The Rains Down In Africa...

14 September 2006

So, I’m here…how I feel about that fact will depend upon the day. It is absolutely beautiful here and the people are the nicest I have ever met. But things are very different, too. I’m glad they are different, but the differences also make it difficult. The power goes out every night, which was fun for the first day because we got to use candles. Who knew that you needed power for so much stuff? You can’t use your computer to get on the internet when your computer is dead and there is no power to charge it. Also, there is a bug here that lays its eggs on your clothes while they line dry. So, after doing your laundry (which takes about 2 hours for one basket), you must line dry them for two days and then wait for the power to come back on so that you can iron them so that the eggs don’t hatch in your skin (the heat kills the eggs). Not only all of that, but when it is dark here, it is DARK. When the power is out you can’t see two feet in front of you…this is a problem since the school is set on a hill and every few feet you find stairs. And I can’t forget the food…All they serve here is rice, beans, and something they call matoke (which is a hot paste made from bananas.) The rice and beans are repetitive and the matoke is disgusting. But, like one of my teachers said, if everything was the same there would be no reason to come.

I have seen a lot of heartbreaking things. One day we were sitting at an outside restaurant and there were children begging for our food. They have told us not to give them anything because if we do it will just reinforce the begging. But, one of the guys I was eating with made a really good point. He said that when you are little your parents always tell you to clean your plate because there are starving children in Africa. And now that we are in Africa and see the starving children we can’t give them our food? It’s a difficult situation, but what do you do? (We snuck them a little fruit, don’t tell!)

One of the worst things we have dealt with so far is the genocide in Rwanda. We left two days after we got here and went on a ten day trip to Rwanda. We had speakers, visited museums, and actually visited some of the sights of the genocide. After we went to a particular museum the reality of all that happened really started to hit me. These were people that, because of political manipulation, were murdering their friends and neighbors.

The next day we went to one of the places where the genocide took place. This sight happened to be a school. The Tutsi were told that they would be safe there, but the Hutu just starved them and waited things out until the Tutsi were too weak to fight back. The school was full of thousands of mutilated bones from the attack. It was almost too much to handle…room after room of bodies set up on grates, some even still having hair. I was standing in the door way of one of these rooms when all of a sudden I was snapped back from my mindless wondering by a child’s laugh. I turned around and was amazed by what I saw. I saw a beautiful country side with children laughing and playing on it. I realized something right then. There is great evil in this world, but there is also great good. I realized that every person has to make the decision some time in his or her life where he or she decides to run for the good or sink into the bad. There were so many Tutsi’s and Hutu’s that hid other Tutsi’s just to wind up dying just like the person they were trying to save. The question that kept playing in my head was, “Would I save someone if I knew we would both end up dying in the end? I made the decision right then and there to strive to do what I know is right in every situation. And by doing that I don’t just mean doing the right thing when people can see. The greatest good is done when no one else is watching but God. What I do matters even if no one else ever finds out what I have done or if it doesn’t quite turn out the way I thought it would.

I leave for home-stays on Saturday. I am really worried about this because I am being placed with a family for two weeks that I have never met. I have been dealing a lot with this fact, but I finally decided to just give it to God and stop worrying. So, I will leave you with some verses that struck me in this situation:

“Since you are precious and honored in my sight…Do not be afraid for I am with you.”
Isaiah 43:1-5
“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
Deuteronomy 31:8