printer paper

The last few weeks the office has been in a complete frenzy over the process of re-registering IJM as a non-profit in Rwanda. This is an incredibly complex process as it involves reviewing IJM's Memorada of Understanding (MoU for short) with all of our partners - other nonprofits and governmental organizations. IJM staff meets with each of these partners to discuss and negotiate the "annual report" and "5 year strategic action plan." In addition to ensuring our annual report documenting the previous year, forecasted activities, and expected outcomes are in line with our MoUs, and our directives from IJM Headquarters in DC, each word on this 100-page-registration document must be approved by each of the three districts of Kigali City. All of our clients and casework must be divided into each district and described in detail to show what we did in Kigali this last year and what we are planning to do in the upcoming year. It has been a laborious process to say the least, and it may take up to six months to complete. I've only attempted to contribute minute details to these documents, and I've become overwhelmed by the challenges that the office faces to make each of the reported words successful.

Laws are vague and poorly written. Prosecutors and judges are overloaded, lacking the capacity to give time and attention to detail to each of the 30 cases on their docket for any one given day. There is no such thing as "grounds for appeal;" if you're unhappy with the verdict, you can just appeal. This substantially delays justice for our clients and the victories that we can report when in fact the cases are looming on appeal for many years. Children under the age of fourteen must have their testimony corroborated by extrinsic evidence. When evidence is rare in a rape case to begin with, asking that the victim's testimony be corroborated is a substantial hurdle to justice for these victims. Funding is limited. DNA testing is expensive. Medical reports are poorly written. Birth certificates are incredibly difficult to track down. Sentences are not given according to the Code. There is no safehouse to care for our clients if it is not in their best interest to live at home.

Trying to wage war on all these fronts, its astounding to see the incredible success that IJM has had. Every conviction is a victory of epic proportions. Yet, it's in our nature as Americans to constantly push towards improvement. We had X convictions last year, this upcoming year, we want to see X +10! This is how our minds process improvement. We like to measure results by raw numbers, statistics, names and short descriptions of the successes we achieved for our clients. And we like things to be clear- on paper in black and white. But the reality is that IJM's work is not best described on paper. Or in words.
It is best OBSERVED.
Certainly there is always room for improvement, but along the way, let's not get too distracted with the idea of "growing" that we forget how personal each step of that growth is.
I was sitting in the home of one of our clients, Louise, a humble six foot by eight foot concrete rectangle. Ignorant to the irony of her offer, she kindly asked if she could bring me a Fanta (a soda is an entire day's worth of wages for most Rwandese). In response to the question of what impact IJM has had on her life, she said, "I thought I would never again be happy for the rest of my life. But IJM intervened and gave me so much support to overcome my trauma and to finish my studies. IJM gave me a smile when I thought I never would again."

When her mother spoke about how tremendously IJM had impacted their lives, she said, "I don't have words to express my gratitude for what IJM has done for me and my family. I thank God everyday for IJM and IJM staff."

So, I get it Rwanda government. I understand your need for numbers and targets. But I just want to vent that it's unfair. IJM's work is too raw and real to be translatable onto printer paper, even 100 pages of it. The change that IJM incites in these victims is too amorphous and abstract to be filtered into targets and "progress measurements."
IJM gives smiles back to people.
IJM brings hope to these victims lives just when they thought it was lost forever.
And I have been so blessed to be a very small part of it.

I told the counselor who took us into the field that day that she had clearly changed Louise's life. She bashfully replied, "Only by the grace of the Lord."And it will be only by the grace of the Lord when IJM gets re-registered and gets to continue doing this amazing life-changing work.

until God sends us somewhere else

One of the most popular posts on this blog from when I was living in Madrid, Spain was a series I did on my favorite people. And so, a few snippets of the amazing people that I have met in my six weeks in Rwanda. Meeting people is absolutely one of my top three favorite things about traveling. And this summer a few people I've had limited interactions with have had a BIG impact on me.

• Akagera Couple - a woman who developed curriculum for USAID and her husband, who have been living in Rwanda for one year but have been living in Africa or the Middle East for 27 years. When I asked them if when they got married they had any idea they would live overseas for most of their marriage, he responded, "We didn't know at the altar, but God made it pretty clear shortly after." And I just love that. When asked how much longer they would be in Rwanda, he chirped immediately, "Well, we'll be here until God sends us somewhere else." I just loved that. Aren't we all just somewhere until God sends us somewhere else?
• Mimi - Mimi lived in the DRC as a missionary kid for the first 15 years of her life. Then she went to boarding school in the US and didn't see her parents for many years. It could take a year for a letter to get to DRC from the US in the 50's, if it even got there at all. She told us some incredible stories and I could have listened to her talk for hours. I said to a friend of hers how impressed I was and that she should write a book! She responded plainly, "She has!" Click here for her story and devotional books. Her husband, a doctor and professor of medicine for the University of Colorado is in Rwanda working for the Clinton Foundation to help educate doctors in Rwanda to promote better family health practices. 
• Two high schoolers with such maturity and wisdom far beyond their years in Rwanda for several weeks to help Mimi with her projects and around the house. They have such bright futures ahead! 
• A girl who is here in Rwanda designing the sowing projects for a women's cooperative with her fashion design degree. SO COOL!!
• Missionary Family #1 - Gary has been here in Rwanda for 27 years. It goes without saying that he has an incredible story about coming here on a short term mission trip, and never leaving. Read on HERE.
• Missionary Family #2- A couple who have lived in Southern California and Oxford, UK and now have their two children in Rwanda. When they first met, they had no idea that he would chase a Masters in Divinity in Oxford, that would lead them to WorldVenture, that would lead them to Rwanda. These missionaries host a school for preachers. Since Rwanda's education system is built on memorization, the average Rwandan doesn't know how to use the critical thinking portion of his or her brain. This blows my mind, because as a law student, the ONLY part of your brain you use is critical thinking. So the preachers here start preaching to churches, only on what they have memorized or feel "called" to talk about, but have no formal biblical education. Very interesting the work they do, and how it can have such a huge impact on Rwandans whose faith is stronger than most faith, but whose biblical knowledge and spiritual foundation is lacking.
  Read MORE here. Really cool work, interesting people and this organization is the one who provided us a house to live in while in Rwanda.
• Devin - fluent in Kinyarwanda (I cannot overemphasize the impressive nature of this statement because this language is so impossible) from living in rural Rwanda for two years with the PeaceCorp. She is now in law school at Tulane, and is a delight to spend time with. 
• Mary Ann - a student working on her Masters in Counseling, in Rwanda for a few weeks to host a training session with our IJM counselors. Mary Ann is awesome. She came to Rwanda with open eyes, an open heart and dived right in. She asked some hard-hitting questions, and got us each thinking about God's plan and our futures as she was contemplating her own. Interested in using her gifts for counseling victims of trauma, I am confident that wherever God sends her, she will be a great asset to that community. We were so sad she wasn't here for the whole summer. She also boldly drank an entire glass of fermented milk. You may be thinking, "that's not so impressive," but I couldn't stand within 20 feet of the milk for more than 30 seconds until I got gagged and had to run out of the room. And she drank it! Then survived a three hour drive on bumpy, uneven, dirt roads in the back of the car. She is a champion. We miss you Mary Ann! 
• A girl who works for WorldVision, about my age. She is on a tour of East Africa, spending a few days in each country visiting WorldVision sites. After three sentences, I was green with envy for her job.

The people I have REALLY gotten to know this summer I will "teach you" (as you would say in Spanish) about in my next post.

"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
-Matthew 9:36-38

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date

Determined to catch up on blogging, expect several long posts to come. First of all, about my weekend. I took off Thursday from work and went with Melania to Budapest, Hungary to help with a conference for Biolase. We were running super late on the way to the airport and totally relieved when we got there and checked in with no problems. So relieved actually, that we overestimated how long we had to grab something to eat and again ended up running toward the gate as the plane was already boarding. Running late was a theme of the entire weekend as you are about to read. Melania blames it on being Italian, I blame it on my mother who was never on time anywhere. We ended up getting on one of those moving sidewalks and having to run in the opposite direction to catch the flight. It was quite a sight.

On the plane, I was fortunate enough to sit dead center in a group of about 30 Spainards going to Hungary for a ballroom dancing competition. It was like a scene out of Home Alone. They wanted to be my best friends and share their life story and I was dying to catch some ZzZ’s. Obviously, that didn’t happen at all. They switched seats, talked, told stories, laughed, made fun of each other and screamed while I journaled with my ipod on loud yet still learning Spanish. What a flight.

            Thursday night, we checked into the hotel and Melania took me to one of her favorite restaurants with traditional Hungarian food. Wow, it was delicious. The red wine we had was very distinct and really great. We met up with some of Melania’s friends from when she studied in Budapest for two years. There was a blur of Italian, Hungarian, English and Spanish, which was really incredible. The girls were awesome and we had a really good time. We were the last people to leave the bar and by the time we said goodbye, I thought they were my long-lost friends too. It was a really nice night and the first time since I have been here I really relaxed and enjoyed myself.

            Going off very little sleep, it was time to get up and get to the University where the congress was being held. At breakfast, I found friends from Biolase and we headed off to get everything set up. Once the banner, lasers, registration table etc organized, people started appearing to register. Registration went pretty smoothly, mostly because Melania speaks Hungarian and also because the four hands doing it really helped quite a bit. The first speaker was a good family friend from Rome, so we sat in on his presentation and the next course also.

Next thing we knew, it was time to break for dinner. There was a gala that night and my boots had broken earlier in the day. Deciding that we had just enough time to run to the mall to buy me new boots and to get a necklace for Melania’s dress, we sprinted to the mall. Because I cannot read my watch, we ended up thinking that we were a complete hour ahead. As we are about to pull up to the hotel thinking we have 15 minutes to change and get to the gala at the hotel, Pedro calls wondering where we are. We were a complete hour late!!! HORRIBLE. We made up for it though by being the last people to leave. As we finally decided to go to bed around 4 am, they were setting the room up for breakfast.

Again, the next morning came way too soon. Weary and exhausted, we had another full day of laser courses ahead. The day flew by though. Interesting courses, wonderful speakers, awesome snacks and coffee for survival on breaks. With our break after the certification presentation and cleaning up, we went to get a suitcase and some other things that Melania left with a friend two years ago. Opening that thing up was like finding some hidden treasure! Again, barely making it in time to the hotel in time to change and head to dinner, we were rushed and running late. But we did it. All the speakers, several of the attendees and all the staff headed to another recommendation by Melania to have a traditional Hungarian meal. The food was wonderful and the company even better. We had a great time and weren’t yet willing to say goodbye. More drinks at the attendee’s hotel and a nice night stroll across the river to see the infamous bridges and city skyline. Walking through the city watching our breath in front of our faces, we were reflecting on what a greet weekend it had been. Melania said she’s like the rabbit from Alice And Wonderland. Exactly how rushed the whole weekend was! Just 6 hours after getting back to the hotel, we headed back to Madrid. 

its a small world after all

Stephanie Makes Friends Part 2: Incredible Coincidences
For such a large city, it's remarkable how many coincidences and strange encounters I've had in just a few days of living here. Maybe it's more than a strange encounter and instead, God's way of telling us- the adventurers who decided to leave "home" and trust in Him- that He's looking out for us and ensuring that we do not feel alienated at all whatsoever. I'll give several examples. One of my first days of class, I got on a nearly full bus to come home. Walking through the aisle, I was searching for someone to share a seat with for the 30 minute ride. I spotted a nice-looking girl about my age and chose to sit next to her. I glanced over to her lap once I was seated to see she had English textbooks just like the ones I have. So I asked her, "Oh, where are you from?" Turns out not only is she an auxiliar like me, not only is she from Georgia, but she is from Roswell. WOW. She went to UGA, studied International Relations and is taking this year in Spain before pursuing a masters in international relations. She even knew some of the same people I knew. We had a lovely chat the whole ride home and exchanged information, even walking together for several blocks after getting off the bus. Several mornings later, I saw her again heading to work. Really sweet girl, looking forward to seeing her again on and off the bus.
Last week, I was spending my Sunday afternoon exploring the city and resting for the week ahead. I decided to stop in a cafe chain and get a few croissants for the mornings. Standing behind me in line was a young guy wearing LSU basketball shorts. So I asked him if he goes to or graduated from LSU. He replied "oh my gosh, hey Stephanie...we are friends on Facebook." When I first accepted this position, I joined several groups on Facebook of auxiliares and auxiliares placed in Madrid. We were mainly exchanging comments and questions on the visa process and several people friend-requested me. HOW CRAZY! We sat down and had coffee and talked for a while about our first days in the city. We are planning to watch the big LSU-Bama game together on November 5th.
One of my flatmates, the Brazilian, met another Brazilian by pure happenstance when they both happened to be looking at a room for rental at the same time. They are from the same town in Brazil and are able to speak Portuguese together. I went to lunch with them both today.
I'd like to think that being thankful for these little things is what enriches life (and especially this experience) because in such a huge city, half way across the world its still possible to find a piece of home. You can imagine my reaction was a little different when we were standing in line to buy tickets to a palace in Segovia this weekend and Auburn fans were in front of us. Now that's a piece of home I could go without seeing until July!

Source: 16house.blogspot.com via Elsa on Pinterest