working Dawsons

We’ve been working hard this week! I’ve been full-time processing applications for our Seed program (many of them in French), and Mark’s taken the lead on setting up house by shopping and cooking, plus learning about the legal system here, practicing French and bringing humor to our team.

My office! The desk on the right is mine.

Today, we were “presented” to a local partner organization called “Program for Peace and Reconciliation” (PPR). It is really exciting to be part of what they’re doing, as they work with the Congolese government and the UN to register and/or repatriate Rwandan refugees and combatants.

We sat in their conference room while it was pouring outside and listened to the men and women as they presented what they do. A large part of it is “sensitization” through local churches, making refugees and combatants aware of what their options are and trying to convince them that they will not be forcibly repatriated (settled again in Rwanda, where their citizenship still is). It inspires me that they’re working through churches to minister to the “offenders”. I put in quotes because the politicians are often the behind-the-scenes initiators of attacks to distract from the real issues.

They’re excited to have Mark working with them as a international human rights lawyer, especially advising about the consequences of recruiting child soldiers. And I’m excited to place Seed participants in villages where PPR is doing sensitization work. It’s really fun to see our passions overlapping so quickly.

It was pouring rain while we were meeting, and we opened with scripture, prayer and song, which I really appreciated. It was pretty much entirely in French, but Serge was interpreting for Mark and me. I understand a lot, but really struggle to say anything. I trust the stubborn-child-language-learning thing to happen: that I’m just listening and listening and one day, it’ll click and I’ll start speaking at a reasonable level.

I’m sure there’s a lot more I could say but I’m going to stop there and post this before I crash. But we have been having plumbing issues that remind me of Zambia. Hopefully the dripping won’t keep me awake tonight.