12/27/13: RWANDA: MUSANZE COMPASSIONATE LISTENING TRAINING #6
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| Musanze CL Group 1 |
Without realizing it, we've been in harmony with the Psalms. Our first Sunday in the church In Kigali, you may remember the pastor gave a teaching based on Psalm 121 and we sang the melody for the first two lines as composed by Reb Aryeh zt"l, but I hadn't remembered that the rest of it spoke of being watched over by God and kept from harm. We had also forgotten that "Hinay Mah Tov," the main dance we have been teaching, comes from Psalm 133. We were told this morning that this passage was the main one used by Rwandan Pastors after the Genocide to unite people! Most of our organizers, participants, and locations have been in and connected to churches, specifically Quaker.
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| Musanze CL Training Group 2 |
Another thing that just became clear is that many of the participants in each church are working with children under the auspices of an International Compassion organization which tries to find homes for orphans and provides them with food, clothing, housing, and tuition for school.
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| Musanze CL Training 3 |
Joanie has been using a poem by Thich Nhat Hahn with the line "I am clear as the water." Yesterday we saw our first clear stream coming down from the mountains, the first clear stream we have seen in Rwanda. We truly felt we were at home.
We are staying in the most clean, aesthetically fine and well organized home in our homestays with all our Rwandan hosts. All have been gracious and wonderful, but here we are given water and soap to wash our hands before meals, like we do each Shabbat. The bathroom is without a seated toilet or shower by American standards, but everything is spotless, there's a large barrel of water in the corner with a pitcher to use and a separate area for bathing. It is very wonderful. We received warm water this morning and I washed my hair for the first time on this trip! (This is Joanie) There are five daughters here, so plenty of helping hands for the woman of the house. For breakfast we had bread, hardboiled eggs, bananas and African tea which Yehudah puts coffee into and I put in an extra tea bag for more tea flavor. African tea consists of boiled, whole milk with a bit of tea to flavor it.
16 participants are here for the workshop today, smaller than most of our other groups, a very manageable size.We are following the same format and this is our final workshop in Rwanda. Most are over 30 and again a mix of different professions, but none of the unemployed students or new graduates.
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| Musanze Training Lunch |
Participants were all engaged and wonderful. Our one volunteer example story was of a young woman having problems with her husband, that they were not able to own their own home because she thinks that he squanders their money and she doesn't have a job. The exercise was "Stepping into another person's shoes," so she needed to speak from his perspective as well. It was very moving to hear her do so and to hear what she learned from the experience. The pastor here intends to really get the monthly practice groups going.
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| Che Che Kule |
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| Hokey Pokey |
(Joanie) I did more dances here than elsewhere, including the Anne Barlin "it's raining today" which allowed the children some creative options, although they pretty much just followed me. We did it also as "it's sunny today!"
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| Musanze kids |
As in Nyundo, they wanted to show us some of their dances. Pastor Gerard's daughter got the drum from the church and the kids went into action along with two other women from the training.
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| Musanze kids doing their dances 1 |
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| Musanze kids doing their dances 2 |
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| Musanze kids doing their dances 3 |
After we had a short rest, we headed into town to load a few more minutes on the cell phone and to look for Amahoro Tours, the only locally operated company that arranges hikes and trips into the mountains. They were highly recommended by both The Lonely Planet guide and Trip Advisor. We followed the directions and found our way up what seemed to be a dead end, so we asked someone and they asked someone else who directed us further up and sure enough we found it! We went in and got a ton of information including the fact that the gorilla tracking reservations weren't even close to full. So much for needing to book months in advance during the high season. The most reasonable offering was a 6-8 hour hike up one of the mountain paths for $17/pp. and transportation costs were minimal. (Not only is the gorilla tracking cost $750, but one had to arrange one's own transportation for $80-100!). We chalked that one up as a possibility for tomorrow after the morning service project that all Rwandans are required to engage in once a month.
Yehudah decided to get his beard trimmed at the local barber shop! Here are the photos:
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| Yo getting a trim in Musanze barber shop |
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| Barber finishing up! |
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