It's hard not to start with a tragic and sorrowful event that has colored the last few weeks in a singular way and has been somewhat alarming at a personal level....except for I can't really write much about it here on this blog! Security issues. Bear has had to leave the country he was working in because of a senseless tragedy that occurred to one of his co-workers. Please do send me an email if you'd like more info. And thank you all so much for your prayers during this time...I can't even begin to tell you how you've encouraged me. It's been kind of scary.
I was supposed to go visit Bear next week where he was working (a planned trip for quite some time), and now instead I will go and join him and his co-workers in the UK, where they've evacuated and are doing debrief. In fact, I am en route as we speak, typing this in the Nairobi airport and hoping that in a minute I can catch up on some personal emails I owe some of you.... I am SO looking forward to seeing him and also meeting the people he's been working with, although I confess I wish it were under different circumstances.
Another difficult situation has arisen in the past 10 days just across the northwest border of Rwanda, about two hours from here by car, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been fleeing their villages and trying to survive in makeshift camps as fighting has broken out between rebels and government soldiers in this area. But, like many other African conflicts, "rebels" might actually be a mis-nomer, as this group of fighters claim that they are actually protecting their people against Hutu militants whose antics the government forces have allegedly failed to adequately address. There is a long and complicated history here, and Rwanda is involved in a unique way because of the ethnic component to the conflict. For more information, here are two news articles:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/05/labott.foreign.policy/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/05/afghanistan.civilians/index.html?iref=topnews
We have been praying a lot for an end to this conflict, and supernatural intervention seems to be the only hope at this moment. WR has an office and staff in Goma, a town very close to the fighting, which adds a personal element to the unfolding tragedy. Last week, we actually were able to host at our house a family of girls from Goma whose father, Amos, a WR accountant, had to travel to Uganda. Amos knew it wasn't safe to leave the girls behind while he traveled, so he brought them down to Kigali.
With much laughter (which was either a defense mechanism or simply non-cohesive emotional response, or maybe both?) the young woman told us stories of how they had been hiding under the kitchen table for two days while they heard shooting and grenade explosions not far from their home. They said they were scared, but they would sing and pray and then stop when they heard explosions, and then they would start again.
Beyond the terrible circumstances that led them to us, they were a delight to get to know and to spend time with. Here they are singing the Congolese version of Happy Birthday to Phil:
In other news, something I haven't shared yet on this blog, the results of the PhotoVoice activity from a few months' ago is proceeding in a new direction. From the start, I really hoped and desired that these young people would take ownership of the results of the initial project, especially since my time here is up at the end of this year. Perhaps about 6 weeks ago I was able to help the young adults select a leadership committee and then I went through a foundational lesson about relief vs. development with them. I also explained that since I wouldn't be in the country long-term, I wasn't going to be able to lead any more activities, but I could help out where I could.
Well, how many ways can I say that I am SO proud of them? They have completely taken the initiative, arranged to meet together weekly, and have come up with a project involving all of the young adults at their church. Their plan is to help 20, and eventually 40, of their most impoverished neighbors plant home gardens, so that these families will have fruits and vegetables year-round.
What's more, they wrote a letter to Interior fellowship back home in CA requesting funding for fruit trees -- the young adults here wanted to give one fruit tree to each poor family as a gesture of good will. The very cool thing was that in one night, Interior raised almost twice as much money as was requested for this project....yay Interior! Of course, that's the very generous and giving spirit of that group; I guess I can say safely that I'm not too surprised! But if you are from Interior and reading this, on behalf of the young adults here, I'd like to say THANK YOU. :)
We started planting seedlings together last week, and (don't laugh, please) I got another chance to hoe. You might remember the last time I did some hoe-ing was in the Philippines, and everyone laughed at me, I have no idea why.
The good news is I think I'm actually getting better. Honestly. Perhaps I'll be a farmer.
....And here are some of the young people showing me how it's REALLY done....
More shots of the day:
In the past three weeks, there have also been some positive developments in the work I've had the privilege of being involved with this year. The research project has been successfully terminated, the key behavior change message workshop yielded a whole set of what we hope and believe are culturally sensitive behavior change messages about child health issues, and now (via the MOH) WR has been tasked with taking the lead on the application of the messages in the community. This basically means creating training modules for community-based health workers. There's a lot of work but it's been interesting so far (my role has been to work on counseling cards, which are simple tools for community workers to use with their neighbors). What a year -- I've learned so much and feel very thankful.
Okay...over and out. I don't know when I will be able to blog next, but I'll do my best. I am looking forward to getting caught up in person with many of you, in just a couple of months! Wow! Take care for now... - C
1 comment:
Hey Christine - how are you doing? Just wanted to check in with you...
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