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!