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Cape Town, Ramblings from Rwanda
Trip Report by Linda Ikeda, September 19, 2013
On July 27, Kit Chatsinchai (a former software engineer and now counseling intern) and I, returned home from 17 days in South Africa and Rwanda. This was my sixth time, but only the first for Kit, to Africa. Each trip is memorable and rich and each has its own challenges. In spite of the circumstances, God seems to use us to help the traumatized and orphaned. The name of the ministry group I am part of, Empower International Ministries, says it all. Our goal is always to “work ourselves out of a job” by equipping nationals with information and skills to be truly effective in their ministries to at-risk people, especially children.
After 30 hours and 4 flights we arrived in Cape Town, South Africa and met up with Chris Kamalski (a young man I first met when he was 3 weeks old and now my 33 year old son Ryan’s, oldest friend)! He and his lovely and capable wife Maxie (a South African national), are involved in ministry with Bridges of Hope. It was a joy to see firsthand the effectiveness of “my third son’s” ministry and participate alongside him. Kit and I taught Created to Belong, the workbook on early childhood development and the effects of trauma, especially attachment trauma, on a growing child’s brain. We helped our audiences see that early trauma impacts every aspect of a person’s life including their understanding of and trust in a loving God. After identifying trauma’s pervasive impact, we then provided tools in how to parent and help treat traumatized children in ways that foster healing. Our second workshop, Healing From Trauma, teaches basic trauma theory, how to identify trauma and then effective trauma interventions for people of all ages. It was very meaningful to bring the first edition of the Healing From Trauma workbook, co-authored by Kim Whittaker Chelf, Laura Fairchild Joiner, (my colleagues on my 2011 Africa trip), and myself. The workbooks arrived on my front porch only the day before I left!
In Cape Town we had two separate audiences. The first part of the week we taught the school and administrative staff of Bridges Academy, a secondary boarding school for 55 middle school and high school age students. Each young person has been carefully screened for academic interest, economic need and high risk family situation; all are black African and all are from townships, a leftover legacy of Apartheid. The staff was made up of teachers (3 from the US, 1 from Zimbabwe, several from South Africa and a few from the UK), administrators, a social worker, kitchen staff and residential house parents. They were a captivated audience, just soaking in the information and asking great questions. The latter part of the week we spent out in the Philippi Township with the Bridges of Hope Community Development Team. These are the hands-on folks, many who are from townships themselves, who provide Community Health Education training and other needed skills, to residents of the many townships in the Greater Cape Town area. They also are the ones who stay in touch with the families of the Academy students, providing services, assessing needs and giving spiritual input, as well as screening for future students at the Academy. This vivacious group of 30 broke into song when we presented them with their certificates for completing the workshops, and let me tell you, there is nothing like the African “antiphonal style” of singing!
Some of the highlights for our time in Cape Town were meeting the outstanding individuals we were privileged to teach; seeing Chris and Maxie and witnessing their effective ministry; seeing zebras on the side of the road; being nose to beak with a penguin (my favorite animal) while visiting the penguin preserve, part of the Table Mountain National Park. Being in the midst of the lovely “Napa Valley” of South Africa with its picturesque rolling hills of vineyards surrounded by stark, tall mountains. A few other favorites, having the school staff lay hands on Kit and I, praying and blessing us; seeing where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, eating crocodile Carpaccio, and having a “flat white” every morning at The Best Bloody Coffee in Town.
From Cape Town we took two flights to reach Kigali, Rwanda. This was my third time there. We stayed in the village of Ndera at the home of Baraka Uwingeneye’s family: Pastor Abel and Damaris. Their home is filled with prayer, praise, laughter and a deep love of God, along with a fleshing out of kindness and other fruit of the Spirit. They live on a farm of sorts so that at all hours we would hear a cacophony of animal sounds, including the BIG brown frog which greeted us in the bathroom and who knows what, walking, crawling or slithering on the tin roof above our heads! We enjoyed watching first-hand the attachment of a one day old lamb to its mother as it tried out its legs, jumping here and there, but always staying close to the “secure base” of its mama.
It was here in Ndera that the first Master Class for Created to Belong was taught. Most of the “students” had been to the two prior trainings (2010, 2011) and some had actually been using the materials to teach and train others. The purpose of the Master Class is to work out any kinks in understanding or problem areas that trainers have encountered in using the material to train others.
In addition to the Master Class, we also taught a new group both Created to Belong and Healing from Trauma. What a privilege to see “students” discover the relevance of the material not only to the lives of the children they parent or minister to, but also as relevant to themselves. One of the students commented, “I came so that I could gain information to help my children. I didn’t realize it would benefit me as well!”
My sister, Sue Pool, has the gift of creativity in making puppets. Each time I travel, I take an amazing collection and number (25+) each unique with their colorful African garb and hand sewn hair or head covering; each taking about ten hours to craft. A part of the trauma training is teaching effective ways of communicating about trauma, with children. Since play is the language of children, the puppets are a wonderful tool.
One of the highlights of my time in Ndera happened almost accidentally, as a “by the way” kind of thing. The day we flew home we were eating a delicious breakfast at Baraka’s and Damaris, her mother, casually mentioned that she met weekly with a small group of women whose express purpose was to come alongside a single mother who was raising orphaned children, providing spiritual, emotional and even some financial assistance to the mother so that she could better care for her children. I commented on what a great idea this was and a real ministry to that family and Damaris reminded me that I had mentioned this being a good idea when I was last in Rwanda! (I don’t even remember that!)
It was a privilege to have Kit teach alongside me and insightful for me to see him present the concepts I am so familiar with in his own unique way. He was the “authority” on the father’s role in raising traumatized children.
A few of the “touching” moments encountered was a mother telling us that she was surprised that buzungu (white people) suffer with the same problems they did. We provided counseling for a few folks and listening to the stories of their struggles made the issues that we in the West struggle with (like self-esteem, self actualization, communication difficulties, etc.) pale by comparison. The entire population was traumatized and impacted by the 1994 genocide when nearly one million people were murdered in the space of 90 days. So many children orphaned or killed, so many families without one parent or the other, the poverty and displacement, the exploitation, the spread of Hiv/AIDS. It was overwhelming. We also visited a genocide memorial in a former Catholic Church where over 45,000 corpses are buried in a mass grave. Walking into the sanctuary and seeing the piles of victims’ clothing, piled on pew, after pew, after pew; seeing the bullet holes in the roof where the killers shot through the roof at those trapped inside.
The overwhelming graciousness and gratefulness of those we empowered was indeed humbling. Ours was only a small drop in the “bucket of healing” that is still needed in Rwanda and yet we were so appreciated and honored. As in trips past, I always feel as though I gain more than I give, learn more than I teach, and am served more than I serve.
I could not have made the trip without being carried by your prayers and financial support. Thank you so much, sincerely.
In His Worldwide Love,
Linda