Choice

Community building an aqueduct; all ages participate

10/14/10: The trip home was a combination of joy, miracles & physical stress. Being awake for 48 hours (except several 1.5 hour snoozes on the plane) leads to an altered state by itself. The plane into Kigali was over an hour late (gave us time to have a laugh-filled goodbye party with the team) so that we left Uganda almost 2 hours late & arrived in Brussels over an hour late, giving us less than 30 minutes to make our Frankfurt flight. The passport officer at first frowned about us making the flight, but then said, “It’s possible,”—exactly what we have been saying since Alisoun created that activity for the kids. We literally ran (you have to go through security again) & they had to open the plane door to let us in. Our luggage didn’t make it, so it is supposed to be brought to us late today. The plane to L.A. was another one of those with 10 seats across & no room to move or stretch your legs. Fortunately it was a smooth flight & I could get up every 90 minutes to go to the galley to stretch. My body is loving having raw food again, but it is still quite stressed & feels almost like having a virus.

I feel as if I am back home, but not really here; I move between two realities & neither, & both, are real. One of the orphanage board members/interpreter e-mailed us a thank-you, & it increased my awareness that I am still connected to the people back there. It is extremely rare here that people are open enough to their own feelings & to others that you can create a true heart connection in a few days. That happened with most of the adults & kids at the orphanage. It is true that there are some people in Rwanda who put on a front of sweet accommodation to manipulate the Muzungas (rich white people) like our motel manager did, but that was not true for the great majority of the people we met. Even the children we passed on the street interacted with us in open curiosity, fun & connection. A few of them asked for money, one wanted to trade his toy for our flashlights, & many of them wanted us to take their picture & then show it to them. One group of 6 or 7 of ages about 3 up to about 8 entertained us with cartwheels, the peace sign, chasing goats, & running circles around us all the way to the motel (about 2 blocks). The contrast between the school children in their clean uniforms (they go to school until about 5PM) & the street children in clothes that often look as if they haven’t been washed in many months, often barefoot with that red dirt on legs, arms & face is stark. Still, we only heard a child cry once in all the time we walked or drove the streets. They are a clear example of happiness being an inside job, not dependent on external circumstances, & of the power of family & community. After Rwanda, I no longer fear a collapse of our economic system, because I have seen how community can take desperate poverty & make life joyful. That is not to say that they aren’t stressed & suffering because of having almost no resources at all. We cannot imagine what it would be like to have no money at all for months at a time, even years. I have thought that having to spend almost all of your time providing for basic needs of food, water & shelter would prevent having time to grow very much spiritually. What I observed was that being as connected to the earth & to one another as that requires is just another path to finding connection to the Divine. It is all choice.