21 11 14 a strange way to spend a birthday

Woke up from a very good nights sleep feeling much refreshed from the previous day and a half's journey. I was reminded by a big stack of cards that it was my birthday, thank you  all who sent them particularly from the one with the amafranga in, which bought four of us a lovely lunch. At breakfast more cards and lovely presents.  Breakfast consisted of beautiful fruit the most juicy pineapple and african fruit salad dumped over a weetabix .

Rob and Jan and the Griffiths had various meetings concerning the water filter trial project. We dropped in to the "lawyers of hope" office which is now situated at Solace Guest house to drop off a letter and someone gave us a little presentation of their work. Basically they a Christian group of lawers who provide their services free for the poor and young people, Rwandan lawyers cost over £500 to hire which is beyond the means of all but the priveledged few. They also educated local leaders to report to them episodes where young people were abused or taken advantage of; also they work in the prisons with ofenders to stop young people re-offending.

We then walked over to the main Gisosi genocide memorial site, situated on side of one of the hills over from the one where the guest house is situated. We walked up past many government offices then through a more commercial section with many little shop workshops where they manufactured for example coils for motors with great reels of copper wire seen through the door. The site is set in beautiful garden and is very peaceful. It consists of large mass graves and an educational exhibition and museum. It remains a very painful place to visit but we were able to take a large part of the day walking around the exhibits and reflecting on that very recent past. Looking over to the hill on which the rising commercial tall buildings going up it becomes more difficult to imagine a city total consumed by carnage and filled with mutilated bodies.

So how is it that this beautiful peaceloving people turned into killers? Why did Cain murder Abel?

The process probably started back in colonial days before there were many tribes living in relative easy co-existence then the colonist categorised them into two ethnic groups and gave them identity cards. So they were labeled. Slowly, percieved inequalities and injustice led to escalating violence.

I have been reading a book by Miroslav Volf on the origins of Genocide called Exclusion or Embrace.

How do you kill your brother? It is not easy but if your brother becomes the other, the outsider, excluded from your presence it is easy to denegrate him and rename him. Once he becomes a “cockroach” he is easily stamped out. We have a choice either we exclude the other, the enemy or we embrace him. Embrace is typified in the Christian bible by the story of the prodigal son, the command to love your enemy; basically it is the message of the cross.

On our way home to the guest house we visited an art project, it was a riot of jubilant colour, full of very joyful young artists expressing themselves in very vibrant African colours and themes but in very new and creative ways.  It made a wonderful counterpoint to see these young Rwandans expressing just the joy of being alive.

 The new arena at the memorial

 A peace statue

 An old volkswagon they were painting at the art centre

 It was wonderful to see the bright african colours painted and woven into modern retelling of traditional African art this artist shows a wonderful optimism for the future of the country.

We arrived back to a much needed rest and reflection. Yet another little incident before our evening meal I had briefly gone out to buy a packet of Rwandan teabags (the best in the world) when I came across a little orphan chap on the pavement begging he was someone called Oscar we had met on a previous visit as usual he was hungry he lives with his grandma has one eye but even he goes to school. So he went off happily with a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter to feed his mum.

Finally a lovely beef stew as my birthday meal , plus a wonderful cake which Jean Marie our cook just rustled up at the end of our meal. 

     

We are back

It was great to be greeted by Jonathan Rob and Jan as we walked out of the airport into a grey and drizzily but very warm Kigali. The flight had gone well but was very tiring. Rather than just go to bed we decided to get a trip into town and see the changes in the centre, and of course for Jan her very first taste of Africa
Jonathan is now an old hand and took us to his favourite haunt the Bourbon coffee shop. Then we needed to go to MTN to sort out our Rwandan SIMS, a bank to change money and a little walk around town.
The centre is changing very rapidly into a very modern city with high rise buildings rising up almost weekly it seems. However still all the bustle and busyness of an African city. Back to the Umugano hotel for a sandwich and a little snooze. We then met up with Pastor Anastase to give him one of the computers we had brought out. It was for one of the orphans he looks after who is going on a computer course. Then our friend Teddy came to see us looking as incredibly frail and old as ever, it is a shock to be reminded she is younger than us! It was wonderful to have old old cook Jean Marie back at peace having fled back to Kigali from the Ebola epidemic where his last job had taken him. so we had the first of many very large and delicious African meals.(not casava beans and rice which the majority live on.)
  

                                                      Kigali city centre waiting for taxi

12 12 14 A look back at our wonderful Ruby wedding year.

We have arrived back in a cold and dark England which seems to be doing Christmas so I suppose we have to join in the fray! The lack of commercialism in rural Africa makes a welcome break from our bustling commercialism. However, long dark nights wrapped up in a warm house are good times to reflect on the previous year. A place for slow reflection is welcome  at this time of year, as the year draws to a close and the light dims; we can again contemplate the miracle of a wonderful event that took place over 2000 years ago, the coming into our dark dying year of the King of light and new birth.

Winter solstice

The darkest and the coldest time

Is also the best time

O Christmas Christ

The radiance around the moon

Is not as fair

As the radiance

Around your head

O Holy One

The majesty of the winter sea

is not as glorious as your majesty.

At the departing times

The coldest times

of our lives;

At the times of excitement

and the times of expectance.

At the times of intersection

when hard choices

have to be made.

Be with us

Prince of peace.

Kate Mcllhagga 

So what has happened this year? Well, we have all got a year older, which is fun for the younger members of the family, with lots of lovely family birthdays, William is now one, Gemma 2 11/12  Joseph a tall 7 and what a surprise on my birthday! 21st November saw Mary and me becoming great aunts and uncles for the first time, with the arrival of young Toby at a large 5lbs 14oz for someone who should have arrived well after Christmas. 

Last Christmas was a very exciting time with a family gathering at Vivienne and Ian's house for the beautiful wedding of Holly and Tim followed by a wonderful family Christmas.

 Our Dave, Charlie, Pete  and Claire

 Yes we did get up for breakfast the next morning!

February saw us back in Rwanda helping Rob and Jan with the Aquafilter project which involved field testing 1000 filters, a mamoth task to set up.

 Our friend Mary Ogalo from Kenya came to investigate setting up training

for young girls in self esteem and life planning

In the house of our friend Jonas with his parents, Rob had managed to organise

 a new wheel chair for his father with the help of a specialist charity.

April saw us visiting the wonderful Viking exhibition at the British Museum  together with the wonderful Anglo Saxon treasures always on display.

 imagine making this with no means of magnification

.

 The iconic Sutton Hoo helmet

Easter saw us visiting some of our beautiful national trust houses for the onset of spring flowers a joyful reminder of Easter an empty tomb and new life spring up all around.

The Snowdrop

by Walter de la Mare

Now — now, as low I stooped, thought I,
I will see what this snowdrop is;
So shall I put much argument by,
And solve a lifetime's mysteries.

A northern wind had frozen the grass;
Its blades were hoar with crystal rime,
Aglint like light-dissecting glass
At beam of morning prime.

From hidden bulb the flower reared up
Its angled, slender, cold, dark stem,
Whence dangled an inverted cup
For tri-leaved diadem.

Beneath these ice-pure sepals lay
A triplet of green-pencilled snow,
Which in the chill-aired gloom of day
Stirred softly to and fro.

Mind fixed, but else made vacant, I,
Lost to my body, called my soul
To don that frail solemnity,
Its inmost self my goal.

And though in vain — no mortal mind
Across that threshold yet hath fared! —
In this collusion I divined
Some consciousness we shared.

Strange roads — while suns, a myriad, set —
Had led us through infinity;
And where they crossed, there then had met
Not two of us, but three.

 Sheffield park

Now — now, as low I stooped, thought I,
I will see what this snowdropis;
So shall I put much argument by,
And solve a lifetime's mysteries.

A northern wind had frozen the grass;
Its blades were hoar with crystal rime,
Aglint like light-dissecting glass
At beam of morning prime.

From hidden bulb the flower reared up
Its angled, slender, cold, dark stem,
Whence dangled an inverted cup
For tri-leaved diadem.

Beneath these ice-pure sepals lay
A triplet of green-pencilled snow,
Which in the chill-aired gloom of day
Stirred softly to and fro.

Mind fixed, but else made vacant, I,
Lost to my body, called my soul
To don that frail solemnity,
Its inmost self my goal.

And though in vain — no mortal mind
Across that threshold yet hath fared! —
In this collusion I divined
Some consciousness we shared.

Strange roads — while suns, a myriad, set —
Had led us through infinity;
And where they crossed, there then had met
Not two of us, but three.

- See more at: http://www.poetrynook.com/poem/snowdrop-3#sthash.jxXpaol8.dpuf

 Wakehurst place

 Three crosses and an empty tomb

Eleven faithful disciples not sure about the Easter chicks!

April also saw our annual expedition to Exmoor beautiful in the Spring.

Mary somewhere on Exmoor.

Exmoor was a wonderful training ground for our annual Amos trust cycling trip which I partook with David and a friend. It started in Bridlington, went over a few bumps in the middle and landed us via Malham and York in Bridlington where we met the rest of our family had a  few wet days at the seaside.

 Joan, Dave and myself arriving in Bridlington to be greeted by Joseph.

 Malham was actually getting excited about the arrival of the Tour de France, not Dave and myself.

So not content with sunny Bridlington June found us in San Quirico D'Orcia followed by Cinque Terre on the Italian coast, our first proper visit to Italy since before our wedding and the start of our Ruby wedding anniversary in July.

 Medieval town square in San Quirico

   One of our holiday highlights was listening to Gregorian chant 

by the monks of this perfect Romanesque monastry

July I was off to Normandy with the Southover cycling trip visiting some of our favourite haunts just over the channel from Newhaven

The last meal has to be fancy dress

13th July saw sixty of our friends and family gathered for a wonderful celebratory meal for our Ruby wedding, followed by a concert by Mary's gospel choir.

A wonderful meal

 Mary with cousin John and brother Paul

Cutting the cake, beautifully iced by our dear friend Hilary Ferns.

August saw us camping in Asburnham at the very inspiring Icthus bible camp, then off to Jersey to visit Mary's brother Paul.

A leisurely meal in Jersey

August ended with a lovely trip with our grandson Joseph to see an open air version of Peter Pan

 

Peter Pan

September and we were off to Bodiam castle to see David complete his first triathelon

 Entering the moat

Congratulations and a medal!

October saw us in London for a wonderful joint birthday treat a visit to 

Shakespeare's Globe for the comedy of errors

September also found Mary singing with the Lewes Sings Gospel choir inthe Royal Albert Hall, having earlier won the BBC lewes gospel singers of the year. We watched a wonderful performance of the choir and joined in singing well known songs and hymns of especial note were the amzing sound we made singing the Hallelujah Chorus and Zadok the priest.  

 Performing on stage

 The group arrives outside the Albert Hall

November and December see us back in Rwanda which I have extensively blogged about below so here we are almost Christmas time for a rest and look forward to what we have in store in the coming year!

Back in Kigali

Awoke to a gray morning injustement We Heard the wonderful dawn chorus for the last time. Then lots of sad goodbyes, I think the staff had really grown fond of us and it had been wonderful just to be able to have time with Jonathan. We finally all got on the bus with the entire staff waving us off. So we set out on our long trip the forest and back to Kigali. The journey through the forest Was quite slow as They Were mending the road. We dropped off at the Paul Kigeme qui guest house was very nice. We Took our friend Ruth with us you one bus she entertained us with her joyful laugh and lovely singing. 

 Mary and Judy saying goodbye to Charity in the mother's union gift shop 

at the Guest house

This poor little monkey onley has one hand and sits waiting for the buses 

as he cannot forrage like the other monkeys

 A quick snap from the bus of the rain forest

Some monkeys at the Uwinka forest lookout 

where we had a toilet stop

Finally arrived as the sun set. Wonderfuf welcome from Jean Marie cook. A wonderfuf supper.welcome we Recalled all the wonderful times and experiences We had had.a Finally cam to bed.Kigali

Jackie and Jonathan 's mum and dad

We visited the family of a Rwandan couple living in Lewes . They were a family of 10 children not all at home living with their parents in a very  nice  house  righ.ht at the top  of the hill.top it was a long way up in the hot sun.

We had a wonderful time . They gave us coffee or tea and bananas .

 Jackie and Jonathan's lovely family

 Outside their rather fine house at the very top of Kamembe

We came back to take lunch with Speciose and her son Jimmy our house keeper previously. Then Mary and Judy went off to mother's union . Rob to district office and Jan and I tested  some  Aquafilters 

Two Churches and a boat ride

Early breakfast today and off to church at the cathedral for the English service which was a small service as most of the teachers and school pupils were away. I preached on the Parable of the wedding feast and used an illustration of two cloths, Mary's Pashmina and a dirty old pillow case suitable rubbed in the dirt to explain the principal of the exchange of the cross. Then after meeting a few people coming to the later African service we set out for  Gashonga with our beloved driver Patrick Celestine who used to drive me when we went out with the Rwanda aid clinics. We drove along a good road up towards Bugarama  and the Burundi border. The church was only four weeks old being a church plant from Cyato church , Epraims old parish. It met in a tiny building made of mud with a mud floor they started with 15 people and today the congregation had already grown to about 40-50 all packed into a tiny room. The singing was enthusiastic and the congregation joyfully danced to the sound of two drums, pounded by two young men with joyful energy and rhythm.

 The rented room they hold their service in

 The dancing

 The altar call

Mary and Patrick greeting a little boy

I preached on the same subject but in a much simpler way without notes and Ephraim and Patrick translated.
At the end of the message Ephraim made two altar calls one for non Christians to repent and turn to Christ and one for Christians to tell their neighbours about the gospel about 8 people responded to each appeal.
Then back to the Guest house for  soup the we went down to the Emauralde where we hired a boat to be taken on a trip along the lake shore and we disembarked on a small island called Gihaya with one very poor village where all the the children were in rags and very poor although they looked reasonably healthy there seemed to be a lot of cows, goats and a pig on the island. We saw an enormous amount of bird life as we went along many types of heron kingfishers river and fish eagle, storks and cormorants; also weaver birds and reed warblers.
Then walked back to the guest house and just got in as a tremendous shower started so another tasty dinner and wearily to bed.

 Our group on the boat

One of the fishing boats the men sing as they row 

the sounds drift across the lake to the guest house.

Compassion and a long journey to follow up a flood alleviation study

Today we awoke to unusually cloudy skies but very warm and humid. We walked up to the Compassion project at St Matthews, everywhere was very quiet because today was Umuganda, the community service which everyone participates in on the last Saturday of the month from the president down. Here all the children in the area from Compassion meet. There were nearly 200 children all with a sponsor in the West. They started off with a nutritious meal of the now familiar porridge then Judy showed them one of her stories which is based on Godly Play a very pictorial and reflective way of telling a story designed to make you think. It was the story of creation from Genesis. The children were very attentive and asked very intelligent questions. The they went off to their classes to have health screening and to participate in Umuganda like everybody else in the community.

 Mary and Judy helping distribute the porridge

 Judy presenting the Godly play

Some of the Compassion children

As we walked back the roads slowly got back to normal as their community work finished we went back to the guest house for a bowel of soup; then Basile, Rob's local water engineer, brought his car and GPS. We went up the road to the forest turning left onto the road that takes you up past Nyamasheke to a Methodist hospital and church by  lake Kivu at a place called Kibogora.. Before we could begin work we were treated to a large African buffet by the pastors which took an hour of our precious daylight time. Rob had already surveyed the site and given the data to a graduate student to do an hydrolic study to relieve the flooding problem. However we needed to check it out on the ground and we encountered many changes causing problems as we trekked over the site. The main one being that new houses had been built on potential flood relief ponds and outlets so the only solution was to provide storm tanks that had to be kept empty so that they would fill with a downpour that could then be released slowly into the drainage system. However this proposal was greet with the same enthusiasm by the pastors as an aviator being offered a concrete parachute. It was totally alien to them to spend money on big tanks which could be filled to hold precious rain water for the community used just for flood prevention. So the need for flood relief was hastily reduced to a larger open culvert and the tanks being used for rainwater harvesting. So home we rapidly went as night descended. Strangely we were listening to the English football results, by courtisy of the BBC world service on the car radio.

 The view of lake at Kibagora

 Rob looking for a possible outfall for the water run off

Rob and Peter discussing the project with the pastors.