The Celebration Continues!

Today is Boxing Day! We continued celebrating Jesus’ Birthday today! It has been fun to spread out the festivities.

We were invited to Mama Fifi’s house. (Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera.) It was very nice of her to invite us over there. She told us she would come to our house to take us there because there is no way we would have found it on our own! She arrived around 10:00 a.m. with a young man named Jonas who she had asked to come along as an interpreter. He is a college student and attends the same church as Mama Fifi.

We all got into our car and headed up the road away from town. After some distance, we turned onto a dirt road and drove quite aways down that road. Then we turned onto an even smaller dirt road. Because Rwanda has so many hills, almost all the roads have very deep drainage ditches along the sides. There are little bridges in strategic places built across these ditches which enable cars or pedestrians to cross them. The smaller dirt road we were turning on to had one of these bridges. The problem was that probably no cars ever cross that particular bridge so it was quite narrow and looked a bit rickety. The young man in the car with us was skeptical that we could cross it with the car and offered to get out and help Mark navigate it (Maybe he wanted an excuse to walk across!). Mark, being the confident driver that he is, decided that the bridge was sturdy and wide enough and that he could manage just fine. So, we forged ahead and sure enough, the bridge was fine and we zipped right over. The road was only a little bigger than a path. We continued down that road for quite a long way much to the amusement of the children living along that road. They all waved and laughed and ran out to see us. A few young ones cried in terror and ran to their moms. I’m sure very few, if any, cars drive down that road.

Mama Fifi’s house was at the end of the road. She has a nice sized piece of land with a vegetable garden (she grows peanuts and manioc). She said she also owns another garden somewhere else. Her house is made with mud walls, cement floors and tin roof. There is no electricity or running water. She pays 150 RWF (about 30 cents) for about 5 gallons of water to be carried to her house. The main house has 4 rooms all about the same size. The first room is the living room with a couch and 3 chairs and a coffee table. The furniture filled the room so you can get an idea of how big the house is. Another room is her bedroom. The other two rooms were for storage and bedrooms. Behind the main house was another building, also with mud walls and tin roof but with dirt floors. It had two rooms. One was where the animals sleep at night – goats and rabbits. Emily thought the rabbits were cute until I told her they were for eating. Also, Mama Fifi’s “house boy” sleeps out there in the same room with the animals. She hired him to live with her to care for the animals, carry water, etc. The other room is the “kitchen”. She cooks over charcoal and has no refrigeration. Behind this building is the outhouse.

Mama Fifi told us, through Jonas, that her family has always lived in Rwanda and they survived the genocide but her father is blind in one eye and her mother is completely lame now because of the beatings they received. They live in a village. She has brothers and sisters who live near her parents. She helps support her parents because she has a job and they are unable to work. She has 3 daughters: Serange (I think is how to spell it), age 19, and Fifi and Diana who are 8 and 6. Unfortunately, her husband has died. She is raising her 2 young daughters plus 2 orphan boys on her own. They are relatives who were orphaned in the genocide. They are older (I don’t know the exact ages) and attend what is called “catch up” school. Because of the genocide and being orphaned, they missed out on going to school at the proper ages. They now attend a school where they are learning to read and write and are learning a trade, like being a tailor.

Jonas also told us a bit of his story – his family left Rwanda during the upheaval in 1959, right before independence, and settled in Zaire/Congo (Bukavu area). He was born and raised in Congo. During the 1990’s, his family had to flee their home in Bukavu because of the unrest in Zaire and they lost everything. We were in Rethy in the early 90’s when there was trouble in Bukavu – we knew missionaries who also evacuated. At that time, though, the trouble didn’t get up to Rethy but we had our bags packed. You’ve heard on the news about displaced people who run into the forest – Jonas was one of those. He was a child – about 10 years old. They eventually were able to go back and restart their lives. His father has passed away, his mom still lives there and his sisters have married Congolese men. After finishing secondary school, Jonas has come to Kigali for further schooling. However, he says that he can never go back into Congo for fear of his life. You have probably heard of the conflicts right now in Congo near the border of Rwanda. There is a Rwandan man (I don’t know his name) who is leading an army of sorts in Congo. He claims he is just trying to get rid of rebels who are hiding in Congo. Unfortunately, more than just ‘rebels’ are being attacked. The Congolese army and gov’t don’t appreciate having this Rwandan man causing havoc in their country so they have been attacking him and his army. In doing so, they have been looking for and killing any young men with Rwandan ancestry, claiming that they are all spies. Shoot now, ask questions later. Hence, even though Jonas grew up in Congo and had nothing to do with the genocide or the current troubles in Congo, if he were to return to Congo, he would be a target. He also said there is no future in Congo because of the anarchy, poverty, and corruption.

Fifi and Diana and a little neighbor girl came in and sang us a traditional Rwandan welcome song complete with a dance. Fifi has a very sweet voice and both girls are adorable. They took Emily outside and tried to teach her the dance. Emily, being quite shy about dancing, was not exactly a willing learner. Mama Fifi thought it was very funny to watch. After that, the girls played a game of hide and seek/tag. By then a few more kids had shown up. It seems that kids around the world enjoy chasing each other!

We left the house with Jonas around noon and made it back across the questionable bridge with no problem.

In the afternoon the three of us AIM families got together at the Rossington’s house for coffee and Christmas goodies. We sat on the front porch and chatted like boring adults while the kids (including Emily) ran around chasing each other. Emily got her exercise today!

It was a great day of socializing and fellowshipping with other believers!