Life as a Mzungu - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

This month we are in Rwanda with a ministry called Gospel Church Ministries. My team and I are in a little village community on the outskirts of Kigali, the capital city. We have been working with Pastor Moses in his church plants and school. Each morning we walk up a steep dusty dirt road, surrounded by green plush fields and trees full of flowers, to the church which is converted to a school during the week. It is a 3 room school for ages 3-6. We get the privilege of teaching these sweet babies English in the mornings. The school has a fun tradition of singing to each child as a class when they do something well while the child sways their hips from side to side. I’ve found most people in Rwanda can not pronounce my name but the song goes like this:

“Cala cala, you are so good.

I love you, I love you are nice.

posse down,

education wonderful.”

We don’t know what posse down is yet but when we do you will be the first to know!

School lets out at noon and we then walk home with a little hand in each of ours. I’d say we walk them home but each day they drop us off at Pastor Moses’s door and wave goodbye for the day. We then have a home cooked lunch and have a little down time to play with our hosts 5 kids and prepare sermons. Each night during the week one of us preaches a sermon to one of the local churches. I preached this past Thursday in the school room church. There was no power so I used a head lamp to preach a word from Luke 5 about being fishers of men, saying yes to God, and being obedient. It went well.

Fast forward to Sunday morning, my team splits up to serve in 2 churches. One of us will preach and 2 will lead Sunday School for the kiddos. Worship is loud and full of dancing and us Mzungus (white people) really stand out! Everywhere we go we hear, “Mzungu! Mzungu!” Most yell Mzungu! with a smile and wave. Some sweet kids here in the village will yell “Mzungu!” and run full speed into us with a thud and a smile to embrace us in a hug. There is a few babies that see us Mzungus and cry big fat tears of fear. Can’t say thats happened to me before!

For our ministry at the far away church during the week, the team and I take public transportation. On the bus we hear Mzungu whispered to other passengers…we smile and wave. Its gotten so regular that when a crowd of kids forms to see the Mzungus we yell back, “Where!?” “where are the mzungus!?” we then look at each other and make a loud frightened gasp, “We are the mzungus!” The crowds have enjoyed that bit so far.

Our living situation in an interesting one this month, but one we are grateful for! We are staying with Pastor Moses, his wife Mary, and their 5 children. We have a room separate from the main house with beds and white bug nets to keep the mosquitos out. Praise! We have our own bathroom with a western toilet, however, there is no running water. The toilet gets flushed with buckets of collected rain water we fetch every day. Same goes for our bucket showers. There is no A/C so we choose to find the freezing cold rain water refreshing in the Rwandan heat. Like many housing situations on the race, we have discovered a few roommates. The most noticeable roommates are the colony of mice in the ceiling. The house is next to a field so mice are a normal addition to the home. Though they scratch constantly, none have gotten through the wooden panel celling tiles. I will let you know if that changes. Dad can be proud because I have become a resident cockroach squasher and wasp killer for the team.

There is a tradition in Rwanda that each person has a Kinyarwanda name. Kinyarwanda is the native language spoken here in Rwanda. French and English are both predominant here so most people have 2 names. Their Christian name which is often in English and their Kinyarwanda names. Gospel Church Ministries carries this tradition out with missionaries that come in. I was excited to hear this as each person I have met so far can not pronounce my name in the slightest. A Rwandan name would make introducing myself less of a task. Friday night, after preaching at church, my team and I went through a naming ceremony. Sounds exciting and traditional? We thought so too until we found out the naming ceremony is really a way to haze new missionaries! To earn our Kinyarwanda names the deacons decided we must dance our best African dance in front of the congregation. Our first attempt wasn’t quite rhythmic enough because as I mentioned earlier, mzungus can’t dance. But the second go around the deacons either were impressed, or more likely, took pity on us and awarded us our new names. The new names and meanings are as follows:

Carla- Mutoni (Favored one)

Juliana- Kwizera (Faith)

Regan- Mugisha (Blessed one)

Jackie- Ngabire (Divine gift)

Diane- Rocundo (Love)

Heather- Mattoro (Peace)

We love our names because each time we say them we are reminded of Gods promises and how He and our Rwandan brothers and sisters love us. God is good!

Our Sunday School Kids Crew!