I have finished my first full week – and what a week it has been! Network connection in Rwanda was difficult so I was unable to post as the days went along. So please be patient – and keep checking for upcoming posts that describe some of what I’ve been seeing and doing. For now, here is a summary of my first week.
We arrived last Friday in Rwanda after a very long journey to Kigali. I am with a small group for this leg of the journey – six of us – and five sets of suitcases arrived at the final destination. Not bad, all things considered. And luckily my suitcase wasn’t the one that took a detour. (No worries – the errant bag turned up the next day. Maybe it was having an extra coffee in Amsterdam?)
After a quick orientation we spent Friday afternoon at the Genocide Memorial Museum. A truly sad but very profound experience. I will blog about it – but suffice it to say that Rwandans are choosing not to forget and to truly move forward. It really is a message of hope…and a lesson for us all in forgiveness and mercy.
Saturday we left for Kibuye, about three hours west through absolutely magnificent scenery. The ‘land of a thousand hills’ does NOT disappoint! I unfortunately, being the novice team leader that I am, forgot to remind the group to take gravol. Suffice it to say that we took an unscheduled stop along the side of the road – and not just to take pictures!
Sunday we headed off to the refugee camp where we visited on the Sunday and then again on the Monday. Here is where some 20,000 Congolese refugees wait – and they have been waiting for 16 years! – until peace comes to Congo and they can return to their homeland. I can’t describe this experience in a sentence or two. This was the part of the trip that I knew would be the most difficult and challenging, and it was. I’ll definitely write at length about it. It was heart-wrenching.
We returned to KIgali on Monday night (and took our gravol this time – double doses!) and spent Tuesday with a local group of AIDS and HIV positive people – mostly women – who gather together with the amazing Mama Deborah (do you feel a future blog entry coming on?) It was a great privilege to share the afternoon with them and see that in spite of their ‘sickness’ they are very much full of life, hope and courage.
Finally we get to today. Today I truly lived ‘the African dream’. I spent the day apart from the rest of the group, visiting a primary and secondary school through a personal conection that I have. I had the time of my life visitng the students, talking with them and their teachers, being honoured with programs of singing and dancing and even being given gifts to honour my visit. It was amazing – so much fun – and so ‘African’! I could write about it for days – it was definitely the spark that I needed to keep going.
Then returning to my guest house to find that the internet was working and spending some time on Skype with Craig – my life is complete!! (Now if only I could sleep more than an hour or two at a stretch at night life will be perfect…..!)
So there you have it – week one.
Until the next time,
Cathy
