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Food (so they say)

Well I have mentioned in several posts that I have surprisingly taken a liking to goat meat. And that’s good, there hasn’t been a lot of variety to my meals. Lunch all week has been rice, beans, noodles and potatoes. While dinner all week has been goat and chips (potato wedges).

Not my pic, but basically what this looks like.

Well last night was a little different. I ordered my normal dinner, goat brochette and chips. But when it was brought out I noted that it was distinctly different. It smelled different, and looked much different. It proved to taste different too. It was a stronger flavor, but had a distinctly different taste and not for the better. The texture was also worse, it was chewy and pieces even felt porous. After eating about a quarter of the meat (4 full bites) I was done. It wasn’t until this morning that I found out why it was so different. Apparently goat is prepared in several forms. One such form, the delicacy it is said, is the goat’s intestine. Apparently the restaurant which I had frequented all week wanted to give me the good stuff…how very kind of them.

Doubting Thomas? Chew on this.

I recently, as documented on this blog, have been going through a process of relearning what the cross meant.

"Doubting Thomas" by Italian artist Caravaggio from the year 1603

What it means in history, what it means theologically, and more so what does it mean in my own life. A friend recommended the insightful and scholarly book, “Surprised by Hope” by N.T. Wright. I am not yet through, actually only about a quarter way through, but as I was reading today I came upon a passage that I wanted to share.

I’ll preface the posting by very briefly explaining the book thus far. Wright has taken the events of Easter, and in a historical context addressed as much as possible the doubts put forward by those today skeptical of Christ’s true bodily resurrection as believed by Christians. Ultimately, Wright says, “there really was an empty tomb, and there really were sightings of Jesus, the same and yet transformed. History then says: so how do you explain that?” (Surprised by Hope, pg. 70).

In a thorough and thoughtful manner he goes through many scenarios and then provides his conclusions. But to my own delight he comes to the conclusion that, “the resurrection is not, as it were, a highly peculiar event within the present world (though it is that as well); it is, principally, the defining event of the new creation, the world that is being born with Jesus. If we are even to glimpse this new world, let alone enter it, we will need a different kind of knowing, a knowing that involves us in new ways, an epistemology that draws out from us not just the cool appraisal of detached quasi scientific research but also that whole-person engagement and involvement for which the best shorthand is “love,” in the full Johannine sense of agape.” (pg. 73) Essentially, we need to use our minds as Christians, we need to defend our faith, but as Wright states elsewhere, we will never be able to take someone to the saving grace of the cross through logic, that occurs through love. That idea resonates deeply within me, too many are the heated debates between Christians and secularists in which neither side walks away with satisfaction. May we carry truth through knowledge on the shoulders of love.

That said, here is the analogy I wanted to share:

“That is why, the historical arguments for Jesus’ bodily resurrection are truly strong, we must never suppose that they will do more than bring people to the questions faced by Thomas, Paul and Peter, the questions of faith, hope, and love. We cannot use a supposedly objective historical epistemology as the ultimate ground for the truth of Easter. To do so would be like lighting a candle to see whether the sun had risen. What the candles of historical scholarship will do is to show that the room has been disturbed, that it doesn’t look like it did last night, and what would-be normal explanations for this won’t do. Maybe, we think after the historical arguments have done their work, maybe morning has come and the world has woken up. But to investigate whether this is so, we must take the risk and open the curtains to the rising sun. When we do so, we won’t rely on the candles anymore, not because we don’t believe in evidence and argument but because they will have been overtaken by the larger reality from which they borrow, to which they point, and in which they will find a new and larger home. All knowing is a gift from God, historical and scientific knowing no less than that of faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love.” (pg. 74)

Training

The past few days I have been at the FH office here in Gitarama. The training has been good. It focuses on a type of multiplication model called Cascade Groups. In this model an FH staff member has multiple community workers being trained under them. The training can be on a variety of topics from health care to agriculture. The groups that are trained by the FH staff are then dispersed to their own groups which are made up by 10-15 households. This is a very simple version of what has been a week long training. But all in all it is a good model and one that has been used by other organizations (World Vision and, World Relief among others).

So much of NGO work in developing countries is in identifying needs and then finding ways to meet those needs. Our typical reaction in the states and other developed countries,  is to meet those needs through money or material items, i.e. if someone is poor you fund them, if they are hungry

you feed them and if they are naked you clothe them. While I don’t want to take away from the realness of those needs, and the value of a physical response. It is often times very difficult to carry out. If done alone, it also leaves a lot lacking in development work. This is due to logistical challenges, monetary challenges, etc.

What the best of the organizations have figured out is how to leverage the people in the areas. How to use knowledge and empowerment to create change in cultures through educating people and correct wrongly held understandings of the world around them. Consider the information below*:

Approximately 74% of Children who die annually in developing countries can be saved through the following methods:

9.6 million children under the age of 5 die each year

Lives saved if:

• -all children slept under insecticide-treated nets: 7% (672,000)
• -all children received antibiotics for pneumonia: 6% (576,000)
• -all children received antimalarials: 5% (480,000)
• -all children received nevirapine and replacement feeding: 2% 192,000
• -all children were vaccinated for measles: 1% (96,000)

• -all mothers washed their hands wish soap: 17% (1,600,000)
• -all children were given ORS when they had diarrhea: 15% (1,400,000)
• -all women breastfed properly (1st hour, exclusive, continued, etc): 13% (1,250,000)
• -all mothers gave the right foods to children when they turned 6m old: 6% (576,000)
• -all mothers dried and warmed newborns: 2% (192,000)

As you can see, the list on the top requires something being physically given, usually items of relatively high cost. If all these where put into place 21% of the children that die each year could be prevented. On the other hand, the bottom list is primarily based on behaviors. While there are a few items needed (soap, ORS formula) they are readily available and at a very low cost. If this list was put into place it could prevent the deaths of roughly 53% of children, nearly 2 1/2 times more than the list above.

Really what this means is we need to change the way we think about helping the poor. It’s not that we need to throw everything that has been done in the past out the window, but there need to be some adjustments and additions to how future development is carried out.

Food

I have stayed pretty well fed to this point. My favorite dish has been the goat brachets (sp?), with a little peelie-peelie sauce which tastes like a habenaro pepper oil, it is pretty good. For lunch the meals are typically potato wedges, noodles, rice, cabbage, beans and sometimes a bit of meat. A huge plate of this will run you about $1.25 u.s.

Water Project

I also went down to the water project  that Nate, another intern with FH, is currently working on. Through this filtration center water is dispersed to hundreds of thousands of people at a very low cost. This allows FH to sustain the project based on the earnings while providing benefits to the surrounding population. It is also a partner project with the Rwandan government, something that hadn’t been done prior.

Closing

I will be here until Friday at which point I’ll take a bus back to Kigali. I will be there probably for the weekend then I will be traveling east. This really is a beautiful area. I hope to be able to explore a bit before I leave (time and rain permitting.

Thank you all for you continued prayer and support. My hope is that God would bless you each in your generosity. Here are a few of the pictures I took in the last few days.

Outside FH Gitarama Office

Center of Gitarama, Taxi pick-up area

Outside of the water treatment plant

Child; rural Gitarama

Kids in town

*From FH training. Further from Jones G, Steketee R, Bhutta Z, Morris S. and the Bellagio Child Survival Study Group. “How many child deaths can we prevent this year?” Lancet 2003; 362: 65-71. and Rhee V. et al. 2008. “Maternal and Birth Attendant Hand Washing and Neonatal Mortality in Southern Nepal.” Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Vol. 162 (No. 7), pp 603-608. July 2008

This post is a continuation from the post below.

I decided to get up and leave the training for a little bit (I had been typing the previous post during it. It is good but a bit slow going). I went for a walk down a road I hadn’t been down yet. I just started talking to God as I made my way deeper into the lush hills of Gitarama.

A thought came to mind, it is a quote from Rob Bell, in one of his sermons he said “Whatever you look for you will find.” Essentially there is enough of everything in this world that if you are seeking it out, you will find it. Hatred, injustice, brokenness and sin…they are everywhere. But equally abundant are joy, justice, hope and love.

As I walked back I was warmly greeted by one person after another. None spoke English, but their warmth of their greeting required no words. As I approached the FH office two kids, no more than 3 years old, ran up to me smiling. I have passed them every day on my walk to the office. Each time I pass they smile as they run forward, as they get a few feet away they throw their hands up into the air, indicating they want to be lifted. And so I pick them up, each weighing no more than 30 pounds or so, and lift them as high as my arms will reach. They then preceded to grab my hand and walk with me until I reach the side road that takes me down to the office. As this occurred again on my walk back today, it reminded me of the innocence and joy of a child. The child. So often God uses a child to teach a man. Is there a better example of unencumbered joy?

It is so easy to see the brokenness around me, to hear God’s call to be “Holy as I am Holy,” and to become frustrated with my/our failure to live this out. But I have to come back to the cross. I have to find my peace in knowing we won’t ever achieve perfection apart from Christ. I have to allow Christ to cover my own imperfections and I have to let go of my  victories as well, lest they serve as a stumbling block and bar by which I measure my Christian walk and thus my success. My success lies in my obedience. I shift my focus to these words from the apostle Paul:

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I still feel a distance with God. I still am weighed down in the ways I previously wrote. But I am clinging to the hope of the cross, clinging to the knowledge that there is an ultimate victory. I will continue through this season, but I will try and change my perspective a bit, I will try and be more intentional with what I am looking for.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things…and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9)

Amen