RWANDA | Kanombe, Kigali
We arrived in Africa on January 2nd, to the Ethiopian Airport. It was
actually quite cold (50 degrees) when we arrived which was definitely not what
I expected being in Africa. We spent a
few hours here until our plane for Uganda left. It was a lot hotter here than
in Ethiopia, but in the shade it was comfortable. It actually looks a lot like
west Texas here.
We stayed at a hostel in Kumpala for two nights. The accommodations were
nice, I had a bed and a shower. We then took about a 9 hour bus ride to Rwanda.
The bus was actually comfortable and the pot holes didn’t seem quite as bad
with some car sickness medicine in me. I spent most of the trip playing card
games and watching movies. At the border we had to get out of the bus and fill
out all this paperwork, then walk quite a ways to find our bus with all of our
stuff outside of the bus. Its always scary when they want to look through your
stuff. But, the guy seemed more interested in talking to an American then the
actual contents of my bag, so it all worked out. Interesting fact about Rwanda,
plastic bags are illegal, so I am glad he didn’t search hard, or I would have
nothing to hold all my stuff.
Anyway, after the bus ride, we finally made it to Kigali, Rwanda. It is
very hilly which explains their motto of being the land of a thousand hills.
Pastor Etienne, our contact for the month, picked us up from the bus station
and took us back to the house we would be staying at for the month. The three
of us girls have our own bedroom and Tim has his own bedroom and we share a
bathroom. Our ministry is a hodge-posh of various things. The main thing we
have done this week is preach. Definitely a scary thought at first, but after
preaching two sermons I think its actually fun (more on this later).
We also have been learning a lot about Rwanda. We went to a memorial for the
genocide. It was crazy learning about a genocide that happened while I was
alive. These people have been through so much. There was an entire section on
the genocide of the children. There were huge pictures of kids with their names
above it and then a description of what they were like, their ages, and then
how they were killed. If you do not know a lot or anything about this genocide,
I think it is important to read what happened so that their memories can be
preserved.
All-in-all I think this month will be really good for challenging myself
and team. I believe that we are going to grow a lot closer which will be
beneficial for ministry. I am so excited to see what else God has in store for
us!
