Feast of Our Lady of Kibeho

11/29/09

English class on Friday was great. We played a game with three teams, and each team is given a section of the chalkboard. On each section I drew a small house and a stick person. Each member of each team had to go up to the board, quickly add something to the picture, and pass the chalk to the next person. I was hoping this would be a really fast, frenzied thing, but people were taking their time with their drawings.

So after all the pictures were completed, we explained what we think is happening in each picture, and I wrote these stories on the board. Some of them were really hilarious. It took a lot of prompting at first to get them to describe what they drew. I would ask questions like "Who is this? What is her name? Where is she going? What is this thing?" When we got to the third and final group, they had really gotten the hang of what the purpose of this activity was. I called on the first guy to raise his hand, and he basically had the whole story prepared! But after calling on more people to give them a chance, we ended up with the main character being a fisherman who is also a professional soccer player, going to Kigali to the airport, where he will fly to England to play in a match. Edouard wanted this guy to fly to Wisconsin…love it. Someone else suggested England, and I figured that's a better option since Edouard is probably the only person who remembers the name of my home state.

Also, a miracle occurred today. Fr. Antoine showed up at 4:58pm. I was still finishing up my class with the animators, which ends at 5pm. Fr. Antoine usually comes at 5:30ish, sometimes 5:45ish, and I've always counted on him waltzing in much later than the originally-discussed 5:00pm. So I'm at the front of the class saying something to the 23 students sitting before me, I look over at the door and see Fr. Antoine not only on time, but 2 minutes early, my jaw drops. "Whoa," I say out loud. He just comes in and makes himself comfortable, shakes hands with a few people, and we end our lesson. We had our usual after-class party, and Fr. Antoine joined in playing some ping pong. This time we really didn't do much Zumba. People were doing their own thing, playing ping pong, doing puzzles, a few were dancing and I taught some songs, but the dance vibe wasn't as strong today. I didn't actually start my lesson with Fr. Antoine till 6:15pm – and I felt really bad about that. We all hung out after class for at least a half an hour, Fr. Antoine included, but then I was kind of sweaty from the bit of dancing that we did. So I went to get a drink, which took a while because students were chatting with me on my way towards the convent. On my way back I run into Edouard and Felicien, two very faithful animators who I know very well, who say they need something to drink. So I get them some water and we end up talking for like 20 minutes. By that time, all the other students had left and I hadn't said goodbye to a single one. That made me feel like a very bad teacher who gives a disproportional amount of attention to the students who she is most comfortable with instead of reaching out of her comfort zone to talk to the newcomers. Bad. Plus, Sr. Charlotte and Fr. Antoine had tried to call me and see where I was so that we could start our lesson. They had actually decided that we need to give me more time in between these two lessons. I think this is a good idea. So next week we will end animator English at 4:30pm, have a half an hour of after-class party, and then I have a half an hour to myself, and then the Fathers come. Sounds good.

The lights again went out during my lesson with Fr. Antoine, but we were having a really nice conversation, so we just continued it. The lights came back on and we did a brief lesson on stressed syllables, but the majority of our time was spent just having a conversation. This is very beneficial as well, and Fr. told me this. The best part, however, was at the end. You see, tomorrow (Saturday) is the feast of Our Lady of Kibeho. Kibeho is a tiny village in Rwanda where the Virgin Mary appeared in 1981 and continued appearing for the next 8 or so years. She gave many beautiful messages to the world, including a special warning to the people of Rwanda to change their ways of living, because the future will contain horrible acts of hatred if they don't. Unfortunately, this message was not heeded by everyone, because one of history's most devastating and rapid genocides (if not the most devastating and rapid one that has ever occurred) resulted a few years later. We were just about to head out the door of the classroom, when Our Lady of Kibeho comes up in our conversation. For the next 15 minutes, Fr. Antoine is at the chalkboard writing dates of apparitions, names of visionaries, telling me all kinds of facts about Kibeho, and summarizing the homily that he is going to give in mass tomorrow. I was so touched – you should have heard this man speak. He loves Mary so much! And he was just going and going, I loved every second of it. He has a very pure heart and a genuine desire to bring the message of Kibeho to the parishoners at Muhato. "Our Lady's message was 'change.' We must change our lives to follow the gospel message. That is what she said then, and it is still true now. People hear so much about Kibeho and they want to go there to see this and that and all kinds of exciting things. But She told us that everything She says is nothing new. She just wants us to return to what her Son told us in the first place. And She loves us! She loves us so much! So, please pray for me that I could convey this message to the Christians tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow is a big day in Rwanda." - Fr. Antoine.

Well indeed, Saturday was a big day in Rwanda! I feel so so incredibly blessed to be in this holy land on this day. Mass was so beautiful. Mary's statue was adorned with flowers, the choir was all dressed up in their uniforms and sang many beautiful Marian hymns, and thanks to Fr. Antoine I knew just what he was saying in his homily! At the end of Mass he recited a prayer from Kibeho – I could see Her picture on the little card he was reading it from. And I have no idea what the words were, but man was it beautiful. What a moment – to realize that you're breathing the same air, soaking up the same sunshine, walking on the same ground where so many pilgrims have come from all corners of this country and beyond to come visit the place where Mary Herself visited. And to be among the people that She considers her special children! Of course, she loves all people across the world with the same amazing love that Jesus has given Her, but Rwanda has a special, unique place in Her heart.

Later that day, I had plans to go walking with Louise, another animator who lived with the Sisters here at Muhato all of last year. She was an Aspirant, meaning she wanted to become a Salesian Sister, and she headed off to Kigali to begin her formation. But less than a month ago she returned because she was not sure if the religious life is truly her vocation. Well it was raining quite a bit this afternoon, so I didn't really know if she would come. I had also invited Edouard and Felicien yesterday, and I said I'd beep them when we're leaving.

So at 4pm, it was still raining, and figuring that it'll be dark in 2 ½ hours, I assumed we could just reschedule for next weekend. That was ok by me because I had a lot of catch-up things that I had hoped to do but didn't get to yet. But she came knocking at the door just a bit after 4, even in the rain! We sat and talked for a while to wait for the weather to clear up. Meanwhile Felicien called to yell at me in French for not beeping him. It was very funny. Well, Sr. Gisèle was going to drive Sr. Rose somewhere in town, so they offered to drive Louise and me, and we could just take umbrellas, and it was evident that the rain was almost finished. So we drove into town and they dropped us off near Lake Kivu.

That was very helpful, and sure enough, it stopped raining within 5 minutes of them dropping us off. We had such a great time on our walk! Louise is a very kind, generous person (who walks 45 minutes in the rain to come meet me!) and was very interested in snow. I was telling her about how the cold is miserable but it offers many fun things like skiing, snowball fights, and traying! She said that she would probably die in such cold, as right now, when it was probably 60 degrees F, she considers it cold. We laughed a lot and talked a lot and had a really nice walk. We were headed for "La Grande Barrière," which is one of the borders between Rwanda and the Congo. She explained to me along the way that its really not very grand…that I'm probably going to laugh when I see it. Sure enough, we arrive there and the border is a small stretch of a red metal fence. There are two moveable arms with stop signs for cars passing through. But it is well guarded, so you can't just hop over. There's an immigration station right there too, where people are waiting in line to have their passport stamped. We turn to walk along the road to stay on the Rwanda side, and Louise explains that there is also "La Petite Barrière," which apparently is even funnier because you would think that a barrier can't get much smaller than the grand one. We plan to head there, but it is already starting to get dark, and we still have at least 45 minutes to walk back to Muhato. So we decide that we'll see the little border another day. I was also very privileged to stop by Louise's house with her! Only her brother was home, and he was heading out the door to go meet the rest of the family at a prayer service. But we stopped there to get some money so Louise could take a moto-taxi home since it will be quite dark by the time we get all the way back to Muhato. She said that one day soon I can come back to visit and meet her mom and sisters – I'm very excited about this! The rest of the walk back home was kind of tiring…it’s pretty far, and you are walking on uneven, rocky surfaces the whole way, in the almost-dark. And there were lots of kids shouting "Good morning!" I corrected them, telling them that now we say "Good evening." It was really really great to get to spend some time with her – and her English is verrrry good. She has only studied it for a year, but she lived in Kenya for a while where she got to practice a lot. I'm so happy to have a friend!