Crazy African Dance Party

Hello again everyone!

Thank you for being patient with me - I know I haven't updated this in forever...I'm going to try to be better about it now that I am somewhat getting into the swing of being here...

So when I last posted I had been in Uganda for a couple days and was getting used to the lay of the land and trying to figure out how I will be living for the next three months. Unfortunately, I am still figuring this out...We were only in Uganda for a few days before we left to go to Rwanda for 9 days on August 29. We loaded up the buses at 5AM and drove 15 hours (on pretty horrible roads), crossed the border and made it to the rural Rwandan village of Kibunga where we were staying for a few nights. Although most of the places where we stayed on the trip were pretty dismal in terms of American standards, they were very nice compared to the other options available in Africa. All 20 girls stayed in a huge room together that was filled to bursting with bunkbeds. It was a very nice bonding time.(new friends under the mosquito nets we sleep under every night here...)

We spent the first couple days of the trip in the rural areas and we were split into groups to visit rural churches on Sunday. As "distinguished guests" we were welcomed with open arms and treated as honored visitors - something that in a way made me ashamed because I felt as though I had done nothing to deserve that kind of treatment. One member of my group preached, I gave my testimony and then my group sang a few English songs (very poorly...) No one in the church spoke much English except the pastor and so he translated for us. Unfortunately, you never really know what the translation is and sometimes there can be errors. A girl in another group gave her testimony about how her father recovered from a heart attack - and the translator inadvertently told the congregation that her father had died! Oops...

(picture: this is what happens when you give your camera to a group of Rwandan children to play around with...)

When our two days in Kibunga were over we loaded up again and drove an hour or so to reach the capital city of Kigali. The differences between the countries of Rwanda and Uganda became extremely apparent as soon as we entered Kigali. Rwanda is significantly cleaner and fairly well organized in comparison to Uganda. There are hills for miles in all directions - even in the capital city you have to continually drive up and down and up and down to get anywhere. (coming from the Midwest, this is an EXTREME transition for me. In Kigali, as white foreigners we attract significantly less attention than we do in most parts of Uganda and also the rural areas of both countries. I felt less conspicuous than I had in days...

(view of Kigali from Kigali Genocide Memorial)

It is extremely difficult to summarize all of the things that we did during the four days that we spent in Kigali. We were there primarily to learn about the country of Rwanda - it's past, present and future, with a special focus on the genocide and reconciliation in he aftermath. To make sure you understand the context for what I am going to talk about, I will give you a brief background of what happened. Rwanda is composed of three people groups - the majority are Hutu with about 20-30% Tutsi and a very small (around 1%) number of Twa people. No one really knows when these ethnic distinctions came about but with the advent of the colonial period, the Belgians who colonized Rwanda pitted the two groups against one another by appointing the Tutsis the "ruling class." As the Hutus began to rise up in retaliation, the Belgians switched sides and the Hutu majority took over the government. The Hutus stayed in power after independence, but there was continuing resentment against he Tutsis because many Hutus still believed that they had invaded Rwanda from another part of Africa and so did not belong there. Skipping to the 1990's, a group of militant Hutus formed a group called Hutu Power with the purpose of bringing about the demise of all the Tutsis in Rwanda. They began making lists of Tutsis in power to kill and forming militant gangs (called the Interhamwe) which became the perpetrators of the genocide. When the plane of the president, Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down in April 1994 (no one knows by whom), this act set off the genocide. For a period of 100 days, groups of Hutus violently murdered around 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. There is much more to the story than that, but if you want to know more, you can go find out for yourself...

During our four days in Kigali we were literally swamped with speakers intended to make us knowledgeable about topics such as reconciliation, the gacaca court process (instituted b the government because they did not have enough resources to try all the genocide perpetrators in the national courts) and the role of the church in development. We were able to hear stories from those who had experienced the genocide first hand - something which was extremely useful for someone like me who came in with a large amount of knowledge about the events of the genocide, but very little emotional knowledge or practical experience. These stories make the atrocities that you can only read about real...

(mass grave at the Kigali Genocide Memorial)

There is so much I could tell you, but I think that the pivotal point for me during the trip was when we traveled to a memorial just outside of Kigali in a church where hundreds had taken refuge during the genocide and had subsequently been killed by the Interhamwe. They had taken the clothes of all the victims and laid them out on benches all around the church. Behind the church were two mass graves which housed a number of those who had been killed, including a grave where around 50 people had been buried alive. As our guide took us around the church and told stories of the massacres, we soon realized that he was one of only seven of those who had taken refuge in the church who survived - so the stories that he told us came from his own recollections of the events. He was eight years old at the time and had watched his parents die - his brother smeared blood all over him and told him to lie still, pretending he was dead. He remained on the floor for three days until he was able to sneak out of the church to a swamp nearby where some other people were hiding. I was baffled by how he could return to the scene where he had experienced such tragedy and tell his story over and over...that takes a tremendous amount of strength.

(one section of clothes at the memorial)

Although most of this section was thoroughly depressing, I don't want to leave you without hope. God never said we wouldn't struggle with our own contradictions - such as how could a country where 80% of citizens professed to be Christians kill their own neighbors in cold blood - and this is something we will continue to wrestle with. However, there is a bright side...On our last day in Kigali we visited a woman's development center right next to a school. As soon as we got there hundreds (literally) of young children poured out of the school desperate to just hold our hands. (Obviously they very rarely see "muzungus" around...) They followed us for hours as we toured the village and got to see how they have created stability through development projects and when we had to say goodbye to the children to go into a meeting, they crowded around the doors and windows, refusing to return to their classes. I guess I realized at this point that there is hope in future generations. Even though it may take decades still for the aftermath of the genocide to be resolved, these children do not know Hutus from Tutsi. Even though I believe that most of the "reconcilation" that has occurred now in the country is not truly genuine, future generations will hopefully be distanced enough from the event that there will be true peace.(my new little friend - thought about stealing him to take home with me)

After being in Rwanda for six days we were in need of a little refreshment since we literally had not stopped going the entire time. To debrief, we traveled to Kabale in Southern Uganda (the coldest place in the country - 75F every day! Brr...) and stayed at a camp on Barusha island. Waking up every morning in my large tent to the sounds of the boubou bird gave me a great chance to clear my head and prepare myself for returning back to campus and actually starting school.


(this is what I woke up to every morning - jealous?)

Unfortunately the program is full of transitions (they don't want us to get really comfortable anywhere) and even as we speak I am packing to leave today for my two week homestay in the town of Mukono (where Uganda Christian University is located). I will be coming back to campus during the weekdays for classes, but returning to my host family every night and for the weekend as well. I am looking forward to meeting my "mom, dad and siblings" as well call them, but also nervous about the cultural barriers that I will have to tackle. I think this will probably be the topic of my next blog post - whenever I actually get around to it... Originally we were supposed to move in yesterday, but there has been quite a bit of political unrest in the capital city (only 30 or so km from here) and also in Mukono as well so we were banned from leaving campus for a few days.

Please pray for the political situation here. Uganda was originally made up of 6 large kingdoms (and some smaller ones), with the largest being the kingdom of Buganda. When the British colonized this area, they used the Bugandan kingdom to indirectly rule the others. Today the kings of these kingdoms still exist, but they were stripped of their political power - something that is still a source of tension. This week, the king of Buganda was to embark on an annual visit to a place very near where my university is located, but Museveni (the president of Uganda) prevented him from visiting by sending out guards to block his way. This instigated massive protest by the Baganda people all around the capital city. We have been able to hear the riots going on outside our gates, but do not worry because we are very safe on campus and are hoping that the controversy dies down tomorrow or the next day.

I would appreciate all prayers as I continue to transition. Being a "muzungu" in Uganda has its frustrations and I am learning to navigate the stares, overly friendly men and COMPLETELY different culture. Pray that I will not be so frustrated that I forget to enjoy the time that I have here and also pray for my attitude towards being in a culture which in all honesty can seem extremely oppressive at times for a very independent American girl.

Love you all!