I was recently offered a part time job to work with EDC –
Education Development Center is an organization that empowers students to follow
their dreams and pursue marketing and entrepreneurship. My job is to write
about the success of the projects here in Rwanda. I will be making trips to
villages outside of the city to report the progress being made and I will also
have the opportunity to advise and educate students on writing their own
resumes. I’m just getting started, but I can already tell I’m going to have so
much fun with the job.
Rwandan Rule of Thumb: There is always, always enough space.
Yes, we can fit one more person onto the bus. Yes, we can fit one more item in
the box. In Rwanda, everything is possible. You will never hear the phrase, “Oh,
that’s impossible!” I admire their optimism and am usually amazed at their
ability to “cram one more thing.”
Case and point of the aforementioned rule: On Sunday nights
I go to a home church. This past Sunday two of my friends and I were traveling
together. I was driving Tink (refer to last blog if you’re confused about what
Tink is) wearing a backpack and I had one friend sitting behind me with a
guitar, in a case, on her back and a shoulder bag resting on her lap. Our other
friend was following us on a moto wearing a backpack and holding a shoulder bag.
(Yes, this is all very important information.) Something else that should be
noted: unless you know where you’re going, you have no idea where you’re going.
Giving directions in Kigali is like tying your shoelaces with one hand. And, it
was dark, so the odds were definitely not in our favor. (Oh, and church was
being held at a different home than normal.) The directions were to “drive down
the dirt road to the last house on the left” So, we drove to the very end of
the unlit dirt road and stopped outside the last house, knocked on the gate,
and found out that it wasn’t the right house. After asking “where the mzungus
(white people) lived, we were directed, by the security guard, to walk around
the corner down the hill to try the lower road. That was a complete dead end; I’m
actually not sure why we thought that was a good idea. Finally one of us thought
it would be a smart to call the people we were trying to find. We soon learned
that we had gone way too far down the road, which seemed to be a bit obvious at
this point. So, we turned around and began our trek back to the main road.
Instead of two people going on Tink and leaving one to walk by herself (because
at this time the moto had already abandoned us), one of my friends asked, “So,
Grace, do you think all three of us could ride on Tink?” “Yeah. It is possible.”
And it actually happened. 3 loudly laughing people, 2 backpacks, 2 shoulder
bags, and 1 guitar went bumping back up the road until finally we found the
house we were looking for.
I love the word embrace. The way the word sounds, the definition,
the implications. God has been teaching me a lot about embrace and embracing. I
feel like I walk around with arms open, ready to embrace any and every
opportunity or person or circumstance. But, one thing I’ve failed to do is
embrace myself. I’m a big supporter of the “He must increase, I must decrease”
that Paul so passionately talked about. I’m all about selflessness, so
embracing myself isn’t really in my train of thought. But, God created me. And
everything God created is beautiful and usable. And so if I’m embracing God’s
creation, then I also need to embrace myself. But that doesn’t mean, embrace
myself as I am today, because that actually isn’t very difficult. For me, the
challenge comes with embracing my life. I forget about and intentionally leave
out certain parts of my life. Parts that I’m ashamed of, or times when I got
burned and mistreated. But God is showing me that every day from December 23,
1994 up until now, was created and ordained by Him. He made my life and I need
to embrace it. I am embracing it. Now, when people want to get to know me, I’m
okay with talking about the hard parts, or the embarrassing parts. I don’t want
to leave anything out because it’s all me.
My time in Rwanda is passing by so quickly. I would easily
stay here forever, but I can already sense God tugging my heart and calling me
somewhere else. And that was what God told me from the beginning – I was coming
to Rwanda for a short time to regain my confidence and strength and learn the
next step of my life. Don’t worry I’m not jumping ship anytime soon, I’m too in
love with this country to leave on a whim. I’ll go when God tells me it’s time.
Will I return to Rwanda again? It is possible. But for now, I’m here, engaged
and embracing.
