Home and the World Relief Geranium Farms

Well, I'm back in the hot desert and back to work at FH. So I'm physically home, but my heart is still in Rwanda. I miss Rwanda terribly and keep thinking about my next trip out there. But the trip really did what I wanted it to- God found me in Africa, my heart is full of amazement at His works, and I remember what my purpose is at FH.


But I haven't finished telling you our experiences in Rwanda. Monday, the 20th, was our last full day in Rwanda. After we met with World Relief the Tuesday before, we were so excited about their ministry that we re-arranged our scheduled meetings to visit on of their fields in Kigali... and I'm so glad we did.
World Relief is working with an organization called Ikirezi, who has a simple but ingenious plan to create a sustainable income for widows in this rural community. Rwanda is an amazing country, with almost a year round growing season, so we met with Nicholas (an agricultural guru who is Rwandan but was trained in the UK) to learn about what they are doing. Basically, they buy a block of farmable land and give each widow a small plot of land to plant, cultivate, and harvest geraniums, lemongrass, and patchouli, which they then extract essential oils from. These essential oils (which smell DELICIOUS) are then sold to buyers for perfumes, lotions, and oils. The women receive payment from the crop that they produce. The woman are taught all about agriculture and the distilling process so that they can do it all themselves. By empowering the widows this way, WR and Ikirezi are giving the women hope and a sense of value... which widows usually don't have in Rwanda.














Nicholas, a brilliant man with incredibly strong faith, talked us through the entire process and showed us the land. He told us about their ongoing planning to find a good crop rotation, and explained that the select the crops that they do based on the value of the oil and the amount of yield they can receive from a single growing season. After we listened, smelled, and saw everything about the farm, we started to climb up to the distillery... where the women were waiting for us to take part in their Bible Study. The women prayed with such conviction, it brought tears to my eyes. Nicholas was translating the prayers for us as best he could, and at one point, all of the women started sobbing. As we left the women, Nicholas explained what had happened.

Three men from Australia had come to the village a couple years ago. They saw that many of the widows did not have homes, and they owned a construction company. They promised to build the women 60 homes... but they told the group to make a list of the women who needed the homes and then prioritize it- so the group was choosing the residents from themselves. They started building Village of Hope, where there are currently 27 homes built and the women will start moving in over the next few weeks.

While we were with the women, Nicholas stood and addressed them in Swahili... they looked upset. After several minutes, he turned to us to translate- one of the Australians had lost their job and the construction company owned by the other two had gone bankrupt. He explained to the women that losing a job in Australia or America was not like losing a job in Rwanda... because we didn't have farm land to grow crops, and if someone couldn't find another job, they were out on the street. The men would be unable to complete the homes they had promised.

Nicholas explained that the women had been sobbing during their prayer because they were praying for these men. Not because the homes wouldn't be finished, but because they were so saddened by the hardship that these men would feel. These men were their friends, and it had nothing to do with what they were giving them.














The Village of Hope is an incredible concept. Much like a subdivision of homes, they are built similarly and in a community together. An incredible amount of planning went into these. Each are built for running water and electricity, even though those utilities aren't available in that area yet... they planned for when they would be. They also bought a brick machine, and each house is made out bricks that they make from the nearby sand, some water, and cement. The bricks are extremely durable and interlock, so they don't have to use mortar. The houses are energy efficient and 3 bedrooms each. The women that move into the homes will be asked to pay a small percentage of the home's cost, and then the deed will be given to them... so that they will have a valuable asset to pass down to their family. Most amazingly, the houses only cost about $17,000 to build and furnish... Think of what we could do.

Sunday at the Episcopal Church in Rwanda and Heaven

On Sunday, we went to the most beautiful church service. We found an Episcopal (it actually said Episcopal- not Anglican!) Church near our hotel. Their worship service followed much of the same layout as ours (which is very common, because we all use the Book of Common Prayer for our order of worship). In the Episcopal/Anglican Church, no matter where you worship- everyone is reading the same scripture for that Sunday. It was incredible to realize that my church family in Scottsdale was hearing the same thing I was... or would be in a few hours. :)

At right is a picture of us on the steps of the church.

After church, we went to Heaven. Yeah, don't you wish every Sunday was like that? :) But seriously, we went to a fantastic restaurant called Heaven... and it definitely was.


























Internet is getting expensive, so here's a little 'coming soon' preview:
- Visit to the Geranium Field project being done by World Relief, and my attempt to become an essential oil salesman back in Scottsdale.
- Leaving Rwanda and coming back to Kenya
- Visiting an elephant orphanage, croc farm (not the shoes), and giraffe park... and I will totally let you cheat by checking out the video below.
- Visiting an urban FH field in a Kenya slum.



As I'm sitting in London, I want to thank you all who have followed my journey. There is far more to come.

Love,
Sara

The Genocide Memorial - 15 Years

After a full week of meetings, we spent Saturday (yes... still behind, and now I have to pay for internet access at the London airport... but I wanted to catch you guys up on everything... and not forget, myself :).)

Where was I? Oh right, Saturday. The Kigali Genocide Memorial... wow. I had heard about the genocide in Rwanda before I came, but I really knew very little. I hadn't even seen Hotel Rwanda, because I heard it was really sad... and I didn't really want to know about some Rwandan Hotel (okay, I didn't really know what the movie was about).

We had been told that we HAD to go to the Genocide Memorial while in Kigali so that we would have a better understanding of what the people of Rwanda had gone through. We had been told to go the same day we arrived, but I'm glad we didn't. Having a fresh reminder of the brutal tragedy might have tainted our view. The whole week we had seen the hope, positive forward movement, and unity of the people of Rwanda. I'm glad I got to see that as it was without this shadow of pity or guilt over my eyes... but it did give me far more respect for how far they have come and everything they are doing to rebuild their country.

We found out we went there the day of the 15th anniversary of the genocide ending. And there was an incredible march of people, all wearing purple bandanas to pay respects and remind all of Rwanda that they would never forget.

The memorial was incredibly well done- starting at the beginning and identifying every single warning sign that this horrible tragedy was coming. It went on to discuss how well planned and efficiently executed the genocide was- 1,000,000 people killed in 100 days is no accident... not to mention the lives left destroyed through HIV/AIDs, orphans, and widows. The most shocking aspect was the brutality of the killing- women and children were actually targeted in the hope that the tribe would not go on.

But more, the memorial was serving to educate all people so that this would never happen again. One thing I especially liked was that they not only focused on the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, but they also had exhibits of the Armenia, Namembia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, and Kosovo. The point was extremely clear to all of us - genocide was not a Rwandan problem, a tribal problem, or a civil war. Genocide is a human problem that we need to be aware of and looking for warning signs.

My only similar experience is the Arpatheid museum I went to in South Africa... and my gut reaction was nearly the same. I am horrified by what people will do to people. The way that we treat each other is sickening. The hardest part of the entire memorial was the last section, where they showed the children that had been killed in the genocide... a wall of photographs clipped to strings.

What is hopeful about Rwanda is that they are healing by not allowing people to forget. The growing city of Kigali (seen at left) actually overlooks the memorial. And from the city, there is no mistaking that building on the hillside. Sadly, not all of the victims have been found or identified yet... the mass graves that victims have now been buried in at the memorial are still open, and they are still clearing more land to make room for more. (The pictures of the mass graves are above). We saw fresh graves, fresh flowers, and fresh tear stained tissues surrounding the mass graves. They are still trying to bring all of the victims home, and ensure through education, planning, and action that Rwanda never forgets it's past... which brings me to the slogan we saw everywhere:

Rwanda is you and me. One People. One Country.

Meeting Compassion International

On Friday, July 17th (yeah... I'm a bit behind), we met with Dr. Samuel, the Country Director of Compassion International. Our meeting with Compassion was fascinating, as Dr. Samuel was not only a Country Director, but a pastor and a teacher and was glad to have a captive audience of eager learners. :)

As far as Compassion goes, as an NGO, I was interested to hear the differences between their Child Sponsorship program and the programs of other NGOs (especially Food for the Hungry).
(** Disclaimer: All of this is my interpretation of the information we learned through the interview, and may not be 100% accurate or a good representation of their programs on the whole.)

The chief difference I picked up on was that Compassion sponsorship actually funds one child, as opposed to the money going into the community for all aspects. Dr. Samuel actually told us that through Compassion, only one child per family gets to go to school, and that the family actually has to select the child... which could be extremely difficult with a large family. Through this system, Compassion works with churches and leadership boards of the community to select the children, but all of the sponsorship money funds that child directly for their needs. Personally, I prefer the program that FH offers because money benefits the entire community for education, and families are not put into the situation where they have to choose a specific child to advance their education.

It was a great meeting and definitely interesting to learn about the programs and opportunities that Compassion offers, and to hear of the amazing work that they are doing in Rwanda. They even had several graduates of their program working at the Compassion headquarters.

The FH Day: Meeting Marie Rose

When I started at FH, I knew that I would start to sponsor a child through our CDP program... but I also knew that my church was leaning towards starting a C2C- so I wanted to wait until we selected a community so that I could potentially visit my child on a trip with my mom. So when we selected Takwe, Rwanda... I still dragged my feet. After a couple weeks of learning about how our church was going to do Global Outreach and hearing about the benefits of child sponsorship, I finally wandered over to the table covered with packets. I looked around at the packets like I was shopping for a sweater at TJ Maxx or something, when all of the sudden I laid eyes on the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen - Marie Rose. I immediately felt tears come to my eyes... which was a strange reaction for me, because I don't even like kids.

As we watched the incredible presentations put on by the kids, I was searching the crowd for Marie Rose. FH was incredible, they brought us to the 29 children that our church currently sponsors so we could give them all gift bags from our congregation. We brought special gifts for our own kids and mosquito nets for all of them to take home.

In the room they brought us all into, we waited anxiously as they read names off of a list. Marie Rose was the last name to be called, and when she shyly stepped forward, I knew it was her. Through a translator, I tried to explain some of the gifts I had brought... but my Swahili isn't that great and she didn't know any English.

My mom and I shared a translator for the house visits, and we went to her child's, Francoise, home first... it was amazing to watch. Marie Rose and I sat on a bench in Francoise's house nervously waiting for us to go onto her house to meet her parents. We shared some nervous smiles, but she never let go of my hand and never let me help her carry her presents... even though they were almost bigger than she is!

When we went to go meet her family... it felt like I was a very honored guest. I was amazed. I met Marie Rose's mom, her two girlfriends, and her younger siblings. Her mom's best friends seemed like aunties, and after meeting me they told 'Rosa' (as they called her) that she needed to do well in school and learn English so that she could grow up to be as beautiful, intelligent, and capable as me. Break my heart.

Rosa's mother brought out a faded photo of her wedding day, and instantly I felt like I was being welcomed into the family. I sat on a matted rug and explained the gifts I had brought to Rosa... including a photo album with only 3 pictures, as I explained that when I sent more letters I could send photos and Rosa could put them into the album so that she had a place to keep them.

As we started to walk back up the hill for me to leave, Rosa and I silently held hands before taking some pictures and then hugging our goodbyes. I feel an incredible connection with this special little girl... even though I've been a pretty crappy pen pal.

The most incredible thing about this trip to Takwe was to see the amazing good that FH was doing in this tiny community that has been plagued with HIV/AIDS. You could see the difference in children that were benefiting from the Child Development Program here and those that hadn't... it makes me just want to encourage everyone I know to sponsor a child in this community. It makes a MASSIVE difference. I hate that this may sound like a commercial, but if you can, I absolutely plead you to consider sponsoring a child. It makes just a large of an impact on your life as it does theirs... but for them and their community it means a future is possible.

I am so blessed by Marie Rose, it's overwhelming. I promised to come back and see her again, and I can't wait to fulfill that commitment.

The FH Day: Arriving in Takwe

In all fairness, I haven't written about the FH day because it had such a huge impact on me that it taking a long time to process... and will probably take a few entries to talk about. Takwe was the community that my church originally had a C2C relationship with, and we've continued to sponsor children there- despite the fact that the relationship through FHUS fell apart.

On the way up to FH, we stopped at an FH office to say hello to everyone and pick up a new Hunger Core, Karen Jacobsen, to go with us. We got to meet people involved with Azizi Life (an arm of FH that is empowering local women by teaching them how to transfer existing skills to make purses, jewelry, shoes, and other incredible things. (Let's just say, I bought a lot). :)

Then we went on up to Tawke... an extremely bumpy and rough drive- but a lot of fun. When we pulled up, it was amazing. They had all of the children sitting in an L shape and singing.

My First Bite!

Me and Jeanne discussing my first bug bite.

Great Things I've Learned in Rwanda

"Many many gates." More gates = more important. For example, the President has many many gates... the Prime Minister only has one.

When we’ve greeted some guards (perhaps ones that don’t know much English) with “Hello!” They respond by touching their chest and saying “I am fine.” Good. Us too.

“Mmmm.” Something that appears to be a summon, a private joke, and a ‘I hear you, but I think you’re an idiot.’ We’ve heard it used on talk radio and when a supervisor was getting his employee to walk us to the car, he said, “Ernest! Mmm!”

Whenever I say, “Can I please have ____?” our wait staff responds with “Yes, please.”

We have one waiter who slightly resembles a young Will Smith. I asked him to teach me something in Swahili this morning, and once I got it, I said “Yeah, I’m almost a native now!” and he laughed and said, “Yeah, you’re just like me!”. Right.

Coming soon is a video of our favorite waiter Nicholas (or Nicky, as I like to call him) teaching me some words!


But then, Nicky also told me my future… sort of. Upon finding out that I’m not married, even though I’m wearing a wedding ring (apparently, it would have been weird for 5 women to travel together without being married. I’m not liking this ring thing, so whenever I see a cute guy, I move it to my middle finger), he predicted that I would be married within a year. I started laughing so hard, I think I scared him a little bit.

I'm catching up on my blog... can you tell?

Things that we’ve realized in Rwanda

1. We WAY overpacked. Yesterday, when we might have actually been able to use some of our crazy stuff, I asked my mom for some baby wipes… She had left them in the room.
2. It’s not as dangerous as we thought… at all. Thank goodness I left my mace at home.
3. They have motorcycles as taxis… I want to get on one for a photo op. My mom has vetoed that idea. We call them ninjas.
4. Mosquitoes have left the country. We’ve seen a total of 7 between the 5 of us. And I definitely killed 4 of the 5 I saw… consider me the Skeeto Killer.
   

CALM Ministries – New Hope House

On Wednesday we got to meet with Chantal Mbanda, who runs the New Hope Houses- 3 homes in Kigali for orphans. Chantal herself is gorgeously regal looking and spoke articulately and passionately about the ministry that she has almost single-handedly built from the ground up.

The model of these orphanages also amazes me. Each house is set up to be a family, with 10 children, a ‘mom’, and aunties to help the mom care for the children. The idea is that the children have a whole family of support. Additionally, all of the ‘moms’ are actually widows- and here, widows are throw-away people without much access to anything, including work, so through this orphanage, they get a chance to work and make a massive impact on the lives of orphans.

We spent a couple hours visiting the homes, and playing with the children. I don’t even like kids that much, but they definitely stole my heart. :)

World Relief - Again

I'm in love. World Relief was absolutely amazing. I fell in love with their strategy of empowering churches to support the community. Their ministry is aimed at giving the church the tools, resources, and access to serve the needs of their community. This approach to community development seems extremely sustainable because not only do they approach the church to identify the needs, but WR also just acts to lift up the church to solve their own problems.

The impact that they have made is already apparent. For a health care initiative they did, they took 25 staff and each trained 25 local volunteers. Those volunteers then trained 50 other volunteers and set them up to visit a family twice a week to teach the family about health practices and check on them for 5 years. Apparently, the volunteer retention rate is through the roof and they are empowering the local community to serve each other- instead of bringing in an outsider. It was incredible to hear the stories that Myal Greene and Phil Smith told us as they walked through their ministry. Their future plans were also awe-inspiring and I can't wait to see what they are going to be able to do.

We were offered the opportunity to visit one of their fields on Monday. The ministry we would visit is a group of women who plant and harvest geraniums for essential oils and other uses. The women will be working and having Bible study on Monday, so I'm hoping we can join them.

I'm so excited about World Relief! But there is definitely more investigation that we'll need to do!

Sara

I always do something that could possibly get me arrested...

In Kenya we had the most wonderful driver ever, David- who wore his ASU hat to take us to the airport and all of the ASU alums took this picture (showing the ASU 'pitchfork', in case you're not in the know).

So on the way to Rwanda, we were in the Nairobi airport and everyone except my mom had managed to get past the bag weighers- who told her that we were 3 kgs overweight, but they let us through when my mom attempted to rearrange our luggage in the middle of the airport. She can be extremely persuasive. :)

As we're loading all of the luggage onto the belt to be checked, I brilliantly convinced everyone that if they let us through, then we could check every bag- even though we were 3 kgs over. I was surprised to see that my mom's suitcase had gotten fatter since the last flight, so I pointed to it and loudly said "Mom! There's been an explosion!" When I realized what I had yelled in an airport I turned bright red, and then the security guy (who carries a really big gun) came over to discuss something with the woman checking us in. All I could think was, "Oh crap. I'm going to spend the entire Rwanda trip in a Kenyan jail. Crap. Think they'll let me bring my canned tuna in? Think they have bottled water?"

Turns out, the guy had told my mom that if we didn't attempt to check 2 bags that we could carry on, THEN we would only be 3 over. So, no jail time for this bird. Thank God for small favors... I just wish he'd make me keep my mouth shut sometimes!

World Relief!

So Tuesday was our first meeting with an NGO here in Rwanda, and we had the best meeting with World Relief! We got to meet with two guys, Phil Smith and Myal Green about the ministry that World Relief does here and with churches back in the United States. It was so exciting to hear all that they are doing and their strategy and philosophy. I felt like an 8th grade girl with my first boy crush.
It was so incredibly uplifting to hear about the way they are working here. Their strategy is to empower the local church to serve the needs of their people. I was just enthralled to listen to Myal and Phil talk about their programs and the impact that they have had on the community. I'll write more about them coming soon- I think we're going to visit one of their fields on Monday. I'm so excited!

About to Leave Nairobi

You know, my second week at FH I was asked to mail a package to Nairobi... If you know me at all, you know I'm no geography genius. I spent 2 hours that day trying to figure out where the heck the country Nairobi was... until someone finally mentioned that it was in Kenya. And now, here I am!

Last night, when we arrived at the airport, all of us were pretty tired but we were trying to soak in everything. We hadn't known what to expect, so we weren't really surprised by anything we saw at the airport. After claiming all 900 of our bags, we walked out of the baggage claim to where all of the drivers were lined up with signs. I have never been so excited to spot the FH logo and an ASU ball cap!

Today we got to go to church with our driver, David, who was contracted for us through FH Kenya. The church was amazing! The music was incredible, they had wonderful skits and prayers, and they went above and beyond to welcome us- even hosting us for tea after the service!

I'm about to conk out, but tomorrow we leave for Rwanda. A very good friend at FH told me before I left that God was going to find me in Africa. Of course, God's never left me- but I definitely need Him to work on me through this trip. I already feel His presence working through all of the people that He has already brought to us here. I can't wait to see what else God has in store.

"Wow... You're really.... Honest."

That was one of the first comments I heard after I first emceed Chapel at Food for the Hungry... weird, I thought everybody liked to talk publicly about their stupid mistakes, true feelings, frustrations, and embarrassments. No, huh? Awkward.

Well, let that be the preface for this blog and my writing as I live through the next few weeks. I'm pretty blunt (or ridiculously stupid) in sharing about myself. This blog is to capture my experiences, my antics, and (hopefully) my transformation as I journey with 4 other women to London, Kenya, and Rwanda. The main point of this separate blog is to tell the story of the fields to my friends and co-workers at FH... but also for me to be completely honest about my journey... which will probably be painful and hopefully won't get me fired.:)

First, about the trip... I'm going to be traveling with a group of incredible and diverse women from St. Anthony on the Desert Episcopal Church in Scottsdale, Arizona. We are going to Rwanda to interview half a dozen non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are doing mission work and ministry to find out who will be the best organization for our church to partner with in Global Outreach. You can follow the group blog at www.stanthonyafrica.blogspot.com to read the postings from all of us as we go through this amazing experience. This definitely isn't a vacay... we all personally spent over $5,000 in airfare alone to get there... and that doesn't even take into account all of the other crap we had to pay for like mosquito nets, shots, special backpacks, special clothing spray to keep bugs off (apparently they have like SUPER BUGS that can get through 7 layers of clothing, so we gotta spray some toxic thing over EVERTHING!), and a ton of other junk that we will probably never use again... Why didn't I just go to Hawaii??

So... if you've already got a blog for this trip, why make another one? Great question. The truth is, this trip for me is far larger than my church creating a partnership to serve the people of Rwanda. In 2007, shortly after I graduated college, I went to South Africa for almost 2 months with an event marketing company. What I saw changed my life, and when I came back I started working at Food for the Hungry (FH) because I believed I could make a massive impact on poverty around the world. 19 months later, I'm a different person than I was when I started at FH.

In the first year that I served FH, my entire life changed: my values, my support system, my relationships, my boundaries, and my entire identity. I was head-over-heels in love with my job... I even wrote an email or two at 2 in the morning to my co-workers letting them know how much I loved the work that we were doing and how important what we did was. I even wrote once, "Let's be honest. Poverty doesn't stand a chance." Cute, huh? I came up with that all by myself. ;)

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but sometime between working crazy long days and finding out that the organization I loved more than anything else didn't want to partner with my home church, I lost that starry-eyed enthusiasm and the belief that I was doing anything more than corporate processes. My heart got broken... and I haven't recovered yet, but I'm trying to. So somehow sleeping in a mosquito net for two weeks seems like a great way to do that. :)

Truth is, I work with the best people in world. I am blessed to work with people that believe in me, support me in every project I undertake, and actually listen to me when I voice an opinion. It's absolutely incredible to have people that truly value me and what I can alongside them to end poverty.

But I still need to remember why I'm doing the work I do. That is the transformation that I mentioned earlier that I want for this trip. I want to fall back in love with my ministry... because nonprofit work is so much more than a job- it has to be a passion (let's face it, we don't get paid enough otherwise. jk). But I also want to share the stories, the impact, and the work that is being done in the field with everyone else that has suffered the same disappointments and struggles that I have... because I know I'm not alone in my journey. Plus I always end up doing something really stupid, which usually makes for a great laugh.

Love,
Sara