Umuzungo!! In English – white person!! That is how we are frequently greeted by children yelling after us, Umuzungo, umuzungo!!
I just want to say, sorry for how jumpy this blog might be. Today we really have limited time on the internet so I am quickly writing all my thoughts down.
Hmm where to even start? Well it’s the 19th which marks the 2 month count down for me – crazy! Where did the time go? I feel like just yesterday I was in France. This past week has been hectic, but I have a feeling that is how all of our weeks are going to be like here – and I really don’t mind. I want to experience as much as I can before I go home. We have now started working with a missionary from Germany for 2 days a week named Ingrid. It just helps change up what we do. So our team split up into 2. Half of us went to clean out a “garage” full of wood and the other half of us went to a school to do some painting – and that was me!! So we climbed into a “taxi” - I can’t wait to show you how terrifying this really is, and after changing “taxis” two times were dropped off at the end of a dirt road. We walked along this dirt road for maybe half an hour and when I turned around there was a sea of Rwandans following us, they were intrigued. As we were walking the poverty became worse and worse, where we are staying is definitely an impoverished area, but nothing compared to this. It was like World Vision commercials right before your eyes. We got to the school and the paint for the walls was as thin as water, we had no idea how we were supposed to get colour actually on the walls. Eventually the girls of the team were pulled away by all the wonderful children and we left the men to work (so typical!) we sang and played gamed and just had a great time. None of them spoke French or English so it was a lot of just simply laughing. Then something crazy happened, it was like we were in the middle of a monsoon. It happened within seconds the rain poured down, the streets became empty as they had already begun to flood. You saw people’s houses become destroyed – it was awful. The rain poured and poured down for 30 minutes – It was so loud that you couldn’t even speak to each other, the noise was unbearable. For us we just had to endure it – but it was heartbreaking to know that people then had to rebuild their mud walls of their homes. After this rain storm stopped, we came out of the school house (which was also flooded) and the road was impossible to walk on – but we did. We walked 30 minutes until the closest taxi stand, piled in an when we got to Ingrid’s she had made us coffee and tea and things that were like paradise for us. The next day we once again got to play with the children and it was even better – but we also worked behind the school and made stairs and flattened the land with our picks and hoes. I have never had more blisters, and been so physically exhausted – but it was awesome! It’s funny because the children completely accept us and jump into our laps but the parents just stand there with their mouths wide open for no joke an hour! We can’t wait to strengthen our relationships with them though.
This week we also went to a genocide orphanage – another moment where you did everything you could to hold back the tears. We were told absolutely no pictures, I had no idea what to expect. You have to remember the genocide was in 1994 so these orphans are older, but still orphans and still struggling with their lives. Some of them have lost their whole families, they are injured, they have lost body parts and their emotional wounds are even deeper. You can see the effects of the genocide every where hear, there is such uncertainty, such hurt. In this “orphanage” we sat and stalked with two sisters who had lost their whole family and seen them be decapitated right infront of them. One of the sisters had a scar across from her face from when she was running away. Their story is amazing and so courageous – her sisters were separated when they were running away but found each other in a refugee camp full of thousands– totally God. They then somehow found their aunt – they were only around 4 years old. As our conversations progressed with them we realized how hurt they felt that countries around the world really did abandon them in their time of need. Countries literally turned a blind eye to their suffering even when they sent cried of help to governments. They kept asking us why, and we didn’t know how to respond, they also kept asking us what are we going to do when we get home to tell people about their country and how destroyed it was? We said we would talk about it, but that’s not enough. We all left feeling sick about how us as “First World Nations” didn’t even care when it was going on. I also didn’t know this, but none of the other team members other than Whitney and I (the Canadians) even knew about the genocide before coming to Rwanda. I can’t believe it was not taught about in highschool or anything. I was shocked. Even people from the States had no idea that there even was a genocide and how bad it was. I could keep on going forever but I wont – I must get off the internet. Not this week, but the next we will be working with HIV/AIDS victims for the entire week which will be really interesting.
So many of you e-mailed me and it was so sweet, Im sorry I couldn’t e-mail back, but know that every email brought a huge smile to my face!!
Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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