My African Safari

Greetings friends. It has been said that we learn something new everyday. Hopefully, somewhere during the course of blog, you will fulfill your quota. For starters, "safari" means "trip" in Swahili. And being that this summer's safari is only a week from completion, last weekend I thought it was necessary to go on a modern African safari, while I still had the chance. Besides, after a week of the 4Rs (see the previous blog), I thought it would to take a little break and enjoy God's creation.

Leaving dark and early on Sunday morning, shortly after 6am, Karen, Kristina, Alana, Emily and I took off in an FH van driven by Verdaste, one of the FH hired drivers. I had packed everything the night before in the excitement of my anticipation to go. Taking after my father, I over-packed, putting in an extra pair of shorts, a book, two journals and too many snacks, bringing them "just in case." The hardest part of planning the trip had been predicting the finances. We figured that it could cost only $30 if we got the foreign resident price, but $60 for the visitor fee. We had also heard about a student price, but we did not know its amount.

We arrived at Akagera National Park at around 8:30am, which is good timing considering it is in the eastern most part of the country. I talked for the group at reception and determined that we could not get the foreign-resident price, but could get the student fare. Including payment for Verdaste, a vehicle permit and Charles, our tour guide, our entry fee was only $28. Very nice.


And then we were off, driving on a bumpy and dusty road through the middle of the African wilderness. Within a few minutes, we spotted some antelope, quickly proceed by a cluster of zebra, all hiding in the brush along the road. We sneaked out of the van to get a closer look, but they were scared away. After half an hour, we found ourselves surrounded by thick and tall brush, not ideal for animal searching. Then suddenly, we saw figures moving across the road; it was a pack of baboons. Making our way along a ridge for about another half an hour, we eventually came to a herd of impalas, enjoying the shade of a few trees. Now these impalas were not Japanese cars, but rather an animal very similar to the antelope. Next, Charles told Verdaste to drive off the road into the grassy plains. We were baffled at first, but then up ahead we spotted two giraffes munching away at a tall tree. Their slender long necks enabled them to reach the tallest branches, where other animals could not. However, it also made them look ridiculous, like a horse with wretched case of scoliosis. We continue to drive through the grass until we stumbled upon the road again.


After this, we did not see any animals for a while, except birds and bugs. Oh the bugs. I have never killed so many horseflies in such a short amount of time, but I had no choice. Their bite stung even through a sweater and a tee-shirt. Using my second journal, I smacked and splattered many flies while I wrote about the animals I saw in the other. At first, all of us were thoroughly annoyed at the constant infestation, but eventually we made it a game. Twas all that kept us from going crazy.

At least an hour and fifty dead horseflies later, Charles and Verdaste brought us to Hugo Lake. Driving along its coast, we sped quickly, as if we were going to miss something if we did not. This was particularly unpleasant because the roads were in horrible condition. But as we approached a large gray animal, cooling itself in one of the lake's lagoon, we knew it was worth it. As the elephant casually chilled himself in the water, two birds perched on his back, I climbed on top of our vehicle and combined my camera and the binoculars to take photographs. I used this same technique about ten minutes later when we stopped by the lakeside to observe the hippos bathing by the shore. By the way, as Joye has told me multiple times, a hippo is capable of chomping a person in half if it feels threatened, so we stayed clear.


Once we were done with the hippos, the group decided to return back to Kigali because we had a dinner date to make. I was noticeably upset, because I wanted to see more zebras and check out some wild boar and buffalo, but I respected the group's decision. On our return, we stopped at a lakeside tourist development, where we watched as dozens of the park's protected baboons took over. They climbed on top of the buildings, one broke in through the window, all to get more food to eat. We were all very entertained by them, except for Verdaste, who seemed to be looking at the van more than the primates. When we asked about it, he informed us that the van was broken and would not make it back to Kigali.

Thankfully, we made to the Akagera lodge, going incredibly fast so Verdaste would not have to downshift. When we got there, we luckily found a ride back to Kigali for Kristina and Alana, who had to travel still to Guitarama that night. So then Emily, Karen and myself picked up our stuff and walked into the lodge. On the other side of the parking lot was a pool, and a set of outdoor couches that overlooked the lake. On the other side was Tanzania, as dorkingly displayed in the picture below. I threw on my extra shorts to go for a swim, and then laid on a couch to read my book. The food there was expensive, so we were lucky to have so many snacks to munch on as we waited for about three and a half hours for another vehicle to come from Kigali. Though it is easy to look at this situation and feel sorry for us, you should not, because it was wonderful. Laying on that couch with a warm Tanzanian breeze drifting me in and out of sleep was the most relaxing experience of my safari thus far.

Poor Verdaste though was having a tough time. In addition to his vehicle breaking down, he started to get sick. As we returned home, we had to stop twice for him to throw up. We think we are going to make him a baked good or something.

Since then, life has kept me busy with this new research project. As of now, I have interview three NGOs and one government officer, and I plan to double that number by the end of tomorrow. So far, it has been very interesting to hear about the trust issues between the Rwandan government and international NGOs, but my data gathering must continue. Which reminds me, I best be off to bed. I must wake up early for my interviews tomorrow.

The tale of one city is almost over. Thank you for reading about it. God bless.

P.S. As a sign of my thanks for reading this far, I will let you in on a little secret. Aaron and I had some authentic African outfits made; go to his blog to see pics!

Reseraching, Reporting, Reading and wRiting

This week can truly be summed up in the title. And while most may read and suddenly conjure images of dreariness or exhaustion, on the contrary, I consider them the 4 Rs (almost) of productivity. Closing in on the last week of our internship, it has become a priority to tie loose ends in order to ensure that the work we have started continues after our departure. In fact, Caleb has already left, enforcing the reality of our approaching homecoming, a bittersweet sentiment, to be sure. Instead of examining my week by days, as I normally do, today I will categorize the paragraphs by the 4 Rs.

Researching: I will start with this, not only because it is the first in the title, but mainly because it is what I have doing the most of. On Tuesday, I finished my research for Stephen, finding many interesting websites along the way that I bookmarked for the upcoming school year. With a bit a luck, I may find out that I am building my Model UN binders already. Additionally, I have finally settled on a research project to do while I am in Kigali concerning NGO management. As of right now, my primary question is how is the underlying pressure from the Rwandan government to get rid of foreign aid effecting international NGO operations and their effectiveness. It is certainly an original question, and one that will hopefully produce fruitful and pertinent results. As of right now, I have set up appointments with five international NGOs for next and am working on getting at least two more. Furthermore, if I have extra time of the interview, I will ask each organization's acting director about other topics I am interested in. For example, "How has the fact that food commodity prices have risen 21 percent since 2005, effected your organization?" This will probably consume most of my last week here in Kigali, considering that once I leave I will have a much harder time getting field information.

Reporting: Aside from drafting up mini-reports for Stephen about what I researched, Dwight Jackson informed Aaron, Emily and I that he wanted a full report about our ideas for E-Sponsorship by Friday. For those who are unaware, E-Sponsorship the new online sponsorship program that we have been brainstorming and developing for many weeks now. From the philosophy of E-Sponsorship to the web page format and features for a sponsor's personal page, everything was included in the report. For all that we have developed, combining all of our ideas in a few days proved to be difficult. However, it was also extremely rewarding and brought great closure to the project. Now the document has been drafted, it will be circulated to multiple people, here in Rwanda and internationally, to see if it fully explains our ideas. If not, next week will allow us to make revisions.

Reading: Aside from all of the reading that naturally comes from the former activities, I have picked up on reading some news articles from the Christian Science Monitor and am planning on reading The End of Poverty by Jeffery Sachs. I recently finished a book entitled A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, which is quite graphic, but an eye-opening read. Joye had begun to read Paradise Lost this summer, but stopped after half-way. We are committed to finishing, but when it comes to Old English epic poetry, one should take a breather from time to time.

wRiting: This pseudo-R has also been a frequent activity of mine, more so than just the reporting and editing that has controlled my life at work. I have written emails, and as of right now, I am writing a blog, believe it or not. In all honestly though, my accomplished piece of writing though is not this blog, or any of the reports that I have completed or will begin, but a song that I finally finished last night. It has taken God and I about six weeks to write it, and I feel that it is my greatest piece to date. For some, this is not saying much, but it means a lot to me. Songwriting is perhaps my greatest form of reflection, forcing me to question my basic foundations, process my thoughts, carefully formulate them in a limited amount of space, and to top it off, turn it into music. As one can imagine, this summer has given plenty to think about. Anyways, if you are interested in listening, please let me know when I return; I feel committed to playing it.

I will finish this blog a little piece I read in the Christian Science Monitor. The article was titled "Climate change escalates Darfur crisis," but the fourth page of the article seemed nearly misplaced with the rest of the article. It tells the story of Emmanuel Uwurukundo, a Rwandan Tutsi from Rwanda who now willingly operates three Darfur refugee camps in Chad, often facing hatred from people because of the very few resources he is able to provide them. I was stunned. Why would this man who has experienced the worst genocide in history (he was in Kigali in 1994) put himself in the same situation again? His answers is a beautiful one: "When you are a survivor of something like this, you have two choices. Either you come to the conclusion that life is meaningless, and for all intents and purposes, you are dead to the world, without hope. Or you think, if I am still alive, there must be a reason for it. There must be something I can do with my experiences to make things better."

Thank you for reading. God bless.

Bye Caleb, we'll miss you. Sniffle sniffle.

Life is Full of Surprises

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to my 16th blog post, a post like none other, with twists and surprises like you've never seen before. Okay, I apologize for the sensationalism, but the past four days certainly have been full of unexpected surprises. Hope you agree.

It began Saturday with a pleasant walk up Mt. Kigali with our Rwandan friends, Emmanuel, Christian, Felix and Thaddeus. After getting dropped off at the nearest matatu stop, we all hiked to the top of the one of tallest hills of Kigali. Half of the hike was through the village that was established there, which gradually became wilderness near as the peak approached. Not only did we get great views of Kigali and the country beyond, but we had the privilege to interact with the local children as well, who became our tour guides. They all requested a sip of water from my bottle, so after teaching them the word "please," I pour sips of water down their throats as they tilted their head backs, mouths opened wide. Nearby, Aaron also requested a sip, assuming the position that the children had adopted. I smiled. Unable to resist, I took the opportunity to splash water all over his face and shirt. The children laughed.


After our walk though, us interns and our other friends at the guesthouse called it a day. I spent the afternoon reflecting on my experience thus far and writing a song about my struggles. As I prayed, thought and wrote, I felt that I made some true connections with God through the song. I am excited to share it with everyone once its completed. I think its my best one yet. : ) However, all of deep-thought needed to be countered, so Saturday night found me watching Beauty and the Beast. Say what you want, but it was wonderful.

Sunday morning church was a blessing, especially during the praise and worship part of it. However, I still yearned for more spiritual nourishment, so Aaron, Nathan and I went to go see a speaker that was advertised through a text message on our phones. We arrived at 3pm in a huge inflated meeting space that probably seated a couple thousand. Selecting seats near the front with ample leg room, we waited until 4pm, at which time there was standing room only. Preceding the renown speaker, whom I am sure you all will recognize, there were three praise bands. The first was my favorite, sharing a Jamaican-style version of "Here I am to Worship" and "Lord I Lift Your Name on High." Ja mon, praise da Lord mon. The other bands were good too, singing songs primarily in Swahili. Ugh, if only the Alma College chapel band could pull all that off.

Once everyone was energetic, the speaker was introduced, who was none other than Rick Warren, author of A Purpose Driven Life. Now, I have never read his books, but just the thought of seeing Rick Warren, in Rwanda of all places, was an experience I wanted to have. Rick shared with us that after reading his book, President Paul Kagame called him up and told him that he thought Rick could help in the reconstruction of Rwanda. What an extraordinary outreach opportunity for him! So Sunday night, in the presence of First Lady Kagame, the mayor of Kigali, over a thousand Rwandan youth and a handful of muzungus, Rick Warren talked about purpose, God's love and leadership. Overall, I felt that the message was too repetetive and watered-down for me, but for the youth of Rwanda, it was perfect. When him or his wife spoke, the room was attentive, unlike the Rwandans at the Liberation Ceremony during Kagame's speech. He also provided great explanations to concerns about God's love in relation to the genocide, which I feel is an underlying question for all Rwandan Christians. And though it was a bit repetitive, I certainly gained insight as well. Funny how we sometimes forget the basics.


The next surprise arrived Sunday night, when I was informed that someone found my driver's license, which I lost on the beach in Hawaii, and was nice enough to mail it home to Michigan. Phew! I thought the ocean had swallowed it. Considering I did not have time to reapply for a new one, I was very much relieved to hear this. This way, when I return a few weeks, I will be able to drive. Woo-hoo!

Returning the office Monday, I kept myself busy research subjects for Stephen, including the agriculture technique of double-digging, the benefits to using particular plants as green manure and the newly established Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa. Thrilling, I know. But truthfully, I learned a lot from this experience and picked up a few new online sources that I will be able to use at school. Moreover, I also took the day to plan out some interviews with other international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as World Vision, in order to write a research paper on NGO management. Though I have little time to complete this field research, I am confident that I can gather enough information to learn about the different techniques and frameworks used in operating an NGO and evaluate their effectiveness.

After working hard on Monday, a group of us from the house decided that we need to take a day off, but do not worry, we had Dwight's permission. A FHI/R vehicle was heading to Burundi and was able to provide us free transport to the Rwandan National Museum in Buture. Unable to foresee a better time to go, we all piled into the vehicle and drove a few hours to museum. Once we reached our destination, I excitedly began to read the displays and learn about African history, which is fascinating when you are still able to see remnants of it today. However, about one-fifth way through the museum, the English display information stopped, and we were left with text in only French and Kinyarwanda. This was a major disappointment, a negative surprise if you will. We continued to look at all of the artifacts, but much of the learning was lost. Aaron and I have concluded that if we do not know a second language by the time that we are thirty, we will never be successful in doing development work.


And as a final surprise to a busy and complete couple of days, I just found tonight that my security clearance with the state department went through, meaning that I am all set for my second internship at the United States Mission to the United Nations in Rome in the fall! That internship, of course, will also be covered in the blog as well, hence the two cities mentioned in the title. Being that my information arrived late, I was truly worried about the security clearance process, but God has delivered graciously, as he does with all things.

This is the city from on top of Mt. Kigali. I love the way the sunlight bursts through the clouds. Thank you very much for reading. God bless!

A Welcomed Change of Pace

Well hello there. It's a pleasure to see you again, or for the first time, depending on whether you have seen this blog before or not. Either way, welcome.

As a briefly mentioned in my last blog, though my work has been productive, it has also been repetitive and not worth detailing. However, Tuesday began with an interesting meeting with Food for the Hungry/Rwanda (FHI/R) country director, and my boss, Dwight Jackson. Among the many topics we discussed, it also came to my attention that Emmanuel is no longer is charge of agriculture at FHI/R, but rather the environment sector. In his place, a British gentlemen named Stephen will lead the agriculture department while he and his wife Anne work in Burundi for the next three years. They both have living at the FH guesthouse here in Kigali while making preparations and waiting for Anne's foot to heal from an unfortunate slip-down-the-stairs accident. Though the injury to the foot is regrettable, it has been wonderful having them around. Technically as the agriculture intern, I quickly realized that I had a new boss. Stephen quickly gave me mini-research projects to do. Even though he is an experienced agriculturists, he is spending his time in Rwanda to learn as much about African agriculture before going to Burundi. So my research tasks were all agriculture-related, though diverse in nature. As I scanned the internet, I was hauntingly reminded of our Model UN team at Alma College. : )

After a morning of internet research, Stephen was gracious enough to take me to GAKO Organic Farm Training Center for some more interactive learning. Essentially, GAKO is an NGO that operates month-long training courses to promote efficient and sustainable organic farming, particularly for rural families with small plots. Admittedly, even I was skeptical about just how thrilling a farm training center could be, but I was truly impressed. The center had developed many innovative techniques for small and poor farmer. My favorites included the kitchen garden (a mound garden with compost-like core), sock cultivation (a vertical garden in potato sacks filled with rocks and dirt) and biofuel stove methane (processed from cow waste). The center also shared with the benefits of composting, natural pesticides, as well as the characteristics of particular plants and trees that can be planted in a garden. For example, one tree, known as Neem, is a natural mosquito repellent. I think we need some of those trees in Michigan, eh?


Wednesday I found myself continuing with research throughout the morning, but because of a faulty internet connection, we all went home a little earlier. However, five minutes after arrival, Karen invited me to join her for HIV/AIDS child home visits done through the organization she has been working for. My laziness caused me to hesitate, but thankfully I agreed to go. It was a splendid afternoon. Because the HIV/AIDS victims are given free medicine through the government and the NGO, none of the people we met with appeared to be terminally ill. They were wonderful people though, certainly undeserving of any ailment at all. They lived in a small village on the outskirts of Kigali, as if their living conditions had gotten them pushed out of the thriving and clean city. While scanning the walls in one house, I noticed a tapestry with a Kinyarwanda Bible verse on it from "Abagalatiya". Apparently, the verse had a list and each listed word was bulleted by either a orange or green fruit. Smiling, I pointed to it and recited "The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." They clapped, impressed by my reading of Kinyarwanda, when in truth, that annoying song from high school youth group is still stuck in my head.

Thursday, much to my dismay, the internet in all of Kigali did not work. Unable to research, I guiltily played Free Cell, which I've become quite fond of. After lunch, though, Dwight told me to talk to Brenda, his wife, with a task he wanted me to do. It turns out that Brenda, who is currently the headmistress for the nearby Kigali International Community School, was planning a parent's night to celebrate the end of the school's second year. Her and Dwight had thought it would be a good idea to give out next year's billing early, promising a five percent discount if the full tuition was paid before next Thursday. So my job, hours before the event, was to type of the billings. Fortunately, a rough template had been made up for me in Microsoft Excel, but none of Excel's formula features had been utilized, so I spent an hour setting that up. After that, it was simply a matter of typing in a few names and numbers, based on the school's scaled price rate, which was five times cheaper for locals than it was for embassy kids. All in all, as much as I hated Business Technology freshman year of high school, I must admit, yesterday it came in handy.

And that brings me to today, which consisted of a trip far into the Eastern Province of Rwanda to meet with the local leaders of the Ngoma District to discuss coffee production, among other things. Regrettably, most of the conversations were in French, effectively excluding me, but I did get a chance to the see the region as well as observe Stephen and Emmanuel as they conversed with potential partners. Though the district stated that they primarily wanted large private investors, such as Starbucks, to help with agricultural extension and development, my bosses did a good job convincing them that FHI/R may a role to play. We left with them satisfied in the outcome of our first meeting with the district. On the back, around 2pm, I realized that I had had no lunch. So, without whining, I strategically suggested that my stomach was imploding. We stopped at a guest center on a small lake, directly across from President Kagame's farm. However, due to a local convention, no food was available, so instead we were invited to enter their traditional Rwandan hut and enjoy some milk. To make a long story short, somehow I was given a huge glass and drank a pint of the thickest, richest milk ever. It was like whole milk times two. Needless to say, I felt queasy afterwards, but thankfully recovered a few hours ago after eating dinner.


So there you have it. Tuesday: farmer. Wednesday: HIV/AIDS social worker. Thursday: Financial Consultant. Friday: FHI/R non-Francophone representative. Not monotonous at all.

Thank you for reading, and before I stop for tonight, I would like to give two shout-outs to my adorable girlfriend Joye Kallgren, who is reading this sentence with a flushed face. One, because yesterday was her twentieth birthday and two, because today is our 1.5 year anniversary! How exciting! Joye, you given me happiness and purpose in more ways than you know, and I thank God frequently for blessing me with such a likable friend.

Urakundo

Dear and dearest readers, thank you for joining me again. Work has been productive, but repetitive, and so I will do all a favor and spare you from the details. In essence, Aaron and I are still doing good work in developing concepts for E-Sponsorship. However, today I did organize a stack of papers into four books after watching Emmanuel struggle with the ordering the pages.

This weekend though brought about some fulfilling fun, as we traveled to Gitarama again for a dinner party that Alana was putting on. I knew she invited many guests, but it was not until the twelve or so girl orphans arrived that I figured out who the guests were. Though they only spoke Kinyarwandan, we had an excellent time entertaining them with games like 3-legged races and Steal the Bacon. After the games, we all enjoyed a wonderfully made Mexican meal, complete with tortilla chips and guacamole. Mmmmmm. Then came desert, which consisted of pineapple, peanuts and Aaron's and my surprisingly fabulous maple brownies. We're humble about it though. Following desert, the girls performed a native Rwandan dance for us before they had to leave to get to bed. It was definitely in my Top 10 list for best parties ever.

The girls were part of an organization Urakundo, which means 'love' in Kinyarwanda. The head mistress of both of the girls' and boys' orphanage was a 76 year-old women from Pennsylvania, known as Mama. She told us that upon retirement, and after her husbands death, she found her life becoming increasingly meaningless. But God changed all of that when she got pushed into volunteering abroad through her church. Now, she has lived in Rwanda for four years, having established and developed the orphanage and has found her purpose once again. When we told her that we had made brownies, she excitedly asked for one, saying she had not enjoyed a brownie in four years. I gave her two, commenting that she should just as well have two, since she would probably had four years until her next brownie. I hope that when I am her age, I will have the courage live and work abroad as well.

Sunday night, after another crowded ride back from Gitarama, us interns and a few others were lucky enough to be invited over to Dwight Jackson's (our boss) house for dinner. Aside from being a wonderfully gracious and kind lady, Dwight's wife Brenda is an amazing cook. She prepared for us a dish known as Mt. Kilimanjaro, which was essentially chicken curry with a wide array of toppings. In her explanation of her dinner, Brenda instructed us to add the coconut last, to represent the snow. "It's a good thing we're eating this now," I muttered, "because in twenty years we won't get any coconut." No one got it... but I thought it was funny. Anyways, dinner was delicious, as expected, successfully concluding an eventful weekend.

Tis all for now. The picture above is of a matatu, the primary form of public transportation in Kigali. I like this picture; it reminds me of Little Miss Sunshine. To accompany the picture, I have also added another video, complement of Aaron. Simply click the appropriately titled video on the sidebar of this page to activate it. This was the matatu ride on the first trip to Guitarama, which was some time ago, but it will give you an idea of this crazy mode of transportation nonetheless. This one is only moderately packed though, on the way back we were in one that had 21 people in it. I hope you enjoy it as well as the rest of your day. God bless.

Psalm 22

Salutations readers.

This week sure has gone by fast. With less than a month until my return, there are some things that I can finally start looking forward to, including apples, laundry machines and, of course, seeing all you wonderful people again. Without a doubt, though, I will miss Rwanda as well, especially now that I am starting to feel as if Aaron's and my work at the FHI/R office is having a true impact. We are not just gopher interns but are actually working at project and program development. The first project we are working on is buying furniture for the regional office... okay, so that's not the best example.


We are doing that, but it is by far our "back-burner" project. The bulk of our time is currently being spent brainstorming and developing a new idea for child sponsorship, E-sponsorship. It will be sponsorship entirely based online, hopefully providing many more options and features that connect you, the sponsor, to your sponsored child, family or community, including periodic videos of your sponsored individual or group and their village. Right now we are working on marketing strategies for university students and developing a framework for the program. Even using videos as a primary form of media, we still think we will be able provide more support for the sponsor for less money. I will refrain from sharing many of the exciting features, as I have in past blogs, but look forward to it.

Additionally, Aaron and I drafted a concept paper for an enormous potential program in the resettlement camp we visited some weeks ago, which will take a holistic approach to development, hoping to improve all aspects of life within the community for at least a three year period. As some may remember, we turned this into a Swiss organization for funding. Well, they have responded and have promised a good amount, but we still to find some other funding (if anyone's interested). In other news, we stopped by the resettlement camp's district office Tuesday, while visiting genocide memorials, to pick up some of their project proposals, so that our program does not overlap. However, the two men we spoke to gave us the impression that no governement projects were going to be done anytime soon. It was clear that they knew it was a emergency problem, but they simply had not prioritized the resources to manage it properly. I found this frustrating, but their desperation made them very inviting of our program. By the time Aaron and I leave, we will hopefully have "got the ball rolling" enough where progress continues. As far as I can tell, we push paper more than anyone else.

Other interns are keeping busy too. Monday, Aaron and I went with Karen to her work with Peacebuilding Healing And Reconciliation Programme (PHARP). There, she teaches English. We assisted, but were nearly worthless. The most we could was help the students, mostly women ranging between 18 and 30, distinguish the words "kitchen" and "chicken" or "fourteen" and "forty." While we were there though, we gave the trainees some fabrics we purchased and got measured. Hopefully in a few weeks I will have a shirt and hat while Aaron elected to get a full suit. He's gonna look ridiculous.

As I mentioned earlier, a few of us took Tuesday off to visit two genocide memorials about an hour away from Kigali, and I would like to talk about them. However, I will put a disclaimer here and warn people that I may be graphic, and therefore, if you do not wished to be upset, please do not read on. And for those of you who just skim these blogs:
THE REMAINDER OF THE BLOG IS ABOUT VISITING GENOCIDE MEMORIALS.
Sorry if some of you interpret these warnings as unnecessary, but I much rather be descriptive and simplify it all.

The first site we visited was a rural church none as Ntarama, currently the burial grounds for an estimated 5,000 Rwandan Tutsis. Along with their common graves, there was a stone wall with the names of the 260 victims engraved on it; those were the only ones they could identify. This is because women and children did not have identification on them, and the tragedy's ten survivors could only identify so many bodies. Inside the old church, now protected with a raised metallic roof, was the heart of the memorial. A warehouse shelf was a showcase for piles of bones, including a spread of skulls, some of which were shattered or cracked. The victim's clothes, many of them stained with blood, hung from the walls and rafters. On the other end of the church, were the material objects collected from the site: cups, papers, objects of faith... etc. At first, the sight all of this creeped me out, to be honest, but when I began to imagine the final minutes for those hundreds of skulls, I became quite emotional.


The second site was a Catholic church and is now a memorial for some 10,000 victims. Apparently, many of the Rwandans had been hiding for an entire week before the assault. Signs of struggle were still visible: the steel doors of the church were bent and broken, the handle of door had been chopped away were people once hid inside. I learned that it is quite unsettling to realize that the blood-stained floor beneath your feet was where some child or desperate mother met their gruesome end. We were told that because of the locked doors, the invaders threw grenades into the church, sending shards of debris in every direction. I could see that it had chipped the stone walls of the church and riddled its metal ceiling with holes, so to think of what it did to the people was torturous. Going around to the back of the church, we climbed down into the common graves, which resembled catacombs as oppose to piles of bodies. Surrounded by purple-wrapped coffins, I solemnly contemplated their last horrific minutes.


During the genocide, people would often retreat to the churches, because in past conflicts, churches had been safe from fighting. No matter the social tension at hand, both Hutus and Tutsis respected and protected the church and those in it. This is why in 1994, people made the church their refuge, unknowingly making the jobs of their murderers simple. These churches literally became slaughtering grounds for villages, the thought of which still makes me tremble. Even now, when I think about it, I can not help but question God's love. But it was corrupt people, not God, who chose to lead the genocide and invade the churches of Rwanda. It was pressured people, abusing their free-will, that instigated the mass murders. And honestly, if I was Hutu in 1994, living in village where tensions were extreme, I probably would have committed the same crime. We are a broken creation, and it is in our nature to sin. I have no set conclusion for this struggle raging on in my head, which is filled with worse images that I refuse to discuss here, but I feel that good will come out of it, and so I wrote about it here.

One last memorial to share. On our way to Kibuye, we stopped at a school that had a large stone memorial at back. Its story was this. When the murders came into the school to kill the Tutsis, they started by separating the school children by their nationality. But the majority of the Hutus refused to separate, claiming loyalty to their Tutsi friends. Years later, the few survivors of that Hutu/Tutsi child massacre have developed a group that teaches unity and friendship to the entire school district, in honor of their friends who sacraficed themselves for the sake of love. I told him, choked up, that it was one of the beautiful stories I had ever heard. In that classroom, and in those churches, I do believe that God was there, sparing his children from death and welcoming them into his eternal and painless kingdom.

By the way, read Psalm 22 if you have the time. Its the last thing Jesus says on the cross in Matthew and Mark. Well, he only says the first line, but everyone there knew he meant the whole thing. God bless.

Holy Kibuye, Batman!

Greetings frequent visitor and newbies, thank you for reading my blog. It has been a blessing to share this experience with so many people. I just continue to hope that you enjoy reading.

This entry should not bore, though, as it is about my captivating weekend to Kibuye, a village in western Rwanda on beautiful Lake Kivu. After an exciting week of work, almost everyone (all the interns, Abi and Nathan) decided it was time for a mini-vacation. With the help of Karen's boss, Pastor Anastase Rugirangoga, we rented a taxi-van and started our journey Friday afternoon, picking up the other interns in Guitarama. Driving through increasingly mountainous terrain, we sped along quickly, because our driver had to return to Kigali that night. As invisible forces slid us back and forth with every curve, a few of the interns got carsick. However, Caleb and I "down-hilled skied" in the back, standing up with our rears against the seat, attempting to resist each curve by leaning into them. It was wonderfully fun, but my thighs were sore afterward.

We eventually arrived at our hotel, plenty excited to exit the vehicle. Overlooking a small lagoon, and beyond that, the fresh water of Lake Kivu, it was a marvelously beautiful place. It was obvious that the hotel had completed many unexpected additions. To get from a room on the third level to a restaurant on the second, one had to climb up to the forth, go outside, go down a stairwell to the ground and then back up and go back inside; it would have been easier to jump. The rooms were well furnished and comfortable though, and after some exploring, dinner and a miserably boring card game (Phase-10), we decided to rest.


After breakfast the next morning, we decided to swim, much to my delight. I have gone from lifeguarding last summer to not even being able to drink the tap water and admittedly was having withdraws. We went swimming on the end of a small peninsula close to the hotel, convenient photographed and placed above this paragraph. Not only was the view fantastic, but being engulfed by water was very freeing, especially having been away from the water. When the swimming was over, we walked to another hotel for lunch, also conveniently located in the photograph, on the mainland off the tip of the peninsula. I was served rabbit and devoured it mercilessly. Hey, that's what he gets for picking up the field mice and boppin' 'em on the head. Once the meal was completed, we all loaded into a motorized wooden boat and began our adventure to Napoleon Island, an island notorious for its infamous inhabitants.

As we approached the island, rising tall above the lake, I was instinctively reminded of Jurassic Park. Oddly, though, nothing on the island seemed to be moving. It was questionable whether there was any life on it at all. After exiting the boat and examining my surroundings, we began to hike inward. Though we kept to the trail, one of the guides left us and disappeared into the brush. Hesitantly, we followed, ascending the gravelly steep slope with little caution. Up ahead, a black figure swooped from a tree into the open air. And suddenly, like a water surging through a broken dam, bats poured forth in a swarm, polluting the open sky. But despite the negative imagery, it was one of the most mesmerizing experiences of my life. As the one guide rustled the trees, thousands of bats flew from their perch and circled above the island. They are literally rats with wings. Individually, not quite the creature that demands awe and respect, but as a whole, the bats were truly an astonishing example of the beauty of God's creation, even though we commonly dislike them. It was a sight to behold.


I eventually approached the summit and was blessed with a panoramic view of Lake Kivu. I met Pastor Anastase there, as he walked the island too. He told me that on a clear day, one could see the volcanoes of the north and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. After enjoying a memorable moment, we were summoned back by the rest of the group, because for some reason they were ready to leave. If I had my druthers, I would have camped out there. Alone on an island, under the stars, surrounded by bats... maybe not everyone's fancy, but it sounds glorious to me.


We left the island only to turn around and go to another, where I enjoyed a Coke and a good swim around it. There was also a pet monkey on the island that knew how to drink bottled beverages. He would simply chuck the straw to the side and raise the bottle up. It was quite impressive. Aaron decided that he wanted one desperately. But dusk was approaching, so we boated back to the hotel, enjoyed dinner, and prepared ourselves for bed. For the most part, I spent the time in reflection, writing songs and such. It brought about good closure to the day.

The next morning we went to Pastor Anastase's home church, which lasted for four hours and was entirely not understandable. Caleb and I shared a few songs though, Those Who Trust and Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, which I played African drum and ill-sounding keyboard for, respectively. After church, we relaxed and finally departed for Kigali in the late afternoon. Thankfully, this ride was much safer.

For all those who made it this far, thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day. God bless.

The 4th of July!

For all of the Americans reading this blog entry, Happy post-Independence Day! And for everyone else, I do not know how you got word of this blog, but thank you for tuning in. Though one would think that spending the 4th of July in Rwanda would be anticlimactic given the lack of American activities, this assumption is mistaken. True, there many times today that I longed for a barbecued hamburger or just one bottle rocket, but I definitely got my share in of celebration. This is because July 4th is Liberation Day in Rwanda, remembering the day that the government was reestablished in Kigali after the genocide in 1994.

My day began early as I awoke at 5:15am. Putting on some pants and a hoodie, I joined my fellow housemates and began our journey to Kigali stadium. Arriving at 6:15, we waited in a crowd/line until the gates finally opened. Aaron and I pushed our way through the crowd and ran down the length of the stadium, finally stopping in its center. After being checked by security, we took our seats at 7:15, overlooking center-field and the president's tent across it. Eventually our housemates found us, along with Felix, our Rwandan friend., and then we waited. And waited. And read Paradise Lost. And waited until Rwandan president Paul Kagame arrived at 10:15. During the wait though, I was hungry, and a vendor down at the bottom of the seats was selling peanuts. Because the stadium was so packed (over 30,000 people), interested customers were throwing down their coins and being thrown their nuts. Though I was much higher up than previous customers and probably equipped with worse aim, I decided to risk it, being that a bag of nuts only cost a dime. As I stood to throw it, people starting laughing, because they knew it was a stretch. I aimed, prayed that God would use the wind to my favor, and released the coin. Miraculously, and with my entire section cheering, the coin landed in the bucket, and after another gasp, I miraculously caught my purchase as well. Clearly, everyone was bored out of their mind, but once started, the ceremony was wonderful.


After President Paul Kagame arrived, waving to the crowd above him, the celebration began with members of the Rwandan military marching into the stadium, fully equipped with heavy machine guns, RPGs and a marching band. Soon after came the Kigali police force, which impressively executed many fine marching drills on the field. This was followed by a parade of various organizations, including schools, churches, security companies and business men. This was similar to American parade in the sense that it was got old quickly and was too long. But the best part was yet to come. Once the procession was over, the ceremony's entertainment was provided by Rwanda's martial arts military unit. Basically, they put on various "skits" where members of the team engaged in dramatic combat against others at ridiculously fun odds. For example, a platoon of nine was walking, and a single soldier, approaching from behind, swung off the last two's shoulders into the backs of the others, and then continued by flipping, twisting and kicking everyone in the face. My personal favorite was a business man and woman, who appeared to be walking into an ambush. But when the attackers revealed themselves, the businesspeople sprung into action. As the woman hoisted her legs around an attacker's neck, flipping him to the ground, the crowd roared with thunderous applause. After the skits, other activities were pursued, including throwing sharp objects into a target. This was surprisingly done with not only knives, but machetes, hatchets, axes, spades and pick axes. As an unexpected event, this was by far the best part of the ceremony.


We were unable to leave, though, until Kagame left, and that could not happen until after his speech. I was excited for this, but the result was disappointed. For being such a well-liked African president, Paul Kagame is a lame orator. It also did not help that I could not understand a word of his speech, but from the expressions of those around us, no one else could hear either. We finally were able to leave at 1:15pm, a full six hours after we had taken our seats. So concluded my 4th of July. Upon return, I took a much appreciated nap and followed it with a much appreciated Bible study, thus ending my day. As we sang worship songs on the roof of the house, overlooking the heart of Kigali, I tried to imagine fireworks painting the night sky. Yet despite this, I determined that I would not have rather been anywhere else in the world. Overall, I'd say the day was a wonderful substitute.

Work today was wonderful as well, as this whole week has been, in fact. Aaron and I have been assigned three major projects, which will probably last for the remainder of our internship. Well, one is furnishing the new FH region office, so maybe only two major projects and one typical intern job. The first of the major projects is turning a concept paper tomorrow for a potential FHI/R program. Essentially, it will establish a community development program for the resettlement camp Aaron and I visited some weeks ago. Ideally, the program will address every issue possible (infrastructure, education, health, agriculture, social issues... etc.) through training and support. Tomorrow we will be sending a concept paper to FHI/Sweden, in hopes that they will fill our budget: $200,000. Please pray for this over the weekend, as it directly affects the lives of at least 1,000 vulnerable people living in the resettlement camp.

The second project, though, will not be finished so soon. We are also helping Dwight design an E-sponsorship program, a sponsorship service theoretically run entirely on the internet. Today we presented to him our brainstormed ideas: the possibility of different levels of sponsorship, features of a user account through the program, and incentives for promoting the program to others. To our enjoyment, Dwight was excited with the ideas, saying that we thought of things that had not even come to his mind. Though I will not promise anything here, because limited resources may hinder our ideas, I will say that this E-sponsorship program has a lot of potential. It attempts to connect the sponsor as much as possible to their sponsored individual or group, making the relationship much more interactive and enjoyable. How this is done is what is still be developed. However, if you have or currently sponsor a child and would like to give us suggestions for how the system could be improved, please leave a comment on this blog to that effect. We are open to any suggestions that can improve how sponsorship is done!

After turning that concept paper in tomorrow, though, all of the interns will be heading to beautiful Lake Kivu, a touristy place on the west side of country, for a little rest and relaxation. Also I hear we will be visiting a bat island on Saturday. So make sure to tune in early next week to read all about it. I am sure it will be exciting! Again, thank you for reading. Enjoy the weekend, and God bless!

University

Good morning, afternoon, evening or night, depending on when you read this. Thank you for checking in. Just as a reminder, if anyone reading this would like to comment on something I read or simply pass a greeting, please feel free to click on the "comments" link on the bottom of each blog entry. Simply fill in your name and a brief message, and I will return your comment as soon as possible. Thank you and have a nice day. Whoops, I think that's my answering machine.

Anyways, this weekend was fairly relaxing one, and with all of us interns getting together, we spent Saturday hanging out like a bunch of college students. We did this, of course, by meeting up with our college friends, Emmanuel (not my boss) and Christian, and having them give us a tour of their university, the Kigali Institute of Education. It was very nice campus, located within the city, complete with clipped lawns, open-aired classrooms and dorms. In fact, two new science buildings were in construction, which I thought would look very nice on Alma's campus. Going inside the dorms though, increased my appreciation for my own cramped living space at school. The rooms were a similar size, but housed four people instead of two. Christian's off-campus apartment was only slightly larger, though it housed four people as well. Sitting on their beds, we joked at our inability to annunciate the letter "t" (butter=budder & literature=liderature), and their inability to annunciate the letter "l" (really=rerry & Caleb=Carub). Good times.

But the fun did not stop there. After bidding Emmanuel and Christian farewell, we relaxed until about 10pm, and then we went out night-clubbing. Having inquired others about which night club to attend, we set our sights on the Cadillac Club, which was supposedly the coolest place in Kigali. I must admit, I was impressed. With only a three-dollar cover charge, the Cadillac Club came complete with a great dance floor, mirrored walls and a spectacular DJ. The best part about the club was the laid-back atmosphere. Especially as muzungus (white people), we did not have to impress anyone. In fact, any dance move I did was applauded. My famous white-boy dance, the spin-around, hands-on-the-knees, can-opener, MC-Hammer-stomp... all were appreciated and cherished. As you can imagine for someone as shunned as me on the dancefloor, I loved the positive attention... well, most of it. Apparently in Rwanda, it is acceptable for guys to "grind" other guys in a purely hetero-way. Now, I'm all for embracing Rwandan culture, but I had to draw the line. So, when the moment came and three men approached me with legs opened, I did the only thing a muzungu could do... challenged them to a dance-off. I was moving so fast, I deflected their prowling movements. After a few minutes of learning how I keep rhythm, they accepted defeat and retreated to another territory of the dance floor. Poor Aaron, no one wanted to dance with him, if you'd even call it dancing. For the most part, the Rwandan grooves consisted of gelatin-like contortionist twitches, as if they were mysteriously having seizures in the stand-up position. Yeah, it was cultural experience.

Sunday, admittedly, I failed to go to church, but I did wake to a personal devotion. Around noon, I decided to do my laundry, which is notably more difficult here in Rwanda. I doubt I will complain about Alma's pathetic washers and dryers again... actually, that's not true. But doing your laundry by hand, even with some help, takes a lot of time and energy. Today I found that my back is sore from bending over the washing bucket.


Overall, though, today was a great day. Dwight gave Aaron and I deadlines, something we have been lacking thus far. By Friday, we have to have a Concept Paper drawn up to see if some Swiss organization is willing to support of programs in the resettlement camp. Also, we have to turn in an outline of ideas for a new E-Sponsorship Program. Lastly, Aaron and I have been assigned with selecting furnishings for the new FH Regional Office. So between those three assignments, we will have plenty to do.

Tis all for now. Happy 4th of July for everyone reading in the US! Rwanda is celebrating some sort of Liberation Day on the 4th as well, so we will celebrating liberty to at least some capacity. Thank you for reading everyone. God bless! Enjoy the fireworks!