Rwandan Remembrances

 We have started wending our way southward, but I have a few more pictures to share from Kigali.  Josh took this one through the binoculars, of the American embassy across town from us.  Nice to see the red, white and blue over there, waving in the breeze. 

 The tamest giraffes we've met in our travels stand watch over Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. 

 It's the rainy season right now, which means hard afternoon rains, sometimes producing flash floods like this one we had to drive through on the way to a school.  Kigali has thousands of motorcycles, and they just have to park and wait storms like this out. 
We kept going, but Paul couldn't preach with this rain thundering down on the tin roof.  No one could hear him. We prayed, and prayed some more, and the Lord stopped the rain. 

 This school has the distinction of being the only one in Rwanda where Paul could preach without an interpreter. 

 Our first time eating in someone's house in Rwanda.  It was a sweet time, and a very typical meal with rice, French fries, sweet potatoes, and stew.  But it also had 3 kinds of salad.  This was with Jane, the translator, and her pastor husband. 

 Paul's official (self appointed?) escort at a primary school. 

 After the rains, with Jane translating, this school was very enthusiastic and attentive. 

 Paul preached to a Christian group at a Muslim school 

 Josh wanted this picture for his Brother In Law--BIL--Ryan. 

 But of course there are dangers out here on the road.  What happened here?  We stayed at the little hotel behind this petrol station (for about $7.50  :- )  on the way north, and the top was fine.  But now?  People were still able to buy gas, but one of the pumps is tipping to the right.  Maybe the wind did this? 

 And there are the dangers of wide loads on the roads. 

 Gas attendants come in all shapes and sizes these days.  I liked this lady's outfit, and told her so.  She seemed pleased when I took her picture and gave her a Swahili tract. 

This picture is aimed at anyone who is a Jungle Doctor enthusiast, like we are.  Does Anyone remember his car, Sukuma?  which means "Push" in Swahili.   We just got a little laugh over this sign on a door in Dodoma.
 

       All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
                                                     Psalm 22:27

Rwanda

 Photography books will tell you how lighting is so wonderful right at sunrise and sunset, but my camera thinks it has to blur at that time of day.  This sample cow is the least blurry, but you can at least get the idea about their impressive horns. 
 We take a family walk usually each day in the late afternoon. In Rwanda most people walk enough in daily life that our recreational walking habit got noticed as an interesting phenomenon and commented on.  A young man cornered me in the phone shop to ask me about it.  He began with, "A person of your age can give me advice..." 
I guess I am becoming one of the older women, but I still get a little culture shock and amused when someone comes right out and says it. 

 Paul has loved the past three Sundays in Rwanda.  He preached at three or four churches each Sunday morning, spending only about a half an hour in each church, but getting to many more people that way.  Pastor Bosco, his translator, was such a help and blessing. 

 

 The fourth church was about noon, and it was warm, and then the orange and white curtains made me think of Orange Dreamcicles. 

Why have candy at the check out when you can have whisky, cigarettes and condoms?  That's sad. 

 

I was impressed with Namibia's Anti-smoking campaign.  This is an actual box of cigarettes for sale.  Others of them have pictures with similar warnings, such as of babies with birth defects--not nice pictures, but I should think it would deter smokers,

and it's not just aimed at readers, but should also be a clear message to the illiterate. 

Palm Sunday Parade!  Thousands of people were out with scraps of palm trees, walking to...somewhere?  

 

It was a long, long line of people, but hard to get enough of them together to show the numbers of people. 

 

Hallelujah!  Our Lord is Risen! 

 

 

It's fun to see the American flag flying in Kigali, at the embassy.  When the wind blows, we can see it across the valley from where we're staying, on the opposite ridge. 

 

We went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial today.  About 250,000 people are buried there, all killed in 1994.  Hutu's rose up against Tutsi's and killed them at roadblocks, and at their homes if they were on a list of Tutsi leaders.  Men, women, and children were killed, mostly with machetes and clubs.  50,000 people were killed in one church where they had fled for safety. 

 

Some church leaders took the Hutu's side in the killing, while others were compassionate and risked their lives to help the Tutsi's. 

 

In total, 800,000 - a 1,000,000 people were killed in 100 days.  Dead bodies were everywhere, stacked up, by the roads, in the houses.  Dogs had to be killed because they developed a taste for human flesh. 

 

"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?" 

Sobering. 

Rwanda Wanderings-Rwamagana-Nyagatare-Kigali

 

IN MEMORY OF JOSHUA'S KINDLE

Josh's Aunt Wendy gave him her Kindle Fire, and he used it about every day for reading, whatsapping, and taking pictures like he's doing in this picture.  I'm glad I have this picture to remember it by because it was stolen out of the window of a house we stayed in. 

 

Paul was awakened about 12:30 AM Monday morning, and at first he didn't know why.  A few minutes later, I was jolted awake by the sound of our Jeep's alarm going off.  Talk about a jolt of adrenalin! 

 

We investigated and discovered thieves had used sticks to reach in two of our windows and steal my bag that I'm using as a purse, Paul's glasses, his Bible, and Josh's Kindle.  My bag contained, among other things, all of our passports, 2 credit cards, a little money, and my car keys.   We went outside to look around, and there was my purse, upside down on the grass!  The passports were still in it!  We were so thankful.  That would have been a huge job, expensive in both money and time,  to get them replaced.  But my car keys were gone.  We kept looking, and soon found my keys on the ground in the ally beside the house.  Apparently our thieves were scared off by the car alarm.  (I'm glad I'm not the only one scared to death by that noise!)  Our mosquito repellent was on the wall.  

 

Paul walked around the whole house, and as I stood waiting, I heard footsteps behind the house next to ours.  Later we heard someone talking softly to the guard of the houses inside the gates where we were.  Paul found his Bible and glasses on the window sill outside our bedroom window.  They had been on his nightstand, inches from his head.  Maybe that is what woke him?  It was a bit freaky to think of someone being that close while we slept.

 

We ended up being very thankful!  We're sad for Josh, but we can't help but see how much worse this could have been.  If they had kept my car keys, we wouldn't be able to leave the car alone for  a minute until we left that area.  Josh's Kindle was recharging in the laptop.  If we lost this laptop, we'd lose our prayer letter list, among other things. 

 

In the morning, we found one other thing:  human excrement in the back yard.  We are told that is for "good luck" (as in witchcraft) so the person breaking in will not be caught.    Too bad DNA testing hasn't arrived in Rwanda or we'd have a good case against someone.   

 

 

 We left Rwamagana (and our wifi) over a week ago, and tried to catch some of the scenery as we moved to Nyagatare which is in the north, close to the border of Uganda.  Rice fields still fascinate us. 

 I guess Lot's well watered valley wasn't like this, but it makes me think of him. 

  Pine trees and banana trees together.  I didn't know you could do that. 

 

 Finally, we are at the pastors' conference that started the whole trip to Rwanda!  Paul had the floor from about 9:00- 4:30. (9:00 African time ) with about an hour off for the whole gang to walk to a restaurant for lunch.  Pastor Bosco was his translator, and he did very well.  Paul used the American expression "I was a chicken" describing when he was timid about sharing the gospel, and the unfamiliar expression struck Pastor Bosco as extremely funny.  It gave me the giggles too, picturing afresh instead of it just being a common expression.

 Josh got an unusual shot of the streets of Nyagatare in one its more empty moments.  It's a bustling town.

 "Bend-down Bazaars" are popular all over Zambia and here in Rwanda too.  Used clothing from other countries is sold for a bit.  It's like a yard sale, and can be so fun. 

 We all were pretty tired by Friday afternoon, but here are some of the pastors at the conference. 

 From Nyagatare's high spots, you can see the mountains in the distance, and those mountains are in Uganda, about 40 minutes away. 

 Suddenly, without warning, the story of "The Princess and the Pea" came to my mind. 

 On Sunday Paul preached in three churches.  This was Pastor Innocent's church.  It's funny when he introduces himself, "I'm Innocent" before we'd ever accused him of anything. 

 At church #2, Pastor Deo's church, I took a video so these two shots skips to church # 3. 

 Coffins are made outside.  We were told jobs were available at this place if the person would covert to Islam. 

 A rare picture of the three of us!  We went to lunch with Pastor Bosco and enjoyed good Rwandan food, and he likes my camera. 

 A nursery school between church and home caught my eye.  Looks like they're off on the right foot!

 The cook and the goat.  Need I say more? 

 We got to Kigali last night, and Paul preached at two churches.  His black light showed up nicely in the dark. 

 The lights of Kigali framed by two giraffes. 

Kigali the next morning with our hillside view.  Josh is sick today, and I'm sort of recovering, hopefully, so we are thankful to have a more still day today, close to facilities. 

"Thou tellest my wanderings..." 

from  Psalm 56 :8

"With my whole heart have I sought thee:  O let me not wander from thy commandments."
                                                                    Psalm 119:10

Sunday in Rwanda

Our first Sunday in Rwanda, Paul didn't preach any where, we just went and listened in a big church.  This Sunday was different!  We were to meet Bob the translator at 8:00 AM at Victorious School.  Look how bright and educationally decorated Victorious School is.  I 

 

like it. 

 There's a nice review of the human ear. 

A nice little crowd wants to be in on the review of the ear. 

 The school mission was painted on the wall...

 and a nice little crowd wants to be in that picture too.  :- )   

 I like it!  "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly".  A little triangle shaped garden is just the place for some more richness. 

The walls are just covered with the alphabet, instructions, body info, etc. so we thought it was pretty funny to find this one:  We should not write on the walls. 

 The first place Paul preached was not Victorious School, but a polytechnic school.  Lousy photography, for sure.  I'm too timid about making a disruption, but it gives an idea of the place. 

 Church two was a boarding school, and Paul preached twice there to the boarding students.  At the first one, my photography was even worse.  Shame, because there were about 600+ students crammed in there, very attentive to everything, though they lost composure a little when they learned our Josh is only 14.  But outside there was this beautiful bunch of bananas waiting to be photographed. 

 A smaller group of younger children and maybe staff was the next place, at the same school. 

Paul and Bob preached and Paul drew. 

The fourth place was now in the afternoon, and your faithful photographer was not so faithful.  It was hot, and my dress was hot, and I got terribly sleepy, and there are no pictures of it.  Too bad because it was really a church, not a school. 

We didn't get home until after rather late, tired, hungry, and hot.  It was good to just eat some sandwiches and put our toes in the air and rest.