Keep those prayers coming!

Jambo! Salut! Hello! The languages here are varied. Kiswahili (which I am learning more of), French (which I am stumbling along in) and English (which I am grateful for).

I have been in Africa less than a week but it seems like a lifetime. The trip has been a whirlwind since I last logged on. I write from Kigali, Rwanda but the journey began in a crazy dash to Nairobi airport where we just made our flight. After clearing security we ran out to the runway but there was no one there to show us which plane to get on of the 15 or so parked. We chose one but it was on its way to Mombassa (an ocean city in Eastern Kenya). I joked to Elizabeth as we hurried back to the terminal that destination would not have been so bad and asked if she had packed her bathing suit. We did finally find the plane, parked around the corner and arrived in Kigali without futher incident.

From Kigali we headed to Goma, DRC for a few days where I was able to meet some of CAPI's partners. Goma has had huge destruction from a volcanic eruption and continues to rebuild. I also had the opportunity to visit an internally displaced person's camp near Goma. There are several and I will talk more about this heartwrenching experience in a later blog....suffice it to say in these six days I have seen hundreds of images of poverty and yet this one touched me most deeply, probably because of my time volunteering with refugees in Winnipeg.

We had a crazy time crossing the border into DRC as they had changed the rules about visas January 1 so we had a bit of a wait to say the least. However, I think your prayers are working so keep them coming!!! We did indeed get in, do some good work and I will live with these memories for a very long while. I was asked to lead a workshop to a group of partners on grieving--I cannot imagine that I had anything to say to these experts on that topic!!

I returned to Kigali last night and today I went to the Rwanda Memorial Centre. Most guidebooks and websites show a photo of the room where the skulls and bones of the victims of the genocide are kept. What I found even more heartwrenching was the room that held photos of the children who died--the skulls have no identity but these pictures tugged at my heart. Each photo is accompanied by some information about the child. The room has a caption "They could have been our national heroes." Each photo also explains how each child was murdered but I will spare you those details. After this I attended a women's forum follow up with some very dynamic women who are trying to bring healing to survivors of the genocide. Very fitting.

Tomorrow I fly to Bujumbura, Burundi with Elizabeth and Jacinta where we will meet Bridget, the third member of the CAPI team. From there I will go to South Kivu in the DRC. Can you tell that I am having the experience of a lifetime that many of you predicted? I am grateful....and as I said keep those prayers coming--I will need them.

peace,

Suzanne