Rwanda Vision Trip: Day 4

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NOTE: For those of you who received an email form of this, I called this "Day 1" since this was the first FULL DAY in Rwanda. But from the perspective of the whole trip, this was the 4th day I had been traveling

I am writing to you from a dark church in Gisenyi, Rwanda, where there is a satellite for Internet and evidently just enough electricity to power that and one 4-ft fluorescent bulb that is humming and off more than it is on.

As I wrote in the blog dated 1/11/10, it took 4 hr 15 minutes longer to get here than it was supposed to. That means 44 hours of traveling time, plus the 10 hour time difference.
I had dinner with Pastor Simon and family, and then we got a Rwandan sim card for my phone. The amazing thing is that the Verizon service for email has been flawless, even in Gisenyi. It is just hard to type any message of length into a small hand-held device. I now have my laptop up and running.

I went to bed around 9 to 9:30 last night and slept very well from until 5 am this morning (Rwandan time). I then was up and trying to read. Then I was given instructions from one of Simon's children on how to shower. Simon had told me that he does not use the shower head but a plastic bucket to shower out of. His daughter said something about mixing the hot and cold water in the bucket. So I climbed into the shower and only cold water came out of the faucet. At this point I am naked and slightly wet so I just figure "well, I guess it is all cold". So I get myself wet, then soapy, then start rinsing with the cold water and THEN I notice a jug of water sitting between the sink and toilet. I touch the side of the jug - "hmm this feels warm". I poured some of it into my rinse water and what do you know - I DID have some warm water. Just enough to stop the shivering before my host saw me. I shaved in the almost dark since the light switch in the sower / bathroom came off when I shut the light off last night after using the facilities.
So now I was clean, clean shaven, and ready to face a new day in Rwanda.

I went with Simon to the foundation where they are building the school. I was shown around to the trade schools that are up and running. I saw how they make the cards that Liberty Bible has been selling. It definitely takes some skill. I saw the women making the necklaces. There was also a sewing school, but the students were not there. The children were there. They are not in school because the government has not finished building the classrooms yet. Once the children saw my camera (after my initial tour) all I heard was "Muzungu! Foto" which means, "white person! Take my picture!"
It seems somewhat ironic that we try hard NOT to say that a person is black in America ( and personally I do not know what the current, publicly accepted word is) but here in Rwanda, it is not considered rude or inconsiderate for people, even adults to call me "white dude" - and the kids want more than just one picture taken.

The other thing that the kids wanted was to hold my hand. This served 2 purposes: 1) just to hold my hand and walk with me. 2) To feel that strange stuff growing on my forearms - since black people in Africa do not have much if anything in the way of arm hair. They would stroke my arm hair, or rub their cheek on it. It was really quite amazing to watch their fascination with something I take for granted. A few of the older kids started pulling on the hair. I think they were just trying to feel it, but it started to hurt a little.

We drove and then walked through the narrow roads in one part of town where the church is considering buying property to grow food for the orphans. This is one of the projects I am very excited about. This is a model of the whole teaching how to fish instead of giving American fish to Rwandan orphans thing. The idea is to buy this land and then let the older orphans work a section of the land and feed themselves (?and maybe other kids in their house) with the food that they grow. Then we went to see Lake Kivu and the border with the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), and visited a church member who was ill.

Now I am typing in the dark.

That was my first full day in Gisenyi.

Doc Jim Signing out!

Hope all is well with you guys back in Vancouver.

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