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!

Traveling to Rwanda Day #1 and #2

And... we're off!

These are a few of our favorite things... :O)

Here I am, Thanksgiving night at my sister Janice's house. My flight leaves tomorrow morning. 36 hours of travel time to get to the hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. I got my hair braided a few days ago. The thought being that showers / washing my hair is not a guarantee and I don't want to have to deal with it. I went to a shop in Anaheim and endured the torture of having my hair yanked and pulled and twisted. I have a new respect for those who have their hair braided on a regular basis... beauty is pain!

Bright and early at 5:15AM. Friday morning 11/29. My parents drove me to Saddleback where I met my team and the van to the airport. I didn't sleep very well the night before, just how could I gather my thoughts when I was leaving for a trip across the world with many, many unknowns?

Waiting at LAX to board to fly to Chicago.

Justin and I and the some more of the gang behind us. I chose to bring my own pillow, complete with a couple of extra cases. It was bulky and inconvenient to schlep around but one of the nicest luxuries I had on the trip.

Randy, Tirzah (who played my Nintendo DS the whole way there!), Charlie, Randy, Paul (his second trip to Rwanda) and Richard.

Our group is very diverse. Randy is a retired school teacher and coach is now officiating for High School Wrestling. His wife Ellie is our trip leader.

Tirzah is 13 and the oldest of 6 kids. Her father is a Messianic Jewish Pastor in Northern California. She is home schooled and has dreamed of coming to Africa since she was, "a very little girl." She raised the majority of her trip funds by recycling cans! Every week she and her grandfather would fill his truck with cans and bring home over $200 a month!

Charlie is Tirzah's great uncle. He is retired military who now is a volunteer staff member of the PEACE Missions team at Saddleback. He and his wife Chris (also a member of the team) have done a lot of missionary work all over the Middle East and Asia.

Paul is originally from Korea and has an incredible life story. He works for Sony. He is returning to Rwanda for his second of 10 trips. He has many connections throughout Rwanda and has built many relationships with Pastors and their congregations.

Richard works as a Probation Officer in law enforcement. He will travel with Ellie and Randy and split his time between my team (Justin, Kristen, Brent and I) and the other team (Paul, Charlie, Chris and Tirzah).


The first leg of the trip was LA to Chicago ~ a 5ish hour flight. We were blessed to have many available seats to spread out. I slept and read.

I encountered a not-so-nice flight attendant. My guess is that waiting on needy passengers with special requests can wear on a person. Favorite scenario of the flight: The flight attendant was visably frustrated by the many vegetarians who were inquiring whether or not there was meat in their meal. After much eye rolling and sighing I piped in with an innocent, "maybe they have special dietary needs?" She stared at me and said, "I wasn't talking to you!" Nice customer service, don't ya' think. Serously. She honestly said, "I wasnt' talking to you!" I wanted to add, "Sorry I should have MBOB." (Minded my own business.) Note to self. Don't offer suggestions to flight attendants.


Yeah for on time travel!

This was the book I devoured on the trip. The Pact, by Jodi Piccoult. I can't get enough of this author.

Justin ~ our fearless team leader. I have many, many, many pictures of his with similar expressions. I found them while downloading my pics... nice surprises, Justin! He is very involved in EPIC (Saddleback's programming for 20's and 30 somethings...) and also a part of PICS (Photographers in Christ's Service.) Lucky for me he is teaching me how to use my cameras! I'm a slow learner, bless his heart.

Our second flight was from Chicago to Brussels, Belgium. It was 9ish hours. Again, we had room to spread out which made it easy to snooze and relax. We had some mega luggage issues. This is Paul's bag... I think it was run over by the plane! Tirzah's wheels broke off and most of Kristen's bag had broken zippers. We were thankful to have our bags make the first leg of the journey, but perplexed by the baggage handlers!

Grrrr... American Airlines! They did give us some loaner suitcases. Which, ironically are those from unclaimed luggage. Hmmm... using other people's lost luggage. How is this okay?

Interesting sculptures in Brussels airport. Did you know cows fly too?

MOOOOO....

Our flight from Brussels to Kigali was another 9ish hours. We had a four hour layover in Brussels, which was spent entirely going through customs and the international terminal. No time for chocolate or waffles.

Africans love Obama!

Kristen and I... still smiling after a day and a half of travel. Kristen is my roommate for the trip. She works in government and is a Sunday School teacher at Saddleback. We share a love for country music, kids and all things girly.

Justin, me, Kristen and Tirzah ~ the "youngins" on the trip

We met a local to exchange money from dollars to Rwandan Franks. The exchange rate is $1.00 to 555 franks. We had stacks of Rwandan franks and got used to paying for everything with "thousands of franks."

I don't know that I'll ever have the, "opportunity" to exchange thousands of dollars in a hotel room!

Our night ended with trying to adjust to Rwanda time by retiring to bed. I took my first shower ~ started our luke warm and then went to freezing.

The fun starts tomorrow. Church in Kigali and then the Genocide Museum / Memorial.