I am practically African now...

LAST BLOG POST UNTIL I REACH THE STATES IN A FEW DAYS! (Sorry, no pictures…the internet has been worse than normal around here)

Well, first off, let me apologize for not updating you all on my life for the past few weeks. This session of classes has consumed the majority of our time and we have not had much time to do anything other than read and write papers. That being said, we are DONE! Finals have been taken, presentations have been done and debriefing is in progress. Packing must soon begin…AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Kelli, the classmate whom I spent my time in Kayonza with, left yesterday to head back to America because her brother’s wedding is this coming weekend. Because of this, we had to complete our Oral Literature Presentation and Practicum Presentation early. The practicum presentation was smooth sailing; the oral literature presentation on the other hand…not so simple. Over practicum we were required to collect different pieces of oral literature ranging from proverbs and songs to narratives, tongue twisters, and riddles. For the presentation, we had to present them IN THE GIVEN LANGUAGE! Luganda and Kinyarwanda are not the easiest languages to just speak in. The clusters of sounds make it difficult to simply read across the page. If you thought tongue twisters in English were hard…try reciting them in foreign languages. Our professor is a stickler, but at least it is over J We have class on Monday and then the other students have presentations on Monday evening and Tuesday…then the academic semester is OVER!

Now, for a recap of the little bit of excitement I have had over the past few weeks! Here they are:

1)   I am practically African…

2)   I should be an African drummer…

3)   I now fear the taxi park…

4)   I am full of Go ED love…

I am practically African…

Last Saturday, our group visited a mission called, Azizi Life. Azizi Life’s vision is to participate in local initiatives for the development of Rwandan communities working towards physical and spiritual wholeness for all. While they may appear to simply be a “Marketing and Export” company that helps the rural artists of Rwanda access the wider global market, it is much more! The foundation of everything they do is based on the principles that are shown within the Bible. In all of their ministry activities, they strive to work with integrity and to show God’s love and truth to the people around them. They are passionate about telling the stories or their artisans and the communities they partner with. By connecting with the artisans, they hope they are giving them opportunities to participate in the development, and understanding, of friends across the world.

So, now that you have some background on this ministry, how did this play into our experience? One activity Azizi life does is allow outsiders to spend a day in the life of a Rwandan Artisan, so that is what we did. Here was the labor for the day:

First, we were broken into smaller groups and taken to a woman’s house. The woman we stayed with was named Florida and she had 3 young children. Her house was constructed of mud walls and we were shown their “living room” and the kitchen. The kitchen had a small open fire in the corner and then a living room with a few benches. After bring shown her house, the day began…

Traditional outfits: All the girls were dressed in traditional wrap skirts and head wraps before we started the day’s work.

Cultivating the land: We were given hoes and hiked down a big mountain to a square of land where we tilled the land uprooted the weeds. A job that would usually take them several hours, we were done in 30 minutes.

Fetching Water: After we finished cultivating the land, we hiked back to Florida’s house and got jerry cans so that we could dead back down the mountain to the natural faucets. Our jerry cans were a joke compared to the cans that these men and women carry up the hills…

 BABIES: My Africa adventure is complete! I was holding Florida’s little boy, throwing him up in the air, and THEN…Florida comes over to me and puts the baby ON MY BACK!  I carried him like a true African J

Cutting Grass: Next task of the day was to cut grass for their cows. We had these tools that looked like hooks and we chopped grass, tied it together, and carried it on our head back to the front of the house.

Corn: Last labor of the day was to shuck all the kernels off of the cobs. We sat on the floor of Florida’s house on some mats with other women from the community and took the kernels off tens of cobs of corn, which they will use to sell and make flour.

Cassava, Beans and Avocado: For lunch, we ate a traditional meal with the women. We were each served a bowl of cassava and beans, which were grown by Florida and her family. For a special treat, we were given avocado.  The trick was…we had to eat with our hands. Well, that was difficult. Our parents always tell us to use our napkins and not eat with our fingers…well that was thrown out the window today, but it was incredible!

Weaving: For our last activity with the women, our whole group joined up in Florida’s living room. We sat amongst the women and they taught us how to make bracelets out of dyed leaf fibers.

The day was truly incredible; probably one of the best days I have had since being here in Rwanda. It was a blessing to be able to spend a day with these women and support the work of Azizi Life Ministries.

I should be an African Drummer…

For Pastor Antione’s class, we took a field trip to Butare, Rwanda to visit the Kings traditional hut and a museum, which presented information regarding traditional African culture. At the end of our museum visit, we were given a private traditional African dance and drumming show.  As I watched, I tried to compare the Rwandan dance to the dances we saw in Uganda. The Ugandan dance seemed to have much more or a story to it. Different hand movements represented different agricultural traditions or cultural norms. The drumming from this performance, however, was an awesome interactive experience. There were enough drums and sticks for all 15 of us to be up drumming. They set a solid beat and then we could drum however we wanted within that lead beat.

I now fear the taxi park…

So, I had the blessing of being able to visit Lisa Wingard just 30 minutes away from my house in Kigali. She was here in Rwanda visiting with her program, visiting the memorials and touring around the land. Well, the interesting part of the story is about my travels to find her.  The only thing I knew about how to find her was that it was 5 km away. Did I know what direction? NOPE! So, I walked up to the taxi park, stuck my hand up, and asked a taxi driver where to go. He said he knew, pulled out, and started going the opposite direction than I thought! I put my COMPLETE FAITH in him. We drove, and drove and turns out…it was further than 5 km. We kept driving, and driving and driving. Then we hit traffic so we sat and sat and sat. We were then rerouted down a one-way street come to find there was a mattress factory that lit on fire. I started getting nervous that we were in the wrong place because we were driving down dirt roads and pulled up to a rusty gate. I started to get semi nervous so I called Lisa and she came out. WE WERE IN THE RIGHT PLACE! It was honestly a miracle. Now…I asked my lovely semi-English speaking taxi driver how much it would cost. He responded saying, 5000 ($10)! BIBI (BAD!)! It should only cost 3000 ($6).  I was not havin that, so I threw 4000 ($8) on his lap and left. He then proceeded to roll down the window and yell “F*** YOU!” SAYYYY WHATTTTTT?!?!?!? I was angry. But, seeing Lisa was INCREDIBLE and it was totally worth my adventure to find her J

I am full of Go ED love…

Tonight, we had GO ED LOVE FEST FEAST! What does that include you may ask? We began with an incredible dinner consisting of curry chicken with BOMB toppings. Then we moved to a slide show of our semester here. Next on the schedule was a lovely rap performed by Leah Bright. We finished off ;ith some speeches from the house staff and other staff members and handed out “warm and fuzzy” notes that we wrote to each other. We will conclude the night with a group sleepover in the family room with all our mattresses and a midnight breakfast J

LEAVING

I cannot believe we all leave this weekend! I also cannot believe that in a week from today I will be on my way to Costa Rica with Push the Rock and Messiah Women’s Soccer! God is INCREDIBLE. I look forward to reflecting, growing, and making sense of this experience as I return home. Keep looking out for some new posts throughout the summer!

MUCH LOVE!