Catch up

Sorry the blog just dropped off after day three. I got to go with the construction team into the backwoods of Rwanda where there is no internet connection. I am sorry to leave you hanging while we were gone. But now that we are home safe, I have great images and stories to tell so keep checking back and I will keep up with the story of our trip.

Saturday August 9th

Today Gary and I drove out to hook up with the construction team and see their progress putting a roof on a church. The construction site was up in the mountains near a few volcanoes. The road was covered with chunks of volcanic rock. We had to abandon the car and walk the last ten minutes to the site.


We arrived at the church to find the local children singing to our team. Their vocal strength and harmony is amazing. The Rwandan's singing and dancing became one of the highlights of my trip.

The drummer is the only background to the singing:



The initial goal of the construction team was to finish putting a roof on the church, but that was deemed unsafe. The wood used to make the trusses was too heavy to be safe for us to put them up. This was no huge problem, because we got a call two days later telling us that the Rwandan's successfully put the trusses up themselves. We are hoping that they put up support poles from the floor, so that the trusses don't fall.

Here's a shot of Mark with the local pastor Jean Baptiste at the worksite.

The team built scaffolding out of eucalyptus trees:

The church building was made of mud bricks and the children peeked in the doors and windows to watch the work being done on the trusses inside.



Before leaving we presented some of the soccer balls to the pastor for his congregation!


Apparently this old woman with the stick was into hitting people until they paid her off to leave us alone.


An example of the crazy things they balance on their heads. This woman had a huge bundle of sticks was just walking down the highway.



Sunday August 10th

The entire team drove way out into the mountains, past the volcanoes to an outdoor church service. The service was huge, with probably 300 people in attendance. It was the annual gathering of all the congregations in the region. The service was scheduled to start at 9:30 but we didn’t actually arrive at the site until 11:00. The service didn’t start until we arrived and we were the guests of honor.

We were swarmed when we arrived.



Pastor Jacob was presiding as the head pastor.



Jacob is Esron’s father, and Esron is the pastor of the church where we are assembling the internet café. There was much singing and dancing from several choirs. We were all individually introduced and we each had to come up with something to say to the congregation. Then Jeremy preached an awesome sermon on Nehemiah 1. Esron acted as translator.



The service was probably two hours long, so not bad. We were worried about rain, as you can see by the clouds over the crowd:



The singing and dancing was amazing.
Esron's church choir from Remera:




A local college choir:


We got rained on toward the end and the wind was pretty cold. The solution? Grab a kid!



After the service we were served lunch with all the pastors and their wives. We had rice, plantains, potatoes, goat meat, bananas, rolls and the ever present Fanta Citron.

It was a very cool day getting to meet new people and experience a Rwandan church service.

Monday August 11th

I joined up with the construction team and we took a five hour drive across the country to the site where Valley has funded 5 houses for the Pygmy people. This day was mostly spent driving but we did meet the pastor of the local church and he showed us around the village.

One of the unfinished houses Valley has funded:



We were warmly welcomed by the congregation and ushered into the church for a short service. There were introductions and singing and a challenge to help build the houses in the coming days.

We left the village around five and made our way to a Presbyterian guest house on Lake Kivu.



This guest house was so nice and so ideally located that it felt criminal to be staying there on a missions trip. My balcony overlooked the lake. It was quite idyllic.



Tuesday August 12

Down to business. We got an early breakfast and made it to the village around 8 AM. The drive from our guest house to the village is just over an hour on a very bumpy dirt road. It was always a relief to get out of the van.

Our work was a totally new experience for all the members of the team: building mud houses. Mud bricks had been made the previous week and had dried sufficiently to be used. The first step in building the house is making the foundation, which is essentially a rock and mud grid where the walls will be placed. The floor of the rooms is left as dirt. A thick layer of mud is used for mortar. This mud is made in a pit by the side of the house and is presided over with hoes and water buckets by a few workers.



People run back and fourth with bricks and handfuls of mud. Skilled bricklayers arrange the bricks and level them along a string guide.

This man was one of the skilled bricklayers:




The foundation and some random bricks waiting to be laid.


The bricks were pretty dang heavy and we all felt accomplished to work so hard. But then Jeremy made a good observation: "Man I don't feel so strong because all these women are doing this same work barefoot with a baby strapped to their back."


Too true, this women were the strongest I have ever met.



The team’s work mostly consisted of running back and fourth with mud or bricks. It was awesome to see the walls rise around us.


The drying bricks:


A machete was used to shape the bricks:



There were some mud fights and at the end of the day, I taught some of the kids how to make clay frogs.



One of the pygmy men helping build:



The houses are being made for the pygmies, who are currently living in stick shelters up in the mountain. The houses that are being made for them are down in the village, interspersed among the Rwandan villagers. The government wants to end the segregation between the people groups, hence the mixing of communities.

The hardest question the houses raise, is who will live in them? There are 14 pygmy families, but only 5 houses are being built. Their question to us was, “How do we decide who lives in the new houses?” This was something we could not answer.



Check back soon for the continuing story...