Giving kids a push on
a local carousel in a Kigali park during some down time at our regional
meetings.
Finally back in Bujumbura, after a long drive from Gisenyi,
in Northern Rwanda. About 9 hours on the
road not counting lunch in Kigali where we dropped off our Area Directors Mark
and Angela Sprunger. The occasion was a
team retreat along lake Kivu with the Rwanda Burundi and Congo MCC teams. Fifteen of us drove up and spent 3 days
together at the Stipp hotel along the lake.
It was an enjoyable and meaningful time in a very beautiful
setting. It seemed a bit surreal that
this town abuts Goma on the DRC side of the edge of the lake, a place which has
been embroiled in conflict and fighting between the UN security forces and the
M-23 Rebel groups. Interestingly we were
retreating there on the day that a truce was called by M-23 who have been
fairly effectively routed from their strongholds in the region.
For us, though, our lodging offered us a view of the best
the region has to offer. Lake Kivu is
beautiful, and our accommodations had the feel of a resort complete with
swimming pool and fitness room. The town of Gisenyi is nestled beneath a range
of 8 volcanoes that are visible as you drive toward the lake. Some are still active and the one in
neighboring Goma has erupted at least once in the last decade. This is also the region of the famed ‘Gorillas
in the mist’ and although we did not take any tours up into the forests
surrounding the volcanoes, they were nearby.
Truth be told, such excursions are extremely expensive and going as an
MCC group would have been prohibitively costly.
Present were Tim Lind, the MCC DRC Rep., Patrick and
Michael, the 2 service workers in Bukavu, Melody, Matt, Jennifer and Felix
(with his wife Alice), from Burundi, Teresa, Julia, and Matt Gates, from
Rwanda, Mark and Angela Sprunger, our Area Directors who are currently based in
Burkina Faso, and of course our family.
Rebecca and I were hosting the retreat, with Rebecca taking
responsibility for many of the logistics and preparation of the materials for
spiritual reflection, although many of us contributed to the latter.
We stayed at the Stipp hotel, having made it up there in 3
vehicles with the MCC Congo team coming across the border from Goma where they
had been doing a field visit with Mark Sprunger.
In general, we spent the mornings in some kind of intentional
activity of worship and sharing. We had
some prepared liturgies and songs featuring Rebecca on guitar, followed by
different opportunities to share on the different days. We began by just taking turns listening to
each other share some things about our assignments very generally, but later
had opportunities to talk about the ways in which we are challenged or
struggling. On the last day we broke
into smaller groups to pray for each other.
It is hard to explain how important creating space for this
kind of activity is in doing work here. Actually
that may be true of all work, but it is great to work for an organization that
recognizes the need for ongoing debriefing during a cross cultural assignment
and effectively requires us to make space for this.
There are common themes in the challenges we face. Here the constant affront of poverty
vis-à-vis our relative affluence and what that means as far as how we steward
privilege is a big question. We are
often perceived as potential benefactors for any number of needs and face
constant attempts to have money begged, borrowed, or stolen from us. It is quite wearing and often every request
needs to be considered on its own merit and blanket ‘rules of thumb’ just aren’t
adequate in every situation.
Frustration with work are also a common theme. In a hierarchical culture it is usually only
the highest ranking person in an organization who may make decisions no matter
how substantive or trivial. For a
westerner, this can run smack into our ‘getting things done’ value system as
there can be a huge bottleneck in decision-making on even fairly small and
non-substantive changes. Part of some of
the capacity building work of our service workers is to help our partner
organizations find ways to better delegate power.
Then there is the constant assault of tragedy, past and
present, that we negotiate here. Sudden
news of the death of a colleague or one of their immediate family is fairly
common. Sadly, the stories of wives
dying in childbirth among our staff and colleagues is far too common. Death is such a part of life her for young
and old here in a way that would be unimaginable in the US.
There was ample opportunity for fun as well. We enjoyed very good food at the hotel, and
took advantage of its fitness room and small swimming pool. The kids liked the grounds which had quite a
bit of old playground equipment on it.
Their favorite thing by far was the gigantic fountain in the shape of a
volcano with 2 gorilla statues on it.
The fountain was not working, but the mountain was like a gigantic piece
of play equipment where the kids could practice bouldering.
Outside the gate of the hotel, one could walk along the lake
where there was some park land and the opportunity to swim. Oren and David were particularly enamored of
the huge amount of volcanic rocks there were in the area. In fact, along the lake there are some very
interesting rock formations created by what was obviously lava flowing into the
lake at one time.
Oren was especially fond of finding the very light, porous
pumice-like stone that could be as large as one’s head, but would float in
water! He collected quite a bit and has
the inspiration of bringing it back to the US next year and opening a store to
sell it to other kids. He even brought a
piece to school with him to show his teacher for show and tell when he went
back yesterday. It was apparently a big
hit in the class.
Among the fun activities we did were watercolors, yoga, and
a fierce game of ultimate Frisbee in the aforementioned park. All three of our SALT volunteers as well as
Melody and the two guys from the DRC program (Michael and Patrick) –and me,
were a pretty fearsome group. We played
4 on 3 for over an hour and attracted quite a few onlookers. I was not aware of what a good ultimate
Frisbee team our regional program has become.
I think we could easily field a team of 8 very competent players--- Burundi Doctors and Coffee Buyers you can consider
the gauntlet thrown down!
A particularly meaningful moment of reflection came from Tim
Lind who invited us to remember that we are the bearers of good news and that
coming to a region where we are accustomed to focus on the bad—conflict,
poverty, etc. we often miss what is ‘good’ here, the daily acts of mercy and
compassion, the beauty of the lake. It
was a sober reminder that in order to bring Good News, we need to have the
perspective of Jesus, someone who could see the good in a fallen woman at the
well, or a tax collector hiding in a tree.
We need to see this region where we work with Jesus’ eyes—to see the
good hidden amidst all that is wrong. He
shared a very beautiful poem about Lake Kivu as well.
We ended our last evening, Monday, with communion as a
group. It was special to share that
together as a team. On Tuesday morning
we headed our separate ways, the DRC team returning on foot back across the
border to Goma, while the rest of us headed South to Kigali. We had Mark and Angela in our car and took
them to a guesthouse as they were flying out of Kigali. Matt and the Rwanda SALTers did some field
visits on the way back, and Felix took his car with Melody, Jennifer and Matt
back to Buja. After getting caught in a
rainstorm in Kigali, our family continued the rest of the trip to Bujumbura,
making for a very long day of driving.
We arrived after dark, about 7pm.
It was very good to be back home after more than 12 days out of town.
Selaph:
I would be remiss in not mentioning what happened the first
week of our stay in Rwanda. Prior to our
retreat we had arrived a week earlier for regional meetings for country
programs in the Central West African region.
These meetings usually happen once a year and October during the
children’s fall break is usually the ideal time to schedule them. As hosts this year, we decided upon Kigali as
there is a plan to locate our regional office here in the next year.
MCC programs who belong to Central West African region
include Rwanda and Burundi, DRCongo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Chad. These are primarily francophone (except
Nigeria) and do not share much else in common as West Africa is both
climatically different and faces food security issues related to drought and
conflict related more to inter-faith issues.
It might seem a bit of an odd mix, but I have really grown to appreciate
the people and programs we meet when we are together.
The attendees this year included:
Jon and Angela and their 4 kids who are reps in Chad (Caleb,
Jonny, Hannah, Lilly). They are all
around the ages of Oren and David, and were great playmates during the 4 days
of meetings. I have tremendous
admiration for this young family who have committed to 5 years in one of the
most climactically challenging places to live in the world, and least
developed. They faced tremendous health
difficulties last year, but have courageously pressed on for another year.
David and Marylou from Nigeria. Their kids are grown and they have several
previous turns as reps in their past.
They come with many years of experience to the position there.
Tim and Suzanne from DRC.
They began shortly before we did and, like us, they are finishing their
last year as reps this year. I have
great appreciation for the challenging work they have working in the DRC.
Mark and Angela, who are our Area Directors have also had to
play a fill-in role as reps. for Burkina Faso as well. They are currently there and we are all
praying that some interim reps for the country will be found until the new
permanent ones arrive next summer.
Also in attendance were several folks from our national
offices in the US and Canada. Ruth
Clemens, the director of International Programs from MCC US came, she goes to
our church in Baltimore so we have a personal connection and were very happy to
have her come and bring greetings (and gifts) from family. There were also several other specialists,
Kathy who works with the volunteer program, Beth who works with health and HIV
programs, Sam from IT, and Jean from HR.
It is an added bonus to have people who work in the national
offices visit us in the field as there can sometimes be a disconnect between
our experiences. I think the biggest
surprise for them is how we all survive with such slow internet connections!
We had four days of meetings that covered a range of
topics. Julia, our SALTer volunteered to
do childcare for us. It was extremely
helpful. The kids got along very well in general and played,
colored, watched videos, did some VBS and even went to a playground with
Rebecca and I one afternoon.
The week was probably hardest on Rebecca and I as we had to
deal with a considerable number of logistical issues. Picking people up from the airport at 2 in
the morning and dropping them off at midnight
when they left were among them.
Changing money, paying bills, arranging meals, and field visits were
also necessary.
The highlight of the week may have been the field
visit. Thanks to Matt, our Kigali
agronomist, we were able to get a bus to take our group out to a visit to some
of our conservation agriculture projects.
I have talked about this project in the past, but to be able to show how
this technique is appreciated in the places were are doing it was impressive.
The bus ride was about 2 hours up into the mountain region
of Gicumbi. It was rainy that day and
the place was, quite frankly, very, very cold!
We went and visited four different sites including a farm where a member
of one of the women’s groups had decided on her own to adopt the method in her
own field based on what she had learned from participating on the collective
field. Since adoption of the method is
our ultimate goal, it was great to see it already catching on. After several hours of visiting sites and
meeting with the local authority, we headed back to Kigali for dinner. 
Besides meetings we did manage to have our share of good
food as the guest house did not offer dinner on the premises. We had in our 5 days there, Thai, Indian,
Mexican and Ethiopian food from the many excellent restaurants in Kigali.
The days ended with each of the reps departing to their
respective country programs, and the ones from the US and Canada returning home
as well after a brief visit to Goma.
Rebecca and I headed up to our team retreat with the Sprungers, but that
is another story….which I have already told.
Among the extra bonuses during the week was the very
unexpected news that the SALTers in Rwanda received approval for their one year
residents visas. This was something we
spent 9 months trying to secure for last year’s volunteers and ultimately
failed. The fact that they came so
suddenly this year was a real surprise and in my opinion, an act of God.
For Rebecca and I, the 2 weeks were the source of much
stress and much joy, the completion was cause for a major sigh of relief and a
retreat day which we took today. Some
friends even helped out by taking the kids after school. We reflected on the significance of this,
another last—the last regional meetings we will participate in, in our
term. They have taken us to
Ouagadugu--Burkina Faso, Jos--Nigeria, Kinshasa--DRC, Accra--Ghana, Addis
Ababa--Ethiopia, Kigali--Rwanda, Livingston--Zambia, and Nairobi--Kenya. I think there will be a part of me that
misses the exciting travel opportunities they have afforded us--after some time
of rest.
For more photos go to: https://plus.google.com/photos/111462534583731820408/albums/5942253355208180625?banner=pwa
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