A Tribute to Ruth Plett and Krystan Palikowski

Ruth and Krystan with their host family after their 3 week village live-in upcountry in Rwanda (May 2009).

I have to confess that I have been stalling on getting this blog posted.  It is not for a particularly good reason.  Actually Rebecca did most of the hard work writing the bulk of it telling about her time in Rwanda.  But we have had a problem locating the download cord for the old camera that she took with her and made pictures of the last days of Ruth and Krystan.  But at this point we have to admit defeat and let everyone who is interested know what has gone on this week.  The photos will be a collage of pictures of Ruth, Krystan and Misha that we have taken in the past few years.  When I do find the cord I will put the last ones up as well eventually.

As you might surmise from the above paragraph, we have passed at least one milestone in the past week--that is saying goodbye to our 3 year service workers Ruth and Krystan (and daughter Misha) who have served with one of our partners in Rwanda.  (They actually came here as a couple and had Misha during their term in Africa.)

I have to say, it seems like the time has flown since their arrival.  I still remember vividly, taking them to Cercle Hippique on their first or second day in Bujumbura for orientation.  (The old colonial riding park and stables).

Sadly I could not go up and be with them in their last few days as this was another week of dividing and conquering for Rebecca and I.  I stayed in Bujumbura with the kids in school while Rebecca did the final debriefing and logistical work with them in Kigali.  Fortunately life was the kids was pleasantly uneventful and they did behave quite well for me, probably sensing that ganging up on one parent was unfair.

The highlight of the week for them was probably going over and seeing Scott on Thursday evening and his 2 sons John and Jonas who has also been a bachelor this week as Danica is in Canada (their blog is here).  My kids love to go over there because Scott has an IPAD with the Angry Birds game on it.  (Our family has still not made its debut into the world of video games for kids.)

We did stick to most of our normal routines including family tea time in the afternoons and icecream after Oren's karate class on Friday.  Rebecca got back on Saturday afternoon and we went to a Birthday party of one of Oren's friends from school that afternoon.

I am leaving the rest of this blog to Rebecca to recount her adventures in Kigali...

First day of work, meeting Jonas and Cecile.

On Wednesday morning, I got an early bus from Bujumbura to Kigali. Before the trip even started, I was disappointed to realize that someone had reached through the window and stolen my book: King Leopold’s Ghost. I guess I won’t be able to catch up with Paul on Congolese history again until I can hunt down a copy the US this summer. But otherwise, the trip was fairly uneventful. My first task upon arriving in Kigali was to get a packet of pen pal letters for the Hope School, hand-carried from the USA by a malaria expert friend of my mother’s. I found tracked him down at the swanky Hotel Mille Collines where USAID was hosting a malaria conference. The woman who greeted me there also knows my mom and Paul’s dad was her thesis advisor – it was surreal to find myself in a place with so many family connections suddenly. I felt badly when I had to tell them that I myself wasn’t actually working on malaria in Rwanda! But I did get the letters.

My next task was to meet our volunteers Ruth and Krystan to finish up some administrative details, like closing their bank account and transferring the name on their Internet provider. I won’t bore you with the details, but closing a bank account isn’t as easy as you might think. Ruth ended up having to take a moto back to the bank to finalize some details on the Friday they left town. So it’s good we started the process on Wednesday! I was able to join in on a farewell party potluck, thrown by their Bible study group (at the house where I was staying). It was really nice to meet or see again a number of Ruth and Krystan’s friends in Rwanda.

Meeting newborn Misha in Kenya. (Aug 2010)

On Thursday morning, I had to go to the bank again myself to transfer funds to our partners. This led me to a number of experiences in solidarity. First, I was running late, so I finally broke down and took a taxi motorcycle the 10-minute ride. It was absolutely terrifying. I don’t know how people here do it all the time. My legs were shaking by the time I arrived. Unfortunately, upon arriving, I found that the process was going to be much more complicated than before. I needed to visit the various banks of our partners to deposit checks, which meant that I needed to wait in line. I spent about 45 minutes at the first bank – longer than I wanted, but still tolerable. Later that afternoon, I went to the second bank, which was very crowded with people sitting and standing everywhere. I pulled a number for the line, and found that I had 492. The bank was currently serving customer 399!! Of course, not every number actually represented a person served, but still, after 90 minutes of waiting, with the line at 451, and only 30 minutes before I was supposed to be back to meet our team for dinner, I finally broke down, used my white racial privilege and went into the VIP room to be served. And at the last moment, the teller informed me that the account I was trying to deposit to was inactive!! Thus, I had wasted this entire time of waiting. I asked the teller why there were so many people. He said, “That’s not a big crowd. You should see things here on payday!” Later I asked our partner why he uses that bank, and he said that it’s the one bank that is willing to serve fairly poor people, and has branches all over the country. So I guess our own bank is the rich people’s bank, and what that means is very short waiting time (and probably higher maintenance fees).

In between banking adventures, I spent time doing the closing interview with Ruth and Krystan and trying to tie up any other loose ends with them. We are really hoping to recruit another volunteer(s) to replace them, so we’re keeping the lease on their house and keeping it furnished for now. That makes things simpler in the long run, but means that we need to know how to manage that house in their absence. We ended the day with a team dinner at our favorite Kigali Indian restaurant, Zafraan. The waiter said to Krystan, “I don’t need to give you a menu do I?” and in the end they gave us a discount for being good customers! It was good food and a good chance to talk about some of the more difficult relational issues that can happen when returning home to family after a long absence.

On Friday, I met with several of our partners and was able to talk with them about some of their hopes for the future. Both of them have been part of inter-MCC exchange visits we’ve organized in the past two months, and this has given them some good ideas for new programs. I think they have really appreciated learning from other MCC partners, but it has also given them a boost to realize that they have things to share and contribute as well.  I had some quiet time to catch up on work after that. And then the rest of the afternoon, I was just able to spend time with Ruth, Krystan, their little Misha, and two other close friends of theirs, continuing to debrief informally.

Team retreat in Gisenyi.

Finally, as the sun was setting, their pastor neighbor came with his car and the two taxis pulled up.  It was good that we had three vehicles planned because we had quite an entourage helping to take them to the airport. It is very, very important in Rwandese culture to accompany people as far as possible on their journey – it’s a real sign of love and care here. So even their housekeeper and their night guard got in a car, along with a peace worker who is a close friend of theirs. There would have been more people sending them off I’m sure, but most of the leadership of the Friends Church (including the majority of our partners) is currently at an international church conference in Kenya. So we were about a dozen people with six large bags heading to the airport after a prayer at their house. I am very sorry to see this family go, but they will be serving with MCC again starting in August, and will be well used in that position in Sarajevo.

My final official task of the evening was to help our SALTer Annie move her things from her host family’s house to Ruth and Krystan’s house – she’ll be house-sitting the place to keep it safe for the next few months. I left to return to Bujumbura early on Saturday morning. After a trip of mild misery as usual, I was so glad to see the faces of my boys and Paul waiting for me at the bus station!

Back to Paul...

Ruth and Krystan have left us but have decided to stay with MCC.  They, in fact will be taking the position of Country Representatives for Eastern Europe and will be based in Sarajevo beginning in August.  They will be missed here by our whole team and we can honestly say to them:  "Well done, good and faithful servants."