12/19/13: FREE DAY IN KIBUYE
Our first morning in Kibuye we walked into town to have breakfast, again at the Best Western Eco-Hotel, and, again, the wi-fi was non-existent. We had omelets - Spanish and mushroom, with bread and honey. We then walked to see a small Genocide Memorial at the Catholic Church, high on a hill. This one had skulls on display. We will not be going to the more graphic ones which have either blood stained clothing (outside of Kigali) or actual mummified bodies exactly as they were found, including a room of children, many of whom died by having their heads smashed against the wall (Murambi).
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| Genocide Memorial with Skulls behind Window |
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| Church with Memorial in front |
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| "Never Again" |
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| Church Stain Glass |
From there we followed the dirt road to find Home St Jean, the place where Bill stays in Kibuye, a fine, inexpensive hotel out on a bluff overlooking the lake. It would have been the more aesthetic choice than our space, but we would have had to rent two rooms, one for Robert, our translator.
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| View from Home St. Jean of Lake Kivu |
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| Home St. Jean Room |
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| View of Lake Kivu from Bedroom and Deck |
We engaged an African couple from Gitarama in conversation who were vacationing there, whose son is going to school at UW, of all places.
As we left two young men tried to get us to hire them for a boat ride out to some islands. It turned out that 2 women from England were to go out in a boat with them soon and we would see if we could all go together. The women appeared on cue, we all agreed it was a splendid idea, and we went for a 4 hour boat ride to several islands.
One of the young men just graduated from high school, wants to go to the university to study writing and art, but he doesn't have the funds. We talked about practicing writing every day as a way to start. He wants to write about the poor and about his life.
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| View of Napolean Island |
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| Fruit Bats Flying as we disturb their sleep |
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| Fruit Bats in the trees |
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| View from the trail to the top |
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| Flowers along the trail |
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| Joanie & Yehudah with Boatman/Guide |
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| Daughter & Mom, teacher from England plus Joanie & Yehudah |
The trip turned out much better than we expected. They took us to Napoleon Island, where millions of fruit bats live in the trees. We hiked to the top to get the panoramic view.
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| Joanie meeting gentle cow eating mangoes |
Next we stopped at an island to pick mangos, hang out with some cows, see the cowboy, and a goat and small sheep.
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| Peace Island |
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| Wonderful Student Boatman |
Our final stop was to swim off of Peace Island, where a spider monkey appeared on the table where Yehudah and I had left our clothing. He fortunately wasn't interested in any of our stuff.
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| View from Boat of fancy hotel on shoreline |
Robert had already arrived at the beach, so we joined with him to walk back to our room, where Jean was waiting for us to arrive. We were about to all go out together after sitting for a bit to chat and Jean opened up the kitchen in the next house so we could have breakfast ourselves the next morning so to be in time for the workshop when my stomach went into spasm. Ugh!
I told the group to go on without me. It was awful. I went into a cold sweat, and stayed put in the bathroom for about an hour. Then the upset was all passed and I was better, I stayed by myself, read about Gisenyi in Lonely Planet and finally got ready for bed. Yehudah and Robert did the xeroxing with Jean, had dinner at Home St Jean, then returned quite late.
12/20/13: COMPASSIONATE LISTENING TRAINING IN KIBUYE: #3
We met Jean to walk to the workshop space around 8 am after taking our own simple breakfast in the kitchen where we were staying. Jean told us people would arrive at 8 am, then told us to meet at his office at 8 am. Go figure! It was a long, steep climb, but the vista of the lake and Home St. Jean were spectacular. We arrived around 8:20 am with just two people there. Most people arrived by 9 am and we started. The session was again fun, profound, well received. The afternoon demonstration went better, Robert was an excellent translator. One fellow questioned whether he could get funding to come study CL in the States. This time few people had emails, so we decided to xerox the book and let Jean hand it out, which was his suggestion. We shall see if practice groups develop, but it looks promising.
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| Early morning Lake Kivu |
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| Morning Kibuye CL Group: Facts, Feelings, Values, Body Language |
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| Morning Kibuye Practice Group 2 |
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| Joanie preparing next section |
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| Kibuye Dyad 1 |
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| Kibuye Dyads 2 |
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| Kibuye Dyad 3 |
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| Kibuye Dyad 4 |
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| Kibuye Dyad 5 |
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| Kibuye Dyad 6 |
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| Mural in CL Training room |
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| Hanging out with baby after session |
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| Hanging out with baby 2 |
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| Kibuye Compassionate Listening Training Practice Group Certificates |
In the fading afternoon, we packed for our early departure for Gisenyi, then went to the photocopier to pick up the copies of the Kinyarwanda translation of the Compassionate Listening book. Though we were half an hour later than the pick up time, they were not quite done copying. Yehudah arrived a little behind us and "rolled up his sleeves" to join in on collating. We have already learned that time and deadlines are very flexible and to always be prepared to hang out a bit when moving through each day.
That evening we climbed a neighboring hill and were treated to a meal cooked by Jean's wife. His 2 year old son was already asleep, but his 6 year old daughter was awake and mischievous. She claimed the book we told her was for her brother as well as the cards we were gifting her.
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| We had dinner with Jean, his wife and daughter at their home |
Such a lovely wife and child he has! They were the ones whose wedding was the weekend before which Baptiste had rushed over from Kigali to attend. Though they already had children, like many couples in the USA, it may have taken awhile to save up funds to have a really splashy wedding.
We had a sweet evening looking at photos from their wedding, at our photos and their six year old was very creative with her gifts. Really sweet, all in all. It was quite dark as we headed back to our room. Stars studded the sky, with Orion clear and brilliant. We walked back to our spot, getting to bed early for our early departure.
12/21/13: A LONG RIDE ON THE SHORTEST DAY! (FROM KIGALI TO GISENYI)
(Yehudah writing) Of course the days are all pretty much the same length near the Equator, but up there in the USA, most all of you were experiencing the least amount of sunlight of the year on this the Winter Solstice. Our day here started at 5:30 am and we gathered together ourselves and our stuff in preparation for a long bus ride on a rough and curvy road.
We had a simple breakfast of our trail mix with banana and apple juice with coffee or tea, passing along the last of the "sweet" buns to Robert, our translator. Jean met us with a driver at 7:10 and we went to the bus stop which proved to be very close to the other one from which we had walked when we had arrived. What we were told to pay was way more than this short ride deserved, so I offered half. It was an awkward moment with the driver and our generous host and organizer, but the driver decided to bargain and I felt satisfied, though I knew we could have easily walked it. This turned out to be even more true when we ended up waiting over 2 hours for the bus to show up.
Here are our parting photos with Jean and Robert:
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| Jean, Robert, Joanie, Yehudah |
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| Jean & Robert |
The technique of getting on this bus first is to stand where the bus first turns in, grab the handle by the entry door and then get dragged through the crowd sweeping others out of the way. The men were especially good at this. Those of us with luggage in tow didn't have that option and just had to struggle to keep a position. Our original plan was for Joanie to jump on board and grab 2 seats while I dealt with the luggage. That went out the window with this new reality of 20 people crushed around the door. We had made another student friend while we were waiting, so Vincent became our ally and somehow slipped aboard. I don't really know how I got on, but I did and we got some seats. From mine near the door, I reached down for Joanie to hand me up the luggage. She looked shell shocked and it wasn't until most everyone was on board that we completed the plan. We still ended up in good shape with me by the door sharing the seat with the English speaking conductor and Joanie and Vincent sharing a seat with a young Mom and her little boy. Joanie was on the left side and got to enjoy the vistas, but she wasn't near enough to the window where she would have seen the precipitous edge of the road that we were traveling on. Did I say the road was narrow? It was like a single lane logging road that hadn't been graded in years - a windy, rutted, dirt road. Oh, the ticket seller must have observed all this and approached me for an additional 500 RFr ($1) for the luggage which got placed in a nice spot next to the driver. Here are some photos inside the bus:
About midway, we crossed a bridge, that our out-of-date travel guide told us had washed out, and entered the town of Gizisa. It was market day and there was a huge number of vendors and shoppers crowded throughout the central area. We were really in Africa now!
I started conversing with another man as well who turned out to be an eye surgeon specializing in cataract surgery. His long term ambition was to be employed in Canada. Here's a photo of the two of us:
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Yehudah and Doc on bus
We passed by farmland:
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| terraced farming - tea |
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| People gathered for a funeral along the road |
(Joanie writing) Vincent got off the bus to visit with a very beautiful girl he knew who lived in the town. They hadn't seen each other in two years. He bought 6 pineapples for the two of us - for 100RFr or about 15 cents each! They came in through the window as he continued visiting with the girl. Vincent is studying electrical engineering like his Dad. He was born in the DRC but his family now lives in Gisenyi. We have been fortunate to wind up sitting near a university student on each of our trips so far. They tend to know quite a bit of English and have consistently been very helpful. The little boy next to me, about 7 years old, studies English in school, so he sang his ABC's, counted on his fingers to 200, and sang songs about the months and the days of the week. His mother only spoke Kinyarwanda. It was a six hour ride, sitting closely together. The bus overheated about an hour out of Gisenyi, so the driver took us to the general office rather than the final bus stop which would have been much more convenient for getting to the church.
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| took photo of these boys at spot bus overheated |
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| we all got out when the bus overheated |
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| Vincent and Joanie at end of bus trip |
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| Vincent and Yehudah |
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| Bus driver |
Francois, our CLT organizer in Gisenyi, met us on a moto-taxi. We all got on 3 motos, baggage and all, and arrived within minutes at the church, where many people were waiting for us so that we could all go to a party.
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| We all walked to Cow Party in Gisenyi |
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| Reaching house gate of Cow Party in Gisenyi |
Yehudah took many photos at the party:
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| Guests arriving with gifts |
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| Church Choir Singing |
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| Food arriving |
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| Church Choir 2 |
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| Avocado and fellow in red shirt |
The traditional dancing was amazing. The overlay of Fundamentalist Christianity with the traditional spirituality was front and center. This traditional dance seemed to tell the story of the cow.
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| Assistant Pastor of Church dancing the Cow Dance |
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| Traditional Dance 2 |
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| Traditional Dance 3 |
The party was given because a couple who had been together for many years, with several children, had joined the church and decided to get married. Someone gave them several cows as a wedding gift and they gave one of the cows to, I believe, her brother, for all his assistance with their wedding. The party was at the brother's house and another man who was honored provided all the food.
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| The fellow who paid for food thanking the sister and family |
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| The brother thanking his sister |
Everyone had great fun. We were welcomed as the "visitors." The music and dancing after the consumption of a large quantity of food and soft drinks was central to the occasion.
We walked back with Pastor Etienne to get our bags left in the church office, then drove in a van to his house. Our quarters are similar to Emmanuel's home - a modest size room with double bed, a row of wooden pegs to hang stuff and one chair. The bathroom that everyone uses has a real toilet but the seat is plastic and funky. There's a bathtub and a local hot water heater, but the heater was hooked up, but not used, some problem with the wiring. Water for our bath was heated in the kitchen and brought in a plastic tub. After our bath the family ate another meal, so we shared a bit, including one pineapple we brought as a gift.
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| One of the orphan boys shining a line of shoes in courtyard of house |
Etienne lived in the States for several years. Two of his sons are in US schools - Yale and Northern Illinois outside Chicago - on full scholarships. A son- in-law is at Wheaton studying for the ministry. One son still at home has an alcohol problem. His daughter, Esperance, is married to the fellow at Wheaton who is pastor of another church. She is our translator. She really helped us understand everything at the party. Then he has a few orphan children plus his own younger son. He is a fine person.
12/22/14: FREE DAY IN GISENYI: HOT SPRINGS, SEEING TOWN
Etienne arranged for a young relative to take us to a natural hot springs by the lake today. The person's name is Jean Pierre and he works at a bottle plant. Here are the photos:
12/23 COMPASSIONATE LISTENING TRAINING IN GINSENYI
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church land where we held workshop
(Yehudah writing) This training had its own twists. When we arrived, Francoise was already there. We put together the handout and I went outside to go to the local money exchange. I discovered that many of the participants were already arriving - early! This was indeed a first. When I got back, most were there and we started only 15 minutes late. But then they kept arriving. Before they finished showing up, we found we were 3 people over our limit. An adjustment for us, but nothing insurmountable.
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This was a much younger group with only a few people looking to be in their 30's or 40's. Again there were church workers and a pastor, students and teachers, farmers, children workers, but also a carpenter and a night watchman. Most had completed the 3 day training Bill completed here 2 years ago and the HROC training. Some comments along the way included: "once you know the story, you know how you can help" and "when we take turns speaking, we know we are all equal." They plan on using and refining their skills in their churches, schools, communities, and with young children, teens, and elders.
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| Gisenyi CL Training 5 |
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| Gisenyi CL Training 6 |
The lunch was pretty much the same we've encountered: rice, beans, potatoes (sometimes in the form of fries), a bit of chewy, meat in sauce and a cooked vegetable. This time, they had harvested cabbage from their garden, shredded it and cooked it with onions. They add some spices and it was delicious. The highlight of the day was that the sweet buns were really yummy and reminded me of old fashioned doughnuts.
We completed our training day with me speaking of my experiences using CL on delegations and the trainings I have received, assisted at, and done. We passed out a Certificate for each person which Joanie had translated into French, gave everyone a copy of the CL handbook in its Kinyarwandan translation, and took a group picture with everyone displaying their certificates. This group was composed of 24 participants. After settling the finances with the organizer, we were complete.
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| Our Gisenyi Compassionate Listening Training Group Photo |
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| Joanie & Yehudah with Francois & others |
Before leaving, we recognized a man who arrived at the church. He had danced in the role of the hunter at the cow ceremony we had come to when we first arrived. How handy that I had shot a great video of it and got to show it to him. He was delighted. Then, who should drive up but our dear friend Theo Bizimana, the director of HROC. We had not expected to see him after Kigali as his obligations were taking him away. He offered to take us around the town and we invited him to dinner afterwards.
We drove right up to the DRC border. He didn't think there would be any problem with me photographing it, but someone shouted at us, "you'll be arrested." Then we drove out near where we had started our walk to the hot springs, but turned up a road to the View Palm Hotel, which had an incredible view of Lake Kivu, the sardine boats tied together and waiting for dark to start fishing, and some of the islands.
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| View from View Palm Hotel where we ate dinner with Theo Bizimana |
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| Lizard on rock by View Palm Hotel |
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| View from View Palm Hotel |
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| View of Island from View Palm Hotel |
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| Fishing Boats from View Palm Hotel |
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| Creature climbing up pole by our table at View Palm Hotel |
As the sun set, Theo told us the story of his life, including being raised by his grandmother and eventually reconciling with his birth mother and being helped by his father's family. He had experienced a lot of turmoil, including fleeing to a different part of the Congo than his brother and not seeing him again for many years. He was among the first people to gather to start Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC). Together, they decided to experiment on themselves to see if their theories worked. For him they had. He's a pretty amazing person.
When we returned to Pastor Etienne's, they were in the midst of shelling an enormous bag of peas in preparation for hosting many people following the baptism of 2 of their sons on Christmas Eve day. We jumped in to help. I don't know how late they stayed up, but we finally took a bucket shower and crashed.
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| Joanie helping shelling peas for next day's baptism luncheon |
The pastor had spent the day in a Pygmy village. The Pygmies are perhaps the original people who inhabited the mountains of this region and are in dire straits. Because of the establishment of the national parks, they can no longer hunt, dooming them to a life of hunger, alcoholism, and poverty, similar to the Native Americans in North America, who were removed from their lands and forced to live on reservations. He had selected individuals who he feels are enterprising and is helping them to grow a crop of potatoes which are now near harvest. Time will tell if his efforts will turn things around for them. My first thought was that this was one of the negative results of tourism and the influences of First World countries such as our own.
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