Dear Friends,
I created a new word during our recent trek to Rwanda: it’s called “weaknesstrength” and represents an advancement in my personal theology…..one of those things that seems so obvious after you see it that you wonder how you hadn’t seen it before.

“Weaknesstrength” consists of our weakness enveloped in His strength. Now I have always been of the opinion that His strength should replace my weakness whenever necessary, especially if I asked. Now I have realized that this is not actually what is promised. Running through the many verses in 2Corinthians related to this subject, I notice that in most instances it is understood that the weak person remains in weakness. And then God’s strength comes alongside or over top or around that weakness. Not the way I would have chosen, but then it’s a good thing these decisions are not up to me.

We had a tremendous trip — I would even dare to say the best trip I have ever had to Africa in many ways. But it still involves many challenges of various kinds. For me health is always a factor, fatigue another, the difficulty of not speaking the local language, the maniacal driving, the numbers of attendees at sessions being triple what was planned for, the baboons glaring at you and wanting your potato chips… Then there are other challenges such as trying to help the rest of the team have a great experience, interpreting cultural signs that you don’t understand, and figuring out how to process the stories of the people you meet in such a way that your hope and trust in Christ remain intact.

Of course that’s when my own peculiar weaknesses start to seep out. I pray that He would take away my weakness and replace it with His strength. I see His strength coming through so that others receive what they need  but I continue to be very in touch with my weaknesses.  Which is where my faulty theology and expectation come in. I wait for His strength to replace my weakness which mostly doesn’t happen. Instead I get to have some “weaknesstrength”: His strength as a fortress and refuge for my weakness. And we walk ahead together — me in Him, and Him in me.  It’s not always pleasant, but I do recommend it.

Grace and peace to you,
Beth Wood (Halifax Metro Vineyard)

Rick finally gets a turn... this is Nathan, Antoine and Florence's miracle baby (quite literally). I was the entertainment during the debrief session... my pen, my cell phone, my watch... and he insisted on feeding me the crackers Florence was passing him

We also had dinner with them and the Finnertys and took care of the final “money matters”… managing money on a trip like this can be a convoluted and time-consuming activity (especially bouncing back and forth between Rwandan Francs and US dollars).

Pat and Beth doing the final goesintos, receipts, etc. This may not look like high finance but, trust me, it is.

This morning Sheryl is off having some one-on-one “face time” with Val Finnerty while the rest of the team packs up.

The repacking all laid out. Note the great Rwandan Mission logo in wood at the head of the bed. It was presented to us on Sunday as a parting "thank you" gift to the St. Croix Vineyard (the Halifax Metro Vineyard also got one). Since it is wood, it may get taken away from us at Canadian Customs, so this may be the only chance you get to see it.

So… we fly in a few hours (the “final thing” is lunch with the Finnertys at the airport restaurant… it will be a working lunch where we will do a final retrospective with them as well). If all goes according to plan, we fly to Nairobi, getting in around 9pm local time and then catch an overnight flight to London and fly out of London tomorrow morning, landing in Halifax tomorrow afternoon.

So... this will be the final post until we get home... Wilma took this shot of me working on a blog post one night (doing these posts was part of my end-of-day routine).

Rick

This is the Land Rover we hired for the safari and our driver, Immanuel. He is a super guy and must run on a fuel similar to Earnest, given that he drove us around for 16 hours with very few (and short) breaks.

We saw tons (quite literally) of wildlife, including (according to our guide, Cecile) 9 of the 10 types of antelope that are indigenous to Akagera. I think giraffes are my favorite and Wilma got to see hippos (which was the thing she was most interested in). No elephant though

This hippo put on quite the show for us... for which we (especially) Wilma were grateful.

We saw a bunch of giraffes, but this one was the most accommodating, since she let us get close to her. Our guide thought this female was pregnant.

We also saw quite a few zebras, such as these two fine specimens. Cecile quizzed us regarding whether a zebra is a white animal with black stripes or a black animal with white stripes... apparently, research has determined that they are, in fact, black animals with white stripes.

The warthogs are really interesting (and funny), but it was almost impossible to get a decent picture of one, because they were always madly running somewhere.

This is the whole crew, along with our guide Cecile (Immanuel took the picture) at the "camping area". I find it a little hard to believe that people tent there overnight, but I'm told that, if you keep the fire going all night, the hyenas will leave you alone... indeed. Akagera is along the eastern border of Rwanda and those mountains in the background are actually Tanzania.

We got back late (and in the pouring rain) and had supper at Finnertys’ (Musengimana had made and left an amazing spaghetti sauce for us) and then it was back to the Guest House to collapse in a heap.

The team did our debrief/retrospective this morning and as I write this post (Tuesday afternoon here) the girls are off doing their “final” shopping (apparently, they still have some Rwandan Francs left that are burning holes in their pockets). Unfortunately, it’s Heros’ Day here (a national holiday) so there may not be much open.

Antoine and Florence and the Finnertys will be at the Guest House with us later this afternoon (and for supper this evening) and we will do another debrief/retrospective with them. Then we pack and get ready for the return trip home tomorrow.

Rick

Worshipers at Muyange Community Church

Patrick preaching (with Antoine interpreting). He spoke on being a positive influence for the Kingdom of God

This little guy was Rick's bench mate during the sermon... he played with my water bottle, my watch, etc., etc.

After church we had lunch at the Finnerty’s and then rushed back to the church for the second Youth Session… what a great bunch of young people. Beth did a session on “Dreams” (i.e. God’s dreams for them and their dreams for themselves). They drew pictures of their dreams and we hung the pictures up on the wall… one young person’s dream was to be President of Canada… when I (Rick) was talking to and praying for them later, I assured them that we could use good “presidents” in Canada, so I really hope that particular dream comes true.

We started out with Sheryl teaching them a game that uses frisbees... none of them had seen a frisbee before, but most got the hang of it right away.

Beth reading Desmond Tutu's "God's Dream" to the youth

And then the youth drew pictures of their dreams... some of them have pretty good English (they take it in school), like the one whose picture has the caption "President of Canada"

Youth session participants with the Palomine bars (courtesy of Ganong's) we gave out at the end

After the Youth Session, a bunch of the youth (and some older members of the church put on a dance and drama event for us (and others in the community).

The Muyange Community's version of Intore Dancers... I looked up intore in the Kinyarwanda-English dictionary in the Guest House and it means "dancer"... so Intore Dancers are Dancer Dancers... kind of like Chorizo Sausage...

Josiene (from the Youth Session) was the drummer for the dancers

We also had a “morality play” put on by members of the church. I (Rick) had the benefit of being beside Pat, so I had it explained to me. All of the Rwandans thought it was incredibly hilarious.

Some members of "The Muyange Players": Clemence (playing a young girl applying for a job) and Earnest (playing the "guard" for the "big boss")

And, for all you Wilma-with-a-baby fans out there:

The daily Wilma-with-a-baby photo for today

I (Rick) may not be able to do a blog post tomorrow because we are off on safari early (4:00am) tomorrow morning, to Akagera Park, and we will likely be late getting back.

Rick

Musengimana made us a delightful breakfast (not to mention her amazing chicken soup that we had for lunch).

Breakfast at Finnerty's... kind of like Breakfast at Tiffany's, only different

We had a quiet day of visiting and playing games with the family, shooting a video tour of their house and buying utilities (after Umuganda was over at noon and stores opened again).

The whole Finnerty family is loving the Kindle we got them. Joel has already read an entire book on it and both Val and Brendan have downloaded books. In this photo, Brendan is showing Beth how it works.

This is the local "7-11" that is about a minute's walk from the Finnerty's house. MTN is the major cellular carrier in Rwanda and this is where we bought some airtime to recharge the SIM card that Pat got us for the unlocked GSM phone we brought with us. It has been really helpful for staying in contact with the Finnertys when they are home and we are at the Guest House. We also got soap for the Tippy Taps at this store and Musengimana and I got beef bouillion and (Irish) potatoes here when Rick had his Rwandan cooking lesson (Musengimana made Rick take off his apron when they went to the store, but she kept hers on).

It turns out that you pre-pay for your electricity in Rwanda too. We were almost out (I blamed Sheryl's hair dryer), so Pat had to go "into town" (the 7-11 doesn't sell electricity apparently) to buy some. He came back with a long number that you type into the number pad on the front of the meter (pictured here) and, voila!, you have power again.

The Finnerty’s have two dogs, a cat (although the cat is currently on a mission trip of its own, to Antoine and Florence’s, because they are having a “rat problem”) and a parrot.

Apparently, this parrot can sing the first part of "O Canada", although no amount of coaxing from Wilma and Sheryl could convince him to do it. The only thing I have every clearly heard it say was "bite me".

We came back to the Guest House for supper and to prepare for the second Youth Session tomorrow (Sunday)… and to hopefully get an early night, since we have full days planned for tomorrow and Monday.

Rick

Inside the Kigali Nakumat. Sheryl had to have a picture of it.

This afternoon was the first (and only, as it turns out) Marriage Workshop session (we talked with Antoine and the Finnertys and concluded that the folks in the church were getting a little burned out after three consecutive days of Community Health Seminars).

Antoine and Florence did the scripture readings from a Kinyarwanda bible but, apparently, the chapters and verses don't always match up exactly with English bibles, so we are double checking to make sure we are "on the same page", so to speak

The participants were divided into small groups of three couples each and, after they shared in their small groups, a representative from each group shared a summary with everybody (which is what you are seeing in this picture). We introduced the "talking circle" for sharing in the small groups and we used seashells to designate the speaker. Rwanda is a land-locked country, so the seashells were a huge hit.

We had "treats" for each couple who attended the seminar, including a Palomine bar (courtesy of Ganongs). We liked the Palomine bars because there are two separate pieces in the package and our key verse was "two are better than one" (Eccl. 4:9). I hope this couple shared theirs... apparently Florence ate both her piece and Antoine's (maybe Antoine isn't a big chocolate fan).

After the seminar, we drove home some of the folks who walked two hours to get there and then we went to supper with the Finnerty family (Joel and Brendon got to pick and they chose an Indian restaurant… one thing I can say for Kigali is that they have some great restaurants).

Tomorrow is Umuganda (the Rwandan word for “contribution”), where every able bodied person aged 18 years or older is supposed to participate in unpaid community service (from 7am to noon on the last Saturday of each month). Businesses close and no public transportation operates, so we are having a sleep-over at the Finnerty’s place tonight (otherwise we would be “trapped” at the Guest House all morning).

There could really be a whole series on humorous English sayings on T-shirts worn by Rwandans, but I just couldn’t resist this one, worn by one of the staff at the guest house today.

Enough said (it is actually a Juicy Fruit gum t-shirt, but still...)

Rick

We started with a review of making the oral rehydration solution for treating diarrhea illnesses.

Antoine and some of the small group leaders (from left to right: Silvere, Ambrose and Esperence) practicing and demonstrating how to make the oral rehydration solution using the special TALC rehydration spoons

Then Wilma did a session on nutrition and how the different kinds of food they eat are used/needed by their bodies.

The collection of local foods for the nutrition session

Then we moved into how to make a “Tippy Tap”, which is a simple, low-water-usage hand-washing station. The church has a dual Tippy Tap by their latrine.

Earnest demonstrating how to make a Tippy Tap (he built the ones pictured here). If I could figure out what this guy runs on, I would bottle it and power the world

We had the official graduation ceremony and then the final snack (corn). We were able to get a great deal on the corn by buying a local individual’s entire crop.

Cooking the corn for the snack

The Team, plus Pat, Val, Antoine and Florence, spent the afternoon visiting a couple of co-ops run by another missionary friend of Val’s. The Muyange Community Church is interested in getting some kind of co-ops going themselves and they wanted to find out how others are doing them.

One of the co-ops we visited produces various sewing products, including the lovely oven mitts that Antoine is demonstrating

And because no blog post would be complete without a picture of Wilma with a baby (and also because I forgot to include one yesterday)… this time she managed to convince a woman in the church to lend her baby so Florence could teach her how to tie a baby to her back Rwandan-style.

This speaks for itself...

Rick

A Community Health Seminar participant with the hand-washing "infographic" from her packet... I'm pretty sure that this particular girl never stops smiling

The folks in Muyange love to dance, so Sheryl taught everybody how to a “traditional” Canadian dance (a Quadrille). The team (plus Pat and Val) demonstrated and then we got some Rwandan volunteers to try it with us… they loved it and I think they want to do it again on Sunday (at church).

Rick setting up the tech for playing the Canadian dance music ("Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet" on mandolin). I'm sorry, there are no photos or videos of the dancing, because Rick was dancing (well, if you could call it that)... maybe Sunday?

We moved on from hand-washing to everyone’s favorite topic, diarrhea (how you get it, how you deal with it, when you know you should take your child to the clinic, etc.)

Wilma teaching about how diarrhea "works"

In the afternoon, while “the girls” rested and did the grocery shopping for the nutrition segment of the CHS planned for tomorrow, Rick got to have the much anticipated Rwandan cooking lesson from Musengimana (the Finnerty’s worker).

This is the result of our labours. Clockwise from the left: Ibitoke, Ugali, Carrots and Peas, Rwandan fried potatoes (french fries, basically).

Musengimana gets all the credit… I tried to help peel the Ibitoke (a kind of green-stemmed banana) but she could do three for everyone I did. I cut up half the “Irish potatoes” (as the Rwandans refer to them, to distinguish them from sweet potatoes) for the “chips”, but other than that I just tried to follow everything Musengimana was doing. I think there is some hope that I might be able to make a couple of the dishes myself, although I’m pretty sure it would take a long time and a lot of practice to make decent Ugali.

Musengimana cooking the Rwandan version of french fries. Did I mention that she made all this food while the power was off (all afternoon)? The power came back on just as we were organizing the candles to finish the meal (as it was getting dark).

Rick

Wilma teaching about hand washing with Antoine interpreting. She used turmeric to represent the "germs" (that's why her hands are yellow).

It turns out that having a snack for 85 people, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, is… challenging, but a great lot of fun really.

Getting the snack ready

We ended up with Rick doing an impromptu talk about praying for children.

Rick explaining about praying for our children, with Antoine interpreting (thankfully, he fixes the Rick-isms in translation)

After the session... Wilma with yet another woman's baby... we are definitely checking her luggage before we leave...

After a great lunch at the Finnerty’s and a bit of a rest, Rick and Pat went off to do home visits with Silvere (he’s the small group leader for the “cell” of Kiyanja, were we were visiting) and Ambrose (who was interpreting for us).

One of the homes we visited was Jean-Baptiste and Francoise. Three of their four children are in the picture (the 4th was off at school). The other family we visited was Anastase and Diane and their three children. Silvere, Anastase and Francoise and the leaders of the small group in Kiyanja.

While “the guys” were off doing home visits, “the girls” were doing a session back at the church on women’s health.

Wilma teaching at the Women's Health session with Elsie interpreting. Elsie is a Rwandan friend of Val's who was willing to do the translating, since the topics for the session presented certain... challenges... for Antoine

We all rendezvoused back at the Finnerty’s for supper and now, while I (Rick) do this blog post, “the girls” are madly putting together the 85 information packets we need for tomorrow (we only brought 40, based on what we had been told about numbers beforehand)… and revising the agenda/plan to accommodate the increase in numbers.

Rick

Wilma, Rick and Sheryl outside the Genocide Memorial in Kigali

After the Genocide Memorial we met up with Val and Beth (Pat took us through the Memorial and took the picture above) for lunch at a Moroccan restaurant (amazing humus).

The whole team with Val and Pat Finnerty at the restaurant

Rick and Pat did a bunch of guitar repairs (we went from having only one fully functional guitar to having four) and a bunch of IT work to get all the Finnerty family tech in top working order… while “the girls” went shopping… dangerous to let them go shopping by themselves, I realize…

We had a potluck at the Finnerty’s with a bunch of other (Friends, a.k.a. Quaker) missionaries who gather with them for mutual support and to worship together (Rick and Pat led a worship time for the group after supper).

Now, it turns out that we have had a couple of requests (from our various boy children) to show what the roads are like, so here you go boys…

Like anywhere, there are different road types... the best is the familiar paved road, like this one in Kigali

Then there are "cobblestone" roads. We're told that it is just fascinating to watch these being built by the large teams of people that descend on a dirt road to get the job done.

There are lots of sections of dirt road everywhere (e.g. the street into the Guest House, the street into the Finnerty's, most of the road into the church in the village of Muyange). They don't seem to be graded very often, so there are huge ruts everywhere... and I mean huge... it is quickly obvious why a 4WD is essential, since many of these "roads" are more like ATV trails (just imagine what they are like in the rainy season).

Rick