Hopefully our internet challenges have been solved! This “problem” has turned into an unexpected blessing though as our quest for a solution delivered us right next door to a fantastic co-op which we hope to continue a relationship with.
An hour north east of Kigali, Byumba brings us mornings fresh and sweet with soft breezes drifting through the Guest House. Kigali residents told us it was “cold” up here in the mountains of Gicumbi district and our dear, sweet friend and interpreter Emmanuel thinks its frigid. Meantime we pale mazungas are loving the 75 – 80 degree daytime temps!
It’s hard to believe our first 2-day training is over already. We’ve made so many beautiful new friends with amazing stories. Stories that need to be told. Stories that inspire me beyond any possible expectation.
As for our day of training, we did a quick recap of yesterday’s lessons, introduced the idea of coughing and sneezing into the elbow…what a fun discussion that turned out to be! Peter then started out the new lessons today introducing a new technology called SODIS. (Google it – it’s really cool!!) This sparked enormous discussion and is such a simple concept to implement using local materials. Cindy then lit up the room discussing different techniques to keep water clean. They absolutely love her! She’s definitely the easiest to understand for those who’ve learned some English. Brian and Johnny followed with lively discussions about diarrhea and Oral Rehydration Solution. Peter then got to cover the last lesson challenging the trainees to think about different behaviors and how to implement them in their communities.
After another authentic Rwandan lunch with our dear new friends, we had one of the trainees present one of the lessons. He totally nailed it (and hammed it up a bit)! What fun we had with this group…I miss them already!
I continued to fall in love with the beautiful children here, taking “pictores” of them who’d run over from the nearby primary (elementary) school whenever they could. Such wonderful children: amazing smiles, huge eyes and beautiful spirits. My heart just melts over them! Whenever one of the trainees shoos them from the yard, they scatter like a flock of geese, feet pounding and joyous giggles floating in the open windows. And oh how they love to see themselves in the camera!
All of our trainees-turned-trainers were presented with certificates of completion. That’s when I realized we may not be seeing some of them again. We exchanged some e-mails and committed their stories to memory – hopefully we’ll have the time to write their stories down before the details all get mixed up!
We were honored to share dinner with Pastor Brutus and he shared his testimony both of how he came to Christianity as a Muslim and how he survived the genocide to develop a program enabling survivors and perpetrators to reconcile and even embrace life together once again. There’s enormous work still to be done in this area and we pray with him for the ability to continue to expand his program in other districts.
Now, as we rejoice to have our internet back and soak in the comments from all of you, plans for tomorrow come to mind. We’ll have a rare late start (11 am) for some church visits. After our training ended today, plans began to “solidify” for our remaining time here. We have the opportunity to work with the Inter-Church Council in Gicumbi District with a bit of a new approach per the direction of the P.E.A.C.E. office. Our preparation over the last year has served us well to prepare for this unexpected challenge. For sure, it is a humbling responsibility to have.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we continue to build relationships and stretch ourselves in new ways in the next week. Each of us is growing in unexpected ways and are excited about the remaining time we have to continue this work.
We also eagerly anticipate checking the blog comments each day – your prayers and comments are truly a blessing to us!
Megan
