Tuesday turned out to be a blistering hot day, and just for something completely sane to do we decided it’d be a good day for the opening and dedication of the water pump and shelter. It was planned for 2:00pm, and we were assured the Mayor was on his way.
As the people gathered around the water pump the choir began singing to welcome him – 45 minutes later and about a litre of sweat later he arrived. But at least he arrived! Along with The Salvation Army’s Regional Leaders, Majors Stephen and Grace Chepkurui, he officially opened and dedicated the pump and shelter – which was an event that took an hour.
During his speech the Mayor pronounced Gituro to be a “Salvation Army village” and after a challenge from the Regional Leaders has ordered the allocation of land to The Army for future permanent Community development. (A touch of dejavue for me – I seem to have memories of another village in Sri Lanka in 2005.)
Until recently the women and children walked 7km to collect stagnant, brown, contaminated water, this afternoon the guests were led by the Rwandan national and Salvation Army flags on the short 600m walk to a water source that is delivering clear, clean safe water. And after the guests planted some trees around the village we celebrated with the people over a soda and biscuits in the shade of their new shelter.
Thanks to some family back home in Australia I was also able to distribute some soap for each family and lollies for the kids. If you’ve ever tried to give out lollies to children in an orderly fashion you can imagine the scene; 150 hungry children and me with a bag of lollies! I ended up retreating onto the bed of the 4x4 vehicle to get out of their way.
It was a fantastic afternoon, which stretched into the evening as I began to say goodbye to the people with whom I have shared life over this past month. I was humbled to overhear the Regional Commander comment to his wife, as the kids climbed over me and I spoke my Kinyarwanda with a really bad accent, that “he has been accepted as one of them”.
My Rwanda experience has once again convinced me that the key to sustained transformation is TRUST. You can make a difference for a short period with a charitable heart, but tourism and welfare will never be transformation; you can only become an instrument of enduring transformation by your willingness to walk (sit, eat, drink) and share the life of another. It’s in taking time to develop a mutual relationship of trust that you will restore dignity and worth in the other, and in doing so earn the right to speak into their circumstances.
Today I say goodbye to Rwanda. And I want to say thank you to all of you that have shared my journey and given me a thought along the way. I want to say a special thank you to my wife and daughter for their continuing support and for being two of the people in this world that inspire me to care.
(I’ll continue to update my blog: I can’t imagine that it is going to be quite as interesting as these last weeks, but as I continue to see God in, and learn from, the people I work for, I’ll blog it and invite you to tell me I’ve lost it!)
As the people gathered around the water pump the choir began singing to welcome him – 45 minutes later and about a litre of sweat later he arrived. But at least he arrived! Along with The Salvation Army’s Regional Leaders, Majors Stephen and Grace Chepkurui, he officially opened and dedicated the pump and shelter – which was an event that took an hour.
During his speech the Mayor pronounced Gituro to be a “Salvation Army village” and after a challenge from the Regional Leaders has ordered the allocation of land to The Army for future permanent Community development. (A touch of dejavue for me – I seem to have memories of another village in Sri Lanka in 2005.)Until recently the women and children walked 7km to collect stagnant, brown, contaminated water, this afternoon the guests were led by the Rwandan national and Salvation Army flags on the short 600m walk to a water source that is delivering clear, clean safe water. And after the guests planted some trees around the village we celebrated with the people over a soda and biscuits in the shade of their new shelter.
Thanks to some family back home in Australia I was also able to distribute some soap for each family and lollies for the kids. If you’ve ever tried to give out lollies to children in an orderly fashion you can imagine the scene; 150 hungry children and me with a bag of lollies! I ended up retreating onto the bed of the 4x4 vehicle to get out of their way.
It was a fantastic afternoon, which stretched into the evening as I began to say goodbye to the people with whom I have shared life over this past month. I was humbled to overhear the Regional Commander comment to his wife, as the kids climbed over me and I spoke my Kinyarwanda with a really bad accent, that “he has been accepted as one of them”.My Rwanda experience has once again convinced me that the key to sustained transformation is TRUST. You can make a difference for a short period with a charitable heart, but tourism and welfare will never be transformation; you can only become an instrument of enduring transformation by your willingness to walk (sit, eat, drink) and share the life of another. It’s in taking time to develop a mutual relationship of trust that you will restore dignity and worth in the other, and in doing so earn the right to speak into their circumstances.
Today I say goodbye to Rwanda. And I want to say thank you to all of you that have shared my journey and given me a thought along the way. I want to say a special thank you to my wife and daughter for their continuing support and for being two of the people in this world that inspire me to care.
(I’ll continue to update my blog: I can’t imagine that it is going to be quite as interesting as these last weeks, but as I continue to see God in, and learn from, the people I work for, I’ll blog it and invite you to tell me I’ve lost it!)
