Tea Time and Classes

Last night we had our Owning Poverty session. We talked about prosperity gospel. Our assignment was to read an article written by a Rwandan about how the prosperity gospel could benefit Rwanda, and then respond. Then entire group expressed very passionate disapproval of prosperity gospel, and we were united in our distaste of the journalist who wrote the article. Prosperity gospel is believing that if you are a good Christian you will be blessed with prosperity. There are communities that believe that they are rich because they are good Christians and God shows them His favor by rewarding them. They form an exclusive congregation/club that requires a certain level of income to be a member. The writer of the article thinks prosperity gospel would be good for Rwanda because if people were left out of church groups because they didn't have enough money to be a member, they would be motivated to work harder and lift themselves out of poverty. This disgusts me. Any Christian who believes that God favors some over others and proves it by making his most faithful followers prosperous is missing the point of what Jesus tells us. Are they forgetting that the Bible clearly states that Christians will go through hardships and suffer in His name? What about "pick up your cross and follow me" in Matthew 16:24, or Jesus telling the rich man to throw away his worldly possessions to follow Him? If our wealth is supposed to be our gold star or badge of approval for being good followers of Christ, then surely God wouldn't have us give it away. We spent a good amount of time venting our frustration about this idea. Even if some of the principles of prosperity gospel could be used to motivate people to get out of poverty, the real and long term impacts of believing this about God could not bring anything but harm.

This morning I got up at seven as usual so that I could get ready quickly and have a relaxing breakfast. I had cinnamon and sugar toast, and corn flakes on yummy yogurt. I really have been missing my dairy products. I asked Vestine about why we don't get more milk the other day. She said that Africans think that white people don't like milk, so they haven't been buying it for us because they think we wont drink it. Interesting.. I had a wonderful cup of Rwandan black tea with milk and sugar before class. I am a little bit annoyed with myself for drinking so much black tea while I am here. I have always said that I wont become reliant on caffeine to wake me up, so normally I stay away from caffeinated drinks like coffee and black tea. I honestly can't help it here. there is nothing more satisfying than sitting on the front porch with a warm cup of tea and getting ready to start the day. We walked up to the bus stop (our first day doing it by ourselves), and caught our ride to Minagri (Ministry of Agriculture), and walked to class. Our first class was good. We have really been learning a lot about rwandan culture. Here are some interesting things I learned about Rwanda:
1. Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, though it is about the same size as Maryland, USA
2. Rwanda is working hard to promote gender equality. It is a law that women must represent at least 30% of public jobs, but the real number is about 49%! There are women mayors, members of parliament, prime ministers and the president of the Supreme Court is female. One difficulty that arises from this is domestic violence that occurs when powerful women have husbands that suffer from an inferiority complex.
3. More than 60% of the population lives on less than $1 a day. Imagine that? You spend more than that at Dunkin Donuts each morning.
4. One of Rwanda's values is secret keeping. This is an issue when it comes to witnesses in court, because people will not tell each others secrets.
5. Among African countries there is diplomacy, but not necessarily trust (which is the case around the world). The operate under the mindset that there is "no permanent friend or enemy in politics".

Our first class is three hours long. Three hours is a long time to sit when you are tired. Vestine was an absolute angel today and arraigned for tea and coffee to be brought to us for a break in the middle of class. I don't know how I would have stayed awake, even in an interesting class, without my tea. I drank two more mugs of it during class! When I get back to the States I will have to join the ranks of the other people who are addicted to caffeine! Not cool! Oh well, I will embrace it for now, as tea is part of the culture here. And it's just so good!

After a wonderful lunch, Professor Jackson came to teach us about the context for development. This is a fantastic class. I am really interested in what he has to tell us about the mistakes made by Western groups who want to use Western procedures and beliefs to create development in completely different societies from their own. For this class I will have to write a paper about Rwanda in 2025.. I definitely need to learn a lot more about development before I can make any judgments. Dwight said something funny in class today. He said something like "I have lived in this country for more than 20 years, and right now I know less about Africa than I did when I first got here. If you want to talk to "experts" about Africa who think they have the place figured out, talk to people who come on two week mission trips. Because the longer you stay, the more you realize that there is so much more to the culture than you'll ever understand". So true.

After class we planned to go to check out the crafts made by some women just outside of Kigali. Walking to the bus stop we had a big group argument about chivalry, and girls getting special treatment like having the toilet seat put down, or the door held for them. My stance is that whether or not men and women are equal, a man is a million times more appealing when he respects women and shows love and care to them by holding a door or putting the toilet seat down. It is good manners, and shows unselfishness. I don't understand women that get offended when a guy holds the door for them. Both genders should find ways to make the other feel special and valued. It is completely unattractive to me when a guy asks "why should I treat you any differently?" Sure it is a legitimate question, but I'll stick to my chivalrous men, thank you very much. For some reason the conversation really irritated me. I decided that since I was in a bad mood I would rather go back to the house and have some alone time to work on my frame of mind.

I am getting ready to go to a small group Bible study to meet some more Rwandans :)