Day #5 ~ Byumba ~ Church Leaders and Funeral

Here we are eating breakfast in Byumba at the guest house. Every morning it was the same cuisine. I had bread with peanut butter (which I brought a long for good measure!) bananas and honey and "chips" ~ french fries and Rwandan tea. (How's that for the picture of a healthy well-balanced meal?) Everybody else opted for omelets... but I wasn't too sure about the eggs, as I saw many natives walking home with the chickens they caught!

Kristen and Justin

This is in the guest house garden. This bird looks sweet... but...

not when it pecks on the metal roof at the crack of dawn!

Coca Cola and Coke products are plentiful. They are served (usually warm) at most meals with a straw. The bottles are refilled.

Here is The Kageyo parish where we spent the week. The building of the church was built by all volunteer labor and took 15 years to build. The cost was $60,000 US dollars. It holds about 1,000 people.

Pastor Samuel gave us a tour of the church

"Peace be with you."

Justin beating on the drum

Children ran to greet us, everywhere that we went. The center two are two of Pastor Sam's daughters, Precious and Feleste (who I want to adopt and renamed her, "Felicity!") Feleste is adopted due to being orphaned a few years ago.

Busting knuckles! We were lucky as students are on holiday from school the month of December.

High Fives are universal

We met with the Church officials today. The top three needs of the congregation were determined.

#1: Poverty

#2: Ignorance / lack of education

#3: Spiritual emptiness

It was agreed that poverty causes the lack of education which translates to spiritual emptiness.

Overpopulation is a huge problem. Money is scarce to pay for medical care, school fees and basic food and living supplies.

Poor people don't attend Church because they are too poor to buy clothes and don't want to go to church naked. Additionally, they are hungry and in lieu of spending time at Church, they are out looking for food.

Only 10% of Rwandans pass the national exam and qualify to attend High School. 90% become homeless. It costs approximately $300 - $500USD to pay for school fees. This pays for uniforms, exercise books and supplies. Even if a student passes the national exam, if their family is poor they cannot continue their education.

Many children drop out of school due to hunger resulting from poverty. They have to go to school on an empty stomach and by noon time they are experiencing the affects of hunger (ie headaches, stomach aches) and can't concentrate. They stay home in order to find food to eat. And they don't return.

Pastor Sam eloquently pointed out that I was discussing lunch yesterday at 11:45AM and asked to imagine going hungry day after day. My face reddened and I felt awful. He later said that he was joking with me by pointing out my desire to eat, but he left an impression, for sure!

The church officials asked great questions and wanted to know so much about America. They are hungry for information and long to meet the needs of their church members. They were very welcoming. I look forward to getting to know them better.

Checking out the photos...

This morning we learned of a very bad bus accident that happened last night. 11 University students were traveling home to Byumba from Kigali and were killed when their driver collided with a large truck whose driver fell asleep. Pastor Sam's wife, Grace, would have been on that bus last night as she too is a student. Fortunately her son, Gracious, celebrated his birthday last night and she stayed home with the family.

We attended the funeral service today for the eleven killed. It was in the local stadium and 17,000 people attended. It rained very hard and we stayed for over 3 1/2 hours. It was a beautiful service filled with singing, and remembering lost members of the community.

Broken shards of glass from bottles serve as added security to perimeter walls.

Our walk to the stadium was, "supposed to be" 3 minutes. We saw first hand what African time is as it was a good 30 minute walk! Thankfully the rain held off.

Byumba homes

I got scolded for lagging behind... but there were so many things to see!

We arrived at 2:00PM, the "start time" of the funeral. The stadium was empty! We got to see many children sweeping the bleachers with their tree branches. They were singing and dancing while they worked and were very entertaining!

17,000 mourners

A very full and meaningful day. I love this country!