Kwita Izina

I had the wonderful opportunity last weekend to attend the 6th annual "Kwita Izina" event at the Volcanoes National Park in Kinigi. Kwita Izina is a special naming ceremony for the baby gorillas that are born each year. This year the event was even more special because it coincided with the celebration of World Environment Day. The theme of this year's event was, "Many Species, One Planet, One Future." Rwanda is home to about one third of the 750 mountain gorillas left in the wild. The rest are in the same Virunga Mountain Range, a chain of volcanic mountains shared by Congo, Rwanda, DRC, and Uganda. The remaining gorillas have survived thanks to renewed conservation efforts on the local, national, and international level.  Since 2005, 103 baby gorillas have been named! This year, I was privileged to hear names for eleven baby gorillas. Individuals were chosen from around the world to name the gorillas. This event has drawn visitors from all over who are dedicated to the enivornment and protecting these gorillas. This year, the honored guest was actor Don Cheadle who portrayed hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina in the film, Hotel Rwanda. Last year Jack Hanna attended, and the year before, the honored guest was Natalie Portman. It was rumored that Arnold was going to be here this year, but he didn't show. We all said it was a good thing because he would have named the baby gorilla, "Terminator." :-) It was a great day of food, fun, entertainment, meeting new folks, and honoring these baby gorillas.

Rwandans getting a ride to the ceremony. By the way, they can fit more than this! Plus goats and chickens too!

The crowd

Mr. President! I had a great view of him and even got to meet and shake his hand later on!

Traditional dancers, singers, and drummers

There were no real gorillas there, but these kids in gorilla costumes sure pleased the crowd!

Press conference with President Kagame

Don Cheadle. I listened to his press conference and he spoke very eloquently and passionately about the importance of conserving our planet. He gave some remarks on the BP oil spill as well. I have a video of him, but it was too long to upload. I'll try later on when I get back to the States.

Me and Don

Kids waiting to hear their President speak

The day ended with a long, but interesting bus ride back to Kigali in the rain. I had the pleasure of another one of those wonderful connections that God brings us. I was sitting on the bus, jam packed with people, and I noticed another mzungu towards the front. We were two. He didn't have a proper seat though....he was all squooshed up in the middle of some folks. After we made the first stop in town, people got off and this other mzungu made his way to the empty seat beside me. I was just listening to music and staring out the window, when I caught a glimpse of this guy's arm. There was a huge tatoo on his forearm of the state of North Carolina! haha! I took another look and realized it really was my state! Turns out that this guy was from Hickory, and doing research in a village for Appalachian State! So we had a nice chat about all things NC, encouraged one another, and parted ways. It's always a blessing to make connections like that so far away from home! 

ami, amiable, amigo, amicus, amico

Wow. The last week of school is hectic in any country! We have finally finished testing...(only took 3 days, but still!) We had to take Acheivement Tests through ACSI. It was weird though...because the tests had obviously been written in the U.S., and geared towards American kids, so I felt lots of the questions had a bias. I know we are an American International School, but I still feel some sympathy for kids who have no clue about where North Dakota is, or what the weather is like in wintertime, or how big an inch is. Or when they have to read stories about the pioneer days or the gold rush, and they have no frame of reference. Makes a big difference! But one thing I've learned this year, and it was especially apparent during testing last week....it's so important for kids to be bilingual or at least have an understanding of another language! Most of my 4th graders speak 3-4 languages, and they all speak at least 2! They speak English, French, Kinyarwanda, Swahili, Maori (tribal lanaguage of New Zealand), Spanish, and some German as well! And during the reading and word studies part of the test, I don't know how many times my kids said, "Oh! Miss Griggs, I didn't know that word, but it sounded like the French word or Spanish word I know, so I was able to figure it out!" Even throughout this year, I can't tell you how many times a student was able to figure out a word in English because they knew the similar word in another language. I knew all along that knowing other languages was helpful, but it has really made an impression on me now. Some words they were able to understand last week...musings, appetite, pliable, droll, reasonable...all because they knew the word in another lanauge and were able to make a comparison!

On a totally seperate note...with only a week left here, Mark just discovered that in order to renew our visas for next fall, that we had to first obtain a greencard in order to get back in the country. So with little time left, please pray that all the necessary paperwork will be completed before our flights out. Many other teachers leave this Saturday! I'm thankful I will have a few more days, but still.....you never know the timeline with things like this in Africa! :-) Thanks!

punks

Thanks to American attorney, Mr. Kurt Kerns, Rwandans now know the meaning of the word, "punk."

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14280&article=29855

The Living Eucharist

I was asked earlier this week to give the "mini-sermon" before Communion today at church, and I immediately knew what I would talk about! I love it when God just places something in you head or heart, and it all fits together! I've been reading a couple books lately by Rob Bell..."Velvet Elvis" and "Jesus Wants to Save Christians." Both excellent books, and easy reads, but not about easy stuff. They are both thought-provoking and challenging, and he really lays it all out there for us. I appreciate his honesty and simple words he uses to describe Jesus and what He did, and what our response should be.

Back to today...I had just finished reading a chapter in the latter book, and it was all about the Eucharist. I never knew that Eucharist was the Greek word for thankful. And if you break it down even more....charizomai means "to grant or give", and eu means "well or good." Jesus is God's good gift to the world. He gave us His body, broken and poured out. Then I started thinking more about that word, Eucharist and thinking of it in terms of "the good gift." Too often, I feel like taking Communion is a ritualistic thing, or it can be. We take Communion here every Sunday. So it can easily become a ritual....we know after we finish singing the last worship song, we get up and take Communion. But it should be more than just a ritual. It should be a way of life. Jesus is not here in human form anymore. But I feel like what He is reminding us everytime we take his body and drink his blood, is that WE must now be broken and poured out for others; for the world. We are the living Eucharist. The living good gift to the world. And WE means the Church. Bell says the Eucharist is ultimately about what we do when we leave the church building; what we do in the flow of everyday life.

2 Corinthians 4:10-12 reads, "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you."

I really like the idea that WE are the Eucharist. WE must be the ones who leave the building and are broken and poured out in our communities. Our joy is to be this Eucharist...to live out every blessing we've received, whatever resources, talents, skills, and passions God has given us, to make the world a better place. I love this quote from Bell, "The Eucharist is about people with the power empowering the powerless to make a better life for themselves."

When Jesus says, "Do this in rememberance of me," maybe the "do this" part is about more than just drinking and eating. The "do this" part is about our lives. Allowing ourselves to be broken and poured out, as the living Eucharist. That's what we can do in rememberance of Him.

Christ has no body on earth but yours,
no hands, but yours,
no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion
for the world is to look out;
Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good
And yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.

~Saint Teresa of Avila

God Knows

Thoughts from Chip Ingram's book, "God As He Longs For You To See Him."

"When we say God is sovereign, we declare that by virtue of His creatorship over all life and reality, His all-knowing, all-powerful, and benevolent rule, that He is in fact the Lord of all lords, King of kings, and in absolute control of time and eternity. Nothing will come into my life today that He did not either allow or decree for my ultimate good."

"God is doing things that you don't understand, things that are deeper and better and more wonderful than you imagined, but you must believe! Refuse to worry. You can stop trying to manipulate situations and trying to figure out how to make them work out because you know Who is in control. You can rest in His sovereign goodness."

Amen

It seems like I hum a different hymn each week! I'm starting to think God is speaking to me through these hymns. This week it was, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." I especially like the third stanza.

"O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O, take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above."

One of those weeks!

This week was one of those crazy, unpredictable, emotional, overwhelming, beautiful weeks! My students are crazy just like students in America this time of year....or anywhere for that matter! They know schools about to be out, and so do I! And of course I'm trying to pack too many projects and fun activities into these last few weeks, on top of dreaded standardized tests. (Yes, we have to take those here too! But only for a couple days so I'm trying not to complain.) So they made it a crazy and overwhelming week!

And others made it beautful and unpredictable. Last week I had a chance meeting in town with one of the most interesting guys I've ever met. But I don't think anything happens by chance. Tristan Miller, from way across the water in Melbourne, Australia, was in town to run in the International Peace Marathon. (By the way, no, I sadly did not run in it as I had previously planned, due to many circumstances. But I have no regrets! There's always next year!) But Tristan was here and there and everywhere this year, attempting to accomplish an amazing feat (or amazingly crazy feat) of running 52 marathons in 52 weeks! It was such a fun time hearing stories from this guy who had just run a race on top of the Great Wall of China two days earlier, and was getting ready to fly to Hungary via Dubai and London to run his next race. He began his first race on January 1 in Zurich, Switzerland, and he ends this adventure on December 31, in his hometown of Melbourne. And why is he doing this? Because he got tired of being in the rat race with his cushy job at Google, and he wanted to do something BIG, something bigger than he had ever done before. So he sold everything, and is using his life savings this year to fund this mission. He's also raising money for Unicef through his website, http://www.runlikecrazy.com/. Tristan was able to come talk to my kids and give them an talk about being a part of something bigger than yourself, and stretching and pushing yourself to acheive goals. My kids loved him. Here he is signing autographs! :-)

But the neatest thing about this whole Spirit-filled encounter was the time we spent sharing stories, and hearing how he has experienced and seen the face of God during his journeys thus far. He opened up that he thought he was an atheist, but he's been doing so much seeking and searching lately, and he's been surprised at what he's found! He thought he was doing this pretty cool thing, but he never imagined how big it really was, and the effects it would have on him. We talked about the human spirit, and the Holy Spirit, and what it was like to experience both all over the world. We talked about the body God gave him to run, and how God is using him and his body this year to do something even bigger than he imagines! It was so exciting for me to see God opening the eyes of one of his children right there in front of me. And we met in Rwanda, and shared some Chinese food and lots of goat, and many, many stories. And God's hand is in it all. I believe we are all a part of something much greater than even we realize now! Just like my new Aussie friend, our stories are not complete! I find it hard to believe I'm merely here in Rwanda to teach some subjects in 4th grade. Just like I find it hard to believe Tristan is running all over the world to raise some money for Unicef, or to have the adventure of a lifetime. Whats so neat is that through listening to him, I can see God revealing Himself! I can see the light coming on, as this young man continues to put one foot in front of the next and continue his journey. I know God has Tristan on a greater journey! I always feel like God is far more interested in working in us, than working through us. And I know he's working in this great runner even as we speak! Pray for him , as he continues to attempt this marvelous feat, and as he continues to explore and experience God along the way. Pray that he will meet more individuals who are lovers of Jesus and lovers of sinners too. Father, bless Tristan, Run this race with him. I know you are already one step ahead of him even now, going before him.

Meeting and talking to him and others this week have made me realize again that God is always present. We are the ones who show up. The whole earth is filled with the wonder and significance of God. He is everywhere and in all things as we speak. Our mighty God is in control of ALL things, and He's doing things that we don't even understand right now! But they are wonderful, beautiful things. Jesus, you are worthy! I love the Jesus that I see in so many people; the Jesus that I've experienced this year in real ways, in real faces. These encounters have made me test and ask questions though....like is it possible to see Jesus in people who don't know Jesus personally, who haven't been enlightened like I have? Is it possible to see the Holy Spirit in those people? Is the human spirit the same as the Holy Spirit working inside humans? Is every experience of love an experience of God? Is every experience of God an experience of love? I think so. I think God is everywhere, so vast, even bigger than the Christian faith. He is the truth. He is true, beautiful, honorable and right. And so I am free to claim the truth whereever and whenever I find it.....even if it shows up in strange places, I reckon.

Sorry...I got off on a tangent there! :-) I get excited! Another wonderful, yet emotional occurence this week happened on Wednesday. One of my moms, Kristen, came to school and told me that she just saw one of my sweet little girls from the orphanage at Bourbon cafe with her newly adopted family! It was the first ever time precious 3 year old Nozieta had ever been outside the walls of the orphanage! I've been visiting the Sisters of Charity orphanage here twice a week since September and this special little girl quickly became my friend. She taught me how to sing "God is so Good" in Kinyarwanda, and I taught her how to sing it in English. I wish I had a picture to show all of you just how precious she is, but they don't allow any photos to be taken there. She has gorgeous light-brown skin, and puffy red lips, with a twinkle in her eye. She is fiercely independent and stubborn, and funny as all! I love her so much! When I heard she was being adopted, immediately I felt a twinge of sadness that I wouldn't experience her joy anymore, but then I stopped being selfish and praised God for this! Nozieta's life is about to change completely! She is one of the lucky ones that will grow up in a loving, home with so many luxuries. Her adoptive parents are from the States! I'm going to visit her tomorrow at the orphanage one last time. She flies to America next week! Oh! How I wish I could accompany her, and watch her big brown eyes take everything in at once. And continue to sing with her and love her. But I praise Him that she has a family! Please continue to pray for this sweet little girl, as she's about to experience something so wonderful, yet scary too! Pray that her transition is smooth, and she bonds quickly and continues to be filled with so much light and joy in her new home!

Thanks for letting me pour some of my heart out tonight. It feels really full.

Brewing an Antidote to Poverty

Wanted to share a good article about coffee, from the founder of Starbucks. Our friends, Chris and Taya Jordan, are mentioned in it. Sadly, they just moved from Kigali to Ethiopia to help spur Technoserve's progress there. But they'll be coming to Kigali often. Technoserve is a great coffee initiative here in Rwanda, sponsored by the Gates Foundation to help development in East Africa. It's kind of crazy all the things I've learned about coffee this year. And I don't even drink it! :-)

http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/05/brewing-an-antidote-to-poverty-coffee/57212/