After 33 hours in the air I arrived in the "Land of a Thousand Hills" to find that I would be staying at the Hotel Des Milles Collines for the night before heading up North to Nyagatare. For those of you that have seen the movie Hotel Rwanda you will know that this is the hotel that featured in the movie. It was a little bizarre to realise that the swimming pool I saw from my window was the same one that they drank from, and the foyer was the same one shot up during the genocide. But a beautiful Hotel none the less.
After a few hours sleep we headed out to Nyagatare, a three hour drive north of Kigali. This will be where we live for the duration of the project. Nyagatare is a small village but quite nice. After meeting the contractor we headed off to meet the local government officials, and then all of us travelled about 30 minutes out to Rwempasha.
The community that we will be helping is a collection of 70 small mud and tarpaulin 'tents'. There are about 230 people, all who have been relocated from Tanzania back to theit home country and given 1 hectare each for their new homes. This 'village' is located on the top of a hill, absolutely no shelter, and an 8km round trip to the nearest water. The kids are beautiful and full of life, very inquisitive and friendly. The adults were very welcoming and happy to see us.
At the moment there are six of us, but tomorrow it will be just two. Captain Isaac Siundu from Kenya and I will be living here and trying to implement the project.
As the days unfold I'll tell you more, but for the moment, let me say that this is an amazing opportunity and one that I am very happy to be part of. If we can start by giving this community and her people water and private latrines, we will go a long way toward transforming their lives and building upon their sense of dignity. If in the process we are ale to reveal Jesus in our lives, then what else can we do?
