Home Away From Home: Rwanda

Hey friends!

I am a bit behind on updating you all, but today I just wanted to share a bit of our time in Rwanda with you! We got to spend two months in the city of Kigali, and we had the most amazing time! From the green tropical mountains, to the kind smiles and bright eyes looking at us everywhere we went, and of course the deep red bumpy dirt roads, I truly loved it all! 

Before we get too deep into the details of these two months, I’d like you all to meet my Rwandan family. Uncle Mo, his wife Mother Mary, and their 5 children really welcomed us with open arms. Uncle Mo is the biggest jokester, and the biggest dad you’ll ever meet. If we needed anything at all, Uncle Mo made it happen! As we arrived, Uncle Mo let us know that we were going to need to go through a cultural ritual  before we did anything else. So right as we got off the yellow bus and put our packs in our new home he called us outside. As we came out, he began to explain that we needed to line up, youngest to oldest. The youngest would carry a stool on her head, while the rest of us followed behind as she led us around the house, with our hands in prayer position, not smiling at all. We gladly did it, for sure laughing, as all of the workers around the house also laughed at us. As we rounded the corner to see Uncle Mo, he just began to belly laugh at us. From this moment, we knew we would be best buds with him and his family! 

Mother Mary and the others at the house took such good care of us! There were always an array of new faces at the house, always looking to serve and love on us! We had so many birthday parties, dinner conversations, and just sweet moments here. The kiddos became our siblings, playing games after school, and holding our hands as we walked down the road. 

Needless to say, we all fell deeply in love with this family!

On the left is Uncle Mo & Mother Mary, then the other two are our family photos! This is Uncle Mo, Mother Mary, all the kiddos, and anyone else we could round up!!

Now let’s talk about ministry this month! It truly was all over the board. Most weekday mornings, we made our way down the the preschool and kindergarten where we helped the teachers. There were three classrooms, the babies (2-3 year olds), the middle class (3-4 years old), and the upper class (5-7 years old). 

Myself and my teammate Caroline got to work with the older kids. We only had 11 students, so we really got the chance to invest in them all! We would typically help teach English and spelling in the beginning of the day, then we would venture outside fro break where we would play our hearts our or have our hair matted into knots. From here we would go in and teach a bible verse and play some more games, then send them on their way home for lunch. We would also put together an assembly (think chapel) for them every Friday for about two hours! 

I had the most fun with the amazing teachers, and fell head over heals in love with these cutie kiddos!

The top left photo is just the chaos that breaks out during their break, we have so much fun! Top right photo is the tender moments of learning. It’s the best when it just clicks! The bottom left is all of us outside of the school, as well as Simon who is a teacher. The bottom right my sweet class! 

In the afternoons we would tropically get a break. But then on Wednesday and Friday evenings, as well as twice on Sunday, we would help at the church. Here our goal was to give Uncle Mo a break from preaching and teaching. So each week, we became the preachers, as well as the children’s ministry directors. 

This honestly grew us all so much! We all got to practice our preaching a tad bit in Lesotho, but this was the first time any of us have had to put a message together each week, sometimes more than once. 

There really is nothing like church in Africa. There is no time limits, so much dancing, no reserves, and so much joy! 

The top left is the kiddos singing on Sunday morning, they always prepared a song! Top right & bottom left our some times of teaching! Then the bottom right is our children’s program kiddo! 

In Rwanda, in remembrance of the genocisde, they have monthly community service days. Here, everyone from each neighborhood gets together to tackle a big community project. We packed bags full of dirt and rocks to fix a road, as well as carried some big old trees to make pathways. 

We had the honor of being in Rwanda over the anniversary of the genoscide. So many lives were taken, and so much injustice was done. But I truly don’t know if I have seen a community of people come alongside one another in such a stunning way. They have made it a point no to forget the pain, but to still come alongside one another and truly walk hand in hand. 

Here is the work day! From the tree that we carried, to the road we fixed, and the friends we made! 

Lastly for ministry, we got to host a radio show! How cool is that!? Every Saturday evening, two of us got to prepare an hour long teaching, drive down to the radio station, and share the good news for all of Rwanda to hear! Uncle Mo and our friend Charity would come to translate for us, and we would just get to random preach. 

This was truthfully the most fun! We really just got to sit back and have a conversation about the Lord, which is my most favorite! We would also just get to sit and pray over the city before we began! And, Uncle Mo would always take us to run erronds and get a little treat afterwards! 

Here is the radio station! We had so much fun sharing the Love of Jesus here! 

We really got to experience so much of the culture in Rwanda. While we were there, a couple from our church was getting married, so they invited us! 

In Rwanda they have two ceremonies, about a week apart from each other. The first ceremony was in a village about four hours away from us. So we loaded in the car one morning, and drove to our very Friday cow pricing ceremony. As we arrived, they gave us each a traditional wedding dress to put on, and then we drove down to the venue, which was in fact a field. Before we loaded int o leave, the photographer of the wedding insisted that we be in the wedding photos… 

When we arrived, we sat through about four hours of chatting and deciding how many cows the bride was worth. We truthfully didn’t have any clue what was happening most of the time, but about every hour, someone random would come over and try to offer us food. 

The second wedding ceremony took place at our church. This was the official wedding. This is where the bride and groom actually became husband and wife. We sat through he ceremony at the church, and then went the the reception just a little walk away, after being in some more wedding photos of course. 

Here we ate, had cake, chatted with some people, heard a whole lot of their speeches, and then were called up to dance for the bride and groom… Did anyone else get up to dance you might be wondering… For sure not, just us. We danced with them, and then danced them right out the door. 

Lastly here’s the wedding photos! We had to take photos quick, because random people would come to take photos with us & we‘d be there for hours! Haha 

As you can see, our time in Rwanda was packed to the brim with memories! We had so many good laughs, so many tender moments with our community, and an amazing family to tie it all together, Rwanda really felt like my home away from home!