surveying in Musanze, western Rwanda

Ok so I just got back from my survey trip to a place in western Rwanda called Musanze. We made the two hour drive on Friday and it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I wish I could describe it accurately or take a great picture but I just couldn’t. It is just beautiful steep green mountains and trees. It was awesome. Definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We stopped on our way up and ate lunch at a hotel and I picked up some Rwandan tea, so I am hoping to be able to recreate some chai. From there, we went to our very first interview. The Koonces, the Crowsons, and the rest of their team is moving to Musanze in about a year. We met with the head of the pastors committee and a few of the pastor from the area. After the genocide, all of the churches combined so that they would all get along under one organization. They also started a church denomination called Restoration church hoping people would feel more likely to trust a new denomination instead of the old ones who may have done some bad things during the genocide.

There were 14 people in that teeny tiny room and one serious thing happened and one hilarious thing happened. I will go with the serious one first. There was a HUGE man sitting next to me who was a pastor of a church close by. In this area of the country, many of the people are from the perpetrator side of the genocide. This huge pastor next to me looked to be from that specific side. And he looked old enough to have been relevant 15 years ago. I was uneasy. Afraid, even. This man is a pastor and I was wondering if I could trust him. I wasn’t even positive I was right about what side he was on. It made me so much more aware of the mistrust and fear many Rwandan must face. This man went on to be the head of a Ruhengeri branch of Compassion International. I felt really bad for my judgment. Anyway, if any of you are looking to sponsor a child through Compassion, I met some really awesome kids, and I can totally hook you up. There are still 120 who need sponsors, and I can now tell you firsthand what a difference it makes in these kids’ lives.

Anyway, on to the funny story. So, back to being crammed into the tiny room. First of all, Mandy hadn’t been sleeping much so she was a little bit slap-happy. You know how those things are. Highly contagious, especially when you are supposed to be quiet and polite. So while we were all packed in there, something caught my eye. Jarron was sitting in between our awesome driver, Moses, and a pastor we had just met named Moses. I noticed Jarron gesturing to something and starting to laugh. I look down and see Moses the pastor’s elbow resting on Jarron’s thigh. Next thing I notice is that he has cupped is hand around Jarron’s thigh and is gradually moving in higher and higher. We were all dying laughing at this point, and no one can keep it together. Kind of a problem for a serious spiritual conversation. Then we stood up and sang together and we were just hysterically laughing but trying to keep it in. It was so great.

After our interview we came and checked into our guest room, and hung out in there. After 6 weeks together, our personalities are starting to bug each other. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my team and I think they are such great people. I have been blessed to get to be around them. After a while you just need a break, though. I walked out of the room and found Mark and Murphy talking. They said it was a really safe area and it would be totally fine for me to take a walk by myself if I wanted to. This sounded really appealing. I felt like I haven’t talked to God as much since we aren’t walking as incessantly as in Kampala. I started out on the main road and was just getting some talk time in when some 15 year old boys carrying stuff on their heads started walking beside me and talking to me. That was fine until it eventually turned into an entire crowd of people who only spoke Kinyarwanda. It was mainly men and boys around my age and so I started to get really nervous about the whole thing and wished I hadn’t gone so far by myself.  They were all talking really loud and I was just overwhelmed. I tried to be calm and talk my way out of the situation and head back to camp but 2 guys followed me and were relentlessly trying to get my contact information even when I denied having any at all. It was scary. I saw Hannah standing out on the road and she was really nervous because she didn’t know where I had gone. I felt bad, and now they always make f un of me saying that I angrily stormed out of the room and ran away (which is entirely untrue). We had a fun night of cards and fun.

We woke up REALLY early on Saturday morning because we were going on a Jungle trek (for real this time) to see Golden Monkeys in their natural habitat. Hannah and I only had skirts and chacos because that is what we were told to pack. When we arrived at the headquarters, people were making so much fun of us and staring, curious as to how we were going to trek in skirts and sandals. One lady felt bad and went a got a pair of socks for Hannah, and Murphy gave Jake, Jarron, and I some. We were for real wearing Chacos with socks. It was unacceptable on every level, but I made sure to get pictures. We hiked across some of the most beautiful mountains and valleys I have ever seen and I loved it. We finally found the monkeys and I took about a gazillion pictures of them which is ridiculous because no I really have no use for a gazillion pictures of random monkeys. Hannah really loved it though and it was pretty cool to see them close up like that.

After the monkeys, we came back to the guest house and played cards and had a nice lunch. After that we went out to look for a specific pastor to interview and ended up in some random church for choir practice with about 60 kids that had followed our van there. It was really crazy. I feel like I know what its like to be a celebrity now. We ended up worshipping with them and Marty spoke and we were dancing with them and it was just wild and fun. After that we came back, played MORE cards (I learned spades!) and had dinner. We went to sleep because we had a busy day with Village churches in the morning.

We woke up on Sunday, and had breakfast at the Guest House. Marty informed us that we would have to perform a solo at any church we went to so I started having major anxiety and just wondering why God enjoys pushing me so far out of my comfort zone. We split up into to groups of three to be able to go to three different churches in the area. Jake Marty and Jarron went to a Methodist church, Mandy Murphy and Tommy went to a Baptist church, and Hannah Mark and I went to the Restoration church. It was like nothing I have ever seen before. People were all over the place! They had a synthesizer and a piano and we were just rockin out all morning. I still was nervous about singing though, especially after hearing 3 awesome choirs perform. I wasn’t seeing Hannah, Mark, and I doing a lot of good with “Blue Skies and Rainbows.” A BEAUTIFUL girl named Angel came over and helped translate everything for us and she was just really sweet. I liked her a lot. One lady got up to give her testimony. She said that she wanted to thank God because she had survived the genocide. (July 4 here is Liberation Day, the day where the genocide “stopped” and there was peace. Sort of.) She talked about how the perpetrators had raped her and she cried out to God, though she was not a Christian, and He saved her. She didn’t even have HIV, which was extremely common and even used as a method of the genocide. It was crazy and very rare to hear someone speak so openly about what happened. It was also surprising to see the amount of women weeping in the church during her story. It only gives me a guess of how many share similar stories. Mark got up and spoke and then a visiting preacher from Tanzania spoke. It was extremely loud and I got a headache. After his sermon that I only got bits and pieces of, Mark, Hannah, and I were called up to dance in front of the whole church, which was just a hilarious and very memorable experience. We felt very welcome and met some great people. The whole thing lasted 4 ½ hours. It was INSANE. American church is going to feel so short after this! We walked to the van and two little girls held each of my hands until our paths parted ways. It was so precious to me. After that we ate Samosas and fried Chipatti for lunch which was awesome. We started our 2 hour trip home and I just enjoyed some peace and quiet time.

When we got back, we had a big 4^th of July fellowship with all the missionary families in the area. We had hot dogs and hamburgers and it wasn’t home but it was sure nice! We worshipped together and it was awesome. I felt the Spirit of God there among us. I saw it when Taylor Koonce had his eyes squinted shut and his hands stretched in the air. I saw it when a missionary woman could no longer stay in her seat because her joy wouldn’t allow it. I heard it, as 3 little boys prayed out loud for the 6 of us and for our hearts. It was truly a blessing. Then I got to talk to bunches of people from home on facebook chat and I was so HAPPY because I miss home! I never expected to be so homesick but I am just ready to see my family. Only a few more days.

I don’t know how the internet situation is about to be, but we are going back to Uganda tomorrow and going on a Safari. Then we fly out of Entebbe, UG on Thursday night so keep us in your prayers! Hope to update before then, but if not, see you in the good ole USA!

for His glory, 

heidi