I'm skipping a view entries to share with you one of the best days
we've had in Rwanda!
This story begins 2 years ago at the Women of Faith conference in Pittsburgh.
During the conference they were encouraging people to
sponsor children that World Vision had brought and had on display.
Not the children, but packets of information on 300-400 children from
around the world.
Knowing that we might possibly be moving to Rwanda, I thought it would be
awesome to support a child that we might be able to meet someday. So, I went
to the booth and asked the lady working at the booth
if they had any children from Rwanda.
I figured if they had that many children in need surely there would be some from Rwanda. But no!
They looked and looked and couldn't even find one child...They told me to
come back the next day and maybe they would have better news.
Sure enough.. the next day when I stopped she was waving
the packet in the air....
"I found one little boy in Rwanda that needs a sponsor".
That was the day that I took Patrick home! His picture went up on
our fridge that weekend and now he is on our fridge in Kigali.
Almost 9 months ago now, we sent in our paper work that would
allow us to go visit Patrick and his family. With the 1000's of
people around the world wanting to do the same thing it took
a while to coordinate, get our security clearances, etc.
But the day finally came.. March 28, 2013, to meet Patrick.
That was last Thursday!
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| We met Fred, in the blue T-shirt our interpreter for the day and Siprea, our driver at 7:15am at the WV headquarters just 10 minutes from our house. Ada dropped us there and took our car to be inspected... (Another story---there is only one inspection center in the entire country and it is in Kigali. So, Ada went to sit the day away and wait in our stead to see if the car would pass inspection---It did!) We took off after some paper work in the WV pick-up truck! |
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We headed South... toward where Urukundo is.. but we had a lot further to go. When we got to the river... we found it almost overflowing. We've been having lots of rain! |
The other thing we found along the way... were 100's of kids with suitcases... waiting for
transport home. Boarding schools were letting out this week for their break and genocide remembrance month.
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| The sad part of this story was that most of them, it seemed, were still waiting 7-8 hours later upon our return. One large cattle hauling truck was just crammed with kids... to probably take them back to their school where they would sleep the night before starting the whole process over again tomorrow. Patient people live here! |
Another treat we saw was the animal market. Pigs are not usually seen
around Rwanda... but this part of Rwanda was crawling with them...
and today... these little piggies were going to market.
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| The longer we traveled, the more it rained. And we realized that Patrick's house must be near the rain forest, Nyungwe Forest. |
the forest off in the near distance!
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| Even though the rain was pouring down, the women were still carrying their heavy loads on their heads--somewhere under there. |
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| We finally arrived. It was time to turn... but this "little" truck, filled with charcoal had planks across the street. They moved them, though and we proceeded up a very "rocky road" to the head quarters in Mudasomwa.  |
Once we arrived we found coffee waiting and the ADP.
The Area Development Program Coordinator...
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| Edward. He told us all about the projects that World Vision is doing in this area. He would have been the one to go with us to Patrick's but folks were there doing the audit and he couldn't get away. We learned from Edward that in this area World Vision has built a health center, several schools, water projects, as well as taking care of the children! |
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| Just a picture of what is going on here. And we also learned that the entire staff is Rwandese in Kigali at headquarters and it appears to be the same here in the Southern Province. Kudos to World Vision on this front! |
This is amazing information.... Out of 4,998 children
in this area.... 4,227 of them are sponsored by someone
through World Vision. This is a poor area and most people
live on what they grow in the ground or from any animal they own.
As you can see 93% people live by agriculture!
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| After learning a lot in a few minutes from Edward... we hoped back in the pick-up and headed off to find Patrick. Well, that's what we thought. Almost got stuck in this first. |
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| Bean poles are up to receive the growing beans. But before we found Patrick we were taken to meet some women and their babies in a place where they did knitting and other various crafts. These women had been working in a run-down place and World Vision built them a new place. So, we stopped to see them and their work space. |
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| No, these aren't the women working... but rather the daughters of one of the Mamas! |
was brought from Kigali.
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| And on the other side of the room... the yarn was coming out and the machine was starting. We'd never seen a machine like this. |
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| Every Mom had a child or two.. nursing intermittently while we were there with them. By the way, feeding ones baby is as natural as breathing here and accepted as such--- the way it should be. |
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| This beautiful woman is the organizer of this group of women. Isn't she beautiful? |
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| You can start to see the knitting coming through the machine. |
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| Another Mama with her little one. |
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| I took each of their pictures because they want me to send them to them. |
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| This Mama really wanted to have her picture taken with her little one. |
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| Our closing picture... Adorable! |
The rain kept coming down as we made our way to Patrick's school!
He wasn't there... oh. how disappointing. But we got the tour....
This sister is the headmaster/principal and our go-ahead guy from World Vision.
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| Right now I can't remember what this actually means but something like 'Never again will there be a genocide'. |
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| This school up on top of a beautiful mountain houses 1200 students. |
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| The Rwandan flag flying high. |
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| There you see the motto again... with the Carte D'Afrique.... or Map of Africa. Above is the World Vision sign talking about who built these buildings. |
See all those little patches of farm land and a few homes?
It is so beautiful--even in the rain.
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| And looking the other direction with the tea fields right in front and the hills roll on forever. |
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| Then a stop in the teachers' room! They were working on grades! |
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| This is something I couldn't believe. This is the schedule for the week: English, Kinyarwanda, Math, Social Studies, etc.. hand written for every day, every section, every classroom... The board was full across the entire front of the room. |
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| New buildings around the side and back... just going up. |
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| Here is World Vision's contribution sign. After saying our goodbyes and finding out that Patrick is a good student we headed for his house... |
And there it is... see it? It is almost at the top of the picture on the right...
That little brown spot above that really tall plant. It was down a steep valley and up again to his house... They said it would take about 10 minutes to walk..
but it looked like 5 miles away.
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| But then the World Vision acting ADP said.. because it had rained so much we wouldn't be walking there.. Patrick was just down the road at the Tea Plantation restaurant with his parents waiting to meet us. Now we were really getting excited. |
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| There they were... standing up on the hill a bit.. singing and clapping as we arrived. It was so exciting! |
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| And Patrick still clapping and singing. |
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| This is where we spent our time together. |
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| Mama with Patrick's baby sister...We found out that he has two older sisters, too.. so that makes him the ONLY boy in the family. |
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| Maybe a little stunned-- as we all were getting acquainted. |
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| We asked each other questions through our interpreters but before lunch we opened some presents. Patrick will turn 10 on April 20---the same birth date as our grandson, Wyatt! That is cool, too! The little lantern is a family gift. It runs on batteries and is quite bright...We thought they would really use this. I didn't notice if they had electricity to their house, but I would be surprised. The school didn't have any but they did have a generator. |
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| Patrick is just starting to realize he isn't dreaming. |
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| The warmth and love in his eyes was priceless. And the jacket we brought him fit... Amazing. |
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| Bruce was showing the Bible we brought for him to his parents. The American Bible society just finished the Good News Bible in both Kinyarwanda and English! |
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| Then it is time for lunch... about 1:30... A huge Rwandese buffet. |
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| They filled Patrick's plate so full... it was hysterical.. but this is the usual thing here... One big plate a day...liquids the rest of the day. We had such a great time exchanging stories.. I told them about how he was chosen for us--They shared about how exciting it was for them to have us visit and of course we were both thrilled to meet each other face to face. |
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| Time to leave but before we do.. a couple of group shots out front. |
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| Wish the other girls would have been here, too! |
I don't know which video this is. One was just 1 second and the other 11 seconds
but either way you get a taste of the joy of the day.
I wish I could adequately describe
this day to you. Sometimes we were laughing-
other times crying with joy to be in the presence of
such dear people. Patrick's papa and his family still
live in the house he has lived in his whole life. They even
lived through the genocide there. The joy of their faith
and their strong reliance upon the Lord humbled us
and gave us great joy, too. To hear Patrick's Papa pray
and talk about how happy they were to meet us was so moving.
But I think we were the blessed ones to have met them.
But I think we were the blessed ones to have met them.
To realize that only one little boy from Rwanda
was in those stacks of packets 2 years ago, and that God
moved us to Rwanda so that we could all be together and meet
face to face made for a very emotional and spiritually rich encounter.
If you are sponsoring a child and are wondering if
meeting him or her face to face is something you should consider
I would say that it is not only worth it.. it is an experience that you do not want to miss!
I hope we can meet with them all again while we are here... but this visit took about 9 months to set up... Next time should take less time... but I know I don't care
how long it takes.
In the meantime, we will keep praying for Patrick
and his family and trust that we can be
reunited again.
Trust you had a Happy and Blessed Easter!
The One who cares for us all rose again to care for us all!
May you know his love and forgiveness in your life.
love,
margie
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