Thursday

Heather started the day with the discovery that some livestock in her mattress had spent the night nibbling a neat little row across her butt!  Those of us who’d been moaning about the sweaty nights we’d been suffering on plastic sheeting, which crinkles every time you turn over, suddenly recognised the benefits and stopped our whingeing, realising that waking in a pool of sweat was preferable to being the meat in a nocturnal picnic.

There were many ‘oohs and ahhs’ when a pile of pancakes was brought to our breakfast table in place of the usual eggs.  Passion fruit and honey made a great pancake topping and sent us off to meet Pastor Samuel at the Land Cruiser in good spirits.   Once again we were heading out of the city to visit a rural parish.  We thundered along the dusty rocky roads, our skin and clothes turning the same shade of orange as the tracks, with every cloud of dust that was kicked up and blasted our way through the open windows.   Today the truck continued to climb beyond the attractive terracing on one of the valley sides into a rather barren moonscape, with very little foliage and a single lone bare tree protruding from the dusty open summit, which was being used as Kigali’s rubbish tip.  The whole area was covered in all manner of discarded debris, unappealing to the eye and the stench travelled with us for some distance.  Though the scene was grim it was not devoid of life.  It was pitiful to see people clambering over the tip and picking over the rubbish.   One particular lady sticks in mind, with a tiny baby strapped to her back, she staggered over the foul-smelling mound, prodding the garbage to find anything worth recovering …… this is poverty.

We simply drove on, glad to be moving away from the stench and thinking how cruel of the large city to dump its unwanted trash away from the city limits, on the margins inhabited by the poor.

As we arrived at Gasura parish a smiling Pastor Alfred was there to greet us.  Behind him a crowd of excited school children, all dressed in navy and white gingham shirts appeared from behind the church building, inquisitive to know who the Land Cruiser had brought to their rural community.  We were ushered into Alfred’s small home and barely an hour since stuffing ourselves with pancakes, we were faced with lunch.  The usual range of cooking pots were placed before us and Alfred’s wife lifted off the lids to reveal the customary dishes of potatoes, rice, chicken, beans, plantains and sauce, all a little unexpected at 10.30am.  After we’d served ourselves, a bench was pushed through the doorway from the yard into the remaining space in the room, followed by 5 of the church catechists, who then started filling their dishes and joined in our hearty brunch.

Alfred and his wife have 6 children in a tiny home, which is wholly inadequate for their needs.  Last year they began to build a new, larger home but sadly the government disapproved of their plans.  Between the church and their small home lie the derelict ruins of their deconstructed new home.  It had been built with mud bricks and the government felt this was inappropriate and so sent representatives to demolish the structure – very demoralising for the poor family after their hard building work.

Once again we were welcomed into their church with the most beautiful, rich singing, with a soloist singing an introductory few words and the rest of the church replying in typical harmonious, African style.  As usual we introduced ourselves and any mention of a child or grandchild generated a ripple of approval accompanied by a burst of applause!  When Andy mentioned his 3 beautiful, unmarried daughters, Pastor Samuel allowed himself a little, ‘ad lib’ in his translation, inviting any interested suitors to step forward! 

Eleanor shared with the congregation some of her thoughts and challenges as a pastor’s wife having to up sticks and move from time to time, unsure of what her new role would be and therefore having to trust in the Lord for his guidance.  Afterwards Alan spoke about the Kingdom of God as expressed in the parable of the banquet.

Back in the city we visited various handicraft projects, set up around the cathedral.  There were ladies making intricate jewellery, creating beads by tightly wrapping slivers of magazine pictures.   Others were manufacturing rustic lemon-grass scented soaps, which both Eleanor and Isobel commented were rather expensive …(oops once more they’d not counted the zeros carefully and having made this critical announcement, were embarrassed to admit that at 20p a bar these soaps were actually a bit of a snip!)  Continuing to be financially challenged Eleanor later really confused one of the seamstresses when she tried to buy some of their handicrafts.  We were all bamboozled when they seemed unable to give her the correct change after her purchase, and kept questioning us about the current exchange rate.  As the conversation proceeded we finally realised what the problem was – without wearing her glasses, Eleanor had inadvertently handed the poor salesman a note in Euros rather than Rwandan Francs – oops!

Please pray – this evening we had a visit from Joseph, who is hopefully going to assist us to sell baskets from the widows in Gasabo Diocese. Please pray that we will be able to sort out the practicalities involved; for the building of a primary school in Gasura parish; for the needs of Pastor Alfred and his family.

Give thanks for our team picnics of cheese, tomatoes, bread and jams; for good health and strength for the team; for safe travels thus far.