The Nelson Mandela Umudugudu

November 22, 2010

The Nelson Mandela umudugudu (village) in Ntarama that 4-More will be serving is a very special one.  

Meet Mama Valentine and her sons Prince and Derek.  Valentine is a genocide survivor, a genocide orphan, mother of a two year old boy, Prince and she is raising Derek, her nephew as her own son. 

Valentine was engaged to be married in April of 1994.  While she planned her wedding, something darker was being planned.  The “genocide of the Tutsi” in ‘94.  Her husband was one of the casualties, but a certain swamp kept her and her siblings miraculously safe from the Interhamwe (the murdering militia).  She stayed in that swamp for just under 100 days until she was rescued.

Her son, Prince and the other boy she cares for named Derek are fatherless. 

We’ve been looking into that word, biblically these past few days.  Just what makes an orphan?  Will both parents need to be removed from their lives?  One?  The Bible uses orphan and “the fatherless” almost as the same term.  Read up on Psalm 10, 68, 120, 107… to name a few, and see what God says about caring for the orphan.  His interest, we’re learning is very fixed on the orphan and the widow. 

Derek is a growing young man.  Though he’s a bit shy, he’s friendly, warm and patient.  His interest is in making things work … almost like he has the mind of an engineer. 

Prince is a very serious 2 year old.  He’s begged his mom to go to school.  Since he’s too young to begin primary school, he attends a local school for adults who have never learned to read or write.  Valentine told us laughing, “He sits there with the Nannies and the Pappies as a two year old and is learning, very eagerly to read and write.”  Valentine has been a good mother to these two and is teaching them how to walk with strength and integrity on God’s path.

4-More, for those of you who don’t know, will be bringing clean water to this village through the ministry of Water for Life.  They’ll also be coming along side of them to teach them to farm as well as helping by giving them spiritual aide through a church central to their location. 

4-more.org    checkem out. :) 

Thanks for following!  There’s more to come!

It’s a beautiful day. The sun is lighting up the house, there’s no sounds but pouring water and happy, singing birds outside.  It’s a good day to be alive in Kibagabaga, Rwanda. 

Two days ago, we returned from a week long stay in Ntarama, Rwanda.  There we slept on the floors of child-headed household homes and were privileged with the chance to do so with true heros. 

Meet Alice.

  She’s a 30 year old woman and head of her household since the death of her parents in 1994.  Those two siblings are now on their own, trying to make their way with internships and hopes of finding successful work in Kigali.  She has two sons who she’s acquired through a certain social problem in Rwanda.  When a girl is the head of her household in Rwanda, it’s typical for a man to come and offer to help with school fees of the children, to pay for food for dinner and to take interest in their issues.  Then when the day of his visit is closing and the children are in bed, he’ll take advantage of his placement in that relationship and request sexual favors.  Since he’s helped the family that day, the girl feels obligated to oblige him.  Expectedly, a child is born, more go hungry and devastation is closer than hope.  

Alice currently doesn’t have a publicly known way of earning money.  She’s sick with an intestinal disease that prevents her from working.  Her prayer is that her sons will learn well, as they grow, to provide financially for the family in her place.  

Her personal story is moving, discouraging, and heroic all at the same time.  She survived the genocide with her brother and sister, but her parents were killed.  In recovering, she worked in a field for the length of each day, every day for a simple 500 francs daily.  To get to that field she paid 200 francs a day.  So in turn she worked for just enough money for school fees for her brother.  There was very little left at the end of the month for food.   Someone offered to help them financially, and that night, also made Alice pregnant.  A married man also offered to give them a place to live, rent-free for four years.  Each day of those four years, he raped Alice.  A second son was conceived.  Today, an NGO has provided housing for Alice and her family.  There her life is formed around providing for her two sons, praying that her brother and sister can start generating some income to feed her, an std that’s crippled her and a reputation that’s less than commendable. 

Her future is uncertain.  Sadly, there’s no current ministry to their village.  Hopefully, in time, that will change. 

Moving forward!

Soooo!!!  We visited Ntarama’s orphan village today.  We saw our new friends from August and yes, we’re approved and welcomed into their community to film and photograph their lives starting tomorrow.  

Also, after much prayer and hoping, we received a document granting permission to film in the genocide memorials in Ntarama this week.  This is HUGE. 

Friends, please pray for us these next few days.  These will possibly be the toughest days of our journey… the most emotionally draining and physically challenging.  We’ll be staying in the orphan village where we attract a lot of attention simply by having light skin, and then we are visitors… and on top of that we are toting expensive cameras.  Please pray for our safety as we eat their food and sleep with them, and for our equipment.  Stealing our belongings will be a temptation to some. 

Thank you, all for praying for our team’s unity.  Even though half of our team is Costa Rican and the other from Pennsylvania, we have gelled beautifully.  We owe a lot of thanks to you all for those prayers, and God for lovingly answering them. 

Thank you, all, so much for your prayers and steady hearts through this!  God is good!

“Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.  As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the LORD surrounds His people from this time for and forever.” ps. 125 1-2

Coming home to Mugisha...

Today we had the joy of seeing a very special boy again, Mugisha.  Mugisha was a precious life that was spared when we took him to the doctor two months ago.  He was treated for a blood-born staph infection and worms.   The month on his medicine was a rough one.  He didn’t eat much and continued to fight through the ailments.  Visitors reported that he appeared to be healing and that was the last that we heard.  Until today… when we walked to Kimisagara, Rwanda. 

The pathway was hard to stay on.  Rocks, loose dirt, mud, wet rocks, trash and occaisional cement landings composed our walking path that led us up through the slums toward “Mfasha Abana” (translated means: I help Children).  The sky behind us was incredibly dark and heavy with rain, but it carried a soft, cool breeze that was welcoming after a long walk in the African sun. 

We stepped into the orphanage and waited for Feliciene.  He came out, without delay, jumping and shouting!  He was so happy to see us!  He began calling out for certain children to come out and greet us and with the happy word “Mugisha!” he ran to a neighboring building to find our darling boy that we helped not long ago. 

Mugisha’s story is a special one.  He was found as an infant in a public pit latrine (a very deep hole in the ground that people use for a toilet), fished out and brought to this orphanage to raise.  He’s the ‘baby’ of the orphanage and a bit of a cutie.  When we found him just two months ago, he wasn’t in good shape, though.  He had an opened sore on his left foot that had become infected.  On his right hand a staph infection manifested and his poor belly was very large with worms, which also were coming out of his face and left arm.  However special he was/is to this orphanage, his ailments weren’t raising question enough to get him to a doctor.   Until the day we visited while scouting for a location to film.  Sadly, this same orphanage just lost a 15 year old boy just two weeks ago to Typhoid: a completely preventable death. 

This orphanage has so much room to grow!  They need education in all forms (basic, health, hygeine, even logic..), they need a way of income, they need someone to constantly pray for them… and imagine what can be done.   They have so much hope for the future in light of positive change that can happen just by bringing you, fellow reader, into their lives to know them and love them, even from where you sit at your desk.  

When Mugisha was brought to me, joy completely filled me.  It was like I was seeing my son for the first time in months.   But he looked a bit different.  His staph infection was completely gone, his belly was MUCH smaller and he himself seemed very thin.  He was a bit ‘absent’ in his eyes and limp.  I was told that he had just woke from a nap, so I’m hoping the lethargic behavior will be gone by the next time we meet, next week.   PLEASE tell anyone you know who might want to know these children to follow along here.  We all have a bit of growing to do from this story… and from this chance to change many lives and give them HOPE in Jesus’ Name. 

We want to give a big shout out to our supporters of "the Rwanda Project" from 2008 who's funds were able to save this boy's life.  Thank you so very much!  Please, keep praying for precious Mugisha as he continues to heal and grow into his purpose!

November 12, 2010. We finally saw and heard the rain!

People have talked about Rwanda's rainy season, and we finally got a taste of it this afternoon. Plans changed, AGAIN! 60% of the people in the house got no rest last night, coughing and with very sore throats. We woke up really needing caffeine, and it worked. So by mid-morning we were feeling ready to hit the market with our cameras, recorders and many high expectations.
Our dear friend Albert, "Alfred" as we renamed him, said "I'm coming over" so we waited for him. Lunch passed, the afternoon passed and then we discovered in African that means I'll eventually get there at some point, hahahaha... he's still not here at 7:30pm

After lunch the skies changed color, the humidity in the rain was reaching 100% and the wind was threatening us newcomers... a storm! But our hosts seemed very calm, so we got the clothes in and waitied for the rain. Rain doesn't keep you waiting as much as people do. It surely came.
Rob got out the recorder and got some amazing stuff, sounds of the showers in the background, the wind, the creeking doors... great stuff! Joy got the camera out and captured some great clips of the torrential rain. The camera might get a flu despite Montse getting soaked trying to hold the umbrella. And Jose read and then slept and slept and slept...

We had Living Waters' Mc Gregor Mc Gruber visit us during the rainstorm and had wondeful conversations and hard questions get answered. His input was priceless. Ps David from Kenia also came in this afternoon to visit our host family, so the house had 4 Americans, 2 Costa Ricans, 1 Rwandese and 1 Kenyan sipping tea, coffee and hot chocolate as we talked and enjoyed the rain falling outside (except Joy enjoying being soaked by it and Montse getting it as a by product of her umbrella holding job)

It was a day of waiting, listening, learning and good team bonding over hot chocolate!
Tomorrow we're headed to a wedding, but right now the pot and plates are on the table and we are all quite ready for dinner.