When you think back to this time maybe memories of childhood like myself may come flooding back. Or maybe it’s a special birthday, a wedding anniversary, a job promotion, a graduation, a baptism, or just a simple memory of the beautiful spring flowers and rich green life growing and flowing from every direction our eyes may have drifted to.
But here in Rwanda this time brings memories of sorrow, devastation, death, bloodshed, pain, division, loss, and of a time that hatred took hold and reigned over this nation. Coming to Rwanda all I knew was Rwanda was in Africa and what I saw from the popular blockbuster “Hotel Rwanda”, which by the way people don’t really appreciate that movie. I (naively) thought that in watching that movie I had a better understanding of what I was coming into. Yeah no.
Walking the streets here in Kigali the people look like people of any other nation, going about their business and housework, you wouldn’t know this land was ravished by hatred 19 years ago. It’s not until you hear the hearts of those left behind that you get a glimpse into the residue of blood and pain left from a time that is rarely mentioned in our history books, or briefly over looked as a “sad time”. The stains of the pain and hurt linger on in the people young and old that can recount such a horrible time. Many of the young adults were children in that time, left without parents, grandparents, and/or siblings. The pain from mothers whose pain of seeing their kids brutally killed before their eyes plays like a movie in their minds stuck on repeat. Wives who lost husbands and vice versa is still a painful memory. The woman I met who is afraid of being baptized because as a child she was taken to a river along with her siblings to be drowned but she survived but her siblings did not. Along with that so many still struggling with survivors guilt but not having access to even know how to deal. Women and young girls still dealing with the trauma from being raped and now living with HIV/AIDS is still heavy in the atmosphere and in the hearts of the people of this nation.
HIV/AIDS is still sadly prevalent here in Rwanda and in Uganda alike. The young children having lost one or both parents due to this devastating illness are being raised by their grandparents. The burden and challenge of the elderly raising their grandchildren without any assistance is taking its toll. In America with our medication and government assistance programs, HIV is no longer a ticking bomb, there’s hope. But in a country where those resources are scarcely available, HIV is a harsh reality of the grenade they hold in their hands without the ability to get rid of it.
The only break kids get here is school. The youth here strive, desire, dream of an education, quite the opposite of the youth in the states. The groaning you hear here is for prayers for “school fees” and sponsors to assist in their dream, not the same groaning you hear back home of “mom, I don’t want to go to school, it’s boring!” This isn’t meant to bash our youth (even though a swift kick in the butt wouldn’t hurt either) but more it’s a cry for us as a nation to take action. Take action in prayer. Be open to how God wants to use us in the many different needs around the world.
Although this nation has what one man said “a bad history” it is also “heading to the future” This nation is proof of the resilience and strength that comes from the Father. God has given this nation hope, a hope for growth, unity, and healing. This nation that although at one time was fueled by hatred is now thriving with love. It is proof that His love conquers all.
