I Think All Kids Should Wear Diapers :)

Sunday afternoon we went shopping in Kigali for a bit. Bought some cute stuff-Jenna I’m worried about yours, I think you may be too classy for what I got you, oh well. We also polished off the snacks Barbie sent us, thank you!!! I was very proud of us. We managed to get a taxi to take us to the Volcano transportation all by ourselves. We bought our $3 tickets to Butare (I think that’s very cheap for a 3ish hour ride). I got stuck in the pull down seat in the middle… typical. I put on my ipod and went into my theoretical thinking mode.

My thoughts today include… The best feelings- Walking into a crowded room with lots of beautiful people and someone from across the room looks at you like no one else is in the room and gives you a smile, the kind you can’t give to more than one person. Coming home after a terrible day and finding a chocolate fudge brownie pint in the back of the freezer. I fantasize about hot, steamy showers in Rwanda probably every day. I can’t describe the exact feeling when these kids get excited and wave during our rides, but those are the moments that I could compare it to. Priceless times that you would do anything to bottle up and save for a “down day.” These little ones wandering the dirt roads are just ecstatic to see a Mazungu drive through their town. I feel like a movie star.

We got back to our lovely hotel, Le Petit Prince, at night. This is actually where Jenna Bush stayed when she came to Rwanda! We only brought one bag each to Kigali and locked the rest under the front-desk. Surprisingly, they were all there when we returned! Only bummer is we had to bring everything upstairs again, including Cameron and Luca’s heavy and awkward presents. Again, these presents are definitely worth it.

We woke up early Monday to start our interviews that were about an hour and a half away. The roads we travel on are made of dirt. There are more holes than flat areas. If you are not holding onto whatever is on your lap it jumps, sometimes hitting the ceiling of the car. I’m pretty sure the driver uses 4-wheel drive the entire time. When we are speeding down these little roads that seem to be 1.5 lanes. When you pass another car you feel like you are either going plunging off the cliff, hitting the other car, or if you are on the other side- you are going to go head first into the jagged rock mountain. Somehow we survive EVERY time! thus far

Well a mind-splitting ride later, we arrived in Kibeho. A few interesting points about our destination... Here people claim the Virgin Mary appeared to them. In November 1981, apparitions began in Kibeho, Rwanda, Africa, to seven visionaries: Alphonsine, Emmanuel, Anathalie, Marie-Claire, Stephanie, Agnes, and Vestine. Three of them were boarders in a college administered by nuns in a poor area, and three others live in the bush. The Catholic Church only recognized three of the alleged visionaries. There are a few statues and a huge church at the site. This place reminded me of Medjugorje, where a group of children first saw Mary in a light-gray robe standing on a cloud in 1981, and have been seeing and speaking with her daily ever since. The small Croatian-speaking village (now in Bosnia-Herzegovinia) still attracts millions of pilgrims from all over the world every year. My family and I visited this place a few years ago. It's remarkable that you can be in two different places on the globe where people speak completely different languages and wear different clothes, but the feeling you get when you hear the history is identical.

Also, the Kibeho area witnessed some of the worst atrocities of the 1994 genocide. Over 25,000 people were killed in and around the parish church. Their bodies were dumped in mass graves. A decade before the violence in Rwanda erupted; the Blessed Mother had shown visions of the genocide to Alphonsine, Nathalie and Marie Claire. In an interview with Nathalie, she described the visions:



“In July, 1982, and the following months, August 15, 1982, the Assumption, and again on September 4th and in January 1983, Our Lady showed us a lot about the war. Often she talked in general that the world is bad, that people do not have love, contrary to what God shed his blood for; Our Lady insists as well on love. Our Lady talked about and showed us some visions of reality where people killed each other, blood running, fire burning on the hill, mass graves, skulls, beheaded bodies, skulls put apart.”

I’m not going to judge whether or not these people actually saw Mary; I don’t believe it’s my place. But, sitting under a big avocado tree (avocados were actually raining down during the interviews) and sitting with a full view of the church where hundreds and possibly thousands were murdered is quite eerie and un-settling. Many people still live in Kibeho and pass by this church every-day. A church where their relatives, friends, and neighbors were murdered, the victims’ only crime, the identifiable tribe they were born into.

Okay so now that you know the history (and me, I just googled most of it ☺) you can understand how the place itself started to stress me out. As we pulled up, I tried to focus and clear my head so I could concentrate on the interviews and children’s stories. Feeling a bit down, carsick, and as usual, hungry, I jumped out of the car. Well standing there, was an adorable 3 year old. I went to pick her up, but before I could reach her I heard a small fountain. The sweet child was peeing right in front of me. If I was a second faster, it would have been all over me and my REI brake-away pants (I have them in two colors, pretty cool I know). So no one, including her mom, around us cared. I guess they don’t wear diapers (cloth or plastic). Good to know. I reached for my hand sanitizer as I thought about how many little children (definitely not wearing diapers) I picked up in the past 4 weeks… Oh well. God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt… I hope that applies to liquids.

Interviews were interesting and full of heart-breaking and inspiring stories. Olivier and I have a little too much fun while interviewing. Some of the problems we come across are as follows:

*Interviewing a pregnant person who claims her family practices abstinence
*Keeping a straight face when we ask how that is possible
*Answering questions of the orphans such as “are you married?,” “will you take me to America with you?,” and “what is your email address.?”

It’s sweet that they want to contact us, but unfortunately it would not be wise to give them our addresses.
Maddie and I “steal” bread from breakfast at Le Petit Prince and make nutella and peanut butter sandwiches. We eat them on the way home from the interviews. I can’t remember but I’m guessing we walked a mile and a half to the Internet café after work. We probably then went to Ibis for dinner and had Avocados and Rice.

Song on: "Viva La Vida" Coldplay (I would highly suggest you buy the new cd)


Love,
Jessica

By the way, I did go to 6th grade English class-I did learn to write in paragraphs. Unfortunately, when I copy and paste it ruins the indention ☺