Update from Peter

This fall semester I am studying abroad in Uganda. I have always wanted to spend a semester in another country, and African politics, culture, and spirituality have been on my mind for a few years. It is amazing finally to experience it firsthand!

I have now been in Africa for two weeks, and so far I have been very busy. In the first week, I settled into Uganda Christian University in Mukono, where I am studying African politics and religions for the next three months. There are 45 other American and Canadian students participating in this semester, which is called the Uganda Studies Program (USP).

After our first few days on campus, our entire group got up at 4 a.m. for a 15 hour bus ride to Rwanda, a tiny but incredibly country to the southwest of Uganda. I stared out the window literally for hours at a time, captivated by the gorgeous hillsides, valleys, and smiling children. We spent one week in Rwanda, learning about the 1994 genocide that left one million Tutsi men, women, and children murdered by members of the Hutu ethnic group. Like many other students here, the only foreknowledge I had of the genocide was from the Don Cheadle movie Hotel Rwanda. I recommend it as an accessible introduction to the mind numbing three month long massacre.

The deeper history behind the genocide and the last 15 years of fallout are complex, so I’ll challenge you to do your own research if you’re interested to know more. After all of the lessons I learned from memorial sites and survivors’ testimonies, I am somewhat speechless. Loving neighbors suddenly began butchering each other, church leaders abandoned their congregations and even participated in the killings, women were raped with spears and machetes, infants were smashed against walls – and all the while, the world’s most powerful countries, the United Nations, and Rwanda’s neighbors did nothing to prevent it.

Rwanda is not just a country of tragedy, of course. Thousands of killers have repented, and thousands of victims have forgiven. The country is beautiful, well organized, and surprisingly free of government corruption. But I don’t want to sugarcoat what happened in 1994. Humans suddenly became guilty of the basest atrocities. Thank God for giving us hope beyond ourselves.

I promise that all of my blog entries won’t be this intense! But this is what I’ve been experiencing so far, and I think I owe this kind of honesty to the survivors who hosted us and shared their tragic testimonies. Their stories are overwhelming but incredible.

Check back next week to read about Ugandan weddings (500-1000 guests and bridal dowries of 40 cows!), my experience as the only American playing soccer against 21 Africans, the strange Ugandan fixation on paint, cell phones, and motorcycles, and the blandest combination of foods I’ve ever had to eat. Until then, peace!