May? Already? Could have sworn it was still January!
It’s ironic that when you’re actually doing more interesting things it means you’re too busy to tell people about them! It’s been nearly 6 weeks since my last post and I’m trying to think where to begin.
I took 3 teachers (should have been 4, but ended up just 3) to Kigali for some training with Wellspring in the last week of the holidays. It was really great- they really enjoyed it and learnt lots. It’s been interesting going into schools to see how much they’ve learnt and implemented. They are all improving loads and are definitely trying to put as much into practice as they can; but it’s a slow process. Some of their scores in their second observations tripled and in one case was 4 times better than his baseline. In the school next door they’ve already begun training the other teachers- I helped them plan it, but what they delivered was fab! They all seem enthusiastic about the program so far.
A lot of my time is still spent in different schools, delivering the Wellspring training, teaching English to teachers and observing lessons. Currently my focus is still on 1 Primary, 1 9 years basic school and 1 Secondary school. Over the next few weeks I am going to begin to branch out and visit some more schools that are a bit further afield. Back in the holidays we had a meeting with all the Head teachers of the Diocesan schools and the Pastors from those Parishes, and a few of them have since asked for me to come to their schools. I am visiting the other Secondary school again this weekend, as there is a “mission” weekend there, and I have plans to run English training and Methodology training in this school later this term, bringing in all the Diocesan schools that are nearby.
Visiting the school next door is easy as it’s about a 2 minute walk. But to get to the Secondary School it’s 45 minutes on a motorbike taxi! The drive up to this school is absolutely stunning! I have to pinch myself sometimes, coming down these beautiful hills seeing such awesome views on the back of a motorbike- when did this become my normality? I’ve been really lucky with the weather, and although it’s the rainy season I haven’t been stranded at the school yet- I keep expecting it to happen, but most Thursday afternoons it seems to dry up so I can get there and back with no problems.
The young people in the Cathedral are still great, I’m getting to know them as individuals more, rather than just a group that comes and learns English songs. Many of them are orphans, often in charge of looking after younger siblings; yet their spirit and their faith is an amazing testimony! Last Umuganda I helped them “build” a mud house for a disabled lady who could not have done it on her own. They also have lots of plans over this term to visit different schools and churches to preach and sing. I will try and be with them as much as possible.
I preached again on Sunday. I tried to make it a bit interactive, and I think it worked! It’s very different trying to work out what to say and do when the congregation is made up of people for whom English is their 2nd, 3rd and sometimes even 4th language! I really have no idea how much people understand! My Kinyarwanda is constantly improving, although I am impatient sometimes! I can hold decent conversations with people now, and often use Kinyarwanda with my English speaking friends and colleagues, up until the point I dry up! People are getting better at not speaking English to me, so I have to try!
Can’t believe it’s been over 7 months already! I only feel now that I’m in a pattern and know what I’m doing- and often there are times I still don’t have a clue! I am really enjoying my job and general life here- and it’s nothing to do with the weather , cos it has been raining and FREEZING! Every time I tell people I live in Byumba they say it’s really cold, and I didn’t believe them until I lived here in April and May! My tan is fading fast- I’m glad I was warned and had stocked up on thick socks and tights!!
Also, many people have been asking about Meg, and it’s good news. The treatment went well and she hopes to return in the Autumn.
I’m afraid I can’t upload photos to my blog at the moment, so again you will have to do without! Thanks again!
Road trips, remembrances and ramblings- all part of the roller-coaster!
Six months ago today, I arrived in Byumba for the first time. It was dark, having left Kigali late and I remember chatting with Meg, not being able to see my new home town properly, but full of anticipation for the next couple of years and all that was in storne for me here. Who could have predicted what has happened since that moment? It has been a roller-coaster of a time! Stressful, exciting, boring, frustrating, happy, sad, amazing, beautiful, lonely, confusing, unexpected, humbling, enjoyable: it has been all these things at different times and much, much more! This week I re-read a prophecy that I found when I was packing up my house in Oldham last year that I’d forgotten about from my gap year in 2003 that said “God is going to use you strongly in the area of education and training, getting people trained and skilled in that area… And I see it’s not only in this country as well. God is going to open up other fields and I think you’ll probably have to learn another language.” So, whatever else it is I’m pretty sure it’s God’s plan!!
Schools broke up here on 30th March for a 3 week holiday. The last couple of weeks of term are exams for pupils (of all years and ages) and so there wasn’t a lot to do it schools then. But I continued training those I had started with, and the rest of my training programmes (Methodology and English) will begin properly after the holidays. Next week (16th-19th April) I am taking 4 teachers for some training in Kigali- so I’ve been organising logistics like transport and accommodation for that! I’m looking forward to going with them on this training- it’ll be good for them to be with more than just 2 of them for a change and hopefully learn from the other teachers that will be there!
Every last Saturday of the month in Rwanda is umuganda. It is a morning where everyone stops their normal work (e.g. shops are closed and buses stop) and has to engage in some sort of work to help their local community (e.g. cutting grass, building roads etc.). On 31st March I helped (maybe hindered…) the Youth for Christ group from the Cathedral begin to build a house for one of the boys who’s orphaned and needs somewhere to live with his younger siblings. It was great fun helping them out, digging foundations, and a great opportunity to get to know them better as we chatted as we worked. I love that the young people here are so willing to support each other in their time of need and get stuck in in such a practical way to help out!
Then on 31st March myself and Emily (a fellow CMS short-termer based in Kigali) went to Uganda for a few days holiday. We met friends in Kabale (nearest town to the border), visited Lake Bunyoni (a favourite with Christ Church-ers!) stayed on an island there and went in a canoe on the lake. We then travelled to Queen Elizabeth Nation Park where we saw loads of animals; antelope, buffaloes, hippos, elephants, a leopard, lions etc. It was really great- even when an elephant nearly invaded the room where we were staying at 3.00am!
April 7th marks the beginning of the genocide that happened in Rwanda in 1994. There is 100 day period of memorials, that begins with a week from 7th-14th. So, this week is very quiet; work as normal in the morning, but the afternoons are dedicated to memorials and other reconciliation activities. I decided to spend the week here in Byumba, but mostly be at home. I have used the time to read, reflect, think and pray about Rwanda; what happened in 94 and also about the future of this beautiful country. It has also been a time when friends have opened up to me more about their own stories and I have been struck again by the magnitude of an event that even though happened 18 years ago still has far-reaching consequences today. It has not been an easy week- but I don’t regret my decision to stay in Byumba. Please continue to remember the people of Rwanda at this time.
So, I wonder what the next six months has in store for me here in Byumba? Perhaps the above list of adjectives describing my journey will be similar, perhaps it will change (perhaps I will be able to write them all in Kinyarwanda…?) but hopefully it’s a journey you will continue to support me on as I find out!!
Thanks!
I’m really sorry there are no photos- my internet has decided it doesn’t like uploading photos today. I will try again tomorrow!
System changes, my world changes; Jesus, Jesus, never changes
This morning I heard this song (Daniel Bedingfield, The Way) and thought it summed up what I’ve been thinking about these last few weeks. For me, everything’s changed. The systems I find myself in, the rules and customs; the world I live in with its culture and rituals. Even though I’d been told about living “cross-culturally” hundreds of times and felt like I’d already experienced it to an extent in Fitton Hill, I don’t know if I was totally prepared for what it means. Someone told me that often for “missionaries”, the struggles with your new environment come at 2 weeks, 2 months, then 6 months and 2 years… Now going back to England and coming back again messed up my system anyway, but I’ve been back for just over 2 months and these last 2 weeks have been the best and the hardest so far. The best in terms of my work and beginning to feel useful, but hardest as I guess as I’ve been wrestling with thinking about how I can fit in to this culture. My passion for and understanding of an “incarnational” approach to mission looks very different here than it did in Fitton Hill. I will always be white, I cannot communicate very effectively in Kinyarwanda, I am often misunderstood in English, I am often viewed as someone who came to “do a job”, I have made friends but the process is much harder than it was in Fitton Hill and seems to be taking longer- plus it’s a bit of a minefield at times!
Don’t get me wrong, I am still happy here and am loving my job- just wrestling with how I fit in in a capacity that’s wider than just my job! And trying to cling on to that last bit of the quote from Mr Bedingfield- even though things around me are different and everything is changed, Jesus remains unchanged. It is knowing that that will keep me grounded in His purposes for me here. I’d be interested to hear people’s thoughts on this whole process?
So, my job is now in full swing, I have begun training teachers in 2 schools, to be extended to 2 more schools after the holidays. My focus is still especially on the school next door, which now has a new Head teacher, so I would appreciate prayers in how I work together with her there. The teachers have been really receptive and I am really enjoying working with them. I am doing a mixture of methodology training, focusing on a few teachers in each school who will then train the rest of the teachers in that school, and training in English. Currently I am working in 2 Primary Schools, 1 9 Years Basic Education School (Primary and first 3 years of Secondary) and one Secondary School. So it is a nice mixture!
A couple of weeks ago a group of us went on a beautiful drive to Musanze, in the North West of Rwanda. That is where the volcanoes are and 2 beautiful lakes- it was amazing. Rwanda is stunning! Then on Tuesday I met the guy who is writing (well updating) the Bradt travel guide to Rwanda and got to show him the part of the Rugezi wetlands where Meg is building her eco-lodge and show him some more things to put in the guide in Byumba. Currently there is half a page about Byumba and all it says is it’s pretty but there’s nothing to do! It was great to be able to help (even a little bit) in getting Byumba on the map a bit more in terms of tourism.
My language is definitely improving, and I am trying to speak it more and more, even with English speaking people. I was complaining to my teacher that I don’t see or speak to enough Rwandan in the evenings and so my new technique is to listen to the radio (not quite what I intended, but we will see how it works!) I have had to stop going to the Kinyarwanda choir as the rehearsals clash with the Youth for Christ choir practices. But, the Youth for Christ choir also sing in Kinyarwanda and I teach them English songs and they teach me Kinyarwanda ones, and they are helping me in speaking the language too! Last week I preached for the first time, in the English service at the Cathedral; I can’t quite work out if I was asked because I can speak English or because I let it slip that I have a Theology degree…! It was an interesting experience, as I am sure that most people only understood about 50% of what I said, partly because they are still adjusting to my accent and partly because I speak too fast. I am trying my hardest to speak slower and to try and use vocabulary that people will know, but for 20 minutes talking about Philemon it was a bit tricky! Anyway, step by step!
Thanks for reading again 
Why You are God and I am not…!
I would like to share with you a little story about how God is a lot bigger and a lot more clever than sometimes we realise… Good job eh?
So, a couple of weeks ago I planned to visit The Wellspring Foundation in Kigali. I had been put in touch with them by some friends, they are a charity that works specifically in education in Rwanda, and they have established a program of training teachers in one of the districts of Kigali. Check them out at http://www.thewellspringfoundation.com. I went and observed for 2 days, seeing their program in action and I really liked what they do. What’s great about their program is it was made for Rwanda, and their trainers are all Rwandans. This means they do all the teaching and reviewing in Kinyarwanda. Sounds like a small thing, but one of the main problems in Rwanda is the fact that the official language changed literally overnight 3 years ago and people struggle in English. Being able to train people in their mother tongue I think is fab! So, I have been talking with them about kind of rolling out the program (on a smaller scale) in Byumba. Meanwhile, there is a lady who lives in Butare (another part of Rwanda) who does a similar job in the Diocese there to me who also wants to start it there.
So, I got really excited and made a plan to start with the school that is next door to the Diocese, where they would like to make it a model school. The plan was for me to train one teacher, using the Wellspring resources and then to use him as a “multiplier” to train the other teachers in the school. That way he can train in Kinyarwanda, and I can help him, rather than the other way round!
In the meantime I visited the Secondary School that is closer to me, right by the Ugandan border in Mukono, and I loved it there! All along I have said I would like to focus on one of the Secondary Schools (given that Secondary is my background). And this school is close enough to visit regularly and also not doing quite as well as the other Diocesan school. So, I wrote myself a bit of an action plan which talked mostly about these 2 schools and using the teacher training materials from Wellspring. Then, a bunch of things happened which made me think maybe that wasn’t such a good idea, and I really started to doubt my plans.
Then, out of the blue this lady emailed me saying she was visiting Byumba. I had no idea who she was or how she was connected to Byumba, but she said she wanted to talk to me about education. I met with her on Saturday, and it was just one of those incredible, hard to explain moments. Basically, she supports all the Anglican Bishops in Rwanda, and recently she had been praying and thinking about education; and first of all God told her to focus on Byumba and Butare. While she was here she met with the lady from the Wellspring foundation who told her about me and the lady from Butare who wanted to start the program; so already it felt like it fit!
At the meeting was another man who is also closely involved in things in Byumba (him and his wife hope to move here one day) and before I’d even said anything he told me that his wife (who is a teacher in the States and didn’t make this trip) had been praying recently about which schools that the Byumba Diocese should focus on and the 2 she thought to focus on were the very same 2 that were in my plan! When he said it I didn’t believe it, as no one had read my plan and I was yet to discuss it with anyone here. And, so we discussed implementing this idea of training one teacher in each of the schools who will act as a multiplier and take it from there! It was amazing to know that my plans were seemingly also God’s plans and that He is in charge of the bigger picture. Obviously there’s a lot of work ahead getting the program in place, but I am excited to think that what I am involved in is what I am supposed to be doing here! Amazing! Check out this couple’s website here www.thewordfan.org to see what they are currently involved in in Rwanda. (There is a video of Mukono school so you can get an idea of what it’s like. The water tank problem is not so much an issue now as we have had someone recently pledge to buy them ALL- awesome huh?)
On a separate note I have been spending a lot of my time working with the Youth For Christ choir at the Cathedral. These are the guys who sing in the English service. They are a group of young people (late teens, early twenties) and they’re great!
I had my debut singing in Kinyarwanda as well with them last week! It’s a lot of fun- and the children who sing and dance in the garden next door can now sometimes be heard singing “Open the eyes of my heart”, so it’s catching on…! Last Sunday I also led the English service at the Cathedral- totally nerve-wracking!! I have been told it won’t be long before I am preaching!
Thanks for being interested- keep in touch!
One step at a time…
These last couple have weeks have been a mixed bag of finally doing what I came here to do and feeling like things are still a bit on hold, or taking time to get started!
I have spent a lot of time in the Diocesan school next door to where I live, observing lessons and getting to know the teachers. This school is becoming what they call a “9 years basic education” school, part of a government programme to get more children doing Secondary School. At the moment it is just Primary and Nursery, but some time in Feb (no one seems to know exactly when!) it will gain some S1 (first year of Secondary) pupils and will ultimately have S1, 2 and 3. I am still observing and working out how and where I can be useful to this school. The Diocese are looking to make it a “flagship” school for the Diocese, and so it’s great that it’s just next door and I can go there whenever I have time spare.
I have visited one other Primary school and one of the 2 Secondary schools in the Byumba Diocese. Being in a Secondary school was fab! I didn’t do anything there this time, except introduce myself to staff and students, but the school is already what the government terms an “excellent” school, and seems to be doing very well. Visiting the classrooms was hilarious, as they did not know I was coming and I caused quite a stir amongst the pupils; they wanted to know everything about me from the names of everyone in my family to whether I was single and if they could have my phone number! It will be interesting working in a variety of schools, although I am going to try and concentrate on 2 or 3 to begin with so that I can really focus and have more of an impact.
I have also spent a fair bit of time this last couple of weeks networking with other people in Rwanda who are doing similar things to me, either training teachers in pedagogy or teaching English to teachers. It is great to meet people who can share their experiences and resources- there’s no point reinventing the wheel if people already have materials and ideas for how to go about things. Last week I was in Gisenyi, which is in North West Rwanda, right by Lake Kivu, meeting a lovely couple who have been there a long time. They had a whole house full of resources in teaching English, of which I stole plenty to peruse and decide how I can use! Gisenyi was beautiful and another town that I hadn’t visited before. On the way we went through Ruhengeri, the town right by the volcanoes (where the Gorillas live). It brought back lots of memories of my trip there back in 2007!
The English choir is going well, I have my “debut” with them tomorrow, they keep insisting I play the guitar with them, so I’m a bit nervous! I am on a hunt to find someone else to play my guitar with them, so I can concentrate on the singing. Tomorrow we’re doing “Open the eyes of my heart” because they already knew it partly, and we have started to learn “How great is our God” for next time.
I have had my first experience of eating a chicken from my own garden (well, Meg’s chicken) although I didn’t partake in or watch the actual slaughtering. And, another of the goats gave birth- that’s 2 baby goats since I arrived, one boy and a girl (means there’ll probably be more in the future!) In between the days where I have been very productive there is still lots of time when I don’t have much to do, this is something I am really not used to after my crazy Teaching/Eden/ANEW juggling act of the past few years, but the task before me is still pretty huge so I don’t think it will be like this for long!
The only muzungu in the Diocese!
I have been back in Byumba now for nearly 2 weeks and am beginning to feel very settled and happy here! I arrived back expecting to launch straight into my job, and then of course had to remember that things move a bit slower here than I am used to, and so the job has started, but is still very much in the planning stages.
My trip back was great as I managed to get on an earlier flight from Addis Ababa and so didn’t need to wait 15 hours, they even remembered to transfer my baggage! The day after I arrived back I had some visitors from Christ Church, Winchester. It was so great having visitors, although very weird that I’d only just seen them the week before in England! I got to show them round the sights of Byumba and we visited a lot of the local projects people are involved in here, as well as a trip to Rugezi (the beautiful lake where Meg is going to build an eco-lodge.) They were only here 24 hours, but we managed to cram a lot in! They were en-route to a youth conference in Muhabura Diocese in Uganda. Watch this space for some joint ventures (between Byumba, Muhabura and Winchester) in the future!!
On Thursday last week we had a massive annual planning meeting in the Diocese and I had to present my plan for the year. This was tricky seeing as I’d still not completely worked out what I was going to do. I managed it, kept it deliberately quite broad and not too specific, but trying not to over-commit myself. My focus is going to be in schools to start with, Primary and Secondary, observing lessons and working out a programme of teacher training in teaching and learning and English. I will also be looking at extra-curricular activities and trying to help schools in this area as well. This morning I was in the school next door (currently Nursery and Primary, soon to have Secondary years 1-3 as well) meeting the teachers. I will begin observing lessons and devising a strategy with the Head-teacher there next week.
In terms of youth work, I am still really keen to focus on discipleship. There is a great group of young people who come to the English service on a Sunday who I met with this week, and I am hoping to work with them quite closely. I will begin by teaching them some English songs with simple language to introduce in church and then they have really good ideas for developing prayer and mission too. And hopefully from that we can work on a discipleship program. My plan is to facilitate this with them, but they were very organised already and have lots of ideas themselves, and so it will mostly be from them which is great!
My language is still improving! I feel a bit more confident, but I am still shy at speaking. I understand quite a lot that’s going on around me, and can make myself understood, but I know I sound ridiculous. I think people appreciate me trying! Every morning (at 7am!!!) there is a Bible reading and discussion that I am going to, with my Kinyarwanda bible and my English bible in hand! Hearing the discussions and reading it in Kinyarwanda is very helpful, and I understand more and more every day. I am still having lessons as and when Pascal and I are both free. I also joined the choir that Pascal leads and he told everyone in my first rehearsal to only speak Kinyarwanda and nothing else to me!
I definitely feel more and more a part of things here and am getting to know people better and better. I am glad to have started my job, but really pleased I decided to have the first 2-3 months to learn some language and adjust before starting! I am still finding that people have massively high expectations of me, especially as the youth and education department has no budget at all. I can only do what I can do, and I am only one person with limited time and resources; I think people understand that, but still have big expectations of what I can achieve. Saying that, I am excited about what I am doing and hope that I can make a difference through the different things I am involved in here!
Please continue to pray for me- in my language learning, in my role in schools and with the youth, for inspiration and ideas, for confidence in my gifts, for good communication with people, and that I will continue to feel part of the community and make friends.
Thanks!! (Sorry for the lack of photos, my internet was having none of it today!)
Brought to you all the way from… England!
Such a lot has happened since I last wrote on here! Currently I am sat writing this in my parents’ house in Winchester, not from Byumba!
Meg left Rwanda on Monday 21st November. It was weird saying goodbye to her, even though I’ve only lived with her for 6 weeks or so. The good news on that front is that the tumour is not as complicated as first thought
and she will only need one lot of radiotherapy, not an operation! After she left I began to get used to living by myself. My Kinyarwanda improved no end as I had to speak to people without Meg being around; something which I am managing better and better all the time. Rosa (our house help lady)has been wonderfully patient with me and we have learnt to communicate with each other pretty well!
On the 27th November Byumba Diocese celebrated their 20th Anniversary. They had a big celebration service! During the service there were ordinations of priests and bishops, an opening of a new Parish church, the Arch-Bishop spoke and there were lots of choirs singing etc. The whole thing lasted 7 hours!! I was sat on my own, right in the middle of all the Pastors and Bishops (where I got told to go) and had no one translating- so it was good for my Kinyarwanda- but VERY long!!
On the 6th December I was invited to a sort of dedication service and a party celebration afterwards. It was so interesting to see the way Rwandans celebrate a new baby- lots of saying thanks to the parents and grandparents. Again it wasn’t translated for me, so I only picked up some of what was going on. But I really enjoyed the experience.
The week that Meg left I got news from England to say my Grandad was really ill and had been rushed into hospital. On 29th November he passed away peacefully at Exeter hospital with close family with him. I was really upset, especially with being so far away from home but was looked after by the wonderful people of Byumba, especially Pascal, Rosa and an English couple working with VSO called Lesley and Steve. I don’t know what I’d have done without them! I decided pretty early on to come home for the funeral and to see my family.
Amazingly I had been given what I thought was an anonymous donation the week before; the money was exactly the amount I needed for my flight home. It turned out afterwards that it was a tax rebate (why they don’t mark it properly on your statement I don’t know!) but what awesome timing!! So, on 6th December, a little under 2 months after I left England, I returned.
My Nanny had been staying with my Aunty and uncle in Teignmouth and she wanted to get back to her house in Seaton (both in Devon) and so because I am free and everyone else is working etc. I went down to Seaton for the week prior to the funeral and stayed with Nanny there. I was really happy to be available to do that and to help support her at this difficult time. The funeral was on Friday 16th December in their local church.
So, please continue to pray:
- For my Grandma adjusting to living without my Grandad and the rest of the family at this time.
- For my language learning, that it won’t take too much of a backwards step while I’m away.
- That when I arrive back in Rwanda I will start my job smoothly and work out what I’m doing easily!
Shocks, schools, shoes and speeches!
So, I was beginning to get a bit fed up that I wasn’t doing very much, prayed about it, and this week was much more interesting! Not always good, but definitely busy!
For those of you that didn’t hear, Meg, the lady I have been living with, was very suddenly diagnosed with a brain tumour the week after I got back from Kenya. As a result, she is flying back to the UK on Monday 21st November to have an operation. All being well, she plans to return in August next year. Please continue to pray for her! This was a bit of a shock; she has become a good friend, and as I said before is such a great person to learn from. But, I am going to continue to live in her house, and look after it for her until she comes back. It is nice to feel a bit more settled and to have actually unpacked!
Over the last week we have had a number of people staying here in Byumba, and it has been great having different people to chat with and has been so encouraging having all these interesting and inspiring people around! I have started to seriously think through my role which will still start in January, and feel I am getting to know Byumba and surrounding area better and better.
On Tuesday I went to a school. I was so happy! All the schools closed for their long holiday the week I was in Kenya and I hadn’t visited any yet, so I didn’t think I would be able to go into one until January. But some friends of mine here work in a school in Kirenge, a very small place right up in the hills, and the pupils there are so poor that the only way they eat is by coming to school, and so they keep it open during the school holidays, and give the pupils a choice whether to come or not. Most of them choose to continue at school.
It was such an amazing experience. The school is 7 years old, and they provide all the children with a uniform, shoes, and a meal at lunchtime. The students can only attend if they are really poor (they go and check out their backgrounds etc before they can come) and they pay 50RWF a week to go to the school (that’s about 5p). If they can’t afford that they have to do a few chores to earn their place. Many of the pupils walk a long way to come, some for at least 2 hours! It is a primary school, they had from “crèche” through kindergarten, up to Primary 7. The ages of pupils varies massively in the year groups. In the P6 class we observed they were aged 12-20! We visited all the classes briefly, and they all sang a welcome to us in English when we arrived. We then stayed in the P2 English class, and went to the P6 class and helped out in their English lesson. These guys are moving onto Secondary school in January and some of their English was better than some of my year 11s at Hathershaw! I also used my vast “pull a game out of thin air” experience and taught them “zip, zap, boing!” which they loved, and were also really good at! Then we ate lunch with them (beans, potatoes, sorghum porridge and avocadoes!) and stayed around for a bit chatting with the kids.
I was amazed to discover lots of them were wearing TOMS. For those that don’t know TOMS are a make of shoe that you can buy and for every pair you buy a pair goes to a child in need. My friend bought me a pair as my leaving present. But to be honest, I never thought that children in these remote places would benefit from such a scheme, even though they are the places that most desperately need it. These shoes are really well made and fit to size for each kid, they are not just cheap and flimsy flip flops! I happened to be wearing my TOMS and I asked one of the boys if I could take a photo of his shoes and showed him mine. He was ecstatic! He could not believe he had the same shoes as a muzungu!!! So, if you’re looking for a pair of shoes, go and buy TOMS, they actually do make a difference!!
I won’t be working at that school as it’s not a Diocese school. But, today (Wednesday) I did my first official “youth work” visit in one of our parishes. Thadee, one of the Pastors who is currently in charge of the youth work (amongst lots of other things!) took me to a Parish about 1 and a half hours away on some interesting roads (in a car this time, I think usually it will be on a motorbike)! There, some of the youth were having a meeting with him and some other Pastors about the way forward in youth work in their area. About 20 minutes before we arrived Thadee informed me I was expected to do a speech at this meeting about youth ministry! My opening line was “So I’ve only been in Rwanda a few weeks so you know a lot more about youth ministry here than I do…” But I talked about 4 areas I think it’s important for them to be looking into: 1. Worship, their own expression of. 2. Discipleship, encouraging each other in their faith and working through challenges specific to youth. 3. Evangelism, making sure they are sharing their faith with their friends (and social action included in this) 4. Having fun! E.g. Sports activities etc. So, sounds like a bit of an off-the-cuff action plan to me!! This one Pastor kept on about “the muzunugu”; she has money, she has resources, she can do everything etc. I was quite clear that my role is to support the Pastors, parishes and young people to do it for themselves; I am not going to (and cannot!) do everything for them. Plus there is no budget in the youth of the Diocese at all, so that is something we will have to be creative with!
So, keep praying:
- For Meg as she goes back to England and for all that lies ahead for her.
- For me as I get used to living by myself.
- For my role, that things would continue to become clearer, and that I will gain confidence in my skills.
- That I would continue on in learning Kinyarwanda. I can understand quite a bit now, I’m just a bit shy at speaking. Plus it’s so frustrating having half a conversation all the time, when you can do the basic greetings and ask some things and then they ask you something and you have no idea how to reply!
A trip to Kenya
This week I went to Nairobi, Kenya for a CMS Africa conference. As I am trying to save money I decided to travel by bus. There is a direct bus from Kigali, via Kampala (Uganda) to Nairobi. It is supposed to take around 24 hours. I went on Saturday with an older couple who live in Kigali and we spent the night at a guest house in Rushere (a few hours from Kampala) where there is a Christian hospital they support. It was interesting to meet the people in the hospital and guesthouse there and hear all about their vision for their community. On Sunday we took the bus from there to Kampala, where Liz and David left me to fly to Nairobi, and I stayed on the bus. When the bus arrived in Nairobi it was 4 hours behind schedule, so I was on the bus for a total of 27 hours! Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the trip (no one at the conference believed me!) because I got to see a lot of Africa going by… People’s communities and homes and the beautiful scenery, including some more amazing hills and then the huge Rift valley. It was pretty amazing watching it all go past. 
There were missionaries at the conference from all over Africa, come together for renewal, refocus and fellowship. As I’d only been in Byumba for 2 weeks it was a bit strange being at a conference of this sort so early on, but it proved to be a really great way to network with other CMS people in Africa. It was good to speak to people who have a lot more experience and hear what they had to say about mission in an African context and to catch up with old friends and make new ones! It was also good to get to know all the others who are based in Rwanda a bit better, and meet other people who are involved in youth work/education in other contexts who I can learn from and continue to network with (the wonders of the internet!).
Two things stand out from what we did that I’d like to share. The first is in the evenings people from all over different parts of Africa shared what they have been doing in their communities, these ranged from Sunday School teaching to eye surgery, safeguarding children to outreach to expats, from the slums of Nairobi and the bustle of Dar-es-Salaam to remote rural areas in many other countries. It was amazing to hear about how different mission can look in different contexts, but also to hear the honesty about the challenges that people have faced. It was pretty inspiring listening to it all!
We spent a lot of the conference talking about these small scale projects, which (in a nutshell) are local, community-based projects set up in different areas of Africa called Seed Projects or Seed Actions. The highlight of the week for me was a visit to one of these projects, a small community school that was born out of the local community in one area of Nairobi. The school that we went to visit was in Baba Dogo, a slum area of the city, and was a primary school that began 4 years ago with 1 pupil and now has 230 pupils. The pupils were so happy and they were obviously meeting a massive need in the local community; it was a real privilege to see it. I now can’t wait to start working in the schools of Byumba!
I’m sure most of you heard that while I was in Nairobi there were a couple of grenade attacks, one of which was at a bus stop not that long after I arrived, so it was suggested by CMS that I don’t get the bus back but fly with the other people from Rwanda, which is what I did. And so I am writing this sat in Byumba a whole 24 hours before I was originally due to get back, which is nice. The bus from Kigali to Byumba did break down on the way, and the locals found it very amusing to see a muzungu stuck at the side of the road while they tried to fix it. But being back in Byumba feels great, it feels a bit like coming home, which is a good start! I didn’t do any Kinyarwanda all week, so I have a Sunday worth of cramming ahead of me!
Sunday 30th October
So, I have just been to the Cathedral services for the first time. The first service is in English, there were about 30-40 people, mostly aged between 17 and 20. I imagine the one I will get most involved in… Especially seeing as it was mostly young people, and I actually understand what’s going on! The music was pretty modern, a keyboard and a real electric guitar! The songs were taken from Mission Praise, so mostly hymns that were jazzed up a bit. I then stayed for the Kinyarwanda service, which was packed (I’m hopeless with numbers but maybe 200-300 people) At one point in the service the pastor was introducing people and I suddenly thought that they might try and introduce me (easy to spot the only muzungu, even though I was sat near the back) but I haven’t spoken Kinyarwanda for a week and quickly had to rehearse my little introductory speech in my head. Sure enough, the Pastor was talking and suddenly everyone turned around to look at me and I heard the Kinyarwandan for “England”, I thought I was going to get away with just that when he invited me to the front to introduce myself. I did alright, I remembered what to say, but everyone still laughed at me- I think it’s funny watching a muzungu try to speak their language! Afterwards Pascal (my language teacher) said that basically the Pastor had introduced me and then I’d gone up and repeated what he said so people were saying I hadn’t needed the Pastor to say it because they understood me, so that’s encouraging! I am living by myself these few days because Meg is still in Kenya, and a few people at church said they’d come and visit, and my Kinyarwanda lesson tomorrow is going to be going into town to buy food!! So, I best stop procrastinating and get on with revising…!
First Impressions
They say first impressions are the most important, but considering how much I disliked Fitton Hill at first that can’t always be true! Although, to use a Daniel Bedingfield phrase, this is my second first impression of Rwanda anyway, and I already loved it!
However, I had not been to Byumba before until Tuesday. And my first impression of there is just “wow!” swiftly followed by “Why didn’t I come here before anyway, Richard?!” The scenery is truly stunning, the surroundings living up to Rwanda’s title of “the land of a thousand hills” (I think this diocese alone might have 1000 hills!) I have already taken 100s of photos of hills, hills and more hills! Apparently the novelty will wear off! Imisozi (the word for hill) was one of the first words I learnt, and I can understand why.
The people have been great. I will be moving into my own house, but it’s not ready yet, so I am staying with an English missionary that has been here forever (almost literally, she grew up here and then came back 15 years ago) called Meg. As I suspected she is a great person to learn stuff from, as she is pretty much as much Rwandan as English, speaks Kinyarwanda fluently and is easy to get on with. I have met a few other muzungus (white people) who are in the town, but it’s quite small and so we are few and far between! This is good because it forces me to speak Kinyarwanda and get to know local people, which is after all the reason I am here!
So I still aim to start my role properly in January. The job description is a bit of a work-in-progress, and I still don’t understand exactly what I will be doing. It seems more education based at the moment, including things like training teachers and encouraging literacy in schools. One of the statements on my job description says to “analyse the problems that affect young people and design projects to overcome them”- so at the moment it’s pretty wide!! I intend to spend some time up until Christmas visiting schools, talking to other youth-workers and teachers and generally coming up with a sort of plan. I am not the only youth or education worker in the Diocese, so I have some support!
I have also had my first couple of Kinyarwanda lessons. Meg asked a local man called Pascal who speaks English very well and who is currently out of work if he would teach me, and so we are having lessons 9-3 for 3 or 4 days a week. So it’s pretty intense, especially when you’re the only pupil! People have been commenting that I am doing well, but it doesn’t feel like it when people speak to me and I just stare at them blankly, but it will come in time. I introduced myself to a whole church today in Kinyarwanda and people generally understood, so I suppose that’s a start!
So, I guess, keep praying that I get better at the language, and learn well. Pray that I can speak to the right people and see the right places re: my job. And, continue to pray that I make friends and settle in. I found leaving Oldham even harder than I imagined, but I feel happy here and totally sure this is where I am supposed to be for now!
Thanks!
