JUST.BE.GRATEFUL!

Yesterday the country of Rwanda commemorated the 17th anniversary of the genocide. Approximately a million people died in 100 days. That was 1994. The whole country was shut down yesterday and even for the next week, businesses will close 3 hours a day to allow their employees to remember and grieve what was lost with the friends and family they have left.

In 1994, my kids were 7 & 9…in 1st and 4th grades…I don’t remember the exact spring break trip we took that year, but since we always got a two week spring break in Jackson Hole, we almost always hit a beach resort of one sort or another…usually the Caribbean or Mexico. My rule was… we live in the mountains, so we don’t vacation there. I VERY vaguely remember news reports of the happenings here that year…and I’m sure I thought…oh, how terrible, and then went on to the fun activity of the day…not giving it a second thought.

Our gardener, Beatrice, remembers today, April 8th, very specifically, as it was the day her father died..on April 9th, her mother…she and her brother were brutally beaten, but somehow survived. She was 18. Christine’s mother-in-law was home alone with her three children. Christine’s husband, Simon, was 15, his sister 11, and his other sister, less than a year old. When their home was attacked, they cut off his mother’s right arm and killed her daughter that she was carrying on her back, as most Rwandan mothers do. Her 11 year old daughter was also killed…she and Simon survived, she, just barely. Cyiza was 18 years old. He joined the RPF, President Kagame’s army, and fought to stop all the savagery. Christine herself was lucky. Her grandparents moved their family to Uganda when Christine’s mom was just 9 months old during similar problems that occurred in 1959, so she and all her siblings were born in Uganda and they lived there until Christine was 9…her mother and father moved their family back to Rwanda in August of 1994. Her parents wanted to come “home” to help rebuild the country of their heritage.

So yes, Christine was 9. She and Brittany are the same age. My daughter was playing on a beach in the Caribbean, not a care in the world. Christine was getting constant reports of family members that had been murdered, beaten or raped.

Seventeen years later, living in this country that has been through so much, I find myself getting frustrated on a daily basis…usually more often than not, about how slow or unorganized or, honestly, how hard it seems to get Rwandans to understand or “get it", whatever "it" is . Things that take 5-10 minutes in the US, take 1-2 hours here. Sometimes I question why we are here and are we really making a difference. Yes, God called us here, but do I REALLY have to follow through…sometimes (most times) it’s just seems SOOOO hard!

Then I look at the people around us…the people we have contact with every day…the people we have the most influence on…Beatrice, Christine, Cyiza, Ronald…these people that have lived through unspoken hardship and tragedy and MY life is hard…REALLY?? And when I look at their precious families, I realize that yes, we are making a difference. Are we changing a country, I don’t know about that…are we changing the lives of the people around us, I believe we are. Am I being changed most of all…ABSOLUTELY!

So today, when your husband doesn’t pick up his socks, or your kids are driving you CRAZY, or your parents are either doing the same (driving you crazy), or needing your help more than they did a year ago…Thank God that in 17 years in April,, 2028, you won’t be remembering this day or month in horror. Be grateful for what and WHO you have!  JUST. BE. GRATEFUL!! I know I am!