Dan's Fun Job

After my very first blog post, in which I talked about looking forward to a slower pace of life in Rwanda, we received a great, encouraging email from a friend who has been faithfully serving in the developing world for several decades. Among her words of wisdom, she offered this insight about my hopes for more free time: "I doubt that will last long; the needs in the field are so great!"

Those words have rung true these past few weeks, as things have gotten surprisingly busy here. The primary culprit is my very exciting but consuming job with a new government institution called the Rwanda Development Board (RDB).

The RDB was created this past fall to "fast-track" Rwanda's development efforts. If that sounds like a broad charge, it's because it is! We report directly to the President and are responsible for solving problems hindering the country's strategic growth and development--everything from big infrastructure projects to education and workforce development to private investment, building a better business climate, and more. We should create the conditions for the private sector to grow, creating more jobs and expanding opportunities for all Rwandans. The RDB is modeled after a similar entity that proved successful in Singapore.

President Kagame has asked an enormously successful American businessman named Joe Ritchie to serve as the CEO. Joe has been involved in Rwanda for the past five years, serving on the President's Advisory Council and pitching the country to private sector leaders around the world. He's hard-charging and eccentric, with a brilliant business mind; I've already learned a lot from him.

Perhaps more exciting though, is the opportunity I have to work with a young Rwandese leader named Francis Gatare, who is the #2 at the RDB. Because Joe is not yet living in Rwanda full time, Francis is the guy really running the show day to day. He is smart, humble, and committed to his country; he could very well be President of Rwanda in 10 years. He's also totally overwhelmed. Like most organizations here in Rwanda, the RDB has a few very capable people at the top of the organization, then the talent pool and staff capacity drops off dramatically below them. So a guy like Francis always has more work than anyone could handle.

It's really been great fun working in a Chief of Staff/Senior Advisor role for the RDB: trying to take things off Francis and Joe's plate, helping with policy strategy and research, interfacing with Western investors, and generally trying to keep the trains running on time. Campbell and I even got to help host a dinner for Tony Blair, who has committed to support Rwanda! My experiences in DC and New Orleans are actually serving me very well, and I feel like I'm making a difference.
Campbell and I are here in Rwanda because of Christ's call to love and serve the poor. I'm not working in a slum or among the rural poor, but I have the privilege of helping to tackle some of the country's BIG strategic challenges. Challenges, that if met, can further transform this country and improve the lives of millions of its poorest citizens. How cool is that?!?

Dispatch from Middle Earth

Today marks three years of marriage for Campbell and me. Remarkably, our anniversary has sparked a huge celebration across the country! The entire country has declared a holiday, and people everywhere have taken to the streets to observe our special day with singing, chanting, and whistles! It’s quite an honor really.

Okay, so they are actually out protesting the ongoing controversy surrounding the arrest of Rose Kabuye. All the businesses are closed, and thousands of people are marching through the streets across the city. The U.S. Embassy has advised that we generally keep a low profile, but everything is very orderly and peaceful. (Don’t worry, Mom…there’s no danger). The emotions around this case are deep-seated. These protests have provided an interesting window into the deep, strong feelings that persist from the genocide, lurking beneath the surface.

The whole Rose incident actually deserves a more thorough post (as does the story of my participation in the protests, which is really very funny). I’m sorry that our computer problems have prevented me from sharing more information, but the following article captures many of the key details and why it matters:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kinzer14-2008nov14,0,2297389.story

Campbell shared a bit about our trip up to the Northern Province of Rwanda. Musanze may well be the most beautiful place I’ve ever been (click on the pictures for more amazing views). We spent the afternoon at the Virunga lodge, a super high-end retreat ($1,000/night!) that is perched on top of a mountain. One side of the mountain looks down onto a huge crystal lake, while the other side faces a series of volcanic mountains. It is truly spectacular. We hiked for a few hours (I kept waiting to find Frodo, Gandalf, and co. coming around the bend) before enjoying dinner in this magical spot.The drive up to Virunga took us through several rural villages where we encountered waves of children that would run after our car, laughing and calling out, “Muzungu, muzungu!” I don’t think this will ever get old; just thinking about it makes me smile!

Faces

I have to apologize for the lack of postings these days.  Our brand new computer (two weeks old!) has completely crashed so we're fairly limited in good internet access without a laptop to haul to one of the hotels around here.

  
Dan and I've just returned from a fun weekend in Musanze with a group from the US.  They're fantastic people! While in Musanze, we had the chance to visit the new Kids Across Africa (Kanukuk folks) camp site...We drove there in two cars over bumpy roads and weren't at the site for more than three minutes when children from every hill came running as fast as they could down to see the crazy Americans.  

Dan is spending his days working with Francis Gatare and Joe Ritchie at the Rwanda Development Board.  He's meeting with potential investors in Rwanda, writing press releases, giving his two cents where appropriate, and generally helping where he can.  The work is hard, fun, frustrating, gratifying, and tiresome.  All in all, though, he's able to help the people of this country in a strategic way and for that, he's grateful.

My job at the bank has been put on hold for a little while until the new CEO gets here in February.  This has been somewhat disappointing but... Francis Gatare articulated to me that the biggest hospital in the country, King Faisal Hospital, needs a serious communications plan. They need help communicating to the world what they're capable of and generally communicating to each other within the walls of the hospital.  I've agreed with the humbling notion that I'm not an expert in hospital administration.  I am thrilled, though, for the opportunity to help the healthcare in the country in some small way.

Now for the title of this entry.  We've come to form sweet friendships with some good friends here in Kigali.  

Chantal helps at the house--she cooks, cleans, but mostly answers my ridiculous questions about everything Rwandan.  She's become a close friend.  She's my age, had four children but now has three, and I love her.

Samuel is our trusted taxi driver.  He has one daughter (who's nine--she's studying computers and is SMART!). Samuel also answers all of Dan's and my questions about everything Rwandan and transports us places until we get a car.  

Tom Allen is our den dad.  He tells us answers to questions we didn't even know we had.  He's the one in an earlier entry that I talk about--that big-time LA attorney who quit his life in Hermosa Beach to move to Rwanda.  

Enoch.  I haven't even met Enoch yet, but he's Chantal's little boy.  He hadn't ever killed a chicken before (and hadn't eaten chicken in 3 years) until this photo was taken a few weeks ago. We sent our camera home with Chantal to capture the momentous occasion.

Domasin is the gardener/guard/everything else guy.  He knows everything.  Last week when Dan ran out of the house to protest Rose Kabuye's arrest in Germany (this is definitely another whole entry) Domasin knew where Dan was, what was happening, and who everyone was protesting against.  Domasin and Chantal were also the ones who saw Dan's face on TV that night and told us about it the next day.  One more thing about Domasin--he hates the chickens in the yard. He's tied a cord around one of their feet so he can catch them easily when they're digging up something (like our newly-planted herbs).  We see Domasin running across the yard chasing the chickens at least 4 times a day. 

I think that's all for now.  There are so many more faces to post... We'll be doing that in the next few days so friends can see the dynamic folks we're here with.

Murabeho,
Campbell

"It's Real"

So Dan and I continue to play like sponges and soak up the beautiful music, smiles, weather, and overall warmth of Rwanda. We're learning new Kinyarwandan words each day--I learned "murabeho" yesterday: "goodbye."

Sunday we went to an Anglican church for worship and it was wonderful! Our days are filled with meetings, site visits, good conversations, and lots of de-briefing at night. 

Yesterday was quite a day for Dan and me. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be drafting the Administrator's speech for an upcoming USAID conference, and was in desperate need of some "material." Many of you will know that I dread drafting these things, and I actually really stink at anything verbal except for talking too much. I got my first C in Reading Comprehension in the second grade. So yesterday I needed all the help I could get.

Dan, I, Tom Allen, Glen, a USAID colleague, and another new friend, Elizabeth, went to visit Nicholas Hitimana's for-profit venture called Ikirezi. Ikirezi is much more than the organic-geranium-plant-growing, essential-oils-for-export venture it appears. Through growing cooperatives, 830 widows of the genocide work alongside each other to cultivate their eight rows each of geraniums just as they do their relationships with one another. But it's not that easy. Many times, widows of genocidaires work directly with women whose husbands were brutally killed by those same men.

After Dan and the rest peeled off to visit another site, I had the privilege to speak with Odette. 

Everyone in Odette's family except for two of her five children were killed in the war. Her parents, three children, and siblings died in a church up the road where Hutus and Tutsis were ordered by Hutu extremists to separate, so that they could execute the Tutsis. When the Hutus refused to leave their neighbors', spouses', and friends' sides, thousands died.

Odette and some of her family had retreated to Uganda, where her husband died fighting for the RPF, the rebel army which would come to take back Rwanda from Hutu extremists and put President Kagame into office. Odette had nothing.

She came to Links Ministry, Ikirezi's sister organization, looking for enough income to buy soap to bathe herself and her children. Today she's the treasurer of her geranium-growing cooperative at Ikirezi; she's generated 4 seasons' worth of money, her remaining children are in school, and she can buy them clothes and food.

After telling me all of this, Odette asked if she could explain to me (through Nicholas) how she "came about really forgiving those who killed her family, and not having anything left in the back of my heart." She explained that she hated westerners and Hutus for what they'd done to her family and her friends. But one day, during a meeting with the women of her co-op, a Hutu from the North came, knelt down before this group of women, and, weeping, begged forgiveness for what his people had done to theirs. She continued to forgive those Hutus around her, and she says God's since replaced the fear she had of them with love.

She just has one last "test" for this healing, she told me. She has to go to that church up the road...and she's so afraid. But she'll go--she says that forgiveness hasn't been easy, but when one gets healed by God, that "it's real." I'll say.

Pray for Odette and for this country.

All for now! Murabeho.

Campbell

Finally...

Yahoo!  We're here in Kigali.

Dan and I arrived on Saturday morning tired and dragging with (count them) seven suitcases in tow.  I'm talking big suitcases with things like a printer, staple gun, and ipod speakers in them.  We couldn't have been happier to see our new best friend at the airport, Tom Allen.  Tom is a terrific Bridge2Rwanda guy who "gave up" his LA-attorney-lifestyle and his beachfront home on Hermosa Beach to live in Kigali where he has gotten to know virtually everyone in 8 months.  

Tom gave us a great tour of the city, and eventually took us to the B2R guesthouse (his bachelor pad).  This is no ordinary house: it's complete with two chickens, a mango, lime, mandarin orange, regular orange, papaya, and avocado tree, a gorgeous garden, and a wonderful view. We'll be staying in the guesthouse while we're settling in!  What a way to settle... 

These past few days have been packed full of introductions to the people of Kigali--their culture, their history, their vision, their hope...  Most poignant has been the Genocide Memorial, which commemorates victims of each of the world’s most brutal and senseless genocides, the Rwandan Genocide among them.  The Memorial is beautiful and horrible, resting on a large mass grave, which is opened routinely as more bodies are exhumed from the country and are given a proper burial.  For me, most moving was the children's room, where there were large pictures of children donated by their families with descriptions of each child's favorite food, their dreams, their favorite family member, their personality, their last words, and their cause of death.  I just couldn't control my tears and had to write down David Mugiraneza's story.  “Age: 10.  Favorite sport: Football.  Enjoyed: Making people laugh.  Dream: Becoming a doctor.  Last words: ‘UNAMIR will come for us.’  Cause of death: Tortured to death.”  

The Memorial is so important for the world to see the horrendous nature of genocide.  But Rwandans are trying desperately to move on with their lives and their country, and anyone can tell that they do not only want to be the country that "is recovering from terrible genocide" but want their leadership and vision beyond the atrocity to carry them to economic and social success in Africa and in the world.  And from what we’ve seen, this will happen.

I’m still working for USAID, and am currently helping with the Higher Education Summit here in Kigali for the next few days.  Dan and Glen Woodruff, the new President of Muhuburra University, are attending the Summit as well and are soaking up information and wisdom from folks like the Rwandan Ministers of Education and Technology, among others. 

We’ve enjoyed the opportunity over these few days to eat dinner at the Senate President’s house; hang out with Chantal, the wonderful woman who helps out at the B2R guesthouse; visit with Nicholas Hitimana and his wife who produce essential oils from geraniums grown by widows of the war; get to know Matt Smith, a B2R guy who also knows everyone in Kigali; meet Liesel and Lainie from NYC, who are visiting the guesthouse currently; and so much more.  Dan and I are more grateful for this time than we even know how to feel or express.

Thank you for joining us on what will be quite a journey,

Campbell

We're off!

So Campbell and I had just passed through security at Dulles Airport when I looked at her and said aloud, “Wow. Are we really moving to Africa?” The whole thing is still completely surreal. After so much anticipation and a past month that has been a whirlwind of loose ends, it feels great to finally be on our way.

I’m writing from Rome where we have a quick fuel stop before proceeding to Rwanda through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There’s a great sense of community on the plane! We’ve already enjoyed all sorts of interesting conversations with other folks, mostly Africans, but also a surprising number of Americans (including two large church groups). We also had a very cool view of the Eiffel Tower flying over Paris!

On the ride over the Atlantic, Campbell and I talked about how excited we are to be going to a place where we can refocus on things that matter. During our time in DC, we’ve increasingly felt a sense that life was out of balance and we were neglecting relationships with the people we cared about most. We’re excited to be someplace with a markedly slower pace of life, where we can take time to read, write, reflect, and most important, invest in people. We didn’t go to Rwanda for this reason, but it will surely be a blessing of our time there.

If you’re reading this, it means that you’re one of those relationships that we value so dearly. Thanks for joining us in this adventure. More to come from Kigali!

-Dan

p.s. It feels great to be in the land of (some of) my ancestors! I stepped off the plane to take in the Italian air—unfortunately the flight attendant only allowed me about 30 seconds, so that will have to do for now.