Mizigo Ipo Wapi (Where's the Luggage?)

Where’s the luggage? Have you touched your passports recently? T&F (tentative and flexible). Relinquish. Let go.

Team Goma phrases, repeated and heard many times. Some funny, some very serious.
Camaraderie, bonding, inside jokes. Keeps us laughing…a lot! Which is much needed when traveling and working with a team. And keeps us praying…a lot!
We started in a wait mode with a 9 hour delay in San Francisco, then 23 hours air travel, plus two overnight layovers. Yada yada yada. Then go go go in GOma for 11 days. Now back to the wait mode in airports and planes and 26 hours of travel. I’m grateful for this team of patient, tolerant people. Sounds impossible, but I’m having fun!!

Looking forward to embracing familia, but already having withdrawals at the thought of missing my teammates.

Life is about the journey, not the destination. That was the devotion this morning at IJM (International Justice Mission) in Rwanda. So true and so applicable at this moment. I hope I can keep that close to my heart in every season of my life.
Mungu awabariki (God bless you in kiSwahili),
Charlotte Martinez

Language Center

One of many adjunct projects of HEAL Africa, the Amani (Peace) Language Center is run by two brothers and good friends of the team, Stewart and James.

By the Grace of God

Driving back to Kigali from Goma, I talked with our Rwandan driver, Deo. Apparently we were driving through his home region. I asked him if any of his family still lived in the area, since he now lives in Kigali. He said no, going on to say his father and all six of his siblings were murdered during the genocide. After a moment of silence, I asked him how he had survived. He replied, "By the grace of God."

The people who came to kill his family also attacked him, taking a swipe at his head. "This one, he is dead," they said, leaving him to die with the rest of his family. I didn't get the details of how he survived since then, but for 4 years the government and militia fought each other back and forth through his home region. Deo didn't feel safe until 1998, four years after the genocide, when the gov't troops finally pushed the militias back into Congo.

Deo now has a wife and three kids: two girls ages 6 and 3, and a 2 year old boy. He keeps his hair cut very short, as a large scar atop his head keeps hair from growing. He's a careful driver, vary gracious and a wonderful person. I feel blessed to have met him and heard a small portion of his story.

I always thought the phrase "There but for the grace of God go I" still retained some sense of personal choice, some blessing bestowed on us that we were given by God. Deo's story reminds me that I could have been born anywhere, that his story could be my story, that all of those living can say, "By the grace of God, here I am."

Sent from my iPhone

Early Birthday

We celebrated my birthday early (actually Aug 6th) at a local Indian restaurant here in Kigali. They went all out: lights out, entire staff, mixed music, even got me up dancing! Video and more pics forthcoming. And yes, they let me keep the hat.

Back to Kigali

The fields and mountains of Rwanda, on our way from Goma to Kigali.

I have found myself thinking about a conversation earlier in the trip. A team member was commenting about how they had been asked “Why Goma?’, it is so messy, with all of the after effects of a guerilla war, rape as a weapon of war, multiple campaigns by multiple players to destabilize the communities in efforts to control the area and its minerals. Why not work someplace else where it seems that change might take hold faster and results show. Goma’s issues are so long term and complicated, why not work where effects will come on a more human scale. The team member responded that’s why we are working here in Goma, it is complicated and the need is so great, and we can’t just leave our brothers and sisters here until they have an easier problem. Later I was thinking, it is very appropriate that FPCB is involved in HealAfrica work in Goma as a partner. I have heard from multiple older FPCB members about the time First Pres had to decide about staying in Berkeley or leaving when the old church building was condemned. It was the 70’s, Berkeley was going Bezerk, to get to church for service the National Guard was escorting church members into past blockades and protestors. First Pres decided instead of abandoning the hard places of Berkeley, at the time, they were going to stay because there was a need. Even more they were going to build a sanctuary with large ground level glass instead of walls to invite those Berkeleyan’s inside. It seems it is the same kind of go and stay with those in the hard places that sends us to Goma. Its history is intense, and there is still a lot of violence, orphans, widows, pain and suffering in Goma, its still a hard place. But it is the hard places that we are called to. Stay and stand with those who would elsewise be forgotten. To witness and to assist at their directive, to mostly accompany and know as brothers and sisters. So it seems a good fit, to work with Goma. And I find myself planning when I can come back.

Women Carrying Water

An all too familiar sight. Rarely will you see men carrying water, and never on their backs like this. Work is still heavily separated from what I've seen here in the DRC as well as in Kenya. Men tend to focus their efforts outside the home on "business" or bringing in money. Women take care of everything home-oriented, from taking care of the children to gathering water and firewood and more. Ironically, with so few jobs that pay, you see women doing a great amount of work, while a lot of men standing or sitting around talking. I hope when are able to find self worth in good, hard work... Even if it doesn't pay.