Be Love Boldly: Rwanda, Day 1: Genocide Museum & Kimisagra Orphanage

This morning our team went to the Genocide Museum: Words will cannot describe what we saw, what Rwandans experienced, or what we learned about. Here are some facts from the Museum at http://www.kigalimemorialcentre.org/old/index.html: In 100 days, more than 1,000,000 people were murdered. Did you catch that? ONE MILLION PEOPLE in 100 Days!!! But the genocidaires did not kill a million people. They killed one, then another, then another...... day after day, hour after hour, minute by minute. Every minute of the day, someone, somewhere, was being murdered, screaming for mercy and received none. By the end of the genocide, 85% of the Tutsi (The "upper class") population had been murdered.

What we saw: A country of true forgiveness, love, and reformation. Rwanda is beautiful! The people there were amazing. They were united in working to restore the country through love and they abounded in amazing hospitality to us. The scars and deep wounds of the geonocide are throughout the land, but God is at work here and His people here reflect his heart.

Can you tell my heart is in Rwanda?

We had lunch at Chez Robert, a restaurant near Hôtel des Mille Collines or "Hotel Rwanda" and then our team split into two groups. Our group headed out to Kimisagra Orphanage.

Kimisagra:

First, it's a trek to get to the orphanage. You have to climb up rocks set as makeshift stairs at a massive slope (I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but it seemed like an 89% slope. lol). 1/2 way up the trek, the steps became a good 2 1/2 feet high, so you were high stepping, slipping on the wet rocks (it had rained most of the morning), & out of breath. There are no hand rails. I seriously wanted to crawl once I hit the 3/4 mark, but a kind elderly man walked down and held my hand and walked with me. with only about 10 feet left and only mud left to trek through, the kids from the orphanage came running down to run me up the last bit of the mountain. The boys and James, along with our team leader carried 100+ bags of food up to the Orphanage. Thank you God for giving them the strength to do it. One boy from Kimisagra, got help from James to lift the bag on his shoulder, and bare feet and all, ran straight up! Yeah, we are all still amazed at what that boy did.

If you've ever given birth, you know how you labor in love and then once it's done... you'd do it again. That's how I felt. Once at the top, the excitement and love from the kids revived us. We were mobbed by smiling children of all ages. Shaking our hands, welcoming us in, hugging us, and not letting go of us. It was worth the labor to the top.

Kimisagra is a SMALL space. They have a cow, named Cow, in a room outback. Not sure what they used it for. I think it was a male, which explained why the kids all laughed at me and looked at me, as if crazy when I asked if they milked it. ha! oops!

Kimisagra is home to approx. 92 children. It has a building for boys and a building for girls. Due to space constraints, about 40 children live in houses surrounding the orphanage and come each day only to eat. We spent about 4-5 hours at the orphanage. We played football (soccer), took pictures, did face painting, painted nails, and LOVED, LOVED, LOVED on the children.

Kimisagra is a poor orphanage. Upon our arrival when asked what they needed, they replied that feeding the children daily was their biggest struggle. They are currently raising money (they need $3200 to finish) for a bathroom and shower facility. We got a tour of the building in progress. What a blessing this will be for the children. Currently, there are NO showers and they have a pit in their "play" area covered with metal sheeting as a bathroom.