{"id":209615,"date":"2018-01-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?p=209615"},"modified":"2018-01-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T00:00:00","slug":"rwanda-diary-jan-tenth-twelfth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?p=209615","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda Diary – January tenth – twelfth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, January tenth<\/span><\/h2>\n

I am exhilarated and discouraged tonight. \u00a0I am right in the middle of a chance to make a huge, maybe even a life and death difference, in the lives of the locals. \u00a0There is so much to do to just get up and running. \u00a0We do not have access to seed and must source it locally. \u00a0The language barrier is a major obstacle. \u00a0Everyone speaks Kiyarwanda and French. \u00a0I speak English and Hausa. \u00a0We do not have working phone lines. \u00a0I have zero staff. \u00a0Next week I expect four volunteers coming from Kenya. \u00a0I need to hire twenty local staff. \u00a0I have a million-dollar budget and ten thousand dollars in one hundred-dollar bills in my pocket. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Compared to 1994 when the first refugees returned the cities are much cleaner. \u00a0There are functioning stop lights. \u00a0There are fewer road blocks and check points but low-level violence continues. \u00a0Bribery and corruption are seriously dealt with. \u00a0The government has given 72-hour notice to several non-government agencies to leave. \u00a0I wonder if that is an unspoken policy to keep other agencies who have more resources and influence in line. \u00a0Funny how one measures progress. \u00a0I met several previous acquaintances, government officials, and UN personnel. \u00a0I tried to connect via email and make a few phone calls. \u00a0No luck on either effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saturday, January eleventh\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Woke up clear eyed and ready to take on the world at 4:00 A.M. \u00a0Something must be wrong to be so positive. \u00a0I talked with the family today. \u00a0Rwanda is seven hours ahead of Michigan. \u00a0I talked with Stephane, a MSU college student who is living with us. \u00a0Jan was off to Grand Rapids to see our daughter and family move to Boston.<\/span><\/p>\n

I did not sleep well last night having a lot of doubts and discouragement but today got started with loading the vehicle, getting it maintained, buying supplies, talked to potentially work candidates and putting a plan together. \u00a0This old horse is starting to plow the field. \u00a0One thing I did was this morning was read the report on the work I did two years ago with the first return of refugees. \u00a0We accomplished a lot, helping about 300,000 people get seed, hoes, and food. \u00a0I want to see if we can exceed it. \u00a0I also discovered that a portion of the recipients of two years ago lost everything they had when the militia came across from Ijwe Island and attacked. \u00a0The defending military decided to destroy any further incentive so they burned all the crops, houses, and took all the cattle. \u00a0The returnees had to run again. \u00a0Seemed to me to be a great way to win the battle but lose the war.<\/span><\/p>\n

I worked four hours on my Hewlett Packard 19B Business Consultant II calculator and remote infrared printer. \u00a0Seems to work great except it does not print\u2026much like Africa. \u00a0It is a wonderful place, full of terrific people, where nothing seems to work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rwanda \"Rwanda \"Rwanda \"Rwanda<\/p>\n

\"Rwanda<\/p>\n

Sunday, January twelfth<\/span><\/h2>\n

I got up real early to try again to speak to my wife. \u00a0I bet that you wept yourself to sleep. \u00a0I could tell. \u00a0Then I went to one of the few English services in the country. \u00a0The only reason I go is because it is right to do so. \u00a0It is hard to hear\/understand, has a lot of echo, the singing is awful, preaching only slightly better, the benches made for children, the list could go on. \u00a0I heard some follow up stores from my previous time in Rwanda. \u00a0A man had been protected in the village where I had lived. \u00a0He is now in Kenya where he can teach. \u00a0If he had been caught he would certainly have been put in prison and probably executed. \u00a0His only crime having been a Hutu trying to prevent the killing of Tutsi. <\/span><\/p>\n

Late in 1995, after we had departed, many returning Tutsi from Zaire returned and accused the church of siding with the makers of genocide. \u00a0They accomplished a coup de etat within the church, taking over offices, pastorates, claiming vehicles, and paying themselves outlandish salaries. \u00a0Only by the grace of God was Alfred, an outstanding Swiss missionary, hung in effigy, able to defend himself pointing to his own service and our work as proof of helping all persons in need regardless of ethnic origin. \u00a0No supper tonight but a candy bar. \u00a0I am going to come home thinner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rwanda \"Rwanda<\/p>\n

\"Rwanda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, January tenth I am exhilarated and discouraged tonight. \u00a0I am right in the middle of a chance to make a huge, maybe even a life and death difference, in the lives of the locals. \u00a0There is so much to do to just get up and running. \u00a0We do not have access to seed and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":209588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_block_theme_hide_title":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19],"class_list":{"0":"post-209615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-founders-corner","8":"tag-rwanda-journal","10":"with-featured-image"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/a18-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/a18-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Lou Haveman","author_link":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?author=5"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/209588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}