteers for RCRI. She is a great asset to Ben and the organization and helps Ben keep tabs on the some of the families as well as handles issues for Ben when he can’t be there. She was helping Martha and her siblings after the passing of their sister.
I will never forget the way that Baker and the children interacted. It was so genuine–even though they couldn’t communicate, laughter is universal.
This was the first time I have ever seen pigs in Rwanda and it blew my mind to see them. Why? I’m not really sure. We see our fair share of wild animals but this family even had a pen they kept the mama pig and piglets in.
On our way back down, we passed some volunteers bringing water up the hill to the house the guys would be working at. The water is used to mix the mud so they were preparing for the work that would be starting.
Also, I can’t imagine walking up these hills with these jugs. The hills are steep and those jugs are heavy.
Have I mentioned the privilege it was to get to serve with family? I love, love, love getting to serve with Cory (my spouse) but it’s even more special to share Rwanda with more of my family. We have always been blessed to have the support of our families but serving, boots on the ground, in Rwanda with my cousin Jordan was such an incredible opportunity. Not to mention he was a huge asset to our team.
As we were coming down the hill, Martha was walking and playing with Baker and listening to her laughs as the two played together just brought me so much joy.
After the visits, we rushed home to get cleaned up and get over to the Manor Hotel, a restaurant that Josephine had chosen for us. The hotel had such a great environment and had open windows looking out over the lights on the hill.
They had about 7 different menus depending on what you wanted to order. I ordered lasagna off the Italian menu and Cory ordered off the Chinese menu.
Unbeknownst to Dorian, this was to be a birthday celebration and Josephine had truly made it special. We had a wonderful dinner and cake for dessert. You can’t forget the candle that looks like a firecracker with the flames it shoots out.
When Cory doesn’t want to take selfies with me, I can always count on Keneth to take one!
The kids loved the balloons the most!
It may be blurry but our group enjoyed the evening!
I sent a snap of the hotel lobby to a few friends who had been with us in the past and immediately got responses back from them all asking “where in the world we were staying?” and “how come we never went anywhere that nice?” We had to explain we just had dinner there but it was definitely one the of nicest places we had ever been.
When we came out, our new car was in the garage and there was a driver to take us back to the house. Praise Jesus, no more roll-starting our car!
After a very sleepy devotion, the day was done.
Sunday | October 22nd
We got up on day eight, ate some breakfast, got all dressed up, and headed off to church in Kinyinya.
Normally, I wouldn’t post such an unflattering photo of more than half the team but check out Greyson’s face, in the very back.
Pastor Jean Marie had wanted Joel to preach, but Joel didn’t find out until Saturday night. No problem! Joel is always ready to bring the thunder, and bring the thunder he did! The worship that morning was INCREDIBLE (lots of dancing and singing) and the Spirit was thick, and by the time Joel got on stage he was fired up. Tears flowed in the crowd, they clapped and “Amened”, and a young man accepted Christ. Before we left, the church prayed over us to have a safe trip home.
Jed just took right over in entertaining Baker. He has lots of experience with little sister Michaiah.
How sweet is this photo? I love that Baker can find friends here at home or in a foreign country.
The service was a little long, like 3.5 hours but it was lit! I guess children in Rwanda aren’t that much different than American children. They all get sleepy in church sometimes.
After church, we headed to Kigali Heights for lunch at Java House with Ben, Josephine, Jed, and Michaiah. On the way to lunch, we passed a golf course that I’ve never seen before. There is a lot of new development that has come up since we were here 2 years ago.
The guys had planned to start working on the house in Gahanga, but since a couple guys’ work shoes were stolen a few days ago and Joel needed a nicer shirt for the upcoming scholarship function, we had to run by the market for a bit.
If you’ve never been to an open market in another country, there is no way to describe the noise and the crowd, the pushy vendors, and the brain-scrambling stress of buying something there. You either love it or hate it. I hate it, but Cory loves the thrill. Personal space is just not as important to Rwandans as it is to us. Jordan and Donnie got a pair of shoes and Joel found a shirt but I really think he just said yes to one so we could get out of there.
By the time we left, the sun was going down and the team was exhausted and frazzled so we went on home to have dinner and rest. Our house was in a great location, very close to shops, so Dorian stayed at the house with Jo and the kids while we walked up the street to look at more shoes and buy water and coffee. Jordan ended up trading the shoes he just bought for a pair he liked more plus 7000RWF. I was pretty proud that we were able to negotiate the deal without Keneth.
On the way back to the house, Jordan randomly took off running to get across the street and scared a little kid who took off running when he saw Jordan running. We laughed and joked about it the rest of our short walk home. I guess when you see a very big “muzungu” (white person) running down the street, you better run too!
After dinner and devotion, we rested before a big day of construction starting for the guys on Monday.
Need to catch up on Rwanda 2017:
Traveling, Arriving, and Day 1
Days 2 and 3
Days 4 and 5
Day 6
