Monday, 19.08.2019
After having finally reached my new home at 6am, Lilly and I could sleep for 4 hours. At 11am, my mentor Gérome, one of the pastors at Hanika, picked us up to show us around a little bit.
We ended up in the canteen for the University, where he wanted us to have a glass of “Rwandan milk”. Lilly was smart enough to say that she didn’t want any, I was foolish enough to say that I would try some. I only wanted to taste a bit, maybe get half a glass, but as I was told then:
“In Rwanda you can never fill a glass only half full with milk. It’s not good. We don’t do that here.”
So I got a glass filled to the brim with this thick milk. I tried it, I didn’t like it. It tasted like some weird kind of butter milk, very sour and fat. To be polite I planned to drink at least half of it. After 3 sips I finally had to admit defeat to myself, because I retched (very luckily, my mentor was not looking at me) and almost puked.
So I gave up and told Gérome that I could absolutely not drink the milk, I was sorry, but I really didn’t like it. I tried to be as nice as possible, while also making sure that I was never offered any again.
During our “milk drinking time” at the university, the Pastor began talking about Religion – mainly about christianity and the difference of faith in Germany versus Rwanda. He started with something like:
“Do you know the bible? Have you read it?”
– “no, not really”- “Do you believe in God”- “Kind of”- “When I was your age, I wasn’t religious. My parents were and I began reading the bible to criticize it. But as I was reading the bible, all my questions were answered. You should read the bible, you will see”
(We talked more about how in germany peoole aren’t as religious anymore.) Then he said another thing:
“I noticed how much people lost their connection to god in germany. For example is homosexuality accepted in your country and they can now even get married! Here in Rwanda those kind of people are not accepted, because we know that only a man and a woman should be together and be married.”
I didn’t want to let that statement stand like this, so while I discreetly took off my rainbow bracelet I purchased a week before during Christopher Street Day in Hamburg, I tried to explain to him my view of the bible concerning these kind of things. It went along the lines of this:
“I believe there is something bigger than we can comprehend, but I don’t really believe everything the Bible says, because it was written such a long time ago. Some of the things just don’t apply to our times anymore and I think that it is outdated. We shouldn’t take things too literal.”
To which he replied then something like:
“No no, you will find when you read the bible, it fits perfectly even to modern times. The bible is always right, because it is the word of god”
I didn’t want that conversation to escalate, so I let it be.
He told some other interesting things, that he for example he has written a book together with other theologists from different countries. (To be honest I don’t remember the specifics of the topic, something about christianity/the bible in different countries/modern times.)
He said another thing that quiet surprised me (I don’t remember at what point during our conversation)
“Christianity is very important here in Rwanda. The european missionairies saved us. Because of them we now have god and jesus in our lives. We were saved”
I expected more bitterness and hostility towards the colonizing states, because how I see it and learned it, they didn’t exactly treat african countries with respect and dignity, and all those countries that were colonized still suffer consequences from that time today.
He just seemed very thankful for the colonizers and that shocked me.
Maybe not all people think like that, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just christian people. But as of now, I have to yet meet a person here that does not genuinly believe in god and the bible.
That conversion about faith on my first day was very surreal to me. I was exhausted and giddy and hungry and then to be confronted with someone having almost opposite values to mine felt like a little too much for my first day.
After a week here, I have made my peace with it. I know now that people are just very religious, in a way that is sometimes difficult to comprehend for me, because it sometimes seems to exclude or discriminate against others.
Despite that, people are very open, kind, curious and friendly and no one has given me the feeling of not being welcome.
So I will accept it and experience the rwandan culture, religion included, openly, while keeping some of my own believes and values just very close to my chest.
Paulus o Globus 