Website for Speak Rwanda is currently under construction, but you can read about updates here for now.
Today while researching organizations that help Rwanda, I came across a new model for charity and relief organizations, a non-profit that partners with entrepreneurs in developing countries called
Global Relief and Development Partners. Their mission is to ". . . build the leadership and professional capacity of entrepreneurs in countries emerging from political and economic crisis." If you know anything about the history of Rwanda, you'll remember the Genocide and the ravaging effects it had on this tiny country in the heart of Africa.
What you may not know, however is that this tiny country seems to be on the verge on completely transforming itself within one generation, largely by the efforts of small mission-minded groups and religious organizations in America bringing education and aid to children through child sponsorship, orphanages, and relief projects. In addition to religious charity work, hundreds of people every year are traveling to this tiny country to see the efforts they have contributed to formerly from a distance.
Many people however have recognized that charity relief work is only the first step in rebuilding the infrastructure of a country. That's what makes organizations like GRDP and Speak Africa so effective and attractive to global residents who really want to make a difference in the world. Some of these companies are non-profit, but some seem to be blends forming a new model for doing business in the global community.
Speak Rwanda (a branch of Speak Africa) is one these new models whose roots are in missions and relief work. The founders (formerly with Africa New Life) realized the dream of learning the native Kinyarwanda travel language was within reach and would make a huge difference in the enriching not only the lives of indiviuals embarking on short-term mission trips and business ventures to Rwanda, but help foster direct personal relationships with native Rwandans.
I'm really excited about being involved in the latter company, Speak Rwanda, so much of my research right now is focused on what other people and organizations are doing in Rwanda.
My re-entry started great. Things were going very well. We (about 25 of us) dashed out of the Rose Garden when Sheila began her wrap-up. We ran to the van when we realized we would not have to sit in a traffic jam. We were so happy! Terri helped us back out. We hit the freeway with the sun shining on us and headed to Red Robin and arrived at the restaurant just before the dinner rush. We were the dinner rush! Food came and was spectacular. I bragged to my friends that it is always better to arrive home after dinner when you've had such a great time. I called home to let them know we were stopping for dinner and that I would be home a little later than planned. Husband asked, "is there any meat tenderizer?" (I think this is called foreshadowing.) "No honey, I forgot to get some at the store last week and this week." Well, I thought they are getting ready to have their dinner. We left the restaurant very happy and stuffed, discussed the conference a bit and made it back to Salem in good time. When I called for my family to come pick me up Levi answered the phone. "Uh mom? We are just sitting down to dinner."
"Okay, I said, just come and get me in about 10 minutes."
A few minutes later my phone rang. It was dad. "We'll be there in a few minutes, we just sat down to dinner."
"Okay, see you in bit." I thought it was a little unusual that they were having dinner at 7:45pm but not that unusual. I still had no clue as to the state of affairs at home until I opened the door of the truck to get in. A very strong burnt-onion, smokey smell came wafting from my family. Did I say from the truck?
"Mom," the kids said with much excitment,"we were having dinner in the dark, with candles!"
I was thinking, "wow they were really having a special time with dad."
Turns out that the delicious dinner that dad prepared in the dutch oven got cooked a little to long and it was so black that he turned off the lights to minimize the color.
I tasted the dark meat. It wasn't too bad, but the mood in the house was, so I finally went to my room with my mint tea and journaled a bit. I was an island and was not about to let the mood get to me. I would just deal with the black dutch oven in the morning as well as....
I was reminded of a "feather manuever"I saw a pilot do on TV as he prepared for re-entry into earth's atmosphere. The wings were dropped at a funny angle and the plane just kind of floated down so it would not burn up while descending. Our trip was kind of like that. We boosted the rockets to get us to our destination, almost went into space, (went really high) and had to come back to reality without burning up the plane.