Rwanda Part II: The Harvest

On Saturday we did some of the site-seeing stuff. We started out by going to a basket weaving place, but this wasn’t an ordinary shop. This is the shop where Bono and Oprah special order things and the shop that ships baskets for retail at Macy’s Department Stores. We met the owner of the shop- a very inspiring, strong woman- and then browsed through stacks and stacks of baskets. It will be neat to see them for sale in Macy’s. While there, we unintentionally met with the Gardeners from the Jinja team and a group of Pepperdine students. After chatting and browsing, we headed to the Sonatube roundabout to meet up with a driver that Murphy had arranged for us. Our driver had only been in Rwanda for about 2 weeks; he was a grad student from Harding who had come to Kigali to conduct workshops on improving reading strategies in the classrooms. Instead of leaving after the couple of weeks like planned, he signed a contract to teach at the new international school in Kigali. The only reason I am sharing this is to show one example of just how much people can fall in love with this land, how it infiltrates your life never allowing you to be the same or return to the same course for your life. But, that is a different blog altogether… Anyway, despite still suffering from jet lag, he was a good tour guide. (And, it was really nice to not have to take public all over town). Instead of a “play by play” of what we did, I’ll focus on the highlights. At the top of each of our lists was visiting the Genocide Memorial Center. Many of you know that Rwanda suffered through atrocious crimes against humanity during the 1994 genocide. This memorial center is in honor of the victims and a warning to the future. Walking through the exhibits looking at picture after picture of man at his worst was heart-wrenching, but walking through those exhibits while the victims and their family members led groups through the museum was heart-breaking. You don’t have to look at the pictures on the wall or listen to the stories from the videos, because you can see the effects for yourself by looking at the scars on the guy behind you and listening to the stories being told by the woman in front of you. It was fascinating and disgusting at the same time. Disgusting that mankind is even capable of such violence. Fascinating to see just how much mankind can endure and still move forward. Inspiring would be another very appropriate word for that, but it is better used to describe the state of spirituality in Rwanda. Rwanda is very ripe for the Harvest. Victims and perpetrators alike are working together, loving and forgiving, to move forward as a country. Their drive to move forward and work to ensure that the past does not repeat itself is inspiring. God is working in and among the Rwandan people, and it is exciting and awesome! Sunday at church we worshiped with genocide orphans; from time to time they come together as family because they have no other family. Watching them praise God and praising Him alongside them was uplifting. Sunday night we worshiped with many of the missionaries in Kigali at the Shewmaker’s home. Although our trip to Kigali was short, it was well worth the 24+ hours of being on public on African roads to get there and back. Please pray for the missionaries working in Rwanda and pray for the people of Rwanda. You can find out more info on the Kingdom work there at the following website: http://harvestfields.net/rwanda.php.

Rwanda Part I: Missionary Life Learning

Oh, June…
The month of June was crazy busy for me… actually the months of April, May, and June. The short amount of time I had to rest between taking Jennifer and Mary Beth to the airport to fly home for furloughs and my trip to Rwanda was spent trying to recover from utter exhaustion. I’ll begin with Rwanda. Rather than writing a blog of epic length about Rwanda, I decided to break them up. For the first I will focus briefly on the missionaries we met. I’ll write about what we did while there in the next.

After a full day on a bus from Kampala, Julie, Kimberly, and I arrived in Kigali, Rwanda on 12 June sometime after 7pm. We had contacted Murphy Crowson before leaving Mbale. The Crowsons graciously opened their home to us when we arrived and cooked dinner for us, even sharing some precious American goodies. Another family also graciously opened their home to us allowing us to stay there even though they themselves were out of town. (Actually we had met them along the way when we spent a night in Kampala. They were on their way to Jinja for a visit.) Although we didn’t sleep in the Crowson’s home, they were wonderful hosts to us and helped us arrange anything we wanted or needed to do while in Kigali. We met several kind missionaries while there. The Koonce family is on a team with the Crowsons. Both families served many years in Togo before moving to Rwanda earlier this year; they are currently working on language study in Kigali before moving to another city in the northwest. We spent an evening worshiping at Sam and Nancy Shewmakers home along with several other missionaries and a visiting group of Pepperdine students who were being led by some of our teammates from Jinja. I very much enjoyed meeting the missionaries there, some of whom will remain in Kigali to serve and others of whom will move out of the city eventually. I wish we could have spent more time talking with the Koonces and Crowsons, but we had to return to Uganda. Despite being such a short time, I learned much from these missionaries.

A Pool of Blessings

The end of school was very much like it is anywhere: final projects, final exams, classroom clean up, grade calculations, and some play time. After my students completed all of their final projects and exams (which they all did very well on), we had some time to just have fun together. Initially I had thought that I would write something about their projects, but most of you wouldn’t be too interested in that. So, if you are curious about any assignments or projects I’ve given at any point this year, I’ll be more than happy to share. I gathered all the writing assignments that my older students did this spring and bound most of them together into a book the girls titled “MMS: Rhyme and Reason 2009.” This collection of writings is very dear to me. My students grew a lot in several facets; their growth as writers is one such area, and I am very proud of them.

On the last day of school we had a pool party at the Mbale Resort Hotel. School ended early and we all headed for a fun time at the pool all the while hoping that the rain would cooperate. We ate snacks and played games in the pool. It was the first time that I’ve been able to be just “Crystal” and not “Miss Crystal” with the boys. I don’t know how much fun the boys had playing keep away in the pool with some old girls, but it is a very precious memory to me. I did grow very close to those kids, and I miss them a whole lot. I have been deeply blessed by my students and my work in Uganda, and I am deeply thankful that God sent me to work with the Mbale Mission Team.

Hot pink tinsel and the top reader

With one week of school remaining, the faculty of Mbale Mission School proudly presented our first graduate ever with her high school diploma. Leila Shelburne gladly received her diploma on Monday, 11 May at 3 pm on the front porch of the Shelburne home. Thanks to the coordination of our unofficial team event planner, Julie, we held a ceremonious graduation followed by a congratulatory party. Several of the staff—Phillip, Julie, Jennifer, and I—adorned the classic black caps and gowns along with our graduate. We tried to make the graduation very similar to something Leila would have experienced had she been graduating in the States. Our ceremony consisted of the following: the procession of the faculty and the graduating student accompanied by music, opening remarks given by Phillip, an awards ceremony, presentation of the diploma, prayer, and an exiting procession. (I must note that I am writing this over a month after the event and am very likely forgetting some things). While we tried to present an American feel, we do like in Uganda and therefore it had to have some Uganda flavouring as well. When Leila marched in the women ululated and friends ran forward to cover her with glimmering decorations such as tinsel, and when she received her diploma the children shot off noise poppers. All of this set in front of the beautiful backdrop of Mount Wanale. It was a very special day of celebrating Leila and all of her accomplishments. She will be attending Harding University in the fall.

I want to add that the ceremony caused me to realize just how short a time had passed since I had graduated. I was having flashbacks to my own recent graduation; it was a weird feeling. Also, this was my first graduation to participate in as a member of the faculty; it was fun.  Oh, you may have been wondering why we held the graduation before school was even out. Well, that was the only time we could get it scheduled into the chaos of our team’s schedule, and even then it wasn’t ideal. Thus is life on the mission field, especially just before furlough.

University Summit

In April our team hosted a University Summit for LivingStone International University. They had one in 2006 where they established goals and set steps to be taken before the next summit. Since LIU has now received the “go-ahead” from the Ugandan Counsel for Higher Education, there is much to be done. Some people flew in from the States to help out. Delegates from numerous countries in Africa showed up to offer their support and advice. The highlight for me was when Dr. Ntero spoke at our closing session. Dr. Ntero was the first East African woman to go to University. She has an incredible story! I could listen to her talk about her life for hours and not get bored. I wish that I could share her story with you, but I’d struggle to get it all right. Another really awesome thing that happened was when a surprise guest showed up during one of the sessions. A former Minister of Education happened to be in town and happened to be at the hotel where the conference was taking place. This man was quoted just the day before in a presentation by Shawn, and the next day he “happens” to be there to speak for himself. God is so good!
While there are many things I would like to tell you about the summit, I can’t because I was either in school teaching or helping run errands for it. The best way to get a better picture of the summit is to check out LIU’s website and read the blogs on the summit (you can also read more about LIU while on the site). A prayer point—please pray for LivingStone International University and the men and women working to establish it providing Christian education to this region of Uganda and East Africa.
http://livingstone.ac.ug/

Gulu

Leila and I took a really long detour on the way home from the ladies retreat. We tagged along with the Kampala women who were so kind in giving us a lift. From Kampala we took a bus to Gulu. The bus ride was not near as long as we had anticipated and the road was actually quite good. After arriving in Gulu, we were finally able to talk with Christine, Nathan and Lydia’s aunt, who we had been trying to contact for at least a week. We also stumbled across one of the 2 guest houses we were searching for just in time to reach our room before the rain down-poured. Saturday we walked around town exploring a bit. Sunday we went to church at the Watoto church in Gulu. That was a very weird experience for me. That church was so nice and had so much technological equipment that my mind had a really difficult time accepting that I was in a church in Gulu, Uganda. After church we talked with Christine a bit about what we wanted to do there. I told her I was very interested in education especially secondary. She told me that Invisible Children is the organization that I need to meet with because they are the only ones currently working on the secondary aspect. She told me that she would call Jolly and set up a meeting with us. We also came up with a few other things to do while there. First, I need to explain that my personality type is INFP, which is the “Idealist.” The idealist in me was uncontainable at lunch that day, as Leila can attest. I had so many ideas and so many possibilities that I couldn’t even express any of them. Monday morning Leila and I prepared for a trip to the Invisible Children office, but unfortunately Christine had several other things to do and couldn’t join us. She called Jolly and talked to her; then Christine called me to tell me who to ask for. I went in and really didn’t make such a good impression on the girl I was told to speak with so she passed me off on an intern who proceeded to tell me about the mission and history of Invisible Children. I could have done her job for her, with the exception of what’s been happening since I’ve been in Uganda. She did take me to meet with the Schools for Schools project director who very graciously took time to meet with us. Again, my idealist was still uncontainable and thus unexplainable. I couldn’t explain any of my ideas or intentions to him well at all. I wanted to talk with the director of the teacher exchange program, but she wasn’t in the country. It was really cool to see the office and learn some small bit more. But I was very frustrated with my experience; I was treated like some 18 year old who had hopped a plane to show up at the IC office expecting to work with them and who didn’t know anything about IC, Uganda, or East African culture. Needless to say, my ideas were quickly squelched. I understand why they treated me like they did, and don’t get me wrong, they weren’t rude at all. They have had many people like I described come into the office with such or similar expectations. They didn’t know anything more than I live in Mbale and had been there for 9 months (at the time). Despite my frustrations, Sam and I are going to go back when we go next week.
On a side note for anyone that has seen the bracelet videos, Innocent (he’s the one on the white bracelet DVD) came into the office while I was there. That was pretty cool. And, it seriously would have been way cool to meet with Jolly. But I still find it cool that a friend of mine called up her friend Jolly to talk about me.
After all of that, Leila and I went to Grace Christian Academy. Lydia and Nathan’s grandparents started this school and Christine now runs it. I talked with her a lot about the school and she asked me to walk through the classes and observe the teachers, look through their lesson plans, etc. Grace is a nursery and primary school with a clinic. Most of the children are orphans. I walked quickly through the lower primary classes saying hello to the teachers and students and absorbing the scenes of the classrooms. I was at first nervous about offering feedback about the teachers to Christine; but, things came naturally to me as I remembered my training. Leila must have been bored, but I was fascinated. After all of this, we had lunch with Christine and I offered my opinions and observations of the teachers. She is working with another woman in Gulu (an American missionary) to develop a much needed new curriculum to present to the government for use nationwide. They are very convicted about the need and they have had doors opening to them offering a window of opportunity. However, they need assistance from trained educators, particularly from those who have experience in curriculum writing and in cross-cultural work. I really want to work with them on this, but I don’t know that I am at a point where I can. I need more training and their window is limited. I left Gulu more convinced of my need to go for my master’s in international education. But what to do until then? I don’t know; I’m meeting with Christine again when I go back with Sam. It is definitely a prayer point, not just for my involvement, but for the whole thing.
I really liked Gulu. I liked the town size, the nearness of the villages, the Acholi people (who are very different from the tribes around Mbale), the land, the food… There is much restoration and much healing going on in Gulu—praise God! I wonder what my involvement in that will look like—another prayer point.

East Africa Ladies Retreat

On 14-17 of April the ladies on our team headed to Rondo in Kenya for the East Africa women’s retreat. Rondo is a retreat center in the rain forest, an absolutely beautiful place! The ladies of the Jinja team planned the retreat. We talked about misconceptions of God and of ourselves; the theme was “we are created in the image of God.” It was a really restful time, which was much needed. The discussions we had were very stirring as well. On the last night we had a masquerade and ended with a poster silent testimony when we removed our masks. To me that was very powerful. I really enjoyed getting to meet ladies from other areas of East Africa. There were women from the Mwanza, Tanzania team, 3 ladies from various parts of Kenya, and all of the Uganda teams. Also, two ladies who recently arrived in Tanzania were there. They’d been staying with the Mwanza team and were going to visit teams in Uganda and Rwanda after the trip. They were really nice, but what was really cool about meeting them was the connections we have from home. I had seen Christie Harrison and her husband at Gulf Coast Get Away in 2008 and met them very briefly. At the time they were planning and preparing to move to Tanzania. Among other things, hearing them talk about Tanzania stirred my mind and pulled my heart towards coming back sooner than I had planned at that time (which would have been a few years later). Also, Holly McNeal and her husband worked with the new University Christian Ministry campus minister Duane Dixon before he went to University Church. Holly told me that Duane had mentioned me to them, but the likelihood of us actually meeting seemed really slim. Guess Duane was right. I’m glad I got to meet them and all the other ladies there. There were a few other connections I had with them and others; it is amazing just how small the world can be (especially in the Church of Christ and within missions and then within missions in Africa)! I’m interested to visit the teams and see their ministries first-hand. I'd love to be able to travel around and do that in the future.