Rwanda Trip

This past week we got the chance to visit our friends who are serving as missionaries in Kigali, Rwanda.  After a few months of planning, we escaped the frigid winter of the Midwest and headed to the warmth of East, Central Africa.  We got to go with some of our friends from church, and despite a few hiccups with flying logistics that gave us some free time in Amsterdam, we made it in one piece.When telling people we were visiting Africa, questions about Ebola or about food/living conditions were pretty regular.  In fact, we were farther from Ebola there than we were when there was a patient in Dallas and Kigali being the capital of Rwanda features fairly modern skyscrapers, city-wide water and electricity, a public transportation system, and access to a wide range of foods.  While these were the conditions where we stayed, the same is not true for those living in the refugee camp that Robbie and Stephanie work with near Kibuye, Rwanda.  The camp has next to none of these amenities.  It houses over 18,000 people with one doctor, extremely limited electricity, water, and sanitation, and food rations so limited people create gardens or try to seek employment from local farmers in order to feed their families something close to what is a healthy amount.This refugee camp along with others in the country were set up following the Rwandan Genocide that took place in 1994.  One of the first things we did during our first day in Kigali was to visit the genocide memorial to give us a better perspective on what exactly happened during the genocide and its effect on the entire population of the country.  In the following days, we visited the refugee camp, did a small work project at J. Lynn's bakery in Kigali, went on a safari, and got to hang out with Robbie and Stephanie.While on this trip we were moved deeply by what we saw in the refugee camp and amazed at the work that Robbie and Stephanie are doing for the people of Rwanda.  One of the big things going on right now is the raising of funds for a solar installation at the library in the refugee camp that will allow for a small computer lab, a photocopying business, the ability to watch films.  There is a link for giving below as well as a link to Robbie and Stephanie's blog that you can visit for updates.For the days outside the safari, we didn't take many pictures.  In addition to not wanting to stand out, it feels not right to photograph what are people's everyday living condition, it feels invasive. Below are a few photos from the trip, snapshots from here and there as we went along.  Please pray for Robbie and Stephanie and their work in Rwanda, pray for those they are working with, and if possible give to what will be a huge help to those living in the camp.https://give.iteams.us/give (specifying ‘kiziba solar power’ in the description)https://thesefrailhands.wordpress.com  This work by JD Maloney is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.