week in review

So we made it to Kigali Tuesday and found our way to the guest house (with some help from a few bystanders who gave the taxi driver better directions). Rwanda is a bit different than Uganda. There are mountains everywhere. In fact, it is called the land of 1,000 hills. On the way from Kigali to Kibogora, I think we climbed all of them. It seemed like we were constantly going up or down some hill, not a whole lot of straight flat stretches in between.

Back in Kigali we stayed in a beautiful guest house owned by the Methodist church. I almost thought I was back in America, had it not been for the warm weather. We didn’t know that there was another group who had just come from Kibogora (by way of Bujumbura, Burundi) on the other side of the duplex. They had arrived Tuesday night after Connie and Amanda and I had fallen into bed. Julie called over there the next morning and asked to speak to me, so we met them and found out they were just on their way into town. We had been figuring out how to get into town, since we didn’t have a phone and we had all day to kill. We weren’t supposed to head out to Kibogora until Thursday, but because there was another group of people coming out from there to Kigali, it was decided that after we all went to town the three of us would grab all our stuff and make the 5 to 6 hour trek out that day. God is sooooo GOOOOD!!! He has been before us this whole time, working out the little details that we had no idea how we could accomplish them on our own.

For example, in Kampala (Uganda), Simon found a taxi driver who just “happened” to be coming our way, flagged him down and he took us to all the places we needed to get to in Kampala. Turns out he and Simon are from the same tribe and he is a Christian! We got his number, so when we get back to Kampala this week we can call him and not have to worry about how we are going to get the rest of our luggage or how to get to our hotel with all it.

Anyway, we finally arrived at Kibogora and let me tell you…this is one of God’s creative masterpieces. It is beautiful here! We are right on lake Kivu (which borders with Congo), and everywhere you look is lush and green and just gorgeous. There are always birds singing and butterflies seem to be everywhere (much to my delight). Thursday was kind of a “settling in” day. Julie gave us a tour of the hospital and let us know what we could do to help out some. Friday we were awaken in the middle of the night to the earth trembling. Apparently the quake they had last Sunday near Cyangugu isn’t quite finished shaking things up. The first aftershock was the biggest and then there were two more smaller ones, of which the last one was barely perceptible. After breakfast that morning we all headed down to the hospital to catalog some of the things in the storage closet so that they can be entered into a computer program to keep better track of what supplies they have and what needs to be ordered. That took us all day and we found things that had been manufactured or “expired” up to 13 years ago! Apparently they kept getting shoved to the back and never used. Some of it, like gloves and cotton and such, are things that don’t really expire. Anyway, now they know some of what they have. The store room is going to be moved when the new building is finished in about a month, so then I’m sure they will be going through it more thoroughly as time permits.

Yesterday, we went out to a place 3 miles away called Kumbya. It is an interdenominational camp ground. There are several churches that own cabins on the peninsula, but Kibogora hospital is the closest, so they are kind of “in charge” of overseeing it. Julie had to go inspect the houses to see if there are any major cracks since the earthquake, so we came along and just lounged around on the shoreline for a few hours, until she was paged to help with a budget report someone was having trouble with. Julie was going to drop us in the market to snoop around while she dealt with that (not thinking it would take very long), but we decided that we would just return with her and come back to the market later. Two hours later Julie showed up finally finished with the “quick” problem. That’s okay, Connie and I got a nap and Amanda got some reading time in in the interlude.

Today was church day. It was similar, yet different to the Ugandan services we have attended. This church does not do a lot of congregational singing. They have several choirs that prepare 2 or 3 songs each and they sit in a semicircle around the church and stand and sing when it’s their turn. There was no translator for us so we didn’t really know what the sermon was about, but we did our best. Mostly we just made faces, smiles, and waves at all the children sitting in front of us who were very curious about these muzungu sitting behind them. Even the people passing by on the street would stop and stare if we caught their eye through the window we were sitting by. Culturally, staring is not considered rude here, so people will just look at you for however long you are in their line of sight. It’s quite uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it after a while. The kids are the cutest, though. If you catch them staring and wave at them they usually get really shy, turn to their friends and start giggling. Some come right up to you and shake your hand. One house here on the main street has two adorable children who, when they see us, come out and give us all a hug. It’s very precious, causing many giggle from the bystanders and muzungu followers.

So there is a brief update of our journey to Kibogora. We are planning to head back to Kigali on Wednesday and Kampala on Thursday. We fly out from Entebbe on Monday at 9:45am (that’s 10:45pm for all of you in Washington). Happy day to you all.
Eryn