Mark's trip to Kigali

Sunday morning, June 1st, I left LAX and headed for Kigali, Rwanda for a 2 week trip to join the Bible School site planning and architect team.

I guess I'll start by telling you about the start of the trip.

June 1: I had a headache from LAX to London; on 3 of the 4 planes I had big guys in front of me who put their seats all the way back; I almost lost my bags; but otherwise the trip over was great.

My first impression of Rwanda is that has come a long way since I was here in 1996 just after the genocide. They say that Kigali is one of the cleanest cities in Africa. Everywhere you look buildings are being fixed up, traffic is more or less organized (everyone stops for traffic lights which actually work) and the stores seem well stocked. But there still seems to be scars from the genocide seen in very subtle ways in attitudes and lifestyles.

Last night I went to the Bible School's chapel service and gave a greeting (in French). It really struck me that I will be using mostly French, and Kinyarwanda if we choose to learn that language. We are going to need to brush up on our language skills.

Another thing that struck me is the size of the building project: 12 classrooms, a library, computer room, 12 plus offices, 300 seat auditorium, 38 houses/apartments of varing sizes (most of them small) 2 dormitories with dining facilities and a guest house. All this so the student body can triple to 180 students.

I am also seeing the need for funds for a good 4 wheel drive car/truck. I will be doing lots of driving on bad and sometimes muddy roads while hauling construction materials. There are lots of things that have been improved around here, but this is still Africa.

Quite frankly last night I was feeling overwelmed, and I had hardly been in the country for 12 hours.

June 2: Today we talked about the school and its needs, each building and how it would be used and the phases of construction. When broken down into smaller parts it makes the project seem more manageable.

In the afternoon we went on a field trip to town to see the types of construction and building materials being used here. Everything seems more do-able.

I was also able to buy a Rwandan SIM card for my cell phone for $2 which had $1 of prepaid phone use on it. I won't give everyone my new cell phone number for fear you will call me at 2 AM not realizing the time difference.

Tonight I am feeling excited about what lies ahead. Tomorrow we go to do an accurate survey of the land. More fun.

Mark