Rwanda Part 1

Thankfully, I now appear to be malaria free, and I also now fully support this ad campaign in Rwanda! (It is about malaria prevention and elimination...)

So, several months ago, I was invited to travel as a guest of my boss with a delegation of professional psychologists to the country of Rwanda with an organization called People to People.  This organization's mission is to "bridge cultural and political borders through education and exchange, making the world a better place for future generations."  I was quick to jump at the opportunity since I had recently traveled to Africa and was eager to go back, but I did not know what to expect since I was simply going as a guest on a psychology delegation when I know nothing about psychology.  I went with my own purposes of educating myself on orphan care and how I might be able to serve in Africa one day.  While I did learn much about orphan care, I learned a tremendous amount about the complex history of Rwanda which ultimately led to genocide.  Not only did I learn the history, but I also heard first hand testimonies of survivors of the genocide (maybe the most humbling moments of my life).  Normally, when people travel to a developing nation, their lives are changed by the extreme poverty and suffering that they see, but this time my life was changed by learning about the extreme acts of hatred and the need for education to prevent something like this from occurring in the future. 

I had never really heard much about the genocide that took place in Rwanda besides watching the Hollywood film "Hotel Rwanda".  If you didn't know, in 1994, 1,000,000 people were brutally murdered in just 100 days in the country of Rwanda.  One million people! That is hard to fathom.  We hear about wars and other genocides in history books, but this literally happened within our lifetime just 17 years ago and people are still suffering firsthand from this today.  Families were torn apart and the country was completely destroyed, but I do not want to speak about these terrible things now.

I want to speak about the country of Rwanda that exists today, just 17 years after the genocide.  You would expect the people there to be filled with hopelessness and anger, but what I saw in most of the people we met was hope, joy, and forgiveness to the perpetrators.  This forgiveness was astounding.  I heard a story of a man who often sees the person who murdered his parents walking in the neighborhood, and though it is difficult, he has chosen to forgive and move on to peace.  Just listen to this joy in this song titled "Beautiful Nation," written by a survivor of the genocide who lost most of his family when he was just a child and you will understand what I mean.

Something else that might surprise you is the economic and social development of the country.  There were times when I was shocked to see buildings using more efficient technologies than most buildings in the US such as low flow toilets, air dryers in the bathrooms rather than paper towels, and a much better use of natural ventilation in all buildings.  Just look at this building I went to in downtown Kigali.  If this country can come together and produce something like this from nothing in just 17 years, imagine where they will be in another 17 years.

In Swahili, the word Mzungu means foreigner.  Everywhere we went in Rwanda children would shout out to us "Mzungu!" and smile at us as if we were celebrities or heroes.  If they could speak to us or even touch us, it was as if their entire day was made.  What these children don't understand yet is that they are in a country with people who are the real heroes that deserve to be treated as royalty because of their resilience, perseverance, and most of all, because of their hearts of forgiveness that can literally change the world.

Many more stories and videos to come,

Kevin

A Winner's Journey
www.awinnersjourney.com