Mud slinging (day 8) and the day of many church services (day 9)

(written by Joe and Gabby)

Once the frame was up on the house, it was time for the best day in the building process, mud throwing!! This entailed the whole team standing in a long line rolling large blobs of mud along our human chain which snaked all around the house. The lucky person at the end of the chain had the job of throwing the blob; that is if the mud reached the end of the chain. We had a few casualties. Though these mishaps didn’t dampen the mood, as spirits and moral were kept sky high by Joe and Eric (one of the locals accompanying us), who gave a very energetic musical accompaniment… all morning!

By the end of our time at the building site; all of us thoroughly caked in mud, smiling, and rather chuffed with our efforts. We thanked the builders for letting us ‘help’ and left in high spirits, knowing we had all achieved something.

In the afternoon the team practised worship for Sunday’s services and “How great is our God” in Tuesday’s talent show at Jill Barham school, which we were singing with some of the Rwandan youth. I did not like the fact that I had to play the song 12 gazillion times though. God was not so great on the twelfth gazillionth time.

In the evening meeting we played games, chatted and had a general wind down sesh, many laughs #yolobanta were had and all went to bed wearing a smile.

Day 9 was a Sunday, meaning church day. Between us we attended and took part in three separate services.

 Service one:

-Language: English

-length: 1 hour

-Amusing aspects: Alex praying for the queen, and Rob’s angelic robes

-highlights:

·         Traditional manner old style hymns which was very nostalgic for many of us.

·         Another highlight was seeing people step out of their comfort zones. Rob preached amazingly on the feeding of the five thousand. Kitty read her testimony. Dianne led the service. Amber read from the bible, and some of our team performed a lovely and rather amusing drama.

Service two:

-language: Rwandan

-length: 2hours 30minutes

-Amusing aspects: mobile phones going off during the service. This modern tech seamed really surreal in service that didn’t even have windows or a floor.

-highlights:

·         The amazingly warm welcome we received from the Rwandans there, who all greeted us with singing and wild dancing.

·         Lisa’s preaching was fantastic! Her words were so inspiring she had the full undivided attention of every set of ears in the congregation.

·         Beth reading her testimony.

·         Seeing the children so eager and grateful to receive the gifts we’d brought with us, toys handmade by members of our congregation and family members of our team. One of whom has now passed away, so it was really lovely to her generosity impacting on the lives of the children.

Service three:

-language: Rwandan

-length:2 hours

-Amusing aspects: Rob in a dress, again. Kicking up the dust with some energetic Rwandan dancing.

-highlights: Rob’s preach, Hannah’s prayer for the church building, Drumming and dancing with the choir and congregation. Talking with the congregation after the service.

Feeling blessed by the wonderful people we’d meet and kindness, enthusiasm and generosity we’d encountered, our teams headed home for lunch.

After our super packed morning, we all went down to the nearby hot springs to relax and unwind. The hot water and slimy rocks made for some unforgettable facial expressions and amused looks from locals.

3-1 to the yellows!

The day (Friday) started as normal, nice and early which I don’t mind. Just like before some of us split up to go to either Sunday school training or go to the building of the house. Me personally (Sam), went to the house building, which when we arrived was coming along very nicely. But my highlight of the day and the week so far was us as a youth group going to one of schools and having a football match against their football team. Beforehand most people were raving about us being roasted or something to that effect. But when we arrived the people in our group that were playing football were given yellow t-shirts to play in. 

When we walked onto their “football pitch”, we were warming up and the students were all staring at us. Before the game started the referee came up to us and told us that we would lose and that the girls on our team were not allowed to play. However the girls wouldn’t stand for that and said they would like to play and the team played well.  The game finished 3-1…TO US. The first goal of the match was scored by kittie which seemed to embarrass and even shock the other team. So they subbed in three girls to play for them. At the end of match we were exhausted and I was sweating bucket loads. It was a worthwhile experience as we were growing in relationship with the students at the school and getting to know what life at a African school would be like. Then after the match we chanted, took photos and shook hands with members of the opposite team. All in all it was brilliant but tiring. But so worth it. 

Photo Blog 2 - Building, dancing, the lake and new friends!

Photo Blog 1 (house building, breakfast, Lake Kivu and a dance off!)

Nkombo... 300 Children, food, endless singing, dancing and playing!

Today has probably been the most challenging but rewarding day that we have had so far. There was always an air of apprehension about going to ‘the island’ (we could never remember what it was called) in lake KIVU. Johnathan had told us that Nkombo was one of the poorest areas of Rwanda and that the cultural differences would be much starker than we had already experienced. We were told that it would be a half an hour boat ride across the lake to the island, which we expected to be cruising ferry...

…it wasn’t. what we actually got on was a rickety motor boat, with a roof made of tarpaulin with a man using half a milk bottle to pour out the water which was constantly flowing in from the many gaps in the sides of the boat. Despite our slight reservations about an early death in the middle of lake KIVU we braved the journey and were incredibly grateful we did. The view from the boat was a scene out of a film. Passing all the islands was gorgeous; vast stretches of land which seemed totally deserted surrounded by vast, seemingly endless waters. Eventually, we arrived, the island did not look much different from mainland Rwanda, although our predispositions distorted our view at first

As we began to head to the feeding clinic we were greeted on the way by many friendly young children. We were greeted so kindly by the children and teachers at the school. The children all sang to us and waved and reached out to touch our hands. On looking round the school it was shocking to see the conditions. One of the buildings was little more than a wooden structure with tarpaulin barely working as a roof. It was such a blessing to be able to help people who work in this difficult environment by helping out at their feeding clinic.

When began to feed the children we handed out a Bovril/gravy broth that they were all so grateful to receive even though to us it seemed meagre and uninviting. The children all ate well and it warmed our hearts to see the effect it had on the children. Although it was heard when we ran out and about a dozen children missed out it was so inspiring to see the gratitude shown by the nearly 300 hundred children we were able to help feed. Afterwards the children had free time and free range to run us ragged. We played games with them, danced with them and sang with them. When we were just about to pass out from the exercise, heat and thirst we made our way to the pastor’s house for lunch.

The pastor fed us incredibly well. We nearly fainted when she opened up a huge pot of rice, which must have weighed as much as Beth. After lunch we divided into two and did house visits. The stories of the people on the island were really encouraging. A lot of what they spoke about was the work which the church was doing with them to improve their lives. One man had received training to be a farmer through the church and began to use the skills he learned to improve the lives of his family. It was really encouraging to hear of the amazing work the church is doing in Rwanda.

After a challenging day, we were all rather exhausted. As we walked back to the boat to take us back to the guesthouse it was hard to let go of the hands of the many children that were still surrounding us. 

days 3 and 4 (cyangugu)

second Rwanda post from Beth Robson and Amber Simms 
(both dyslexic so sorry in advance)

day 3

Day three entailed a long journey for us all as we had to travel from Kigali to Cyangugu. though long the journey was enjoyable. after another pleasant breakfast we packed our stuff and set off. 

During the journey we enjoyed the views as we talked. We played kingdoms which was first won by Dianne and then Beth. We shared testimonies through out the journey.Tim and Hannah found their own personal heaven in Fields of tea(though the couldn't have any.) During the trip we saw some monkeys in the wild but more exciting for some of the team was some cows, goat and even the road!!! We created (rob and Katie) some "interesting" charts but we won't go into detail.

Upon arrival we had to be on our best behavior as the prime minister of Rwanda inhabited some of our rooms. Once we arrived at peace guest house, some of us enjoyed showers while others unpacked for the next few days. one thing we can all agree on is the amazing view of the lake Kivu(best viewed from Tim and Robs balcony thing). we made full use of this for an impromptu bible study lead by Tim on Hosea. 

We soon went for dinner where some of us enjoyed some fanta feista (huh hum Owen Daughtry :p) and some lovely food. The last organised thing of the day was group worship, Bible study and prayer, looking at revelations 2:1-7 and can affect our attitudes to our trip. we then all had an early night.

Day 4 (our first proper day in Rwanda)

the first big event was to the outskirts in order to start house building. on the way there we met three local Rwandan youth who will be spending time with us for the majority of the trip. the locals ha already made and start and there was a rough wooden structure. All the locals were eager to greet us and the children even ran along with the bus. some of us excelled in this environment although others were better chatting to the locals and playing with the kids. the main work n the house today was hammering big sticks to make walls. Compared to the Rwandans all of us were terrible. some of us learnt new words while there and learnt and taught some songs on the journey home.

Later in the day some of us went to the market in Cyanggugu while others had some free time. The market was difficult for some of us as it was really crowed and loud and aggressive but it did offer a opportunity to see life here and to buy some home comforts. 

Later in the evening we had some hearts to hearts in small groups and this allowed the team to bond and bring up any troubles they've had so far in Rwanda.

We would all like to thank you for all the messages on the blog! 

Arrived Safely

Dear friends and family,

Amber Jackson (apposed to Amber Simms) writing the first official blog post of the Rwandan trip 2015!

Everyone is currently eating breakfast, before we all head down to Changoogoo on the mini bus, with our driver called, Madest.

Yesterday we went to a Canadian church that was a similar style to Soul Survivor. The timing was not like a traditional Rwandan church services (hours and hours!), it was a sensible timing of 1.5hrs! Church was followed by lunch where Jonathan works, Soulis. It was delish - veg soup (who has HOT soup in summer!), fish + potatos + rice + veg and for desert we had perfiterals. 

The second activity we did of the day, was visiting the Genoside museum, which was very traumatizing, especially for those whos life time it was in, however it was 100% worth seeing as it gave the group a good understanding of what happened and how it affected the Rwandans, giving us more empathy towards the fragile situation with the people we will be working with.

In the evening, Jonathan organised Rwandan dancing. They made us dress up in the correct costumes! Im not going to lie, they outshone us by miles, however Alex was a natural being a dancer and all! 

After a hectic day and us all being so tired through lack of sleep from traveling here, and the 3 hours sleep we got before we had to wake up for breakfast, it was a fab day that we all enjoyed and it was a good opportunity for us all to settle into our new home and environment for the next 2 weeks. It's save to say we are all happy and comfortable with being here.

Thanks for joining us! :)

Welcome to our blog. Here you will find updates and pictures over the next couple of weeks of our African adventure! We hope you can get a taste of what we are experiencing.

 

Feel free to leave messages and comments and we will pass them on to the team or individual members (add their name to your post if its for an individual).

Please continue to pray for us as we all step out of our comfort zone and try to show Gods love practically; in house building, at the feeding clinic, teaching sunday club leaders, leading church services and meeting with local people. 

We cant wait to get started!