First Sabbath in Rwanda

I had my shopping done and got home Friday evening before Sabbath. Instant Cream of Broccoli soup from a powder with a can of Tuna added. Quite tasty. I went out to the Gazebo and played my auto harp and was quite surprised when two young men came in out of the dark and stood listening. It turned out that they had delivered the water and were waiting to get the jugs back. They are both Seventh Day Adventists and one is a musician and just happened to have a guitar in his trunk. So I enjoyed fellow shipping with music for a while. The musician mentioned coming by Sabbath morning. I hoped that it was a sideways offer of a ride.

Sabbath morning, no ride arrived so I took a moto to the Rwanda Union Mission (Where I'd been told there would be an services in English). Gates were locked and the guard didn't speak English. So I walked the 3 blocks to KHI, because I thought a service in French would be better than none at all. I'm still not sure what was going on but there were military guys on the street corners with automatic weapons in hand, flack jackets, radios wired into ear buds and extra weapons in additional holsters. I wanted to ask directions but they weren't having any talking. When I arrived @ KHI a very nice young man who is a student at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST is a sister school to KHI & they share some facilities) said he would walk with me and we could find out where the church was located. Back at the mission I found out that they had relocated to Kibungabunga.

The moto driver new how to get to the right town (about 8 miles away) but didn't know where to go after we arrived. He asked directions and then deposited outside of the SDA Church. I could see the people and hear the singing so I knew I was at the right place. I went in and sat on a low wooden bench in the back. You could see sunlight poking through the tin roof but the temperature was comfortable with the windows wide open. By all of the stares I'm pretty sure they don't get many Muzungas. The little kids started moving to my bench and I could hear/sense that they were daring each other to touch me. Finally one little tike bravely reached out and sort of started to stroke my hairy arm like you would pet a cat. I could have really had some fun but didn't want to disrupt the services. Soon a very pleasant man came and spoke in English. He sat with me and periodically let me know what was going on. It turned out he was also the Sabbath School teacher. After Sabbath School he asked if I had intended to come to the French/Kinyarwandan church or had intended to go to the English church? I said I'd wanted to attend English services but that I was satisfied with where I was. He said that the English services were across the street and walked me over to that facility. The differences could not have been more stark.

Across the street was a thoroughly modern church with polished tile and large glass windows (open to keep it cool) It could be any newer church in the U.S.. Many of the folks attending had drivers and the men were mostly dressed in suits. I felt guilty worshipping in such a nice building when across the street were other brothers and sisters who had next to nothing but where collecting to help build up there branch Sabbath School where they were expanding.

I had hoped that I might run into someone I knew but no luck. After a while I approached a young gentleman inquiring about where I was (I'd gotten turned around on the moto ride) and where I might find a moto. Brighton Ruzibukira said that he'd be glad to drop me off on his way home and that he'd be going shortly. He said that he had spent time in New England and that people had picked him up to take him to church and he was very happy to return the favor now.

So back to the guest house and a lunch of cabbage salad and vegetable soup. Pineapple back to the fridge for another day.

It poured buckets full for about an hour & I took pictures around the house and took a nice walk to the springs (bed springs).

Dr. Konn arrived back around 5:00. We were scheduled to meet the radiography instructors and dentists for supper and then on to the Pangea thing at the park. Dinner was at the "car wash" combination car wash, restaurant & grocery store (the restaurant was primarily an outdoors courtyard with some covered ares. We had goat and chips (thick french fries).

After supper we went to the Pangea Day satellite simul-cast for peace. A three hour long world peace effort simultaneously broadcasting from LA, London England, Cairo Egypt, Kigali Rwanda, Rio Brazil and Mombai India . Tickets were free but you had to have them to get in. Then you had to be patted down and wanded by the military officers @ the gate. Once inside there was a stage and multiple rear projection screens and hundreds of chairs set out on the park lawn. The satellite feed was a bit spotty but there were some great videos promoting different aspects of world peace and harmony as well as music, speakers, interviews and reports from around the world. It was a bit cool and that was probably the reason for the total absence of bugs of any kind.

Back at the house I added a blog statistics counter at the very bottom. Now I can see how many folks view the blog, which areas, what time and where on a world map the I.P. originates. Then I skyped our friends Dan and Kelly hoping to catch Shaloy & Tekoa (who I had known spent the afternoon together) but they'd already left. I had a nice visit with Dan and then talked with Shaloy for about 45 minutes.