On the Eastern Shore of Lake Kivu

To speak humbly, every day in this trip has been better than yesterday. I admire our team so much – I truly am lucky to have such as KICK ASS team. Since we’ve arrived on Tuesday, January 8 we’ve been working nonstop conducting research on partner organizations, refining our strategic interviews and identifying goals for each meeting, conducting interviews, synthesizing answers, and trying to make sense of it all. During our ‘free time’, which is practically nonexistent, we are planning ahead for the next day’s meetings. After dinner we typically fit in an hour or so more of work, head to bed around 11pm or midnight and are back up at it again at 7am. (This morning I woke up at 5am and watched the sunrise over Lake Kivu, which to be honest I am not going to complain about).

Since I have a relatively faint heart I’ve emotionally prepared for this Rwanda trip knowing that I will encounter the sensitive topic of genocidal rape by reading tons of books, watching documentaries and setting Google Alerts following the Rwandan genocide in the media. One of the books I read, Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza is a memoir by a genocide survivor who worked for the UN thereafter and still lives in New York. She tells the miraculous story of strength, faith, and survival. She describes how God and a local Hutu pastor hid her and seven other women in a cramped bathroom of his home the size of a closet. They spent 91 days in this closet praying each day they wouldn’t be found until they eventually fled and found a French refuge camp. When she left the bathroom hiding spot she faced the loss of numerous family members and friends, including her parents. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading a personal account of someone who survived the Rwandan genocide. Anyways, point is that the book took place in Immaculee's hometown of Kibuye, so I was extremely intrigued and humbled to get the chance to visit this part of Rwanda where 90 percent of the Tutsi population was murdered during the genocide of 1994. After reading reading Immaculee's story and description of her home town, its enticing to be able to put a 'face to a name', so to speak.

Overlooking Lake Kivu from the Moriah Hotel

Lake Kivu is nestled between the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, with many memories from the genocide lingering within. Although today Rwanda has somewhat found peace after its civil war, there are still acts of violence continuing on in Goma, on the north side of Lake Kivu just across the Congo border. The Western city of Kibuye is one of the most rural, but has an amazing story of survival to tell. Although about 90 percent of the town's Tutsi population was massacred during the civil war, the women have since emerged triumphant through the formation of a community support network.

Through speaking with many of the women, we found the concept of 'active listening' keeping many of these women alive and sane. 'Active listening' can be more or less described as community counseling. One women gets receives training in 'active listening' and becomes a mobile community counselor, inviting other women to call upon her when in need, and willing to travel many kilometers just to visit a women in her community who desperately needs someone to actively listen. I should mention that due to Rwanda's thousand hills and hilly landscape, outlying towns such as Kibuye and Cyangugu are isolated from the reach of servicing nonprofits. One of Foundation Rwanda's local partners, AVEGA West, is the nearest servicing nonprofit to these women, yet it would take nearly a 2 hour walk to reach the nonprofits compound for a counseling session. Thus in my opinion it is these women's evident bond and strength in numbers that has allowed them to survive and remain positive. 

Women survivors of Rwanda's genocidal past find laughter, tears of joy and self-confidence in lipstick.

These women were vibrant and full of life. They had a sense of humor and laughed with us. They cooked and shared with us a delicious local meal and strong batch of home brewed banana wine. Their smiles were bright and it brought me indescribable joy to laugh with them until they cried. They shared with us their hopes and dreams for themselves and their children. Seeing their strength today, you would never have known their traumatic past, but I am thankful, humbled, and inspired by the individual stories they shared with us. If they can live to have hope, anyone can. I only hope our paths will cross again.

Instead of a 2.5 hour drive back through the hilly terrain, we opted for a boat ride across Lake Kivu and back to our hotel.