The first week of
July, we went to a Catholic retreat center in Rwanda with the Seeders and it
was a really good time together. Mark taught some people to swim and people
played some very competitive Qwirkle. At first, there was complaining because
there wasn’t Internet and there was little phone network reception, but in the
end everyone said they relaxed more and had more fun than they probably would
have if they’d been on Internet and phone! The Seeders led more sessions, and it
was a great opportunity for them to share with each other exchanging
experiences and reflecting. They were also happy to have Mark there with us.
He is feeling encouraged about his work, even though there’s
not a lot of change in the external relations. The writing process is enjoyable
for him, and he’s hit a rhythm of working from home in the afternoon so he’s
not so distracted with good internet connection – emails popping up and
ultimate Frisbee games waiting to be watched.
Speaking of! Our
ultimate Frisbee group here is going strong! Mark’s getting into teaching some
of the non-violent tools used in the game (resolving disputed foul calls, for
example) and talking about how to be a good teammate. There are four or five
teenage girls who come out to play regularly, and it makes me really happy. The
way women are treated here is generally not good, and I really enjoy seeing
these gals gain confidence and being respected by the male players. Mark’s
organizing for us to play a match in with another team from Bujumbura, Burundi
in a couple of weeks!
Okay, there’s a
lot to catch up on here! We didn’t do anything for the 4th of July
because we were in the middle of our retreat. We did go to the wedding of one
of our Seed participants right after that. It was fun to celebrate together and
felt like our Seed family really was a special part of the celebration. All
three events (civil ceremony, church ceremony and reception) all started pretty
much on time, and I was surprised at how smoothly everything went (not a ton of
waiting around). I was also happy that Mark, Serge and I finally got a smile
out of the bride as we danced forward with the gift from MCC colleagues.
For me, too, Work
is going better now than it has at almost any other point since we first arrived
here. I’m continuing doing a “practicum” for my MA program (I get my diploma in
just a month or so!!!), and it’s helped me get motivated to organize curriculum
and goals/objectives for the Seed program that should have been done at the
beginning but weren’t because we were just putting out fires and trying to stay
afloat. (Pardon the fixed metaphors). Another part of it is some research, part
of which is me writing an “autoethnography” about my experiences of being a
white woman in Africa and especially how I see the differing attitudes towards
money play out between westerners and Africans. I did a focus group with the
African Seeders at the retreat that was really interesting. This practicum has
helped me have some fresh energy to continue engaging these challenging
topics.
Mark and I
took a spiritual retreat last weekend (at another great Catholic retreat
center, this one in Bukavu – they had sinks with automatic sensors that
actually worked!!!) to pray and listen about what God has for us in the future,
after our current term ends in April 2018. It was really good and we sense God
speaking to us, easing some of our fears about what the future might hold -
different fears for each of us. We feel like God used the retreat to open us up
to whatever he has for us - no holds barred, and also we both
felt God leading us to be more involved directly in gospel-oriented
“discipleshipandevangelism” (phrase from Dr. Castleman from JBU) now. Part of
that is supporting our pastor. We see that he really is a prophet in this
context, and he can say things that people will listen to in a way we can’t.
We did have
some specific ideas about the future, a variety of possible directions where
God might be opening doors, so we’ll take the next month to keep praying about
those options before starting to put out “feelers”.
I think I’ll
wrap it up there for now and let you enjoy some photos of the past few weeks.
