Out of Africa

My original intent was to map out more completely my experiences in Africa. However, the trip is quickly passing me by and the blog entries would be far too long if I were to write in detail my accounts. So, I think I'm just going to provide a list of highlights and be done with it. Ready, set, go:

1. Visiting the Rwandan Genocide Memorial on the day anniversary of the genocide's end. No one could speak in the memorial, not because we were forbidden, but because we had no words to say. Especially after looking through walls and walls of murdered children's pictures. Never has life seem so insignificant, fragile and short to me.

2. Going on the bumpiest ride of my life with three mzungus and like 8 Africans piled into a 6 person van on a 40 minute ride up to the middle of a Congolese jungle where us white people were subsequently hit on my drunken soldiers with big guns. I never realized, until this moment surrounded by by pouring rain and completely unfamilar situation, how many layers of security we have in America, and how much it is our second nature to trust in those layers. Now I see why the poor are so blessed, it's because they only have God for security, thus they trust in him alone. While we often come to God when all else fails.

3.OK I'll make these shorter. Me becoming a radio broadcaster in Goma. Super random. In Congo, if you're white, you are qualified to do anything.

4. Um, experiencing "community clean up day," in Goma. Which, I hate to be a hater, but is the most ineffective clean up day ever. So for four hours in the morning, the city forbids all cars to be on the road. This is so they can collect all the trash, put it in piles on the side of the road, and burn it. So all day, the city is saturated in smoke b/c of the piles of burning garbage.

5. Seeing real faith in people. And seeing no faith at all in others.

6. Riding in a roofless van late at night, driving to the lake side to see the wildlife hiding in the night. We saw a baby hippo and its mother. It was almost like playing with that paper in which the black outer surface scratches off and underneath are all these beautiful colors, and you never knew what you would get. On the drive, the scenery was black until the headlights pierced the darkness, revealing a herd of zebras, or impalas. I remember having to touch my cheek during the ride to make sure I was really seeing such sights.

I can't think hard enough to remember everything right now. So I'm going to leave it at that.