A poor man?

We watched the DVD of “Fiddler on the roof” recently with a Rwandan friend. Expecting a rather light evening’s entertainment, we found that it dealt with quite a number of serious issues – political upheaval in pre-revolution Russia, anti-Semitism and the decline of tradition as a force shaping society. It also had an interesting story-line and some good songs.

The setting of perhaps the most famous - “If I were a wealthy man” was very interesting, particularly as we sat and watched this in Rwanda. The man singing was in his huge barn, with his milk-delivery horse and several other animals. With all this round him, compared to most Rwandan subsistence farmers, he was already a very wealthy man.

Earthquake 7 : update

As I write this on Tuesday morning, we have had 3 minor tremors today already : worrying signs that the seismic activity is not yet over. They were nothing like the first ones, but enough to wake us up during the night and to noticeably shake the building this morning.

Meanwhile, there have been a few developments :
> A group of government ministers came down last week to inspect the damage. They refused to use the conference hall at our guest house because of signs of damage, although it has been used for weddings. The first lady also visited on Monday, so we have not been forgotten by Kigali, at least.
> Our bishop has returned and was told by local government leaders that the distribution of tarpaulins and blankets was complete. When you visit families affected, you find that this is not true - there seems to be a blockage somewhere. In particular, where the house has not completely fallen down, it appears to be difficult to get help.
> As a diocese, we have decided to focus on things within our capability. We have developed some expertise in building simple houses (wood, mud and wattle) for less than £1000 and we will be concentrating on that alongside repairing our own property.
> We have managed to find a temporary project manager who will come to manage the repairs. This is great news, because it will take a lot of time and could easily have meant us choosing between our "normal" work and earthquake relief. With 4 months to go before we leave Cyangugu, our programme is more clearly defined than at any time since we arrived here.
> There are appeals operating in both the US (via the AMIA website) and in the UK via Rwanda Aid (see link on the sidebar). Once the money gets transferred, we can start, subject of course to also finding the much-needed wisdom! (see the last earthquake report).

Goodbye in Bujumbura

We are just back from a week-end in Bujumbura. It’s an almost perfect location for swimming – our hotel was on the sandy beach, the water in Lake Tanganyika is warm, the mountains of Burundi and the Congo create a stunning setting and the weather was great. You have to swim in the morning, as the wind gets up in the afternoon and creates some quite large waves. The other drawbacks are the presence of teenage boys who are of course fascinated by us and there are also hippos, although they are usually about 3km away from where we were. It’s just a step too far to claim that we were “swimming with hippos”!!
It was also a week-end for saying good-bye to our Scottish friends who have been working in Uganda. There was a lot of reflecting on our time in Africa, on lessons learned, on experiences both good and bad, on problems unresolved and on the future. It was a very significant time as we prayed together – the support and encouragement of our regular but infrequent meetings has been a huge source of strength for us. Much of our reflection was on struggles with African culture, set in context by 2 short passages from The Message version of the New Testament. Perhaps more important for us than the work we have done in Africa is the work God has done in us :

Then Jesus told them what they could expect for themselves: "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat—I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? " (Luke 9)

"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule." (Matthew 5).

Where's the coffee?

In Kigali a couple of weeks ago, we found it hard to find ground Rwandan coffee. Eventually we managed to buy a couple of small packets instead of the usual 500g. This week my mum reported that the new Marks and Spencer’s store in Berwick had just started selling – Rwandan coffee! I don’t know if the two are connected : perhaps the export strategy has been too successful. The government is certainly encouraging people to grow coffee. The only problem is that it takes about 4 years to get your first crop!

Earthquake 6 : wisdom needed

A metaphor for our current situation (providing assistance after the earthquake) might be serving school dinners. Unfortunately, we are doing this without 3 important pieces of knowledge :
We don’t know how much food there is (no money yet received from various appeals)
We don’t know how many people are in the queue (assessments not yet complete)
We don’t know how many other people are also serving dinners (no overall plan for relief yet)
If ever there was a need for all the wisdom and gifts God gives, it is now.

Earthquake 5 : mind your language

Nearly 2 weeks after the first earthquake, but only 6 hours after the latest tremor, there is a little more time to reflect on the experience. The use of language to describe it has been interesting. We have been reading reports on the news, writing reports ourselves and also written an appeal letter to raise funds to help with rebuilding.
There is a temptation to use extreme words, although in terms of global news this was a relatively unimportant, 1-day story : the death toll was under 40 and none of the essential services were affected. How do you generate interest in a “minor” earthquake in an obscure part of central Africa? By using language like “ripped”, “major”, “disaster”. These draw attention, even though the resulting descriptions cannot really said to be an accurate reflection of what has happened, what life is like or how it feels to be here for most of the population.
Of course, it is different for those who have been suddenly bereaved, or for those whose house is badly damaged, or even for those who are wondering how they will afford even the small repairs which are necessary.
So, on the whole this is not a “catastrophe”, but it is certainly a big setback for many families and for the communities. While we can hope for a response which is appropriate and considered, we are also hoping for one which is generous and loving.
Postscript - there is also a temptation to show the most dramatic pictures and I freely confess to succumbing to this. The photos I published recently showed the worst damage we have seen. My excuse is that there simply is no point in taking pictures of hairline cracks in a wall. I watched a whole minute of these on Congolese television and it was excruciating.

Earthquake 4 : still going strong

Just before going to bed last night, I sent an email to friends who plan to visit in April. The theme was that the tremors have been diminishing in both frequency and force. How wrong I was! Having apparently slept through a minor tremor around midnight, we were rudely awoken about 0400 by another, violent enough to shake the house and dislodge Sheena's birthday cards, although there was no other damage. Being awoken like that with an immediate adrenaline rush and heart pounding, precludes further sleep for quite a while and many people spent the remaining hours of darkness outside.

In fact the quakes seem to become more difficult to deal with emotionally as time goes on. This may be related to the last one being during the night, but there is also something Pavlovian about it. For me, it is the roaring noise which produces a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I'm sure, too, that the background of having experienced a dozen or so significant tremors, having talked about them, having listened to others' stories, having witnessed a lot of damage and having visited scenes of death have also taken their toll. In any case, there is a lot of fear around and last night was a setback in overcoming that.

It has been reported that there were several injuries and 1 death in this part of Rwanda as a result of last night's tremors.

Earthquake 3 : photos

It takes ages to upload photos, but sometimes words are not enough....


Rusunyu School near Kamembe : typically older buildings like this were worst damaged, the newer ones around were nearly intact, with only a few loose bricks.


The nurses' quarters on Nkombo Island, just offshore in Lake Kivu. This took the biggest impact from the quake.


Nkanka church, where 13 people died as the belltower fell right at the main entrance.

Earthquake 2 : Nkanka

The Catholic Church at Nkanka, about 10km from where we live, was the scene of the single biggest loss of life in the earthquake. We went there on Monday as part of our visits to the area. As we arrived, the funeral service was under way : a huge crowd of about 2000 people in the open air. Catholic singing here is quite different from that of Protestant churches : the tunes have much more of a European influence in them. The overcast sky, the humid early evening atmosphere, the liturgy broadcast through a very poor PA system and the haunting music made it quite an unforgettable experience.
There was a sudden flurry of activity in the middle of the crowd. It soon emerged that the burials were taking place. No solemn or demure or slow activity here - these men were working very hard and fast with hoes. As the crowd began to disperse, we were able to see that all 13 bodies had been buried beside each other. 13 mounds of earth covered with flowers and marked with simple wooden crosses carrying the names and birth years of those killed. A very sobering sight and yet there was little outward sign of grief among the people gathered.
We moved on to look at the church. Like many Catholic places of worship here, it’s a beautiful building to an original design - quite old and made of stone with large windows made of stained glass - not in small sections as in Britain, but huge panes. The atmosphere inside was lovely and there was little sign of damage, simply a thin coating of dust and small pieces of debris. This is one of the ironies of this particular incident. The instinct to leave buildings when an earthquake strikes is, believe me, very strong, but if people had stayed inside they would have been safe. It was the collapsing bell-tower at the main entrance and the stampede of people leaving which caused the deaths. Those inside or leaving by the side entrances would have been OK.

Earthquake 1 : Sunday 3 Feb

On Sunday 3 Feb an earthquake hit our region of Rwanda, epicentre about 20km from us, force 6.0. The death toll is about 35 in Rwanda and 6 in DRC.

We were getting ready to go to church when there was a low rumble, followed very quickly by the house starting to shake. It was our first experience of an earthquake, so it took a little while to realise what was happening, but the first thought was to get out of the house. It is a truly frightening experience to have the earth move beneath you, even if it only is for a few seconds. Standing on the grass, we could hear the eerie sound of human shouting and wailing from across the water. Normally the city of Bukavu is almost completely quiet.
The quake was strong enough to shake things off shelves, but tidying the house did not take too long. The smell of vinegar from the broken bottle lingered for quite a while. The rest of the day went something like this :
Morning : We went to church, but Sheena took home a group of schoolchildren who were parked outside spreading fear to each other and I spent some time ferrying people with injuries to the diocesan clinic and to the local hospital. There were not too many of these and the injuries were mostly minor : it was soon apparent that a lot of the damage was relatively slight. The rumour mills were working overtime of course : 200 dead in Bukavu, a landslide in Bweyeye and a family in Kamembe killed while watching TV were all reported but later found to be false.
Afternoon : in coordination with other diocesan staff, we visited some of the projects It is amazing how quickly fear spreads and perhaps especially so in a country like Rwanda where so much trauma is hidden under but close to the surface. Several medical centres reported that a substantial proportion of patients were physically uninjured, but suffering from various kinds of hysteria.
By the afternoon, things had settled down considerably and as we visited and spoke to people on the phone a clearer picture started to emerge. The death toll was lower than first feared. Helicopters from Kigali were at the airport, taking some injured to Kigali. A couple of government ministers had arrived. The government was advising that people slept outside. As dark approached, we put up the tent which was fortunately in the storeroom of our house and had dinner with a doctor friend who was going to spend the night with us.
Evening : sleeping in a tent in an earthquake zone, being woken by occasional aftershocks, is an experience in vulnerability and a very small insight into the life of the poor. It is also a bonding experience when no-one around is sleeping indoors. Fortunately the night was dry and even for those not fortunate to have cover it passed uneventfully.