So, I was going to post about my research trip to Gitarama that I have done this week. I started writing about it but I am just too distracted to write about it. As of today, I have just 17 days left in Africa! I cannot believe that in just a little over 2 weeks I will be boarding a plane for the U.S. I am going to miss a lot here but I am definitely looking forward to being home. In fact, in this moment I am so excited to be home that while I try to write about my wonderful experiences I have had here this week, all I can think about is being home. So, instead of trying to force an entry about the wonderful little village of Cyeza that I am working in, I am going to give you a list of things I can't wait to experience when I get home. Maybe I will tell you about Cyeza another day.
Here it is, my list of things I love about our country and can't wait to be home to. Please keep in mind that it is by no means comprehensive, nor is it in any particular order.
text messaging
paved roads
traffic laws
hot showers with movable shower heads
Maple, Oak, and Pine trees
bubble baths
Gavin
baking
American enthusiasm
snow
sermons from pastors with a seminary background
Hunnybunch and Shasta
being able to blend into a crowd
snowmobiling with my Daddy
the rest of my clothes in my closet
sledding
comfy pillows
watching movies with my Messiah friends
drinking from a faucet
cars driving on the right side of the road
board games with my family
Christmas cookies
walks by the Yellow Breeches
driving
I think food should have a section all on its own.
Foods I miss and look forward to:
french toast
stir fries with yummy sauces
pierogies
shrimp
honey mustard sauce
Quaker's instant oatmeal
cream of wheat
granola bars
wheat bread
strawberry milkshakes
veggie burgers
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Genocide
I need to apologize for how long it has been since my last update. I know there are many people who want to know what's going on in my life so I should be updating more often. I haven't written partly because I have been busy with classes but also because I haven't known how to write about a lot of what has been going on. More specifically, a huge part of all that I've been learning and thinking about has to do with the genocide and I just don't know what to write about it. I think I am ready to try though. I want to tell about two genocide memorials we visited. Both were at churches, where people went fourteen years ago to seek refuge from the mass killings that were happening all across the country. They went there thinking it was the only place they could be safe. Even in a church though, there was no refuge.
The first church we visited is called Nyamara. I had fallen asleep on the ride there and woke up groggily to some children running alongside our van yelling and waving as we arrived. We all smiled and waved at them. We climbed out of the van and sauntered towards the church building. We had been told that at this church 3,000 people were killed. I definitely was not prepared for what I was about to see.
My first sight as we walked into the church was skulls--hundreds and hundreds of human skulls lined up on shelves that went all the way up to the ceiling. Some of them were so tiny, the remnants of small children who were killed mercilessly along with their innocent parents. Many of the skulls had holes pierced at the temple or back of the head, likely deadly machete blows from their murderers.
After the initial shock of seeing the skulls of thousands of murdered people, I looked around the rest of what was once a sanctuary. The pews were still there and untouched. In a few places in the walls, there were huge holes from grenades. The murderers and victims alike were from the Nyamara community. They were neighbors, some friends even. They had once lived, worked, and worshiped alongside one another. But the labels of Hutu and Tutsi became lines of division and of hatred, and Hutus murdered their Tutsi neighbors. They had entered the church with machetes and clubs to beat and hack thousands of people to death. Then to finish them off, they threw some grenades into the sanctuary.
The walls were covered with the clothing of the victims. There was nothing separating us from the realness of what we were seeing. There were no glass encasings, no plastic sheets with facts written on them. We could walk up to the walls and touch the bloody, decomposing clothes of the people killed there. We could smell everything--the thick, old smell of blood and dirt. At the front of the sanctuary were shelves of the people's belongings. Books, blankets, and shoes were separated and thrown into heaps of similar items. I stood and stared at all the shoes for a while. There were so many of them--sneakers and converse and heels and flats. I saw a little girl's black buckled dress shoe strewn across the shelf with hundreds of others. A little girl who could fit that shoe was probably about six years old. Six years old and murdered because she bore the ethnic label of Tutsi.
The lady running the memorial told us about how many of the killers still live right in the community. Many of them were never convicted and many of them have already served their jail time and have been released. We asked if they ever visited the memorial. She said they did not. As we got back into the van, the same children we saw upon entering ran from their homes to wave at us again. This time some of their parents came to the road too. I couldn't help but wonder where they had been fourteen years ago. What part did they play? And what did those kids know about the genocide? What did their parents teach them about it?
We drove right from there to Nyamata, another church. We were told that this area was one of the worst areas for the genocide. Over 10,000 people were killed. Still today they are finding the remains of people who were murdered and left on the side of the road, in a ditch, or in a pit latrine. In the church, victims' clothes were everywhere. They were piled two feet high on every pew and two feet high on the floors along the walls. Sweaters, coats, jeans, skirts, blankets, shoes, and tee shirts were all thrown together and heaped around the room. Some of them were covered in blood and again, the smell was overwhelming. Looking at all the clothes I learned from the number or coats and blankets that it must have been a cold April that the genocide happened during.
I felt so overwhelmed by the death around me. Not just death though, but innocent death caused by the hatred of humanity. How could one group of people dehumanize another group of people to the point that they could think it their duty to exterminate them? How could anyone have such a sense of superiority over another human being? How, when we are all God's children, beautifully made in His image, can we deny that beauty in a group of people? As I tried to take everything in, I leaned up against a column in the sanctuary. I pressed my cheek up against the cold stone and wondered who, fourteen years ago, huddled up against that same column as the killers barged into the church yelling and waving their machetes. Was it a mother holding her children against her, trying to shelter them? Was it an old man terrified of what had come of his community? Was it a little boy filled with dreams of the future? I can only imagine the terror the people must have felt when they realized death was upon them.
Learning about the genocide is a lot to take in. I don't understand how humanity is capable of such evil, because I believe we are all essentially the same. We are learning a lot about the hatred and evil of humanity but we are also learning about reconciliation and hope. I would write about those things but this entry is getting really long. So I will save that for another day. Maybe I shouldn't leave you with only dark thoughts and stories, but the Rwandan genocide was undeniably a very dark time, surely one of the darkest points in our human story.
The first church we visited is called Nyamara. I had fallen asleep on the ride there and woke up groggily to some children running alongside our van yelling and waving as we arrived. We all smiled and waved at them. We climbed out of the van and sauntered towards the church building. We had been told that at this church 3,000 people were killed. I definitely was not prepared for what I was about to see.
My first sight as we walked into the church was skulls--hundreds and hundreds of human skulls lined up on shelves that went all the way up to the ceiling. Some of them were so tiny, the remnants of small children who were killed mercilessly along with their innocent parents. Many of the skulls had holes pierced at the temple or back of the head, likely deadly machete blows from their murderers.
After the initial shock of seeing the skulls of thousands of murdered people, I looked around the rest of what was once a sanctuary. The pews were still there and untouched. In a few places in the walls, there were huge holes from grenades. The murderers and victims alike were from the Nyamara community. They were neighbors, some friends even. They had once lived, worked, and worshiped alongside one another. But the labels of Hutu and Tutsi became lines of division and of hatred, and Hutus murdered their Tutsi neighbors. They had entered the church with machetes and clubs to beat and hack thousands of people to death. Then to finish them off, they threw some grenades into the sanctuary.
The walls were covered with the clothing of the victims. There was nothing separating us from the realness of what we were seeing. There were no glass encasings, no plastic sheets with facts written on them. We could walk up to the walls and touch the bloody, decomposing clothes of the people killed there. We could smell everything--the thick, old smell of blood and dirt. At the front of the sanctuary were shelves of the people's belongings. Books, blankets, and shoes were separated and thrown into heaps of similar items. I stood and stared at all the shoes for a while. There were so many of them--sneakers and converse and heels and flats. I saw a little girl's black buckled dress shoe strewn across the shelf with hundreds of others. A little girl who could fit that shoe was probably about six years old. Six years old and murdered because she bore the ethnic label of Tutsi.
The lady running the memorial told us about how many of the killers still live right in the community. Many of them were never convicted and many of them have already served their jail time and have been released. We asked if they ever visited the memorial. She said they did not. As we got back into the van, the same children we saw upon entering ran from their homes to wave at us again. This time some of their parents came to the road too. I couldn't help but wonder where they had been fourteen years ago. What part did they play? And what did those kids know about the genocide? What did their parents teach them about it?
We drove right from there to Nyamata, another church. We were told that this area was one of the worst areas for the genocide. Over 10,000 people were killed. Still today they are finding the remains of people who were murdered and left on the side of the road, in a ditch, or in a pit latrine. In the church, victims' clothes were everywhere. They were piled two feet high on every pew and two feet high on the floors along the walls. Sweaters, coats, jeans, skirts, blankets, shoes, and tee shirts were all thrown together and heaped around the room. Some of them were covered in blood and again, the smell was overwhelming. Looking at all the clothes I learned from the number or coats and blankets that it must have been a cold April that the genocide happened during.
I felt so overwhelmed by the death around me. Not just death though, but innocent death caused by the hatred of humanity. How could one group of people dehumanize another group of people to the point that they could think it their duty to exterminate them? How could anyone have such a sense of superiority over another human being? How, when we are all God's children, beautifully made in His image, can we deny that beauty in a group of people? As I tried to take everything in, I leaned up against a column in the sanctuary. I pressed my cheek up against the cold stone and wondered who, fourteen years ago, huddled up against that same column as the killers barged into the church yelling and waving their machetes. Was it a mother holding her children against her, trying to shelter them? Was it an old man terrified of what had come of his community? Was it a little boy filled with dreams of the future? I can only imagine the terror the people must have felt when they realized death was upon them.
Learning about the genocide is a lot to take in. I don't understand how humanity is capable of such evil, because I believe we are all essentially the same. We are learning a lot about the hatred and evil of humanity but we are also learning about reconciliation and hope. I would write about those things but this entry is getting really long. So I will save that for another day. Maybe I shouldn't leave you with only dark thoughts and stories, but the Rwandan genocide was undeniably a very dark time, surely one of the darkest points in our human story.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Kigali
Settling into Kigali, Rwanda has been going quite smoothly. The place we are staying at is wonderful and my first impressions of this city are very positive. We are staying at the compound of FH's regional director, who is also one of our professors. I am staying off of the main house in a guesthouse. We have electricity, wireless internet, a flushing toilet, and American food, so we are all quite comfortable. We also have two big dogs and four puppies to play with!
So far I like Kigali better than I liked Kampala. One of Rwanda's national languages is French so it's fun being able to use my French. Today I got to have a few conversations in French with vendors at the market. In Kigali, people don't yell out at us and harass us like they do in Kampala. They stare at us because we are different but they are respectful. This city is clean and less chaotic than Kampala. It's so much less stressful walking around Kigali than Kampala. Kigali is also more developed, with more businesses and nicer architecture. Don't get me wrong, I loved my time in Kampala, but I feel more comfortable here.
I am looking forward to spending time and learning in a city that has overcome a genocide to grow into a beautiful and thriving place. Before coming here I wondered about how prevalent talk would be about the genocide, with it now being fourteen years since the 800,000 people were murdered. In many ways, the country is hush hush about their dark past. Talk of Hutu/Tutsi identification is a social faux pas and everyone is just considered Rwandan. It seems like the genocide isn't brought up much but there are reminders here and there. There are genocide memorials, a time of memorial in April, and lots of NGOs with words like "peace" and "reconciliation" to remind everyone of what Rwanda has survived. There are also still some buildings with bullet holes that still have yet to be repaired.
While we are here we will be taking a class called Issues in Peacebuilding, in which we will study the genocide. We are also taking a class on Community Development. Both should be really good classes.
I know that the violence taking place in the Congo has worried some people about my safety. I want to assure everyone that we are very safe here in Kigali. The things happening in the Congo are really bad. If it gives you any idea of the security of Kigali though, the expatriates who are being evacuated from the Congo are being sent to Kigali. Rwanda won't get involved in the fighting that is happening, so Kigali will be safe. If somehow things did become insecure here, there is an airport right in Kigali and FH would have us leave at the first sign of danger.
The fighting occurring in the Congo is not something to be glossed over though. While we are not affected here in Kigali, thousands of people are being affected. I have been amazed and disturbed by how little attention our media gives to countries who don't have direct relevance to the U.S. I have been convicted to learn more about what is happening to people around the world, because everyone's humanity is sacred regardless of nationality, ethnic tribe, or social class. I don't know what we can do about these huge problems like what is happening in the Congo, but I know that it starts with being aware that there is a problem.
So this is the next part of my adventure. We will be here in Kigali for five weeks. Our time will mostly be spent taking classes, visiting genocide memorials around the country, and exploring Kigali.
So far I like Kigali better than I liked Kampala. One of Rwanda's national languages is French so it's fun being able to use my French. Today I got to have a few conversations in French with vendors at the market. In Kigali, people don't yell out at us and harass us like they do in Kampala. They stare at us because we are different but they are respectful. This city is clean and less chaotic than Kampala. It's so much less stressful walking around Kigali than Kampala. Kigali is also more developed, with more businesses and nicer architecture. Don't get me wrong, I loved my time in Kampala, but I feel more comfortable here.
I am looking forward to spending time and learning in a city that has overcome a genocide to grow into a beautiful and thriving place. Before coming here I wondered about how prevalent talk would be about the genocide, with it now being fourteen years since the 800,000 people were murdered. In many ways, the country is hush hush about their dark past. Talk of Hutu/Tutsi identification is a social faux pas and everyone is just considered Rwandan. It seems like the genocide isn't brought up much but there are reminders here and there. There are genocide memorials, a time of memorial in April, and lots of NGOs with words like "peace" and "reconciliation" to remind everyone of what Rwanda has survived. There are also still some buildings with bullet holes that still have yet to be repaired.
While we are here we will be taking a class called Issues in Peacebuilding, in which we will study the genocide. We are also taking a class on Community Development. Both should be really good classes.
I know that the violence taking place in the Congo has worried some people about my safety. I want to assure everyone that we are very safe here in Kigali. The things happening in the Congo are really bad. If it gives you any idea of the security of Kigali though, the expatriates who are being evacuated from the Congo are being sent to Kigali. Rwanda won't get involved in the fighting that is happening, so Kigali will be safe. If somehow things did become insecure here, there is an airport right in Kigali and FH would have us leave at the first sign of danger.
The fighting occurring in the Congo is not something to be glossed over though. While we are not affected here in Kigali, thousands of people are being affected. I have been amazed and disturbed by how little attention our media gives to countries who don't have direct relevance to the U.S. I have been convicted to learn more about what is happening to people around the world, because everyone's humanity is sacred regardless of nationality, ethnic tribe, or social class. I don't know what we can do about these huge problems like what is happening in the Congo, but I know that it starts with being aware that there is a problem.
So this is the next part of my adventure. We will be here in Kigali for five weeks. Our time will mostly be spent taking classes, visiting genocide memorials around the country, and exploring Kigali.
Lions and Tigers and Bears-Oh My!
First, I would like to say that the title of this post is for the enjoyment of my mother, who is quite the Wizard of Oz fan. That being said, last week we all went on a safari for three days in Queen Elizabeth Park in Western Uganda. We saw so many animals and it was so much fun. We didn't even need to leave the hostel we were staying in to see mongoose, wart hogs, monitor lizards, and a wide variety of birds. At dinner one night a mongoose tried climbing up my chair to beg for food! One of the wart hogs in our yard seemed especially friendly so my friend Meghan and I pet it. Pumba from the Lion King may give an adorable portrayal of wart hogs but they are really pretty ugly animals. Their skin is so rough and their hair is like wire. They are the sort of animal that is so ugly that it's endearing.
At dawn and dusk we went on game drives, where we piled into a bus and looked at all the animals. We saw Ugandan cobs (which are like antelope), waterbuck, elephants, buffalo, spider monkeys, baboons, wart hogs, hippos, and lions. We saw a whole family of elephants at one point and they were pretty close up. One day we saw three lionesses with four cubs and the next day we saw a lioness eating a cob. We also saw some male lions and they were the most beautiful animals I have ever seen.
We also went on a boat ride through a channel connecting two lakes and saw hippos, water buffalo, crocodiles, monitor lizards, and lots of birds. We got soooo close to the hippos! It was kind of scary because hippos kill more humans than any other animal does. I really like the hippos though. I think they were my favorite. They live harmoniously with the water buffalo, which I thought was very sweet.
We had some interesting, and maybe a little scary, run ins with the animals. A couple of us decided to go for a walk one day. We were walking like ten minutes into the park and saw a herd of buffalo. We were enjoying looking at them at first but then they started acting threatened and came toward us. We walked very briskly in the other direction. Buffalo apparently are very territorial animals and we were in their territory. It was pretty intimidating.
One night all of us were in the hostel watching a movie. We kept hearing something moving outside the window but decided it was just the wart hogs. Eventually one of us stood up and looked out the window, to see a whole family of elephants just five feet from the house! We had been watching our movie while all along, elephants were traveling right past our house to go get water. It was one of the coolest things that I've ever experienced. Unfortunately, the story ends with some of my friends getting charged at by a mother elephant because they went onto the porch to see them closer. Everyone was fine but the moral of the story is to stay inside when your house is surrounded by elephants.
Our last night on safari, we went out to eat dinner at the fancy lodge in the park. It was sooo nice and I felt sooo spoiled. The place was gorgeous, complete with a terrace outside and a private bungalow. We had a buffet, with a dessert bar! I know it can't sound too exciting from home but let me tell you how exciting it was to see so many pastas and sauces and seven dessert options after spending a month in the middle of nowhere.
We left for Rwanda on Tuesday morning. It was quite a long drive but the view was breathtaking. Rwanda's green, rolling hills are gorgeous. Tuesday night we arrived at the next stop in our journey--Kigali, Rwanda.
At dawn and dusk we went on game drives, where we piled into a bus and looked at all the animals. We saw Ugandan cobs (which are like antelope), waterbuck, elephants, buffalo, spider monkeys, baboons, wart hogs, hippos, and lions. We saw a whole family of elephants at one point and they were pretty close up. One day we saw three lionesses with four cubs and the next day we saw a lioness eating a cob. We also saw some male lions and they were the most beautiful animals I have ever seen.
We also went on a boat ride through a channel connecting two lakes and saw hippos, water buffalo, crocodiles, monitor lizards, and lots of birds. We got soooo close to the hippos! It was kind of scary because hippos kill more humans than any other animal does. I really like the hippos though. I think they were my favorite. They live harmoniously with the water buffalo, which I thought was very sweet.
We had some interesting, and maybe a little scary, run ins with the animals. A couple of us decided to go for a walk one day. We were walking like ten minutes into the park and saw a herd of buffalo. We were enjoying looking at them at first but then they started acting threatened and came toward us. We walked very briskly in the other direction. Buffalo apparently are very territorial animals and we were in their territory. It was pretty intimidating.
One night all of us were in the hostel watching a movie. We kept hearing something moving outside the window but decided it was just the wart hogs. Eventually one of us stood up and looked out the window, to see a whole family of elephants just five feet from the house! We had been watching our movie while all along, elephants were traveling right past our house to go get water. It was one of the coolest things that I've ever experienced. Unfortunately, the story ends with some of my friends getting charged at by a mother elephant because they went onto the porch to see them closer. Everyone was fine but the moral of the story is to stay inside when your house is surrounded by elephants.
Our last night on safari, we went out to eat dinner at the fancy lodge in the park. It was sooo nice and I felt sooo spoiled. The place was gorgeous, complete with a terrace outside and a private bungalow. We had a buffet, with a dessert bar! I know it can't sound too exciting from home but let me tell you how exciting it was to see so many pastas and sauces and seven dessert options after spending a month in the middle of nowhere.
We left for Rwanda on Tuesday morning. It was quite a long drive but the view was breathtaking. Rwanda's green, rolling hills are gorgeous. Tuesday night we arrived at the next stop in our journey--Kigali, Rwanda.
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