Today was our final day in the Butare area of Rwanda. We visited a few more groups and a few individual families. These are all in their first year of Zoe and they are filled with hope for their future. Each are working on group farming projects and beginning their individual businesses.
We met with one particular family who has a horrific story. Their parents were both survivors of the genocide. They lived comfortably with their five children and a grandmother. In 2010, when the community trials began for the genocide in their area, perpetrators of the genocide threw a grenade into their home so they could not bear witness to the crimes. The three older children were not at home but the two little ones (age 2 and 3) were with their parents. The parents were killed instantly, one child was not harmed and the other was hit by much shrapnel. The killers came into the home and told the babies their mother was sleeping and to go lay by her. So they did. You can imagine how traumatized they were. In fact, Epiphany would not allow us to ask their story as is the norm when we visit the children. She told us ahead of time and allowed the children to tell us only of their life for the past two years, before and after Zoe.
We ended our day in Kigali, where we would be staying for the night. We ate dinner at Hotel de Mille Collines, otherwise known as Hotel Rwanda, made famous by the movie that tells of refuge offered at the hotel during the 100-day genocide. It was a very nice hotel and we ate by the pool with excellent service and a band playing in the background. We felt the stark contrast of our experiences over the past week with this extravagant setting. How do we justify to ourselves this difference? Not only then, but as we enter into life in America again. Where poor means an entirely different thing than in Rwanda. Where all of us have more than we need. I don’t have the answers. I only know what Jesus tells us and that is to love God above all else and to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we act out of that love, we use all that we have to serve others. I pray I can love that way.
Tomorrow we visit the genocide museum before boarding the plane. Grace and peace to you all.