"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.