June 16

Monday

On Monday afternoon I did my service learning at the Amani Baby Cottage, which is like an orphanage across the street from the Gately. There are several American college students working there for the summer, and it has been pretty neat to work with them all. Also I ate lunch at Two Friends, which is one of our favorite hangouts now.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, instead of service learning, we went on a tour of Jinja with Bobby and Ben, two of the missionaries. It was definitely a highlight of our whole month here because we saw a lot of things and parts of town that we hadn’t seen before. Until now, we have developed a warm feeling for Jinja, and this tour presented a lot more challenges and brought to us even more questions. First, we got in two boats and went out onto Lake Victoria. We came to an island, where we got out and from where we were standing, could see the source of the Nile River. Bobby told us the story of the man who discovered the source of the Nile after years of searching. Not only was it awesome to be standing in the middle of one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen, but also we were challenged with the idea of searching, and were asked what we are searching for, and how far are we willing to go to find it. After that, our next stop was at one of the poorest fishing villages in the area, and talked about how these are the kind of people that Jesus hung out with. We then stopped at what used to be the main street of Jinja, lined with tall mvule trees and huge buildings. We talked about how Jinja used to be the Beverly Hills of East Africa (and we do all go to school in Malibu…) and how under the rule of Idi Amin, Indians were forced to leave the country, and how they left everything they had. We talked about how life is fleeting and were all encouraged once again to live a life of “testimony, not title,” which has been a really huge theme of our month. Then, we went to a factory where we walked through and saw the legit blue collar workers of Uganda, who were working in loud, dirty, uncomfortable contitions doing welding and other building. It was really eye opening to see their way of life. After we walked through, we talked about how this is just the way these people live. Bobby pointed out that in America, not only do we get to choose what we want to eat, but we get to choose what kind of what we want to eat. Our lives are filled with choices ranging from that to where we want to go to school to what we want to be when we grow up, none of which are offered to the vast majority of Ugandans. Our last stop was at the biggest/best medical hospital in the area. It is the best option for health care in all of Jinja. This was easily the most powerful part of our time in Jinja. Walking into the old brick buildings and seeing lines of beds full of people with sad situations and a vast shortage of both staff and supplies, a lot of us left dumbfounded. I haven’t seen that much anger, confusion, sadness, or disbelief in our group until now. This site pretty much spoke for itself, and it was a really sobering experience for everyone.

THEN we headed back to the Gately and took our Intercultural Communication final. Woohoo! Not. But just kidding, it was great. And it was followed by one last dessert night at the Gately restaurant, where I went with Hannah, Thiersten, and Ashley. The greatest thing about our group is that any of us can have fun with each other, no matter what the small group combination is. The only “animosity” has come from the mystery “Jenga killer” who spelled out “Die Bayli” on the table with Jenga blocks early on in the trip. Even that however is a hilarious conversation that comes up at least twice a day.

Wednesday

Wednesday was our last day in Jinja. We went over to Spencer Bogle’s (one of the missionaries) house for lunch, where we had Mexican food! Which was so good. The missionaries have been so hospitable in opening their homes to us. That afternoon we walked around Jinja and bought a last few souvenirs. I bought a sweet map of Africa that I will love if it makes it back to the states in one piece. For our last dinner at the Gately, we ate around a bonfire and it was so much fun. It will be really sad to say bye to Jinja.

Thursday

On Thursday we said bye to Jinja and the Gately and left for Rwanda. Basically we drove all day except for a stop at the equator, where we took lots of cool pictures. At night we got to our hotel. We have been hearing all along that this was the sketchiest place we would stay, that “hotel” was a generous term, that we would be wishing for a hostel, etc. It wasn’t that bad, but it was pretty funny still. We are all flexible though. We ate dinner (chicken and chips, which was what we’d had for lunch as well…) and then a lot of us watched Hotel Rwanda in one of the rooms. After that we went to bed pretty quickly because we had to get up early the next morning.

Friday

On Friday we woke up and left our hotel in Mbarara by about 6 AM. We drove all day long to get the rest of the way to Rwanda. We ate breakfast at a place with a really cool balcony/seating area, which was good, because we ended up not having lunch, whoops? At about 5 we got to the Ntarama church, which was a genocide memorial. It’s a church were 5,000 people were killed during the Rwandan genocide fifteen years ago. We spent quite a while there and tried to take it all in that this happened during our lifetime. Kigali is an extremely beautiful and hilly city and it is so weird to be walking down the street and see that every person over the age of fifteen witnessed those events. Our tourguide even said his brother was killed in that church. It was just a really sobering afternoon for all of us. However, when we walked outside, there were still people, little kids and adults alike, walking down the road and joking and laughing. We’ve all been really impressed with the resilience of the Rwandan people, both through their attitudes and the level of development, which was on a totally different scale than Uganda. After that we went on to the guest house where we’re staying. It’s called the New Life Guest House and it’s run by two Americans and is usually used for missionaries or other groups coming through. It was such a nice and homey place to stay (since it was an actual house). Some of us stayed up and talked on the balcony pretty late, which was so cool because there were a ton of stars (different stars, since we’re south of the equator) as well as a huge city with lots of light in front of us. Pretty cool place- we wished we could have stayed in Rwanda longer!

Saturday

Saturday we woke up and had another good breakfast at the guest house in Kigali that wasn’t toast and pineapple (what we had every single day at the Gately). After breakfast the first place we went was this basket place. We talked to a woman named Joy, who is in charge. They have been featured on Oprah several times, and Bono is also a big supporter. They train women to make baskets and use it as a sustainable living. She showed us some “phone charms” that they sell to starbucks, and we saw so many baskets that they are shipping out to MACY’S! There was a whole warehouse full of ones that we could buy for much cheaper than they will be worth in a couple of months at Macy’s in the states, which was neat.

After the basket place we went to a microfinance bank and talked to an American guy from California who explained the process of microfinance in Rwanda very clearly. Basically it offers the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid a way out, through banking and micro-loans. Microfinance really seems to be working.

After that we went to a craft market where there were even more souvenirs (I didn’t even transfer any money to Rwandan francs because I just do not want to buy more STUFF). That was pretty cool, but the coolest part about it was a rando guy sitting on the grass near it. As we were getting back onto the bus, we saw this guy that was wearing a shirt that had a giant P and “Waves” on the front. Dr. Selby started having his picture taken with him, and he was sooo confused. He took off his jacket and the back of his tshirt said Pepperdine University- the whole bus erupted with applause and laughter. The world is soo small.

Then we went and saw Kigali International Community School and a church near it. That was cool because two of my friends Marissa and Kyla, who interned with my youth group, have each taught there.

Then, we went to the Genocide museum. It was really interesting and pretty heavy, but much different than the memorial we went to the day before, in that it was much more “sterile” feeling. It was really interesting though for sure.

We ended the day by going to this coffee place called Bourbon. It was extremely western and nice, and had really good coffee drinks and smoothies. We ended up staying there for like three hours and it was great to talk and relax. A few of us talked to Dr. Selby for a long time and found out what books he recommended for us, etc., and now know that we will not be bored for the rest of the summer or ever.

 

Sunday

This morning we woke up and instead of going to church, had our own little devo on the balcony of our guest house. It was pretty neat. This isn’t a mission trip, but we have a very spiritual group, which is something we have all enjoyed. It was really nice to debrief together. It’s been cool all along to be able to go through our days here being able to pray together even though we come from a variety of backgrounds. After breakfast we met up with the Minister of Health of Rwanda and hung out at a restaurant for a little while. As it turns out, Andrew has connections with Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda. To make a long story short, we ended up getting to meet the president! We, the 20-person Pepperdine group, got to sit and talk with President Kagame for about an hour and a half. It was so cool, especially that he took that time out of his Sunday to meet with American college students. We got to ask questions about development and hear a lot about how Rwanda is doing. We got a group picture at the end, and each got to shake his hand.

After meeting with him, we went to a restaurant called “Heaven” for lunch. (Which way to heaven? Do we need to make reservations?) After that we went to a mall where several people bought Rwandan coffee and many others of us got another drink from Bourbon, the coffee shop where we went last night, because it is so cool! We came back to the guest house for a while, then went to some missionaries’ house to be a part of their weekly devotional. It was pretty cool to talk to them all about how they ended up here and the things they are doing.

When we got back to the guest house, we were all just sitting around checking email and talking, and watching the only TV station that exists. We were about to put a dvd in, but were also pretty entertained by the mediocre graphics and random stories on the news. Of course everyone started freaking out when they did a whole segment on the news about the Pepperdine group! It showed us all talking to him and shaking his hand. Dr. Selby was also interviewed (he is now Dr. Serby because that is what it said on the bottom of the screen) and so was Thiersten (her title said Thursten). So that was awesome! And Pepperdine was very well represented. Other IPs…top that.