Sunday Oct 11 - Church & Plot the remaining days

8 am - All meet outside the Milles Collines and pile into our driver Jean Louis's Landcruiser and a separate cab.  Laurette has found us a church which may allow our group to attend the service and film it.  We have to be there by 9 am to meet the Head Pastor, and introduce ourselves in person.  He will then decide if he will grant us permission.  This cannot be done in advance, we may show up and be denied permission to film. The filmmaking team is tense, anxious to get there - I try to control my anxiety.  We will explain from our hearts, and see what happens.

 We have with us the children's books, magazines & clothing which Jeanie & Dawn Calleja collected from generous companies & people in Canada.  Pastor Charles has contacts with orphanages in the area and will distribute these on our behalf.

We arrive at the Bethel Pentecostal church compound to the sounds of children singing and parisioners streaming into the church.  A man tells us that services here last 5 hours.

We meet the Head Pastor and I am most impressed with his considered questions about use & purpose of the filming.  Eventually, we are granted permission to film once we are introduced to the congregation.  We are taken into the church to the service already in progress; it is a deeply raked space looking down onto a main stage with 6 singers with microphones and a full band leading the dancing, singing, full church.  Flags waving.  Dancing in the aisles.  It is joyful and exuberant worship, full harmonies are heard all around us.

After our introduction, John Westheuser springs into action, and Jack Nicholsen cracks out his camera for still shots.  We have each been joined by a young man from the congregation who introduces himself and begins to translate the introduction (which is generous and warm), songs & sermons from Kinyarwandan into English.  It is quiet & generous evangelism - just the word, the word is enough.  There is gentleness in this exchange, an openness and willingness to share this experience with us which I find moving in itself.  It is nothing like the church in which I was raised. 

We stay for over an hour, and when we leave I feel invigorated.  I was feeling wrung out this morning.   

We head off to "Heaven" for a farewell brunch to which we have been invited by Josh & Alissa Ruxin, the proprieters.  We meet their charming daughter & baby girl.  Ross, Rick & I slip away to talk with Josh, who is one of the founders of the UN Millenium Project & Reconciliation Village here.  He recommends it highly, says it will be a highlight of our trip.  We have been thinking of going to Gisenyi on the shores of Lake Kivu (in the Volcanic Northern Provence) for Thanksgiving tomorrow, right across the border from Goma in the DRC.  Josh speaks to the recent stabilization in Goma after years of conflict which has cost 5 million lives - more than the Second World War. 

This number is shocking, shocking too in that I have not read this in the papers or in my research in Canada before this moment.  The world is supposed to be shrinking, and yet this fact is new to me.  How is that possible?  How can I not have been told?  What am I doing wrong?  Why did I not know this number?  Ross is intrigued by the idea of walking across the border from Gisenyi into Goma, and it looks like Gisenyi is now our favorite for a Thanksgiving road trip.

Again I find that in Rwanda, research unfolds on the ground in conversation.  Opportunities to discover Rwanda, which are not visible from home, come into focus when one takes the time to speak to local people, be they ex-pats or Rwandans.  This takes time, but it is always time well spent.

We say farewell to the Ruxins, who have generously allowed us to film interviews in the courtyard of "Heaven" on Tuesday Oct 13th, even though the restaurant is closed.  They have been remarkable hosts to this play and this company, and their work in Rwanda is astounding.  When you go to Kigali, be sure to visit "Heaven".

After brunch, some of our group go to the Artisans market today, and come home with lunchboxes made from Fanta bottle caps, hand-carved push cars for kids, batik work, bowls & serving spoons carved from ebony.

Guillaume finds the smallest spoon I have ever seen, carved from wood, like a miniature teaspoon with a rounder-than-flatter spoon end. When he smacks you on the arm with it lightly, it sounds a bit like a seal barking.

Four possible shoot days remaining.
One needs to be a day off for the crew.
It should be Thanksgiving for certain, which is tomorrow.

I begin planning and permissions for visiting the UN Millenium Village project & Reconciliation village with our camera crew in tow. Josh Ruxin's assistant Benna swiftly connects us with the tour operators, New Dawn Associates.  I speak with Annie at NDA and we begin the process of planning (transport, schedules, fees) & permissions to film while we are at the project. 

We begin to plan a trip for some of us to Gisenyi tomorrow.  We will go to the shores of Lake Kivu and give thanks.  Rick Banville arranges the transport at short notice, like magic.

We are all ready for a day off.



Post by Tara