March 22, 2010
Can it really be that it has been over a month since I last posted? I guess time fly’s when you’re having fun. This last month has been just that, fun. We have experienced many things in the last month. We had an opportunity to take a short trip…only this time I didn’t have to stay home. While the trip was designed for us to explore other cities outside of Kigali, we had not intended on having a full schedule. We were willing to put work aside for a few days, to enjoy other sites, however, when you are a missionary, work seems to follow. It was a great time though, and we had no problem helping in areas we were needed. We discovered how welcomed we are by so many churches, and the congregations within.
While there are so many things to be said from our trip, I am going to first say that we have finally purchased a vehicle, which means we will now have the opportunity to explore many more areas of the city, and find other Nazarene Churches, instead of only the ones that we can walk to. We are very grateful that the Lord has once again provided for our need, and made it possible to purchase this vehicle. We still look forward to additional funding to come in, for any maintenance, but with Blake’s knowledge, hopefully he can fix most problems we may have before we would need to take them to a mechanic.
One thing that would be worthy to note, is that on our drive to Gisenyi, you could notice the priority that families make on education for their children. Even in the small villages and towns, you would see children of all ages, in their school uniforms, heading to school. While it may be a long walk, or may take plenty of time to get there, there were many children heading to school, with their books, and papers. For us to discover that, made us feel very excited that there is such a huge emphasis on education.
The rest of today’s blog is going to be designed to talk about Cultural Universals. We have discovered many things that are universal for Africa as it is for America. First, we have discovered that meal time is very much a way to make community. Like in America, many people will come together to share a meal and discuss many things. Here, we have welcomed many people into our home to share of meal with us. Also we have been invited to many homes to share a meal with them. It is a way to come together and talk; a time to develop friendships and enjoy community. Sound familiar?
Next, we have discovered that sports events here are very popular. There was a “football” (of course soccer) tournament against Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. Not only did people gather to the stadium to watch the game live, but we found that many people gathered at a restaurant to order soda’s and watch the game together on the television. If they were not at the game or watching on television, you could hear radios playing the same game, and many people gathered around listening. From the stadium, we could hear the same cultural universal song being sung, “o lay, o lay, o lay, o lay, oooo laaaaay, oooo laaaaay”. How many of us have developed many friendships, but attending a sporting event together, or hosting a “party”?
We discovered that every little boy LOVES cars, trucks and motorcycles. Even here, we watched a moto taxi drop off 3 little boys, who were fascinated with the motor, and wheels, and how it worked. They watched him drive away, and just stared as he made the vehicle work. Plus you watch many boys watch all vehicles. They like to look at them, and touch them, they like to look at the motors and listen to how they sound when you start them up. They make the same sound affects when playing with their own cars and toys. Again, sounds familiar doesn’t it?
I am sure there are going to be many more things that we discover as we continue to experience culture, but for now, that’s what I have to share.