Byumba

What do you call one American, two Rwandans, two Ugandan nuns, and one German? A great trip to Byumba! 

Last Friday a coworker at ICAP invited me to join her and her friends on a trip to the north part of Rwanda. I only knew we were doing something related to Mass but was fuzzy on the details. Many other ex-pats have mentioned that Rwandans have a tendency to be non-specific so I just went with the flow. As it turns out, in addition to attending Mass at the Catholic Diocese of Byumba we were also attending the ordination of several priests. 

Church can normally be very long in Rwanda but since there was a celebration in addition to regular service, we ended up being in Byumba from 10am to 9pm! The celebrations included the official ordination ceremony, Mass, speeches by the Bishop, and a dinner for one of the priests. Oh, and everything was in Kinyarwanda.  

Even though I had no idea what they were saying, it was a really great experience! Religion is a major part of Rwandan culture so attending service is a great way to understand the culture better. While I would love to share the pictures, my VERY long delay in adding another post is because I'm having some technical difficulties using the internet. I haven't been able to get pictures to upload properly so I'll have to wait on adding a visual to my story - sorry! I guess you'll just have to use your imagination until I can it working again!