More CHS and a cooking lesson

Today was the second day of the Community Health Seminar (CHS) and we started by handing out “packets” to the participants (we madly scrambled to make more yesterday afternoon and evening) and reviewing hand-washing.

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

Day 1 of the Community Health Seminar

Today was the first day of the Community Health Seminar that is the centerpiece of our trip. We were expecting 40 people, ended up with something like 85, and had to send out an emergency call to Pat (Finnerty), who was out getting the snack for the session, to get more of everything.

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

A different day

Our day started off with the visit to the Genocide Memorial that got postponed from Saturday. I (Rick) found it hard but not as bad as I thought it would be. I think the reading I did (before coming) about Rwanda’s history in general, and the genocide in particular, prepared me pretty well… and I found the section on the children not as psychologically devastating as the children’s section of the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

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

Our First Sunday

Our day today started early, because we had to be at the church in the village (of Muyange) for the small group leaders training session at 8:30am, but not as early as some of the leaders who had to walk for two hours to get to the meeting (that’s commitment!). We had met a number of their leaders during the home visits yesterday, including Silvere, Odette and Ambrose. Rick taught them about hearing from God through the scriptures (for Lorna Jones’ benefit it was “straight up” lectio divina). We had some wonderful sharing about what we heard from God as we read the Scriptures (Mark 4:35-41) together. I (Rick) was especially impressed with how quickly and completely Florence (Antoine’s wife) just “got” the lectio divina way of praying with Scripture.

Once church got under way, we had some very lively worship, all in Kinyarwanda (thankfully, we had Ambrose right beside us, who explained what the songs were about, and we could usually catch on to the chorus after a bit). Beth preached about Living Water (which is the theme of everything we are doing from both the spiritual and community health perspectives) and we got to pray with folks afterward. I (Rick) got to pray, along with Antoine, for a young man who accepted Jesus as his savior. They end up their service with what I have come to call the “ministry of announcements” (I thought the St. Croix Vineyard had the corner on the “ministry of announcements” until today).

Beth preaching on "Living Water", with Antoine interpreting

We went to the Finnerty’s for lunch and then back to the church for the first Youth Session. We had a great time with them and we’re all sorry that we will only have one more session with them (next Sunday).

Beth had a cooperation/team building game for them in which each of the youth were given a couple of pieces from a children’s puzzle (one with a small number of very large pieces) to put it together. We hadn’t taken into account that none of them had even seen a puzzle before, let alone made one, so it made for quite a time (we did end up helping a bit).

The youth making the puzzle... things went better once we were able to get across the idea that it made one big picture once it was all put together.

The main event was Wilma teaching the youth how to properly wash their hands (I think we all learned something actually). We put glitter on their hands (to represent the germs) so they would know if they were successful in their efforts to get their hands clean.

The youth learning to properly wash their hands (which is way more involved than you might think)

Right after the youth session, which ended up with each one getting a candy treat from Canada’s Chocolate Town (donated by Ganongs) and Rick praying a prayer of blessing over them, we dashed back to the Finnerty’s house for a Skype call with the St. Croix Vineyard (the six hour time difference made it possible for us to do the call “live” during the Sunday morning service there).

We ended up back at the Guest House for supper and a quick planning meeting… then off to bed under the mosquito net again.

Rick

Home visits in Muyange

Our morning today was taken up with planning for tomorrow (Sunday), which will be a very full day for us (Rick is doing a session with leaders on “hearing God”, Beth is preaching and we are all doing the first “special time” with the youth).

Wilma, Beth, and Sheryl planning up our first Sunday at Muyange Community Church

Our afternoon was full with visits in the homes of members of the Muyange Community Church.

Wilma holding a baby again! This little one is the most recent addition to Silvere and Odette's family, the first of our home visits.

Our second visit was to a dairy farm that is managed by Ambrose, a relatively new member of the Muyange Community Church. We were told that Ambrose will be helping Rick out with some translation (his English is excellent)

Antoine’s (the pastor of Muyange Community Church) new land was nearby the farm that Ambrose manages, so we got a chance to drop in and see the current state of the building and landscaping . Things a really coming together there!

We finished up by taking the Finnerty family out for dinner (pizza of all things) in Kigali. All in all, a full day, with another one on the horizon.

Kicukiro

Our first full day in Rwanda was action-packed!

The highlight of our day was the tour of the Kicukiro Community Health Clinic. This clinic (that has only two doctors) services a population of approximately 34,000 people, including the folks from the Muyange Community Church (a.k.a Kigali Vineyard).

Wilma is holding a newborn who is literally minutes old (her mother gave birth just as we were touring the maternity ward)

Sheryl and I thought our paramedic sons would like to see Kicukiro's ambulance. I was told that it is only used for patient transfers (to other medical facilities) if the patient requires services beyond those available at Kicukiro

Other adventures in our day included a visit to a Community Health Evangelism leader (where Rick got to have some fun helping some local guys get our car unstuck when it got fetched up on a huge rock).

The payloader operator (the short guy in the white shirt) had the clever plan to get the car off the boulder it was hung up on... he and I dragged the boulder out from under the car once we got the front end up high enough.

Our day concluded with having the Finnerty family, plus Antoine (pastor of the Muyange Community Church), Florence (his wife) and Nathan (their one year old son… who is cute as a button and had great fun playing with Wilma’s watch) over to the Guest House for supper (yet another amazing Rwandan meal prepared by the Guest House staff… honestly, I want to get some recipes to bring home… if I can adequately bridge the language barrier).

Rick

Live from Rwanda

Hi all,

After two long overnight flights (Halifax to London and London to Nairobi) and one short regional hop (Nairobi to Kigali) the team  arrived safely in Rwanda… and with all eight of our checked bags!

The girls from the team enjoying some refreshments at the airport in Nairobi

We have settled in to the Africa New Life Mission Guest House and have already enjoyed two wonderful meals prepared by the Rwandan staff. We had the Finnerty family over for dinner tonight, where we also got to share some of the special surprises we brought for them… and Val was totally thrilled with the Kindle!

Off to bed under the mosquito net now… we have a full day planned for tomorrow.

Rick