Kumbya

We just got back from a week away at a camp called “Kumbya” so I thought I’d write a bit about it before we get swamped with life again!

Kumbya (pronounced: KOOM-bee-yah NOT kum-bye-yah like the song) is a “camp” that was established by missionaries several decades ago (60 – 80 years I think – not quite sure). I’m a bit hazy on the history but my understanding is that way back then, the government gave or sold a peninsula on Lake Kivu to the Free Methodist missionaries working in the area. At some point several mission organizations banded together and create a camp area for missionaries serving in the “Great Lakes” region of Africa (basically Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, Burundi). Each organization built a “cabin” for their missionaries to use and now there are about 8 of these. They are actually brick buildings with tile roofs. I only went into a couple of them but while they are all different, they all basically have a main living/playroom with 3-5 small bedrooms and a small kitchen of sorts. The one we stayed in was the only one we know of that had a flush toilet! Our kitchen was a closet sized room with a cupboard on one side for storing dishes/food and a table on the other side with a 2 burner gas stove and a few pots on a shelf. There was running water coming into the kitchen but no sink. We had buckets that we used to wash dishes on the porch outside. The back yard looked out onto the lake and we ate all our breakfasts out there. There was a large fire ring in the back yard where we sat around a fire a couple of evenings. We had a fire in the inside fireplace one evening but it was pretty smoky the next day in the living room. There is no electricity on the peninsula but there are a couple of generators they use for the evening meeting time. We used kerosene lanterns or candles to light our cabin.

There are not enough cabins for everyone so several people pitched tents all around – there are no actual campsites – just where you want. There are pit toilets in different locations around the peninsula so most folks camped within easy walking distance to a toilet. A third option for sleeping was to request a “hut” . Some local guys came in a day or two early and constructed temporary grass huts for those who had requested them. I didn’t actually look in one but I think it would have been a fun option for kids or families who didn’t own tents.

Another building at the camp is a meeting/dining room/kitchen. This was an L-shaped building. Everyone ate breakfasts in their cabin or campsite but we all ate together in the dining room for lunches and suppers. The meals were prepared by a crew that is hired just for the week but some have been doing it for several years now (one said he’s been cooking at the camp for 30+ years.) Some missionary wives plan the meals ahead of time and do the shopping in Kigali. The meals were simple but very good. I was impressed. We ate things like Enchiladas, pizza, spaghetti, fish and chips, burritos, soups, salads, mac and cheese, etc. It was all cooked over wood stoves or in wood ovens.

The basic schedule was:
Breakfast/clean-up
Morning worship / Bible teaching (kids younger than HS had a VBS program at this time)
Tea break (I provided goodies for one of the tea breaks)
Small group discussion/prayer or women’s/men’s group teaching time (HS discussion time + VBS)
Lunch
Free time
Supper
Evening Meeting
Hang around the cabin/hit the hay

Every year a speaker is invited to come for the week. This year it was a pastor and his wife, Terry and Kelleen, from a church called CrossOver in Spokane, WA. He was very good. She was also good when she led the women’s meetings. His talks were mostly taken from John 13-14. Hers were from Ps. 46.

For most folks, the free time was spent at the beach on the lake. There is a very nice cove where there is some sand and some grass and trees. It was definitely the place to be in the afternoons. There is platform (everyone called it a dock but technically it wasn’t a dock) a few yards out from shore where some folks (mostly kids) would swim to and sit on or dive off from or play “king of the dock” (Emily’s favorite). Over the years different mission groups or missionaries have donated or loaned “toys” to the camp – innertubes and other floating devices, a small 1 – 2 person sailboat , a motor boat with water skiis, a kneeboard and other pull toys, and kayaks. Mark took Emily out on the sailboat one day and taught her the basics of sailing. He also got the motorboat going and took the high schoolers out knee boarding one day. He took the younger kids out on a big tube that is designed for pulling behind a boat. Emily went out kayaking with friends a few times, went cliff jumping (estimated to be about as high as a high dive at a pool), built sand castles/kingdoms with the younger kids or just chilled out and read. I spent most afternoons at the beach watching Emily and the other kids while reading a book or chatting with other moms. If I wasn’t there, I was taking a nap or doing laundry or other household chores at the cabin. When Mark wasn’t in a boat on the water, he was looking at someone’s car or other items that needed fixing.

The evening meetings were varied.
Saturday night was an introductory meeting.

Sunday night Kelleen gave her testimony.

Monday a missionary who has been in Rwanda for 25+ years gave a testimony/talk about how God has worked in his life over the years.

Tuesday the missionaries who were at Kumbya for the first time gave testimonies (Mark shared).

Wednesday night the “Kumbya Development Committee” (KDC) gave a report of the plan for the future development of the area. Simply put, it has come to the attention of the government that the peninsula was “given” to missionaries years ago but those people are no longer around. The administration of the land and usage of it has been very loosely structured over the past few years. Because Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa and land is valuable, the government requires that all land be owned and used for specific purposes. The KDC has been formed and there is now an association that has been formalized which will then take over legal ownership of the land. They then have plans to build a few “luxury” tent sites and dining area on a different part of the peninsula which will be used for “ecotourism” to satisfy the desire of the government. The missionary camp section will remain virtually untouched and still be used by missionaries needing a retreat/rest. One of the huge draws of the land is that it is one of few places on the lake where the indigenous trees and shrubs are untouched and it has become quite a sanctuary for birds.

Thursday was the mandatory camp event – “Skit Night!” There was a huge variety of hilarious skits and amazing talent. One skit was a mockery of a well meaning American evangelist who came to Africa to preach using idioms and very American phrases. It was then “interpreted” to the audience by a “local” interpreter. Everyone was roaring in laughter! One mom performed a beautiful dance/sign language of a worship song. A family of 3 kids did a percussion trio using local instruments that was extremely well done. Emily and I taught the group one our family favorite camp songs: “Wa-da-lee-ah-cha” One 10 year old girl sang a worship song she wrote – phenonmenal. A 5 year old girl sang the worship song “Holy is Lord” and did a super job but when she came the words “It’s the anthem of the Lord’s renown” she sang “it’s the antelope the Lord’s renown”! Very cute! It was a fun evening.

Friday night was “Movie on the Beach”. They took the generator down to the beach, hung a sheet between two trees, set up a computer and projector and speakers and showed “Madagascar 2”. While it sounded like fun to watch a movie on the beach like that, we didn’t really care about watching that particular movie and neither did Emily’s 2 RVA friends so we invited them over to play “Settlers of Catan” with us. We were 6 (Melissa went to Kumbya with us) so we used Emily’s new extension for the first time. It made for a long game but it was fun. We sat out on the porch with lanterns all around us. The moon was pretty bright so that helped.

A tradition at Kumbya each evening is to award the “Cuckoo Award”. Basically, “friends” nominate their friends who catch them doing something silly or “cuckoo”. One night it was given to a lady who that morning had groggily gotten up and started making Kool-aid but instead of putting the powder mix into water, she put in the pitcher of milk! One Jr Higher got it for acting silly out on the lake, thinking no one else could hear him but he didn’t realize that the sound traveled far out there. Others received it for similar moments of silliness.

There is a family here whose grandfather had worked in the area as a missionary. Dave (the grandson now working here) never met his grandfather but recently met a man who had been a boy growing up in the same area as Dave’s grandfather and he knew him. This elderly man, Larry, shared many stories with Dave which Dave wrote down and shared some of them with the group in the evenings. Most of them were about Larry’s pet chimpanzee named Wimpy. Between Wimpy’s funny antics and Dave’s good story telling, we all enjoyed the stories from the past.

One of the big blessings that God provided at Kumbya were friends for Emily. We didn’t know of any kids her age who would be there at the camp this year. There were some girls a couple years younger who she would have hung out with – and she did some of the time. But when we got there another family from Uganda was unloading their car not far from our cabin and Emily instantly recognized 2 kids from her class at RVA! One is staying with the other’s family in Uganda for the break. She didn’t know them too well but they all got along great and enjoyed doing things together. It made the week a lot more fun for her to have kids her own age to hang out with.

Thursday morning the tradition at the camp is to have swim out to “3 Hump island”. It has been determined that it is 5 kilometers round trip. The swim starts at 6 am (less current) and was finished by 9:30 ish. In the group swimming this year were 6-10 adults, the high schoolers and lots of kids (there is a lot of peer pressure to do this event!). Most of the kids had some sort of floatation device to help them. Everyone made it to the island except for 3 kids. Mark took the motor boat out to keep on eye on everyone and several local fishermen were hired to also row alongside to help keep an eye on everyone. Only 4 attempted to swim back so everyone else was shuttled back in the boats. It wasn’t a race per se but Emily was the first one to make it to the island and she was hardly winded or tired. Some of the adults maybe would have given her a bit of competition but they stayed with their own kids. On the way back it was 2 adults, Emily and one of the other RVA kids (who we think only did it to keep Emily company). She ended up slowing down to stay by her friend who was extremely tired but they both made it and now they have bragging rights! In the “record books” from recent history of the camp, Emily is now the youngest swimmer to reach the island the first and maybe the youngest to go round trip! It’s really not a race but more of a “Hey, guess what I did?” type of event. After the swim, some ladies had pancakes ready for the swimmers which Emily scarfed down! I don’t think I’ve ever seen her eat so many pancakes in one sitting!!

I mentioned that the kids had a time of VBS while the adults had their morning meetings. One of those days, the story was about creation and a missionary who came in from Uganda had found some of the long balloons used for making animals. The idea was that the kids would make balloon animals as a craft. I happened to be sitting on the beach with some other moms when she delivered the balloons to the lady in charge of VBS. All the moms there commented what a good idea that was but none of them knew how to make animal balloons and they were wondering if there might be anyone there who did know. I, of course, spoke up and said that Mark knew how. So, the next morning he spent an hour or so making animal balloons for some very delighted children. In fact, that afternoon, I spotted one girl out swimming in the lake with her animal balloon right there with her!! They asked him to make some more during free time on a different afternoon but he got busy pulling kids on the boat so Emily ended up doing it instead.

The camp actually keeps going until Monday morning but we left Saturday morning so that we’d have a day to rest at home before going back to work on Monday.

Traveling to Kumbya from Kigali took us about 7 hours. There are 2 different ways to go so we went one way there and the other way back. We decided we like the 2nd one better. But both ways were very pretty. This country is truly hilly! And the people farm it up and down all the steep hills! We saw coffee, tea, corn, rice, wheat, cabbage, grasses, manioc, bananas, and lots of other crops growing. It was amazing and beautiful. Sometimes driving through a small town I felt like I had gone back in time a hundred years or more. It is very difficult to describe the scenes and yet it is beautiful. The kids along the side of the road would call out to us – often asking for money or plastic bottles but some just greeting us and waving. There was one group of adults along the side of the road that we think must have just come from a gathering of some sort but when they saw us, they gathered and began singing us a song!