Perseverance through Adversity

A weekend away!

The program that I am here in Rwanda with is linked with an NGO called Procom whose main focus is on Agricultural Development. My professor for Social Context and Community Development is leading up this NGO and wanted us to take a trip to his farm. 

Lesson #1 learned from this trip: When someone tells you a trip will be 2 hours, expect it to be at least 3. Matatu's are the bumpiest, dustiest ride in the entire world.

On our way to the Procom farm (located extremely close to the Tanzania boarder), we first stopped at a Rwandan farm. Augustine is said to be the best farmer in Rwanda. He has just as much land as other Rwandans, but he utilizes his space very well. On his fan, he does a lot with mushroom seeds. He dries them, bags them and gives ten to his neighbors to plant and then he will buy their products to sell. He was also drying tomato slices so that he could plant and use the seeds. They were crunchy and sort of tasted by tomato soup. Many Rwandans struggle with producing products because of the dry seasons that effect Rwanda. As a solution to this problem, Augustine has large pits that collect water runoff from the streets and roof. He then uses that water to tend to his plants. Also on his land, he has several different types of banana trees. The trees only bear fruit once, but it takes about 18 months to produce a product. When the bushel of bananas is ready, it can weigh up to 300 pounds. Having been told the weight of those bananas, I have much more compassion for the men that walk down the street pushing 3-4 bushels of bananas on a bike. Watching them, it presented me with the realization that these people have to work so much harder for so little gain. The perseverance of these people is absolutely incredible!

Dried tomato slices

One of the other really neat things that Augustine was doing at his farm was the production of vanilla beans. He gave our group a bundle of them.

We drove through many rural areas and many of them were extremely far from any sort of market. That makes me stop and think, “How self sustainable are they?” Cultures and communities are always changing because the world is forcing them to. These communities seem so self sustainable from the outside which I see as a blessing for these people. Because of the drive to be self-sustainable, many children are helping out around their homes instead of going to school. My concern with this is, “How will this effect their children as the world forces change within their community?” Because the world forces change among cultures in order to remain functional, self sustained communities will eventually be effected and they may reach a point where being self-sustainable is unachievable. If communities reach this point and children are not educated, they will struggle to survive.

When we got to the Procom farm, we settled into our “house” which consisted of cement floors, cement walls that didn’t touch the ceiling and a tin roof (oh and I almost forgot about the latrine).

Which leads me to Lesson #2: Peeing in a hole is not my thing…

Other pictures from the farm:

On Saturday, we woke up and headed into a village to take part in Umuganda, a day of community service. As we walked into town, people flocked just to walk with us and hold our hands. When we got to the village, we waited around to see what we were going to be doing for the day. While we waited, we decided to have a little fun with the kids. We showed them how to play hopscotch. Most of them were timid and sort of backed up, but others stepped up and hopped right through it. Then, 4 of us went into a huddle together and crouched down on the ground and pretended we were having a serious conversation. The kids came in and huddled around us to see what we were doing. We counted to 3 and all jumped up and pretended we were raptors. The kids went running and screaming. Then, we all huddled back up and despite running and screaming, they all gathered back around us.

The community work that we ended up doing was weeding in a garden. There were at least 20 kids that came and helped because they wanted to work with Mzungus. The location that we were at had several “gardens” that we were helping with. It was very unclear what was to be pulled out so we would ask the kids, “This one?” and then pull it out. Some of the children there had incredible English while others didn’t have a clue what we were saying. The separation between kids who have the opportunity to go to Primary/secondary School and the kids who do not is such a distinct difference. It is sad that many children don’t have the opportunity to gain an education.

To say the least, being at the farm was not really my thing, but I learned a lot from being there. I realized that in this atmosphere, the Procom farm has to focus on Perseverance through Adversity. That statement got me thinking and I have realized that the lessons God is teaching me here don’t really have anything to do with the class topics. My interests don’t lie in Peace & Conflict or Development except for the fact that it is part of our Christian calling to be aware of these things and work towards furthering God’s Kingdom. That being said, I have found that the lessons God is teaching me here have to do with the side comments from different individuals.

Recently, I have been thinking about how I am going to approach my career and what I even want to do. I have had it on my heart that I want to teach on a pediatric floor in a hospital or pursue being a Child Life Specialist, but I have not heard positive things about the availability of jobs in that market. That really got me down. As I heard the statement, “Persevere through adversity,” I was no longer stressed or worried about what those around me were saying because I realized that by persevering, God will place opportunities in my life at the right time if it is meant to be. Then, as I looked at opportunities at Messiah, I came across the minor, “Child and Youth Services.” And for now…that is what I am going to do!

The next day, we left the Procom farm to drive to African New Life Church. The church is located in a very rural part of Rwanda and thus, it was a service spoken in Kinyarwanda. They knew we were coming so they had pews saved for us right in the front and a translator to give us the message. Different choirs sang and people welcomed us with open arms. A little girl, about 3 or 4 years old came up and sat next to me in my pew. She couldn’t speak any English so our communication consisted of smiling and high fives. As the pastor spoke, I had my journal out taking notes. Within seconds, the little girl had her head leaning on my forearm, asleep. At the end of the service, her mom came up to her to take her but the little girl did not want to go with her. I tried to pick her up and move her, but she was refusing to put her feet down and go. When we went out to the car, she followed us out.

 

Sitting in church, not being able to understand the songs and much of the translated sermon, I realized how much church isn’t about me. In the moment of watching the African people worship, I was simply enjoying Gods presence in the house of worship.

This experience is teaching me so many lessons in such crazy ways. It is in the midst of minor, unimportant side comments that God is speaking to me. 


Other "insignificant comments" that taught me lessons:

• When you dwell in the yesterday, you keep yourself from praising God and praying in the fullest
• As you are suffering, keep it in Christ
• Poverty is a way people come vulnerable (and we are all poor in Christ)
• The healing process starts when people are able to speak out and talk (express emotions)
• Emotions are both a blessing and a challenge

Do with them what you will :)