"Dare to be Different"

Hello my dear friends,

I apologize for the absence of my blog posts.  Life here is so different so I'm really trying to submerge myself in the culture and not have things at home getting in the way of my time here.  However, when I do get a chance to use the internet I am overwhelmed (in an amazingly loving way) by the encouraging emails and reminders that I'm being thought of and prayed for.  I truly appreciate them, with all my heart, and would love for them to keep coming! (please be patient for a response).

This blog post is a little outdated, however, I wrote it down in my notebook because I really want to share this experience with you all.  Lets go back to last Saturday.  Picture this with me:

My family are Seventh Day Adventists so their Sabbath and church day is on Saturday.  Waking up at 8am (which is a sleep in for me), we ate breakfast, put on our finest Sunday gear and headed off down the road to our church.  Mama Consolee was wearing a stunning traditional gear with matching head piece, while the children put on their cleanest trousers with polished shoes.  Slowly walking to church, I enjoyed watching my 'Mama' greet many people and introducing me as her, 'beautiful daughter.'  This picture seems nice and lovely, yes?  I ask you to now open up a new picture in your mind:

I walk into the back of the church, where 400 people are already seated... with one whisper of, 'muzungu,' my presence was quickly made noticeable and with a giant *whoosh* every head was turned around to stare at the new vistor.  Sitting down (in what seemed to be the smack dab middle of the church), my temperature quickly rose with the lack of air conditioning and shoulder to shoulder seating.  Little did I know that while I was busy trying to get my head around all the stares, a man came over to Consolee to ask the new visitors name.  Ten minutes later when church had finally started, a special announcement was made to, "Welcome our new visitor, Stephanie from Canada.  Would you please stand up so we can wave to you?"  Up I rise, in the middle of now 600 people, to have every single pair of eyes on me, and hands waving.  What an interesting experience!!  Although I can hold my own in front of a big crowd, it felt very different to see how big of a deal was being made over the new white visitor.  Being white gives you such an odd amount of 'power'.  You get to cut the lines, people go out of their way for you (except for busses... they'll hit you.  Literally.  I have the bruise to prove it), children run over to hug you, and everyone loves to walk beside you or as close to you as possible.  I am still struggling with this new attention that I am receiving, but bohoro bohoro (slowly slowly) I am accepting these new changes.

So, I am going to ask you to imagine one more picture:
After our small groups ended (13 of us... 12 middle aged Rwandan men and me), we came back into the church to sit through another 3 hours of I have no idea what.  I sat there picturing what the church looked like with a random speck of white in the middle of a black page.  The first thing that came to my mind was a, 'Dare to be Different' poster with a bunch of traditional dalmation puppies...except one that was speckled with rainbow colours.  I felt like that rainbow coloured puppy.  That image made me smile while I was sitting there with my little brother, Kenney (4) on my lap. 

3.5 hour church seems like a nightmare on a Saturday morning.  Being crammed between 600 Rwandans, not knowing what is being said, having eyes on me at all times, and sweating more than I would like to admit (lets be realistic here people... it's Rwanda..) really isn't anyones first choice I assume.  However, with a child on my lap, listening to how devoted these people are to their faith and their culture, and feeling welcomed to a new church family, I smile at being different.  I smile at my new poster image of a Muzungu in a Rwandan church, with the phrase, 'Dare to be Different' plastered across the top.