Chased by a baboon!!!!

Happy 4th of July! Today marks the official end of the genocide in 1994.

The past two days has been a crazy ride. Let me first start out with yesterday. Yesterday we spent the day visiting the genocide memorial and then listening to some stories of the survivors. It was a pretty brutal museum. The part that was hardest to see was the children that were affected by the genocide. They were so innocent but yet their lives were taken. There were skulls that were cracked from machete and skulls that had huge holes in them from being beaten. They didn’t do a whole lot to soften the truth of what happened here. I guess in a way, we need to know and we need to see it. We can’t forget what happened and we must do all we can to prevent it from happening it again. Just writing this, my stomach begins to turn again from what was seen. Another part of the group visited another site that had actual bodies that were just laying the way they were found. Although I saw the pictures, I know that there is no way I could make it through that place. We also heard some stories of personal survival during the genocide. Sipi (A GFR employee) spent the genocide hiding and running. He found pipes to hide in, closets to cram in and whatever else would keep him safe. He was caught several times and for some reason or another, when the went to kill him they ended up letting him go. He lost everyone in his family and as he told this story, he wept. The beautiful thing about it is to hear him talk about the forgiveness he has finally been able to give to those people that did the killing.
It is interesting to me to hear that talking about the genocide is basically a taboo topic. People will share their personal stories but will not talk about anything political or their thoughts on it. Everyone is still so afraid of what might happen. I don’t think there is any sort of trust that it is done.

Today was a safari day. Honestly, I can’t wait to show pictures. I took over 200 shots and I saw giraffe’s, hippos, zebras, monkeys, warthogs, troupe, a cobra, gazelle’s and some beautiful birds. Oh, I could go on and on about our crazy adventures. It was real life safari and the animals were so close. Our van driver was amazing. He drove off the beaten path and into areas that got us as close as possible! My favorite experience was when I got a little too close to a baboon. This was a good size monkey and I was right there taking pictures as he just stood there and posed. (At this point, the tour guide was pretty generous at letting us get out of the vehicle and move close to the animals. I had been warned a couple times to stay closer to the vehicle because they could turn on you at any moment.) Needless to say, I was a little hesitant and a little more alert than normal, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from getting the shots I wanted. While this monkey started coming after me and I took off for the van only to run into the van, nail my shins and then fall flat on my back outside the van. I quickly got into the van (at this point, I scared the monkey away) and laughed like crazy. I have some great battle scars from that experience but I have some great shots and that makes it worth it!

After the safari, we spent some time together as a team and had the opportunity to baptize a brother and sister from Africa. Sipriane and his wife, Claudette were baptized. It was incredible to hear about his journey and what brought him to that decision.

Tomorrow we head off to the school to help the teachers and the students. I am excited to begin the evaluation process of the schools here in Rwanda. I can’t wait to see what the future might hold in partnering with them.

Check out globalfamilyrescue.blogspot.com

for some great photos of what is going on...