The city on a hill

I know it's been a while since I wrote, but in the mean time I have been lots of places (which will probably make for a long entry). It started in Gimbi, Ethiopia. Wes arrived in Gimbi about the 28th of November. We surveyed lots of the problems around the hospital, most of which had never been brought to my attention, and developed courses of action. The concrete filters were poured with help and direction from some PUC area folk. The wiring for the new pump house was laid. On Sabbath morning, Taylor, Christina, Ben, Bill, and I set off for a hill to have a church service in nature. We meandered through valleys, tiptoed across creeks, and waded through crowds of children yelling "faranje!" (foreigner). Now I should mention that Gimbi Adventist Hospital is on the side of a hill, but is very close to the top. From our church perch 4 km away (the walking distance was about 6 km one way), we could still see the hospital complex staking its claim as the premier healthcare facility for the region. A song service preceded Ben's Bible study and contained his consistently incredible insight. Before we headed back, we wanted to check out the pits. From a distance, they appeared to be a colorful rock formation in a quarry. Closer inspection revealed that the "rocks" were actually clay and could easily be broken into pieces, revealing even more color beneath.

The following day, David, Wes, Christina, and myself headed to Addis in a minibus all to ourselves. Olivia and Sarah joined us for the Guder-to-Addis stint. Over the next couple days, we traversed the city looking for restaurants (we had Mexican food!), fabric for a project, and quite often each other. Wes and I finally flew out on Tuesday morning, with an early afternoon arrival in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. A driver from Mugonero Hospital greeted us, and we piled into the Hilux for the drive to the hosptial, which sits 1800 meters above sea level on the western edge of the country. (Hardly a place in the country is flat. Most of the time, the road is carved out of the hillside with the road climbing to over 2.25 km in elevation.) Looking out the windows, I saw gorgeous terrain, much of which was terraced to enhance the yield of the incredibly well-watered soil. And talk about green! Everything from the leaves to the mangoes to the bananas reflects green! Mugonero Hospital sits on top of a hill overlooking Lake Kivu. The best view greeted me the next morning from my porch, Lake Kivu stretched before us, laying a couple kilometers away and several hundred meters below. A beast to be sure, but not of burden. Instead, a source of life for millions.

After having trudged through this and that in the assessment process, Wes and I began looking for a place to potentially drill a well and place a tank for a backup water supply for the hospital. A site on an adjacent hill looked promising, especially once we went to investigate. Exactly where we wanted to locate a water tank sat the cradle for another water tank from years ago. It once supplied the area with a valuable source of water and may soon provide backup water to the hospital.

On Friday, we made our way to the L'Esperance orphanage (not operated by the SDA church). It sits atop an adjacent ridge about 1.5 km away. Run by a Guatemalan, it receives significant funding and many volunteers from international organizations representing Belgium, Germany, and America to name a few. With 127 children in his care, Victor (the headmaster) has quite a handful and yet gives so selflessly and openly to everyone (indeed, he was more welcoming to me than even my own hospital, for whom I will be working free of charge).

The next Sunday, December 12, Wes and I once again were on the road. At a mere 5 hours, this was the least traveling Wes had done on a Sunday in nearly a month. We returned to Kigali primarily so he could catch his flight back to Malawi. However, we had time to do some other business in the capital. Being new to the country, I needed to find some potential suppliers. We needed to know the extent of the hospital property so we could be certain any drilled wells were on hospital property. And Wes wanted to look at a low-cost ceramic filter technology. Kigali is built on a series of hills, with each hill containing a couple boroughs. The place we stayed had a name which I have already forgotten, but it was essentially embassy row and was located along the spine of one of the hills. South Africa, Egypt, the USA, as well as many others were all on our street. And yet, at the bottom of the hill is a local business making silver ion-laced ceramic filters, which help to kill organisms in the water and require no power. The plan is to sell them to the people living in the less developed portions of the country who don't have access to clean water.

And so, it seems that no matter where I go, there is always some beacon on a hill, an institution standing above the rest. Sometimes, the more prominent building with advanced technology considers itself to be respected because of power and might. Other times, the beacon is considered such because of the years of service provided to the community. These buildings mean so much more than what they have to give. Those who visit them, whether for a day or a year, know that the blessing gained by being there is far greater than any services offered.