Visiting Kibuye in Western Rwanda

October 6th-October 9th, 2007
I drank in the beauty of the lake in Kibuye and watched the goose bumps form on my arms, which was highly unusual for Africa. We were staying on the lake in Kibuye, which is in eastern Rwanda (Kigali was in Middle Eastern Rwanda). On the way there we looked stopped at two more genocide memorial sites. They were both churches in which thousands of people were killed. I read a book along the way, which is highly unusual for me. Usually, my stomach does not agree with reading in vehicles.
Also on the way, we stopped at a site where there was a waterfall surrounded by a beautiful, green view. As we piled out of the van for a break, children encircled us and played instruments which were handmade. They were essentially bent sticks with some sort of container at the end and one string was attached to each end of the stick and made the stick bend. The music was played using a handmade ‘bow’ on the string. Somehow, they managed to get many notes and melodies out of that simple instrument by moving their fingers along the length of the string and with the use of the bow. At first I listened, fascinated. But I quickly noticed the hungry looks in their eyes and the desperation on their faces. They were not playing for the sake of pleasure or for the sake of entertaining others. When they stopped playing they spoke to us in French and Kinyarwanda and we just stared back because we did not know their language.
I felt helpless to do anything. I wanted to give them a little money, but I felt like that would not help them get out of their desperation so that they would no longer be slaves to that instrument, slaves to their stomachs. Unfortunately, we had to leave, so I did not dig through my purse for money. I often feel the urge to give, but I never feel like it will be enough to make a difference. I guess we have to remember that we can only help one at a time and that’s what true eradication of poverty is all about. But the faces of those children, the desperation as they played their music, still haunt me. It made me angry. I was angry at society for letting people become poor. I was angry at the children for seeing us as money bags. I was angry at the adults who made children do those things in order to make money for their family. I was angry at the whole situation. I felt manipulated. Then I had to remember that if I was in the same situation that I would probably be doing the same thing. I would do anything I could for my family. It’s so hard to step in people’s shoes sometimes.
When we finally arrived in Kibuye we had a delicious lunch which included mushroom soup that we ended up pouring all over our food. The head waiter did not appreciate that and kept pointing at the tomato soup (which was actually meant for pouring all over a person’s food) and trying to get people to eat that instead. I found it quite humorous myself. When a girl went back for seconds (or was it thirds?) the same waiter said, “Are you trying to get fat?” Also hilarious. Here, people don’t go for seconds usually, but instead, pile their plates high with food. I personally didn’t see how that was any different (except if you get a little at a time, you will be less likely to waste food). Anyway, different cultures, different ways of thinking.
That evening we hung out, enjoying the beachside and the cooler weather, and listening to Julie’s life story. At night, I ended up sharing a room with Stacy and we ended up sharing a bed too because there was only one mosquito net. It was above the double bed. Unfortunately, throughout the night I kept wondering why Stacy kept nudging me and elbowing me. Then early in the morning, I woke up to her practically spooning with me. Naturally, I was a bit uncomfortable with that. But I quickly (or not so quickly) realized that the bed sank in the middle so that we each were forced into the middle of the bed. I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I switched to the smaller bed and slept much more soundly.
The next morning we went to a small church outside of town. It seemed very similar to the Jordan House Pentecostal Church except that there wasn’t nearly as much dancing around in the congregation and the preaching wasn’t nearly as loud and flamboyant. We got to sing for the congregation again. We sang “This Little Light of Mine” with hand motions because it was a simple song which we knew the words to. We did not want to make the same mistake as when we sang for the sewing girls last week. After the service we talked to many prominent members of the church in a separate room and drank pop (or soda for whomever prefers it). I have had so much pop here that I am sick of it. I don’t ever drink it at home, but sometimes it’s all there is to drink and it’s rude to turn down a drink or food when people offer them.
After lunch we were about to go on a boat ride on the lake, but it started to rain. Consequently, we waited for it to subside. Meanwhile, I read Harry Potter #2 (I’m going through the series a second time) and took a nice, long nap. It seems like I can never sleep past 6 am here, so naps are frequent. At around 3:30 we left on the boat. It was a serene ride and it was only a little bit chilly. We rode to an island which had a bat cave. It was pretty amazing. We did not visit the cave, but we didn’t need to; the bats streamed out of the cave and only grew larger in number when we clapped and yelled in encouragement. They seemed to like the attention. Camille (the girl with the greatest accent because she lived in England for 10 years) was hilarious because she kept screeching, holding onto me, and hiding behind me. As I looked up at them, I realized I should not gawk with my mouth open or I might receive an unpleasant present from the bats. We rode to another location and played volleyball with a really flat ball and a short net. But it was still fun. Others swam in the lake. I also got to pet a monkey which was roped to a tree. Kinda sad, but it was cute. All of us girls have this thing where we ask, ‘what is the first name of every animal?’ So the whole time I was thinking ‘rabies monkey’, but fortunately, it was friendly and enjoyed being scratched. That night the girls yelled and rooted for their favorite team while watching the football game (known as soccer in the states), while they also checked out the guys. Yeah, I was reading Harry Potter. Then we watched an episode of Felicity, which really isn’t that good (the plot especially), but for some reason, you still get sucked in.
Monday morning we left for the next location. We stopped at a church memorial along the way. I don’t know the name of the place. On the way, we had a bit of an accident. A man on a bike ran into one of the vans! I was in the van which was not hit, but it was pretty scary. This is how I think it happened, but I’m not sure if I am right since I was reading Harry potter (hee) and had to hear about the impact second hand. We had brought two vans along so that we would have plenty of room and we would not be squished together for the long journey. Technically, you can get 21 people in those vans, which counts the driver. But we had maybe 10 people in each.
Someone in the other lane was passing a car and so my van (which was in front of the other one) had to pull to the side a bit to let the car pass. Then the van behind us had to break really fast and so the biker slammed into the back of the vehicle (we were going downhill a bit) at full speed. Our van did not realize what happened for a minute until someone in our van said, “A bike hit their van!” And I was like ‘Huh?’ as I came out of my Harry Potter reverie. I looked back as our van pulled to the side and pulled backwards toward the other van. I could barely see a bicycle on the ground and some sandals on the road, with glass everywhere. But I clearly saw the rear window to the van almost completely gone. I had expected to see a man lying down on the ground unable to move, but instead the man was staggering around holding his head. He finally collapsed on the bank by the ditch.
I was very proud of the some of the girls from my group. Two of them are pre-med students, one of them is a trained lifeguard, and the other thinks she might become a pre-med student (Kirsten). Kirsten was amazing because she slapped some gloves on and treated his cuts. Stacy (the lifeguard) had a fully equipped first aid kit which they used to treat him. The pre-med students helped and they were able to treat all of his gashes. But they believed his nose was broken and he might have had a broken rib or two. Also, they were pretty sure he had a concussion, especially since he kept coming in and out of consciousness. Stacy kept checking the guy’s pulse and his breathing and was ready to use that Seal Easy if he stopped breathing. I did not come near to the man because too many people were crowded around him (besides the girls from our group, many Rwandans stopped to watch really close). Even though I was not near, I could still see that his head was bright red from the blood coming out of it. I was so proud of our girls. The man was finally taken away in a truck and the driver who was driving the van that was hit had to stay. As a result, the rest of us had to pile into the van so we had all 20 people in the one van. It was rather squishy. Luckily, the man was able to meet us at the place we were staying at. I had personally been afraid that there would be violent justice because sometimes when people hurt other people here, they try to take the law into their own hands. But he was fine.
When we arrived at the next location, in order to get to our rooms we had to walk a maze-like path. I didn’t think I’d remember how to get there again, but I succeeded. Then we left for a conference about peace building. It was a class taken by pastors from all over Rwanda. They talked about the church’s involvement in peace building and reconciliation. Most of us were falling asleep or making lists in our small notebooks in order to amuse ourselves. There was one man who kept trying to sneak pictures of us, but he wasn’t being very discreet. Afterwards they took us for a tour of the university which had a nice campus and could almost have been the George Fox University campus because of its style.
The next morning we visited the king’s palace. It was pretty cool. They had a building for beer, a building for, the king, a building for his wives, and a building for the milk. The building for the wives and daughters had men who took care of them but were eunuchs, for obvious reasons. It wouldn’t have been so awkward that he told us that, but he seemed so reluctant to say that word. It was pretty funny. Then when we went to the king’s building, there was a big bed and he said that a wife isn’t supposed to ‘jump him while he’s sleeping.’ We all laughed just because his wording was really funny. The buildings were really cool because we were huts with mats on the floor. Of course the king’s was the largest.
We drove home without any spectacular (or horrible) incidents this time and were glad to be back so we could take showers (because where we were before, the showers didn’t work very well). It was a nice weekend away from the Kigali guesthouse.