March 02, 2009
The longest travel day in history.
Dear friends and family,
It is actually Thursday and I am in the middle of the longest travel day in history. I left Rwanda yesterday around noon. After landing in Nairobi, we spent a seven hour layover in the airport waiting for our next flight. Then we flew eight hours overnight to London. Luci, Marilyn and Mary are spending the day and night there but I need to get home because I leave tomorrow for a speaking event in Fresno. So…I spent another five-hour layover in the airport until my connection on to Dallas. I am now in hour six of a ten hour flight. Oh my goodness, I can’t wait to get home!
As I mentioned in my last email (on Sunday,) I didn’t have Internet service in the village so I am just now writing the remaining updates from my trip. It has been an extremely full three days so I will send the report in three separate emails on consecutive days so as not to completely overwhelm you.
We departed Kigali early Monday morning and drove three hours in the nonstop rain to the village of Karaba just past Butare. The rain stopped just as we stepped out of the jeep at our first location where we were set to watch a bread making demonstration. World Vision has a program to teach orphan children, ages 16-21, a trade in order to make money to support their child-led households. In this location, they provide the house, supplies, equipment and training to make and sell bread in the market.
This was my first encounter with the children and as much as I was fascinated by the demonstration, it was difficult for me to keep my mind on anything but the beautiful, dirty, bright-eyed, faces all around me. Many of them snuggled right up to me and soaked up the loving touch of a mother. We brought Tootsie Pops to hand out and they were so adorable and grateful to receive them when we had to leave.
Next stop was at the Karaba ADP (Area Development Project.) The most impactful part of this visit was learning ALL that World Vision has done in just 15 years. It was so encouraging to hear the director, Polycarpe, talk about the work that needs to be done before the area is ready to be on their own in six years. I love that World Vision works toward self-sufficiency rather than perpetual dependence. The illustration that helps me describe how this changed my perspective is so small and typical American, but it is the best way I best can describe what I mean.
I have gained about 15 pounds since last year. On this trip, I thought that what I would do was put a current picture of me on my iPhone and then one of me from last year when I could fit into my clothes. And then, whenever I was tempted to eat another carb or two or 75, then I would look at the picture of what I was working toward. The hope of picture number two will motivate me much more than the despair of picture one. The Karaba ADP is a “picture number two” of World Vision’s strategy. More often than not, we see the overwhelming need and poverty in the world and think, “What can one person do to make a difference.” By visiting Karaba, I “see” what each “one person” can do and it gives hope and meaning to the small sacrifice of a few dollars a day.
One of the biggest treats of the whole trip came during lunch time when I got to meet one of my sponsored children. Before I left the States, I purposely sponsored a child from Rwanda so that I could meet her and have a personal connection with her so that when I write to her and send her pictures, I will be more than a name to her. What I didn’t anticipate was the impact she had on me. She was suddenly more than just a picture on a envelope. She was sweet, shy, four-year-old, “Josianne.” I brought her a few tiny gifts but she was so quiet and barely received them. Then someone brought her mother a plate of food and I began to feed her. She was so hungry, (but not hungry enough to eat her peas. I guess children are the same everywhere.) After her tummy was full, she nestled into my chest and I rocked her to sleep. I held her for over an hour and she never moved. I am still processing what that feeling has meant to me. I believe there is a part of all of us that longs to be fed in our emptiest places and then held until we nestle into a quiet rest and peace.
I prayed quietly for her before she had to leave. This may have been the biggest lesson of all for me. I was struck in a fresh way what a powerful privilege prayer is. I prayed that God would keep, bless and heal her. I prayed for her family, her future spouse and her future children, that the legacy would be different because of World Vision and these simple prayers, prayed in faith. From now on, I know that I will include Josianne, and our other sponsored children, in my prayers for my own three children. After meeting her, I feel a much deeper level of responsibility for her, not just financial support, but prayer investment, as well. I believe that the prayers are so critical, because if God doesn’t answer them, she has very little hope for a different future than a life of barely surviving.
The next stop was very hard, the Murambi Genocide Memorial. This was thought to be a place of refuge but ended up being a trap for massive slaughter. We were taken into room after room of dead bodies whose skeletons have been preserved with lye. The images and the smell made me sick. I wondered why we needed to see such graphic violence. The guide reminded us that it was so that we would never forget what can happen. The perpetrators dug mass graves and threw the bodies in and then covered it up and made a volleyball court. They wanted to pretend it never happened. I learned that denial is a hallmark of genocide.
Thankfully, that was the last stop of the day. Good thing because I was physically and emotionally exhausted. We checked into our hotel, “The Golden Monkey.” It was perfect. (Except for the tiny beds, bugs, and no hot water.) But, I loved the experience. It felt very African, complete with mosquito nets around the beds. Lara Dulaney, the VP of finance for WOF, stayed with me. We were awakened at 5 A.M. by the Muslim call to prayer over the loud speaker outside. So we stayed awake and had some girl talk until time to meet for breakfast.
But, I jumped ahead of myself. I forgot the last part of the day, which was one of the most personally life-changing experiences of the trip for me. Over dinner, we heard the testimony of the WV national director, Shawntel. I wish I could tell you all of the unbelievable pieces of her story but you will just have to read the book, which I’m sure she will write and Thomas Nelson will publish! Her husband was killed in the genocide when she was six months pregnant. She took her four-year-old daughter and was on the run for five months. During that time, she was beaten, lived in the bush, starved, delivered her baby on banana leaves, lost her daughter, found her again, escaped death, then asked to be killed…all the while running for her life with a child on her back and a baby in her arms.
She then told the story of murder in her heart for the man who killed her mother and father. Her choice to meet him in prison, break bread with him, and experience the power of forgiveness. (They are now closer than a brother and sister.) In the meantime, she began working for World Vision and went through their program teaching healing and reconciliation. She was taught how to “tell her story” and experience deep emotional healing. Shawntel, is the picture of the good news of the gospel and the verses in Isaiah that tell why Jesus came, to heal the broken hearted and to set the captive free.
Believe it or not, as long as this email is, and as many words as it contains, it can’t even begin to tell the story of today. I can only pray that I will live out a different story for having experienced it.
More tomorrow,
Lisa
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Posted by weblion at 07:12 PM
