Rwanda 2018 | Days 8 & 9

Happy Friday, friends! I’m back today to share our first couple of days in the capital city of Kigali from Rwanda 2018. Thinking back to this trip, these days were hard but man, were they good! Baker had just turned two and required someone’s undivided attention most of the time, meaning either Cory or myself had to sit a few things out but I’m so thankful for the opportunities and exposure to experiences she’s gotten from such a young age. Moments like the one above, give me hope. Hope in a world that is divided, often by the color of our skin or the material objects we own. Hope in a world that seems like there is turmoil everywhere you look. Moments like this make every single sacrifice Cory or I make, worth it.

You can catch up on our Rwanda 2018 trip here.

Sunday | July 22nd

Day 8:

Sunday morning we got to sleep in a little later and Tina cooked a delicious pancake/crepe breakfast before church. We were a little behind schedule due to waiting on breakfast (it was totally worth it!) but still had plenty of time to get to church by 9:30. I would say it was just a “slow Sunday morning” but that is every morning in Rwanda. While it used to drive me insane, the older I get, the more I don’t hate it and even appreciate their way of life.

Church was at the Anglican Church in Gahanga, a very poor suburb of Kigali. The pastor there, Mathias, has been a staunch supporter and partner of RCRI for many years and has been a very familiar face to us, but this was the first time we worshiped with them. We got to church just a few minutes past 9:30 and still beat Ben and his family there! Their new church building was very recently completed (in July 2018), having been built around the old church building, which was then demolished from the inside. It was very much a labor of love that took several years for these people to work on and pay for, but was among the many churches recently closed across Rwanda due to new governmental standards and regulations on churches. However, through the power of prayer and hundreds of letters and appeals, the church was reopened and we were welcomed into their beautiful new sanctuary by a large congregation.

Ben and his family got there about 10:00 am and Pastor had Ben introduce his family. We didn’t know what to expect because the church is Anglican and that’s not a denomination we’re super familiar with. We thought they would be very conservative and while there was no dancing like the church in Nyabihu, we all really enjoyed the service.

We were made to be part of the service in many ways, from introducing the team to Joel delivering the sermon, and we felt right at home and part of the family all the way through. We were touched by their hospitality and by the effort to include us in worship by including songs we knew like Amazing Grace and a beautiful version of Here I Am to Worship. Songs that include both languages- English and Kinyarwanda- get me every. single. time.

Michaiah made her way to Sarah first then realized Baker was playing on my phone so she came back there to Cory and me. I felt bad for giving my phone to Baker but there are some battles that aren’t worth fighting. Then she started asking for a snack and I held out on giving her one for as long as I could because there was a women’s choir sitting right beside us with children in their laps. I struggle with my child eating in front of people who may not have access to food in Rwanda (simply because I want to give it all away) which is why I always try to take her to the car where she isn’t “flaunting” it in front of them. However, that wasn’t possible during church. Baker and Michaiah ate almost a whole bag of veggie straws during the service and we had to download the monkeys game on Cory’s phone so they both had something to play (just typing this sentence makes me want to gag at how “first world” it sounds). With both of them on my lap, I didn’t get a chance to really listen to Joel preach but I kept two kids (four and two) entertained for a three- hour church service so I will count that as a win.

Towards the end of the service, Ben put our team on the spot for buying chairs for the church since they had such a hard time the past few years.  Cory pledged for the team to buy 100 chairs which was about $570. While talking about this with the team later that day, I learned that our church had also been recently given 100 chairs for our new building and we all thought how cool it was that God allowed us to bless someone else the same way.

After church, we were treated to lunch (beans, rice, and matoke) and African Tea at the pastor’s home, which was of course delicious. Baker decided she very much likes African Tea, which is Rwandan black tea with milk, ginger, sugar, and sometimes other spices served hot.

Pastor Mathias spoke about his family and introduced all his children with a picture he had hanging on his wall. He spoke so highly of his wife- he went on and on about how strong she was and how she kept the family going. It was a very sweet moment to be a part of. Pastor and his wife must be doing something right because all his children are involved in the ministry.

After a time of prayer, we snapped a few group pictures outside their beautiful church before leaving.

And Baker sported her Rwanda dress, which will always be one of my favorites!

We swung by Ben’s house to retrieve the remaining totes of supplies, which contained toothbrushes, backpacks, toiletries, clothes, feminine products, and school supplies that we intend to distribute throughout the week. The team then retired to our house to sort the supplies, fill the backpacks with supplies for “care packages” for the RCRI university students, and get some much-needed rest and recovery for the team members suffering from this cold epidemic- Jordan and I both came down with the same cold that Cory had.

When we first got back to the house, we had some oranges on the porch and Cory and Baker hung out in the hammock for a long time eating apples.

Jordan went to bed around 5:00 because he was feeling so bad while the rest of us just hung out. We laughed at Keneth admitting to feeling Jordan’s head for a fever and Cory said he remembered Keneth doing the same for him the night he was sick in Musanze. He has such kind, serving heart. It was nice to have some time to bond and relax, just hanging around the house and on the porch, enjoying the beautiful view.

Dinner was about the same every night- rice, potatoes (fries), beef or chicken with some kind of sauce but Tina was a great cook so we hardly even noticed! We fixed Jordan a plate and put it in the microwave to keep it warm. Apparently, Rwandans don’t keep plates in the microwave to keep them warm and Keneth didn’t care for it at all. He wanted to just cover the plate and was confused as to why we weren’t starting the microwave. Sometimes while in Rwanda, I forget about being in a different country because being there feels so “normal” now but then something like this happens and I remember just how different things can be between the two countries.

As we were sitting around in the living room talking, Sarah saw a huge bug and when I looked at it, I said, “It has a head!” Cory responded, “All bugs have heads!” but what I meant was it had a head like a human with narrow shoulders. It was the weirdest looking bug. #wheninRwanda

Just up the hill from the house is a large church where they had been having the loudest church service ever. All-day, the church was going strong. We kept listening to see if they were finished but from the time we got home from church (2:00ish) until well after dark, they were worshiping.

We skipped devotion on Sunday night since it was Jordan’s night and he was still sleeping. Like the good fiancee (now wife!) she is, Sarah decided to sleep on the couch since Jordan was asleep in her bed. By the time we went to bed, I was feeling awful so I laid down with Baker and she curled right up with me. After a few butt pats, she was out. She’d been getting to bed much later than she was used to and most days, but not this one, she’d at least had a long afternoon nap. The king-size bed we had was a nice change after sleeping in a small bed the week before. Baker slept sideways between us and we didn’t even notice. A good night’s rest was exactly what we needed to start the new week off with!

Monday | July 23rd

Day 9:

After another delicious breakfast prepared by Tina, our first day in Gahanga was underway.

By 9:00 am, we were heading out the door to begin the renovation of a home. The road to the house was so steep, it looked like we were hanging over an edge as we pulled out every day.

The ladies were prepared to begin home visits while the men got to work repairing a home, and the ladies definitely had the tougher job. Home visits are emotionally challenging and extremely physically challenging. The hikes are equivalent to two Table Rock hikes (for you Oconee-Pickens locals) along with carrying Baker and supplies the whole way. You would be hard-pressed to find materially poorer people anywhere in the world than the families whose homes we planned to visit and they need all of the spiritual and emotional support they can get, on top of their physical needs.

Upon arrival at the home in Gahanga, however, we found the home in much worse shape than anticipated, as in unable to withstand one more heavy rain, and full of garbage both inside the home and out in the yard. The guys also had no local volunteers to help like they have had in the past so the ladies were enlisted to stay and help.

We started clearing out the front part of the house so we could mud the inside. After a few minutes, Baker didn’t want to sit by herself, so I had to sit with her. It was hard just sitting in the sun and not doing anything. I was pretty bored but the sun was so warm, I could hardly keep my eyes open.

After cleaning up the mess to an acceptable level, we got started digging the dirt and cutting off a mound outside the home, breaking it into fine dirt, adding water, and mixing the mud.

The team worked together with Kenny, Claude, and Vianney to get three huge piles of mud made and applied.

Baker was pretty miserable and wouldn’t let me do anything to help so I asked Cory if Claude could just take us home. He realized I hadn’t had a chance to help so he cleaned up and took over Baker duty so I could sling some mud inside the house. It’s hard to believe that this was my fourth trip and I had never slung mud before! They typically won’t let American women do this kind of physical labor but I think they were desperate for some help so no one had too big of a problem with it (that day!). However, I wasn’t that good at slinging- turns out, there is a technique to it.

We continued to dig dirt, make mud, then sling it on the walls until about 2:00 when we ran out of mud. Vianney said to quit where we were at because we would have more volunteers the next day to help on the house. We cleaned up ourselves as best as we could although my Chacos felt like they weighed 15 lbs each because there was so much mud caked in the bottoms. We washed our hands outside the house and Sarah even got her feet washed!

When I got done, I realized Baker had made some friends and was playing in the bushes with some of the neighbor children. She was pulling leaves off of plants and handing it to them going “you’re welcome”.

When we arrived in Gahanga that morning, we parked at Pastor Matias’s church but at some point during the day, Claude moved the cars down closer to the house for us. When we came out, this woman was very upset because we parked by her “store” but didn’t buy anything. We couldn’t understand a word she was saying but we knew she was mad. You can always understand mad. Keneth and Claude didn’t seem very concerned about it so we didn’t either however I’m pretty sure Claude almost lost his cool when he discovered someone had “written” all over the car.

We headed home, most of us knocking out on the ride. Baker fell asleep before we got to the end of the road in Gahanga. Thankfully, we were able to successfully transfer her to a towel on the bed because she was covered in mud. I know some parents who would literally have an anxiety attack over their child being this dirty especially with Rwandan dirt but it makes my heart happy to see her serve along side us.

Afterward, we each took turns showering and washing all the mud off of ourselves. For the rest of the evening, Cory rested in his hammock, Sarah and Jordan played card games, Crystal and Jamie sat out on the swing for a long time, while I laid on the couch (some things never change, not even in a foreign country) and Joel worked on some sermons for his next series. We had some good conversations and even watched WWE pay-per-views that evening.

The church up the hill was back at it again today and still going strong. We could even hear a preacher shouting rather than just music like on Sunday. Curiosity got the best of Jordan, so after dinner, he enlisted Kenny and Cory to accompany him to check it out. They found the gate to get out of our place locked and the guard had gone to buy us milk, so Kenny and Cory chose a place in the fence that was easily climbed with a minimal drop on the other side. Jordan chose the full 8’ height of the gate to climb over, got stuck, ripped the seat of his pants, panicked, and broke the outdoor sconce by the gate. But I’m happy to report that the church was a nice, spiritual service with friendly people. The guys couldn’t take any photos during the service but snapped a couple inside the huge sanctuary.

Shortly after they returned from visiting the church, our home was invaded by a rather large grasshopper, which our dear pastor was so kind as to dispatch for us, along with Jordan and Baker using pillows to fight the bug. It only took 15 minutes and 37 screams, 14 of which were the pastor.

During our devotion, Baker got in trouble in front of everyone and got her leg popped and then cried the whole time Jordan was praying. We all couldn’t help but giggle our way through it because Jordan said he got lost during the prayer because she was so distracting.

We said goodnight after a wonderful evening together and headed to bed before a busy day on Tuesday!