Jana and Dave have been traveling on an outreach through their church to help stabilize and improve the lives of residents in a little town in Rwanda. Here are some of her stories.
5/21 Saturday Afternoon in Kigali
We arrived last night having been fed on our hop from Nairobi to Kigali with our first taste of Rwandan food. Maurice and Jean Pierre greeted us, familiar and welcome faces. Our first change came immediately.
Our hotel was booked so they had found us other accommodations. We are now happily installed in The Diplomat Hotel, which I am finding very comfortable, even by U. S. standards. It's quiet, serene and centrally located. We went out into town with Maurice and his 4 kids. Our first stop, however, was at a walk-in clinic because Richard, his youngest, is ill.
A walk-in clinic here is nothing like it is in the US. An unpaved, pitted dirt road takes you into a space crowded with vehicles all parked randomly & blocking one another. Maurice disappeared for 10 minutes and came back w/paperwork that looked like a medical chart. We went into a plain covered concrete patio area where there were 2 doctors' offices, Generalists. A very tall, thin Rwandan doctor in a familiar white lab coat disappeared into one of the rooms. His nurse (?) came out and gathered Richard up and into the doctor's office. When I peeked in all I saw was a large bare room with a metal table and a small bed. Several minutes later Richard reemerged with his dad having received the good news that it was only a cold, not Malaria.
I found out that Maurice has medical insurance through a volunteer job he held with an international medical insurance company-one I'm familiar with, actually. He said it's about $1000/yr for his family with no limit to how many family members can be covered. His coverage was for 3 months only and expires fairly soon. We asked him what people do in Rwanda who can't afford insurance. He said there is public assistance. The level of care is not as good for them, but it is care, none-the-less.
Maurice then took us through the world of commercial Kigali. We exchanged dollars for Rwandan francs, purchased some bottled water, got a modem and sim card to be able to communicate within and without the country and stopped by the market to get coffee and tea and juice for the kids. They were patient and well behaved kids. I've been connected with Maurice every trip so far and it was wonderful to meet his family.
This afternoon we are resting, adjusting to the new time zone. Tomorrow we hope to be going to a church to meet with a pastor who attended the Celebrate Recovery Summit in Lake Forest last year. We are also meeting with Pastor Stratton to discuss the training that starts on Monday. He has guided our work here with Celebrate Recovery.
I'm so grateful to be here. The smells and sights and sounds are all familiar now and I've missed them.
It's been a good beginning. I'm still feeling a little sick so if you would add me to your prayer list I would be grateful. Also ask God for His discernment as we are open to discover all He wants us to do.
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May 23rd
We traveled to Gitarama today. It's a mountain community in the east of Rwanda, colder than Kigali. We were up early but, as per Rwandan culture, we did not get on the road when expected. Maurice, our friend and the man who has arranged transportation for us every trip came to pick us up with his whole family in tow. They are a beautiful family and we had a great time greeting them and seeing them off to school et al.
After picking up Jean Baptiste, who is serving as our interpreter for the seminar, we went on a wonderful drive through the Rwandan countryside. We arrived in Gitarama about 10 to a roomful of pastors and people from their churches. As we came up the steps we were greeted by Pastor Phillip, the local host, and Pastor Domicin who is the head of the Stirring Committee here in Rwanda.
I was really excited because I was hoping to see the women I trained last year. They surrounded me and our hugs were long and heartfelt. It was so good to see them! We don't speak each others language but their joy was evident. The work we did last year has born fruit as my ladies had continued the study we started together and completed it. They were different. When I met them last year they were depressed and sad and hopeless. Today they were full of life and light. I saw again how powerful Celebrate Recovery is and if nothing else happens on this trip, for me personally, seeing them was worth all the effort to come. Our time with this group turned out to be very productive. We broke the program down into it's basic components and took questions. It was great to dialogue with them all day and see where they were stuggling.
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5.25.10, Tuesday Night in Gitarama at the St Andrew Guesthouse
We drove through some of the 1,000 hills of Rwanda Monday morning on our way here. We had Pastor Jean Baptiste with us who speaks good English (though we are teaching him California slang). He is the pastor I met last year when we did a CR training here in Gitarama. Because he speaks English he got a fuller understanding of the program. He has since been transferred to a new parish and plans to begin the program there. He is the first pastor to implement CR. An historic event I believe.
Last night we went to dinner. On the way we noticed that the entire town was without electricity. We found a restaurant with a generator. We were shown into a dinning room with one dim bulb burning. Oh, the things we take for granted. As we left we noticed in the darkness 3 peacocks, beautiful in the moonlight.
We finished up a two day follow-up training today. It was wonderful and emotional to see many of the people who were at the original training return. I led a step study group at that first training and got very close to the women in that group. We had a tearful reunion with hugs and handshakes and more hugs. In Rwanda there is never a lack of hugs.
The training went really well. We were able to make it largely question and answer which allowed us to discern a lot about the culture. Here pastors are taught to hear confession from their congregation. However, with CR privacy is paramount. Pastor Jean was able to tell his experience with the benefits of CR and actually having a closer relationship with his congregation which was immensely helpful. Our goal is to equip them so that they don't need us. And great strides were made toward that these last two days.
Funny story - in Rwanda, though other technology is still catching up, most of our pastors have cell phones. Actually, cell coverage here is excellent. So, as we're wrapping up today we were surprised when a baby goat wandered into the church. No one seemed amused by this except us. Dave took pictures (ok, not surprising). It was just funny to hear cell phones going off and to see a young Rwandan girl chasing a goat out of the church. I love this place.
Dave has been getting to know Pastor Jean and a friendship is blossoming between them. They got on to talking about the upcoming election in Aug. President Kagami (the current president) is running but as yet no one has stepped up to oppose him. He's a great president and the Rwandans are most likely going to re-elect him. Pastor Jean said that EVERYONE votes. He said they even ask each other for the proof of voting to see. He was appalled that not everyone in the US votes. Dave is appalled, too. He may ask you to see your voting receipt next month after the election- so be ready.
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