I experienced yet another tear-filled goodbye a few days ago as I said goodbye to Rwanda and all the people I had begun to love.
As our bus drove us from Kigali, Rwanda to Kampala, Uganda I thought of all the people I was leaving behind and even received a call from my new friend January with another “I will miss you” message. It’s not getting easier to say these goodbyes, it’s getting harder.
The people of Rwanda have a special place in my heart, and I think it starts with the kids. For most of the month, I had the opportunity to teach the little children of my village every morning and I completely fell in love with them. Their smiles and little laughs would light up the room and they spent most of the lessons crawling on our laps and trying to hold our hands. They were so precious to me. After my last morning of teaching I couldn’t help but break down in tears knowing that I would likely never see any of them again. I took a walk through the village that day to give myself a good cry and properly morn my time with these beautiful children. On my walk, I had a flash back and was suddenly reminded of my time spent in Cambodia. I remembered a similar feeling as I walked through the village of Pum Taong Lich, crying after saying goodbye to my host pastor and his family.
Rwanda reminds me so much of my time in and love for Cambodia.
The people in these two countries have a similar soft kindness and tenacity for life that I am drawn to. I’ve found that I feed off people’s positive energy and my friends in Rwanda and Cambodia encompass a resounding spirit of freshness and lighthearted joy that I want more of. Their smiles warm my soul and I was sitting in a bus somewhere near the Ugandan border when a thought hit me, my two favorite countries have the darkest pasts.
Both Rwanda and Cambodia have experienced horrendous genocides where millions of innocent lives have been lost.
The 1975-1979 Cambodian genocide was a “reconstruction program” that commanded the murder of an estimated three-million innocent Cambodian lives. In Rwanda, just twenty-four years ago, the Rwandan genocide executed over one-million people in just one-hundred days because of extreme racism towards a specific people group. Both horrific events stole millions of innocent lives and left many children orphaned and most families broken.
Why am I drawn to the people who have endured the most pain? Is there something different about them? I believe the answer is yes. When someone experiences tremendous pain and heartache something changes inside them, and they are forced to dig deep. Walking through a perfect life, void of any darkness or evil, sounds pretty good but is usually unattainable. As Christians, we aren’t promised a perfect life – we are actually promised the opposite.
In 2 Corinthians 6:4-5 Paul writes, “In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food.” Paul tells us that as Christians we can expect hardships because our faith is not dependent on perfection in our lifetime, because we are living for more than this lifetime.
The troubles we face in this world are a result of the original sin of Adam. After the forbidden fruit was eaten, humanity immediately became subject to the result of human nature – to heartache, evil, sickness and even of the scariest thing of all – death.
Most of us have walked through some type of heartache whether that’s a relationship ending, marriage troubles, divorce, illness or even experiencing the loss of someone very close to us. The pain of this life hurts and what we do with the remainder of our lives can seem even harder.
The people living in the aftermath of the genocides of Cambodia and Rwanda are no stranger to the pain of this world, but I believe we can look to these countries for inspiration. These countries have dug deep through insurmountable tragedy and the result is depth in character and a tenacity for life because they have an appreciation for the fragile nature of what life can be. They love so hard because they know what loss feels like. They choose forgiveness because they know holding a seed of bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. My friends in Cambodia and Rwanda appreciate every meal with their families, each coffee shared with a friend and even celebrate the shelter over their heads. They are rich in love for every second of life and I’ve learned tremendously from the way they live.
This is a difficult lesson to learn but I’m thankful that my time on The World Race has reminded me of the fragile nature of this world and that every second deserves appreciation. I’m counting down the days until I’m back on US soil, so I can hug my friends and family a little bit harder – but until then, my heart is full because I have them and because of new friendships that have taught me so much.
Sending all my love back home – August 28th is fast approaching!
Amy <3
“Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, yet we have everything.” 2 Corinthians 6:10
