Rubanga kene

Rwanda/Burundi

September 11th, 2008. Published under Fun Stuff, New Countries, TIA. No Comments.

I just got back from a week in Rwanda/Burundi visiting friends and meeting new ones.  I went with my buddy Kyle who is out visiting and four other friends from here.  We started the trip off with a bang… karaoke with like 15 friends followed by a 3 am bus ride.  Below or some notes I took along the way:

Sept 6th:  Drove from Kigali, Rwanda to Bujumbura, Burundi today.  Craziest drive of my life.  We barely got seats on the bus, the worst ones in the very back.  The road was great compared to Uganda in terms of potholes… but it was windy and very hilly.  We were screaming around blind, hairpin turns, the bus rocking left to right at each turn and the wheels screeching.  I honestly thought we were going to tip over and fall the hundreds of feet down the side of the mountain to our death.  It was by far the scariest bus ride I’ve ever taken.  And thats saying alot, because most people say the Gulu-Kampala is the worst.  Oh, and we blew a tire on the way up the mountain… then blew the spare on the way down.  Blowing the spare we didn’t even flinch.  Just kept on driving, because there was no other spare.  It was keep driving or sit and wait, and our driver wanted to be finished.  So we kept right on going, kareeming down the mountain like we had nothing to lose.  Now we’re in Buj.  This place is weird, like a ghost town.  Tonight there were hardly anyone on the streets, even in the late afternoon when we got here.  It almost has the feel of an old western movie, like when everyone closes up shop and leaves town when the bad guys show up.  A little eery.

Sept 8th: Left Buj.  Wasn’t as bad as we first thought.  Hung out and relaxed at a beach on Lake Tanganyika.  Saw some amazing tribal dancers/drummers at the beach.  Burundi is definitely not a tourist destination.  Eric thought we were possibly the only foreign people in the country not there for work.  The country has really only been safe for about 2 months.  They’ve had a civil war for the last 15 years or so, stemming from the Rwanda genocide.  So what happened in Rwanda happened on a much smaller scale here… but went on for over a decade, killing 2-3 times more people.  Thats why it feels like a ghost town/country… it practically is.  On the bus back up to Kigali to hang out.  Eric stayed behind to get work done on a potential youth corp home here.  This bus driver goes slow, we’re loving him.  Not too scared of death today. 

September 10th: Left Kigali, back on a bus for Kampala.  Was able to relax and spend time in Kigali with friends, just talking and hanging out.  Then back on the bus to Kampala @ 6am.  Pretty horrible drive.  Even worse for Kyle, who’s having stomach trouble.  We just calculated that after Friday, when we drive back up to Gulu, we’ll have gone on 6 bus rides in 10 days, a total of 48 hours on a bus… not fun.  The bus rides zap any and all life out of you.  Side note, neither Kyle or I fit in the seats, so we both sit sideways at like a 45 degree angle… for 10 hours.  It does wonders for your back, try it sometime.

Overall, the trip definitely wasn’t a relaxing vacation… but it was fun seeing friends and hanging out in two incredibly beautiful countries. 

Arusha Jesus Reunion

July 24th, 2008. Published under Fun Stuff, New Countries, TIA, religion, thoughts and questions. 1 Comment.

I just got back from a conference in Tanzania called the Jesus Reunion.  It was a conference put on partly by Cornerstone here in Uganda and the guys behind the national prayer breakfast movement.  In short, the conference was amazing, I’d never been to anything like it.  People from all sorts of backgrounds and faiths were there to focus on what unites us, Jesus.  The theme was to think, talk, act and love like Jesus.  Every session, speaker and small group surrounded this focus on Jesus.  I can’t really put to words the thoughts and feelings I had throughout the week, but it was life changing.  Everyone there was considered to be a part of this “family of friends” and treated everyone like family, thus the reason for it being called a reunion.

The godly advice and leadership that is being exemplified by so many around the world was mind-boggling.  To steal from one of the speakers, I’ve seen first hand the liberating power of “doing unto others what we would want others to do unto us.” 

A few things I wrote down that I thought were noteworthy:

• Regarding Matthew 6:5-13, the passage where Jesus teaches us how to pray:  He says we are to pray “our Father” and not my father.  We are a family and Jesus was teaching us to behave and act like one.  “Ubuntu” which means, “I am because we are.”
• About the “Jesus Movement” of bringing the focus back to Jesus and his life instead of promoting “Christianity” or certain denominations: A few of the main points were that: It’s a focus on Jesus as the common ground, It’s a revolution of love that works across all that is dividing humanity, It’s a call for personal transformation, Its about faith for a better world, A focus on the essentials: love God & love your neighbor as yourself, And reach out to leaders, but only have one Leader that you give your life to.
• The last point that Doug Coe, the main guy said to the group was pretty cool.  He said the two things:  First, that on his tombstone he would hope people would say, “Here loves Doug Coe, a man who loved Jesus with his whole heart.”  The second point was to challenge us all “Don’t be led by men.  Follow only Jesus with your whole heart and let the Holy Spirit guide you.”

Each afternoon there were breakout sessions and the one I went to each day was on leadership academies.  The guys from Cornerstone led it and talked about the schools they have and about our school.  I never really saw how revolutionary these schools are until meeting people from all over Africa who desire to have something like it in their country.  Its unheard of here to have a school founded on love and grace, a place where students aren’t afraid to approach their teachers.  It gave me a new and fresh vigor to continue helping Restore Academy grow and become just what I described.

Zanzibar

January 1st, 2008. Published under Fun Stuff, New Countries. No Comments.

I  just got back from a Christmas vacation to the island paradise of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania with 5 other American friends who work in East Africa.  Christmas on the beach, without family, was a little different but the place was amazing.  Uganda has no beach, seafood or ocean for me to enjoy so I soaked up as much of all three while I was in Zanzibar.  I literally ate seafood at every meal besides breakfast.  Seafood pasta was a favorite and it may have been consumed 10 times in 11 days. 

The town on Zanzibar’s main island is Stonetown, a historic city with narrow alleys, mosques and huge Arab houses with beautiful architecture.  We enjoyed several days literally getting lost around Stonetown and enjoying the sights and amazing food (there was one small Italian place that had real gelato and we ate there at least once a day).

Apart from Stonetown we went to the East and North coasts and enjoyed the peace of the beach.  The East is one big sandbar, so at low tide we walked literally a mile out into the water without getting deeper than waste deep water.  It was amazing and the pictures we took look fake.  Off the coast of the north is an island called Mnemba which has world class diving and snorkeling.  The island itself is one big resort where the rich and famous rent the entire island for a few thousand bucks a night, so the only way to enjoy the snorkeling is to go with a boat and stay offshore.

Our first day in the north we decided to go snorkel and joined a boat going out that way.  It was a little choppy when we left and the swell got bigger and bigger as we went.  Side note, our boat was a little wooden sail boat that sat really low to the water and was designed for like 15 people.  We had about 26 on board (and about 5 lifejackets) with a tiny engine in the back that looked like it was for a little tin fishing boat.  Also, as soon as we started the guys working the boat started shoveling water out of the back with small buckets.  As we got in I joked about us being on a “three hour tour” and started singing the Giligan’s Island song.  About an hour into the ride we started to hit huge sets of waves.  Our tiny boat was going up a wave and then crashing down the backside only to hit the next wave, with water pouring in over the sides.  It seriously felt like a scene from a movie like the Perfect Storm or something.  I completely enjoyed the whole process, I took the ride like a roller coaster.  I’d sit in anticipation as we went up a wave and then whhhhheeewww down the back as water splashed everyone.  Unfortunately I was literally the only one enjoying the experience.  The guys working the boat had started working double time to get the water out of the boat and had even cut some passenger’s water bottles in two to shovel more water out.  After hitting two huge waves in a row and having a ton of water come in the boat, the Italians (there were about 16 on the boat) started screaming bloody murder towards the pilot and forced him to turn around.  I objected and tried to convince some that we were ok, I mean I was having a great time.  But it was me and maybe one or two others against twenty.  Looking back, it is probably a good thing that we turned around.  We were taking in water faster than the guys could get it out and if anything had happened, there is no Coast Guard to come and save us.  It would have been grab flippers and a mask and swim for it.  We were pretty far out too, the island was visible but not close at all.  But I totally enjoyed the ride, even if I was the only one to have fun.  The only downside to the ride was that at some point one of my rainbow sandals and my nalgene bottle decided to swim away.  We ended up making it to Mnemba the next day by driving across the island to the closest launching beach to Mbemba.  The snorkeling was phenomenal and definitely worth the lost sandal and nalgene bottle (Only I can’t find shoes my size here so I have to wait a while to wear sandals again).

The last few days of the trip was spent doing absolutely nothing.  We’d get up in the morning and have breakfast at our places beachside restaurant, lay on the beach till lunch, then lay on the beach until sunset and go to dinner.  It was very relaxing and a great escape from the craziness of Uganda.  My goal for the trip was to relax and keep my mind away from all things associated with a land title.  The rest is over and was great, but now I’m back to reality and ready to keep pursuing this land title.  All in all, I completely endorse Zanzibar to anyone thinking of traveling there.  Its pretty far from the US but is a European and African hot spot, so if you are ever in this part of the world, go!

Rwanda

October 10th, 2007. Published under New Countries, TIA, religion, thoughts and questions. 1 Comment.

I went to Rwanda this last weekend with Ilea, Julia, Karis and Kristen and it was unforgettable.  We stayed in Kigali, the capital.  We rented a three bedroom two bath house at a hotel so I got my own room and bathroom!  Haha.  Kigali is probably the cleanest and safest capital city worldwide.  No joke, maybe its because I’m used to Kampala which is up there for dirtiest and least safe capitals in the world, but Kigali was immaculate.  There were traffic police all over, standing at intersections and random places along the roads, which led to safer taxis and bodas.  Bodas wore helmets and passengers had to too, and there seemed like there was a speed limit as well.  (In contrast to Kampala where bodas go as fast as they can until they are cut off or crash, don’t wear helmets and just terrify everyone.  Some people say that Alaskan King Crab fishermen have the world’s most dangerous job but I’m here to tell you the world’s most dangerous job goes to the Kampala boda-boda drivers) It was really quiet too.  It felt almost like we were in the suburbs.  We left at 3 am Saturday morning on a 9-hour bus ride.  I had slept pretty much all day Friday so I was wide-awake until a Tylenol pm shut me down.  I was still pretty sick (Karis had to sit next to me and I was an unwanted heater due to my fever and sweating) but we were able to pick our seats ahead of time so we sat at the very front with legroom.  After about 2 hours at the border (we had to go through immigration for Uganda and Rwanda) in which they search all the bags for plastic bags (Rwanda has outlawed plastic bags, no joke.  Not like ziplocks but ones you get at the grocery store) we finally got to Kigali around noon.  We got a special hire taxi to our hotel, had lunch at the hotel (which took an hour, Rwanda is notorious for very slow service) then went to the main genocide museum. 

Rwanda is popular for the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi tribe by the Hutu tribe.  I’ll be honest my only prior knowledge of all this was from the movie Hotel Rwanda, which most people here claim did a decent job painting the picture of what happened.  I was really anxious to learn a bit more for myself and see what really happened apart from the Hollywood version that I knew.  The museum was incredible.  I’m not saying it was fun and we enjoyed ourselves, it was really rough and hurt to see some of the stuff, but amazing.  It was really informative and told the story of the genocide in full detail.  The building went in a circle, so it started with the colonization by the Germans and went through till today.  Something I didn’t know was that the Hutu and Tutsi as a whole held a bitterness toward each other for many years.  When the Germans and then Belgians were in power, they separated the Hutu and Tutsi by forcing them to register as one or the other.  When it couldn’t be decided by looks what tribe you were, you were given a tribe based on how many cows you had.  10 or more cows and you were Tutsi, less than 10 and you were Hutu.  The Tutsi were thought to be smarter and more skilled so they were given all the jobs and political power, but the Tutsi were like 10% of the population.  The Hutus naturally grew very resentful towards the Tutsi.  So when Rwanda gained independence in like the early 60’s, I don’t remember when, the more populous Hutu took power and started trying to wipe out the Tutsi.  Since they were 10% of the population, they were only allowed 10% of any paying jobs, 10% of the student population, etc.  So many Tutsi fled the country to Uganda, Congo, Burundi, and Tanzania.  Then president Habyarimana took power in like the 70’s (held it till his death in 1994) and persecuted the Tutsi even more, so even more fled then.  By 1990 one of those that had fled had started a Tutsi rebellious force (he was actually one of the main generals in the Ugandan Pres. Musevini’s rebellion, which took him to power.  So the Rwandan rebellion was helped a little by Uganda) and started fighting back.  I can’t remember his name but he is the current president.  Anyway, they started a war of sorts to regain power for the Tutsi.  By 1994, the Hutus had a normal government with a president, who was actually in peace talks with the Tutsi rebels.  But, they had some sort of militia aside from the government soldiers called Interahamwe that were being trained and funded by the French in guerilla warfare(officially France denies any ties to this but the leaders of the genocide admit to their involvement.  Most Rwandans I’ve met strongly dislike the French.  Just last year Rwanda kicked out the French embassy and most French people left with it).  The leaders of this group had a hate radio station (just like what was shown in Hotel Rwanda) and promoted Hutu dominance and predicted something major to happen on April 6^th.  On April 6^th the president was in a plane coming back to Kigali when his plane was shot down and everyone aboard died.  Within hours there was roadblocks set up all over the city and the Interahamwe had lists of Tutsi they went around killing.  10 Belgian soldiers were also immediately killed, which the Hutu hoped would drive out all the Belgian peacekeepers, which it did.  The radio called all Hutus to arms to kill the Tutsi “cockroaches” and blamed the president’s death on Tutsis.  Within days normal citizens started killing their neighbors who were Tutsi and anyone sympathetic towards or married to a Tutsi.  No one was spared, men and women, young and old.  Most people didn’t have guns so they were beat to death by machetes and clubs.  The museum had several video stories of survivors who saw their parents and family members killed by friends.  One woman told of her best friend’s dad coming to their house and slaughtering her family while she hid under a bed.  It was just horrible.  I can’t describe some of the gruesome pictures and videos that were shown, but know that this was one of the worst atrocities our world has ever experienced.  1 million people were killed in 100 days, a rate of 10,000 people a day.  Rwanda isn’t even the size of New Jersey, its more like Rhode Island and a million people were killed in a few short months.  They weren’t killed and then buried; they were killed and left to rot, to have their flesh eaten by dogs.  The Hutus had to eventually kill all the dogs because there were so many sick dogs due to their eating of human flesh.  It was horrible. 

Despite all the evil, there were a few heroes who saved hundreds of people.  There was a story about an old witchdoctor who hid close to 100 people on her land and told anyone who came to kill them that if they stepped foot on her land the evil spirits would kill them.  Kind of strange how evil can be used for good.  The story of the manager of that hotel in Hotel Rwanda is also true, we walked by the hotel one night.  There was one lone American who didn’t flee the country and stayed alive.  He was in a few videos at the museum and wasn’t touched by the Hutus (He had a really interesting comment.  He said at the beginning he could reason with some of the Hutus and talk with some at the roadblocks etc. But he said near the end of the conflict they ceased to be people and he said looking at them reminded him of pure evil.  He said it was like looking into the eyes of a demon).  They respected the mzungus and left most of them untouched.  Most of them, not all.  Quite a few fathers and nuns were killed.  There were several others, a few brave UN soldiers who broke orders and helped save several hundred people (they were ordered to in no way get involved or save people).  There were two UN soldiers, without guns, who stood in front of a church filled with women and children and told the Hutus they weren’t allowed in, the Hutus just turned and walked away.  Two men without any means to defend themselves just stood boldly and told them no!  Hotel Rwanda did a good job about the UN commander too.  He did all he could to get more troops and to be able to fight back until the UN completely pulled everyone out and he was forced to leave. 

It was really sad, PBS did a long (over 2 hours) documentary on the whole conflict and it played in one of the rooms.  I honestly was almost ashamed to be an American or from any western country for that matter.  The UN commander said several times that with just 5,000 soldiers they could stop the genocide.  There were many interviews with the UN secretary and the guy in charge for the U.S., both during and after.  The U.S. guy said we don’t get involved unless we have something at stake and the UN lady kept saying they didn’t see the need or benefit of bringing more soldiers.  So they end up taking them all away?!  The guy on the ground says give me more soldiers and this thing will end.  Instead they take all UN soldiers out.  They literally showed the UN soldiers leaving on trucks while people with machetes wait for them to leave so they can go slaughter the people the UN was protecting at the hotel.  On the interviews from after the genocide the UN lady cried several times because she knew she had the power to stop it.  She made the excuse that they just didn’t know the gross amount of killing that went on, but it was a blatant lie because earlier on the video it shows the UN commander speaking on TV early on in the massacres that people were dying at a rate of 10,000 a day.  It was really sad to watch. 

We also went to a church outside of Kigali that is now a memorial for the victims.  At this particular church, 10,000 people were killed in a few hours.  Hours.  It was the hardest thing to walk through; they left the church pretty much as they found it, except they removed the dead bodies.  There was normal sized room filled to the brim with the clothes and belongings of the people killed there.  Literally filled, you could open the door but couldn’t take a step inside because the entire room was one big pile of clothes and belongings.  The pews were covered with bloodstains and one wall was covered with blood because it was used to throw children against to kill them.  The ceiling was still stained with brain matter and had bullet holes through it.  Our taxi driver spoke English so he walked around with me and the lady in charge spoke to him in French and he interpreted.  Out back there were two tombs.  One had 40 coffins in it of people who were thrown into latrines and then stoned to death.  The lady was with me when I went in there so I knew what to expect.  The next tomb I walked down into on my own because she was talking to someone.  It had shelves to the ceiling lining both walls, filled with skulls and bones of the people who had died, thousands.  I wasn’t expecting it at all and I almost threw up.  It was one of the saddest moments of my life.  Standing there looking at skulls of people killed for no reason, expect race.  It just didn’t make sense.  This genocide happened overnight, almost like God left for a few months and let the devil run free.  It was pretty emotional for all of us. 

One night we stayed up really late talking through everything we experienced, it was a really good discussion.  We all hoped that we would have stayed to help but the reality is we most likely would have gotten on a bus and gone home.  To look at it another way, if I were deathly sick and a local here was sick and there was enough medicine for only one of us and I had the money to pay for the medicine and the other didn’t, I would most likely buy it for myself.  I wish I could say I would buy it for another but the reality is most of us wouldn’t.  And I believe that is wrong.  Jesus said we must put others before ourselves.  We also discussed a lot about the poor and what we are called to do about them.  We encounter people begging everyday and most of the time we walk right by trying not to make eye contact, because it makes us feel bad.  As we were discussing it, we all felt convicted.  There is tons of aid here in Africa and programs to help, but that doesn’t mean I should walk by when someone is begging.  I can at least stop and talk, ask their name, maybe give them gum or whatever I have on hand.  Ya, God has blessed us for hard work we’ve done or for being faithful to him but in reality our possessions are not ours, they are His.  Jesus’ words are straightforward and so many times as Christians we try and say, “Now what did Jesus really mean when he said, if one of you has two coats he should take one and give it to him who has none or sell all your possessions and give to the poor then follow me?”  He said what he said; there is no hidden meaning.  We are all guilty of disobeying Him.  The first followers of Christ left their families, homes, jobs, everything to be homeless and to serve and give to the poor.  I definitely see the need for rich people though.  Paul and the apostles would have been screwed if there weren’t wealthy people in each city to take them into their home and provide while they travelled.  But we don’t use our resources like that.  I don’t think the Christian church is doing what Jesus called them to.  I don’t think the American version of Christianity is the bride that Christ would want to come back to.  And it probably never will be.  But the Church starts inside of each one of us.  Yes, the Church as a whole isn’t what it should be but neither are we.  I’ve internally criticized modern Christianity many times because of how the different denominations don’t see eye to eye and fight each other.  Yet personally I’ve done the same thing with other believers.  I’ve writ off or disliked people who think differently.  The Church is made up of many members and if we as individuals follow Christ wholeheartedly things will change.  We are all in it together.  I don’t know where I’m going with this but walking by true poverty everyday really gets you thinking and convicts you.  I’ve felt like we were doing what James says not to, seeing someone cold and hungry and just saying, “God bless you, I wish you warm and well fed,” but not actually doing anything about it.  The least we could do is give them some food or water or small change.  So we’re trying to make a point of not walking by and ignoring people who ask of stuff from us. Ok I’m done.

Later on Sunday we went to the Youth Corps home to meet up with Deus, he runs the show there and I got his number from the YC guys in Gulu.  Deus is like 27 and all the guys in the house are in their 20’s.  They were awesome, they invited us in and treated us like family.  We sat around getting to know each other for a while then we sang some worship and prayed.  It was a really neat time, these guys had a huge vision for impacting Rwanda for Christ.  Later that night we took them to dinner and then we went home.  Through talking with them we asked what life was like for Rwandans after the genocide.  Because a majority of the people were involved in the fighting, the new government couldn’t throw everyone in jail.  One of the guys told us to imagine what it would be like to live next to and see everyday the man who killed your parents and siblings.  Then scale that to a majority of the country.  I can’t imagine how hard it would be.  Most “families” in Rwanda aren’t exactly what we call families.  The parents consist of an aunt or uncle or older sibling, brothers and sisters are cousins, best friends, etc.  Its crazy.  One of the guys, Emmanuel, took Ilea and I to the Cornerstone Leadership Academy on Monday.  The other girls went to a popular lake and actually met Rick Warren there.  The CLA was absolutely beautiful.  It was on top of a hill overlooking a lake.  It was a really good experience, we met the head teacher, the teachers and some students.  This school was a three-year process in getting built and started up, so it was really good to see the fruit of all the efforts to get it started.  After three years they still don’t have a title and ended up paying for the land twice because a corrupt politician ran off with their money.  Our school isn’t built yet and we are only in year one, so it was good to see that in the end all the work is worth it.  It really pumped me up. 

One last, funny story from Rwanda.  This one Rwandan guy approached Kristen and asked her if her friend, Karis, knew kung fu.  Karis is Chinese.  Kristen sort of gave him a sour look and said no, why would you ask that, so the guy just walked away.  So he came back and asked again.  Kristen was kind of mad and said no, why did you just ask me again?!  The guy looks at her and says, I think I will ask her, but I am afraid.  The guy approached Karis, who doesn’t know what the guy asked Kristen but saw her get mad at him and asks her, “Do you play kung-fu?” as he makes kung fu motions.  Karis (who is hilarious and has a smart comment for almost anything) just looked at him and did the motions back and said no, I do not play kung fu.  The guy goes on to tell her that he wishes to learn kung fu and maybe she could teach him or find someone to teach him.  He then tells her he is planning on going to China to learn and asks her for a phone number or email address of someone in China that could teach him.  The whole thing was hilarious and Karis retelling it is one of the funniest things.  Ok that’s it.  I definitely hope to go back to Rwanda someday, it was amazing.