April 1 2007: See You Again, Africa

Here it is... the last update
I absolutely cannot believe our time here is over, we've broken down crying at least once a day this past week at the most random times. Even writing this i'm beginning to get emotional, but i know this for certain -- not coming back is not an option. Africa has stolen my heart, and livened passions and dreams i never knew i had. My soul is heavy with the fear of being just another volunteer, another person that came and went, someone that will let Africa, Uganda, and the little faces that have changed my life, become a memory. Because these people, these hearts deserve more, and the experience I’ve had here has shown me that. These people will not just slip into the background of my mind, but firmly hold their place in the foreground impacting the things I do every day.


Shane, the director of Come, Let’s Dance, came in two nights ago, and it’s been so helpful being able to process through our successes and failures, our frustrations and joys of these past three months. Her words of encouragement, her dedication to these people, and her listening ear has given us so much closure for this particular trip, and inspiration for our next. The fact remains though that we will miss so many things here:

TOP TEN LIST OF THINGS WE’RE GOING TO MISS
(Not in order of importance)
1. Rolex’s… Chapat’s (crepe type tortillas) with fried egg, cabbage and tomato served burrito style with our own personal addition of hot sauce. The stand is 100 meters from our house, and they cost 500 shillings (28 cents). It’s perfect for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

2. Boda Boda’s… Our choice of transport as long as they don’t rip you off too much for being white. They’re motorcycles/moped type things that weave in, out, in front of, behind, on curbs, in grass, and in-between semis as you sit lady like on the back of it. It’s a thrill every time you get on one, especially through Kampala traffic, which you can only imagine if you’ve seen it.

3. African time… 4:00 pm really means 6:00 pm, and everywhere in-between. Things that should only take thirty minutes take the whole day, 15 minutes late is early. Ok, so maybe I will miss that more than Susan, but it’s taught us so much patience, how to just go with the flow, and enjoy each and every moment whether it’s how we thought it was going to be or not.


4. The Pure Randomness… We’re not going to be in another music video any time soon, or find ourselves having dinner with Mr. Uganda. We won’t be in car accidents that get resolved by the driver just paying off the very angry official, play in waterfall pools off Mount Kilimanjaro, raft the Nile, or take crazy two day trips to Rwanda. The sense of spontaneity and adventure that continually knocks on our door is something that we’ve cherished so much.

5. Our Hill… So not really ‘our’ hill, but our house is at the bottom of a very long, at points steep hill amongst many other families, and houses in our village. Everyday we have to walk up this monstrosity that we often complained about at least once day. But along the way we are greeted by kids playing with tires and sticks screaming “See you mzungu!”, a family of chickens that we’ve seen since they were hatched, the bull and goats that live across the orange-dirt road, and our numerous friends that excitedly shout “Nicole, Suzie, how are you!?” and just as excitedly shout “welcome back” when we come back home.

6. Matatus… the public transportation, Come, Let’s Dance owns a taxi (minibus that seats 14) so everywhere we’d go with the kids we’d take them in this taxi, but instead of 14 we’d seat 36-40. Don’t ask me how, but we’d do it. Those taxi rides were always the best, with at least three kids on top of you, and constant chatter and singing and laughing. The stares from all the people on the road were always fun too.

7. The sayings… Don’t worry, we’ll give you earfuls of them when we get home, but Ugandan’s have their own special way of speaking English that makes us smile all the time. Things that people sing, or phrases that people use that are so cute, and so unheard of in America.


8. The boys… David, Deo, Wilfred, Philip, Ben, Wilson. The people that have made our trip possible, and not only that, but made it incredible. We’ve built such strong, and meaningful relationships with each of them. We’ve heard their stories that made our eyes leak, and jaws drop, and had the privilege of watching them live their lives that rocked our very world. Words cannot express how much we will miss them.


9. The kids… obviously, and most importantly. The kids that have made our arms ache on days we don’t get to hold them, the kids whose dance moves have reshaped my own, the kids whose laughter and joy give us hope. There are no kids like this in the world! We were able to see other orphanages and work with many other kids, but there are none like these. Maybe we’re biased, but that’s the way we see it, and it’s good that way. God gave us hearts for these kids, and parts of our hearts will always be with them. We will miss the rush of kids jumping and grabbing us until we fall over when we walk in the door, the kids who are too cool for school to show how excited they are to see us, but know exactly where they’re running when they fall down. We’ll miss the little hands we get to hold everywhere we walk, and the excited giggles when we throw them in the air. We’ll miss the evenings doing nothing except for cuddling one of them as they fall asleep in our laps, and the snot, urine, and dirt that cover us every time we leave. We’ll miss them, and who they are, the little things that make each of them special, and the little things that have made us fall in love.

10. Africa… As a whole, as a continent, as an experience. This place has shaped our lives in ways we didn’t expect, and has thrown us into an adventure far beyond our greatest imaginings. We will just miss this place, because it is Africa, because it was a dream of ours for so long that became reality.

So there you have it, and it is officially all your jobs back home to comfort suzie and I through our mourning period! We will be home on Thursday night, so we will see a bunch of you this next weekend, crazy stuff. Our adventures are by no means over, and our plans to return here will probably start as soon as we get home. We’re still doing tons of stuff with Come, Let’s Dance, just on American soil for a while, we’ll keep you posted on the new projects, and we’ll finally be able to send some pictures! We love you all, and we’re so thankful that you were on this journey with us.

Nicole and Suzie

March 25 2007 As the Days Dwindle

Wow... we can now count on two hands the remaining days we have in Africa (ten!). We're trying to emotionally process everything about our trip because when the inevitable time comes that we have to leave, we want to be at least somewhat prepared for it. It's not going to be easy, but what makes it better is knowing that you all await us at home.


This week Sue and I set out again on some travels... this time to Rwanda. We packed in the dark (our electricity has been very scattered lately) and boarded a night bus at 3am to take us with nine of the people we have been working with to a conference/Wilson Bugembe concert (by the way, the music video we're in has been airing on several different television stations, and all the time we get asked on the street if we're the mzungus in the Ugandan music video) It was so much fun travelling with our Ugandan friends, even at 3 in the morning on a bumpy, hilly, cliff ridden bus ride.

Many people are still very uninformed about the happenings in Rwanda in spring of 1994... I was until seeing the movie "Hotel Rwanda" but here's a brief history if you didn't know. (it's from wikipedia.com)


"The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass extermination of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu Sympathizers in Rwanda and was the largest atrocity during the Rwandan Civil War. This genocide was mostly carried out by two extremist Hutu militia groups, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, during a period of about 100 days from April 6 through mid-July 1994. Over 500,000 Tutsis and thousands of moderate Hutus died in the genocide,[1] with some reports estimating the number of victims to be between 800,000 and 1,000,000.[2]

In the wake of the Rwandan Genocide, the United Nations and the international community in general drew severe criticism for its inaction. Despite international news media coverage of the violence as it unfolded, most countries, including France, Belgium, and the United States, declined to intervene or speak out against the massacres. Canada continued to lead the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda, United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). However, the UN did not authorize UNAMIR to intervene or use force to prevent or halt the killing.

The genocide ended when a Tutsi-dominated expatriate rebel movement known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame, overthrew the Hutu government and seized power. Fearing reprisals, hundreds of thousands of Hutu and other refugees fled into eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Ethnic hatreds that fueled the Rwandan Genocide quickly spilled over into Congo, fueling the First and Second Congo Wars. Rivalry between Hutu and Tutsi tribal factions is also a major factor in the Burundi Civil War."


I highly recommend the movie "Hotel Rwanda" to really visualize the horrificness of the events that occured there. In fact we visited the hotel the movie is based on during our short two day visit. Upon entering Rwanda a strange feeling filled our hearts and it lingered there for the duration of our stay. We were encountering a generation of people that have lived through things we can't even imagine, and as we visited genocide museums, mass graves, and just sat and listened as people told their stories it forever impacted the way we look at the hardships we encounter.


Unbelievable stories of women who held their children as they were hacked to death by a machete, people who were forced to kill their loved ones, and then be tortured and killed themselves, children who watched their parents die terrible deaths, and now are orphans with scarred memories. Not one person in all of Rwanda escapes the effects of that brutal extermination, all have friends and family that were victims, and murderers. We attended a church in a village just north of Kigali, the capital, and were overwhelmed with the open arms that accepted us... These people were incredible, they gave us everything, from places to stay, to food, to tours, to an image of what it truly means to be joyful. Lately I feel i've let my heart become hardened by the different cynicisms I've developed, and the Rwandan people
inadvertenly exposed that in me, and it drove me to my knees. I have absolutely nothing to not be joyful about, and these people have everything to be resentful about... and we'd somehow switched places. Those two days in Rwanda brought down walls Sue and i have been building for a lifetime. Walls of cynicism, pain, callousness, selfishness, and resentment, walls that had the right to be demolished, because there's no need for them in the all encomapassing joy of our Lord.

Our last night we ate dinner with much of the congregation and as we concluded our time together, we prayed over our journey, and their church, and we ended by singing "Because He Lives" acapella, and the sounds of those voices will echo through my thoughts for years and years to come, and the tear stained eyes that sang them will be impressed on my memory for just as long. We took another bus home early yesterday morning, and Sue and I processed through our experience in that beautiful country with beautiful people, and even more beautiful souls hoping to return as soon as possible.

As the days dwindle, we look forward to the conclusion of our trip, and the things the end has in store. Look for at least one more update, and then look for us at home :) we love you all very much.
Because He lives,
Nicole and Susan