Rwanda Morally Restorative

Doing our service-learning project in Rwanda is really good for the soul.  After many months of preparation, we arrive in the village.  For 2 weeks, 200+ people from multiple  countrie/regions are focused on installing solar panels for families without electricity, and creating exciting fashion combining African and Chinese characteristics with modern skills.  

For 2 weeks, we are away from home and office, do not have to attend meetings, delay many non-critical tasks, and concentrate on just one common goal.  In the field, during the day, the Internet is barely accessible, limiting us to simple text messages much of time.  Even when we are back at the guest house, run by a bunch of Catholic nuns, the Internet is not very dependable, with limited bandwidth.  That is rather restrictive and annoying, in normal circumstances.  Here and now, it can be liberating, giving us an excuse to delay responding to not-so-critical demands.  We survive, and even thrive.

Here we are surrounded by simple living.  In the village, many houses consist of 4 mud-brick walls and little more.  Many have no beds - they sleep on matts laid directly on the muddy, uneven packed earth floor.  Clothes hang on a line strung across of the room - there are no closets.  Toiletries consist of one or two tooth brushes shared by the whole family.  Food consists of a pot of beans, potatoes, cassava, etc., cooked on a three-stone stove.  Lives can be as simple as that.  Even back in the guest house, accommodation is clean but spartan. Food is simple, nutritious but not fancy.  Here, we are not continuously reminded by luxurious apartments, sumptuous buffets, fancy sports cars, impossibly slim bodies, and all forms of extravagant living.  It is liberating to realise that those are not really important “needs”.  

For 2 weeks, we put aside our differences in ethnic origin, culture, language, faith, economic status, gender, sexual orientation and much more.  Instead, we focus on achieving the common goal - tangible benefits for a community in need - that we believe is bigger than each of us individually.  Differences, too often, divide us, in life.  Here, rather, they intrigue, challenge and excite.  Because there is a common goal that unites us. The choice is ours.  

It is not something forced on us.  Instead, we choose to do it out of our own free will.  Why?  Because we feel it is important enough, exciting enough, worthy of the 2 weeks of simple living, even relative hardship for some.  The time and circumstances here encourage us to consider what is truly meaningful in our lives.  What do I really want?  What do I really miss?  Am I fulfilled ultimately from comfort, money, status and power?  Or is it relationships, creativity, realising potential, positive impact on people? What is it that motivate us?  What price am I willing to pay?

Most of us come back from Rwanda feeling tired physically, but invigorated spiritually.  Here is why.