I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of
the Lord in the land of the living. - Psalm 27:13
The email said, “Come all to celebrate life and express thanks to God for life and the earth he/she has given us.” It was an email from Pastor John, one of the local pastors, inviting my fellow YAGMs and I for a weekend of camping. After two months of adventure and struggle in our various homes throughout Rwanda, nothing sounded better to me than some time with these dear friends.
John’s land sits overlooking Rusumo Falls which churns
the silt-laden waters of the Kagera River into a milky brown. The river cuts through the land to divide
Rwanda and Tanzania. Everywhere I turned
I found a view worth a picture. Even the
door-less outhouse had a mountaintop view.
Now, during the rainy season, the hills of Rwanda pulse with an emerald green
color that the American Midwest only sees in jewel-toned story books. The clouds hang low making this land seem as
if it has been tucked just a little extra close to heaven. Don’t be fooled though, the equatorial sun
reaches between the heavy clouds to burn any pale neck in reach.
Shortly after arriving, we were greeted by the hill’s
native inhabitants. The curious baboons snuck
shyly through the trees, proceeding with more confidence once we began tossing
bananas their way. (This in hindsight
may not have been the best decision because the baboons had difficulty
differentiating between the bananas we brought for them and the bananas we were
saving for our breakfast.) Once the
baboons grew tired of us, John brought us over to see the goats. A young boy led a bull goat by a rope. John chuckled as he told us that he knew we
were probably not accustomed to being presented with our dinner while it was
still alive. He explained that in Rwanda
it is customary to present the animal to one’s guest before it was
slaughtered. So we greeted our goat and
thanked him for his sacrifice. Hours
later we shared a delicious meal around the fire.
The next morning we helped John plant some trees. John has planted well over 40,000 trees on
this land. He has worked hard to make
this little corner of the world a place of life-giving celebration. He does this by planting trees and bringing
friends together for fellowship. He does
this with decided intentionality because not that long ago these hills and the
river winding through it carried death and bitter sorrow.
During the 1994 genocide, when over one million people
were killed in one hundred days, five hundred thousand people fled across the
Rusumo Falls Bridge to Tanzania. As the
exodus took place on the bridge above, thousands of dead bodies tumbled down
the falls below. Brutal killings were
taking place across the entire country. Bodies
were thrown into streams and rivers.
With most of Rwanda’s rivers flowing into the Kagera, many bodies
collected at these falls. When the
conflict subsided, no one wanted to purchase the land that had witnessed such
horrors. Some thought John crazy for
buying it. But John saw the hope and
life that the land still held.
