A Very Happy Ayyám-i-Há

This year Ayyám-i-Há included an entire weekend, so we had to host a party on Saturday! (But what, you may ask, is Ayyám-i-Há?  I will answer that at the end of this post!)  For Saturday’s party, I made meatballs from a piece of meat from the leg of a cow, which I put through our meat-grinder.  I added some grated broccoli and cauliflower stems, eggs, breadcrumbs, herbs and spices to the ground meat.  I also added some olive oil to the mix, since Rwandan beef is so very lean.  I made sauce from roma tomatoes from the market, and herbs from a neighbor’s garden.  Josephine prepared a big pot of boiled green bananas (igitoki) from our back garden in a delicious sauce.  We made egg salad, rice, yoghurt, coleslaw, and a salad of fresh avocado and sliced tomatoes.  I made a pumpkin dessert using a fresh pumpkin from the market.  Since I only have one pan that is like a pie pan, I decided to make the “pie” in a large cake pan.  For a “crust” I made a mixture of oatmeal, butter, chopped walnuts, sugar and spices.  I pressed this into the bottom of the pan, then poured the double recipe of pumpkin pie filling over it and baked it for about an hour.  The end result was delicious.  There was very little food left at the end of the meal.

We had invited about twenty people who live near us, but of those, only seven came.  A group of neighborhood children had come for our Saturday children’s class, so we invited them to stay.  While Josephine and I served the food, Anne did a wonderful job of entertaining our guests.  For activities, there was “keeping balloons in the air”, story-telling (we took turns wearing the Story Beads and telling an amusing story, preferably in Kinyarwanda.), and singing.  Later, we went outside for more balloon play, dancing and “Frisbee” using a round, woven place-mat.  Everyone had a great time, and Anne declared it the best Ayyám-i-Há party we had ever had or attended.

How many balloons can we all keep in the air? (And get into a photo!) 

Josephine putting on the "Story Beads".

Dancing with Balloons.

Ayyám-i-Há, which translates as “Days of Joy”, or “Days outside of time” is a Baha’i celebration which precedes the nineteen day fast.  It is a time of celebration, gift giving, acts of charity, and social gatherings.  Another name for this period, which is four or five days long, depending on the year, is the “Intercalary Days”.  You see, the Baha’i calendar has nineteen months of nineteen days each, which gives us 361 days.  So, in most years, we need four extra days to complete a year, while in leap years we need five.  These celebratory days come just before the nineteen day month of fasting.  During that month, which began today, (March 2, 2015 in the popular Gregorian calendar, or, in the Baha’i calendar, the First of `Alá’, which means Loftiness) we abstain from food and beverage from sunrise until sunset. 

“Fasting is of two kinds - spiritual and material. The spiritual fasting comes first, and is the soul’s refusal or denial of all kinds of evil actions and habits - this is the important fasting. The bodily fasting or abstinence from food, is a sign or witness to the inward fasting, and is of no value by itself. But when both kinds of fasting go together, then the effect upon the soul is as ‘light upon light.”
— 
- Abdu’l-Bahá

The last day of the month of fasting is the day before the Spring Equinox, which for us is the first day of the year.  Since each day in the Baha’i calendar begins when the sun sets on the preceding day, the last day of the fast is followed immediately by the celebration of Naw-Rúz (translated as “New Day”: our new-year’s day). 

Our service to the people of Rwanda

One of the observations that I had shortly after arriving here is that Rwanda and her people have an evident need for the Baha’i Faith. 

Most people in the US and the EU know about the terrible days of 1994 when a million Rwandan people were killed in one hundred days.  These events were an example of inter-tribal warfare: the Hutu tribe, which was in the majority and which controlled the government, was encouraged through government run media to kill all members of the Tutsi tribe, which had been in power until they were deposed by the colonial government before Rwanda gained independence.  The current government has made unity of all Rwandans one of the central themes of the development of Rwanda.  As you may know, the unity and oneness of all of the people of the world is a central theme of the Baha’i Faith.   The name of this blog is from one of many verses that express this theme:

 “…Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust?  That no one should exalt himself over the other. …it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest.”

Baha’is in Rwanda, and all over the world, are learning specific types of actions that manifest the signs of oneness.  These actions, also referred to as “paths of service”, and “the core activities,” are taught through a curriculum which has been created, tested, and eventually published by The Ruhi Institute in Columbia:  http://www.ruhi.org   The curriculum is taught through Study Circles, where a tutor, who has been trained to facilitate the study circles, leads other participants in the study of the books of the Ruhi Institute.  It is through study circles that people learn both the spiritual principles and the practical aspects of following the other paths of service.  A letter from the Universal House of Justice, the elected body that leads the Baha’is of the world, describes these activities succinctly:

“The activities that drive this process, and in which newly found friends are invited to engage—meetings that strengthen the devotional character of the community; classes that nurture the tender hearts and minds of children; groups that channel the surging energies of junior youth; circles of study, open to all, that enable people of varied backgrounds to advance on equal footing and explore the application of the teachings to their individual and collective lives—may well need to be maintained with assistance from outside the local population for a time.”

Anne and I came to Muhanga to offer our assistance in initiating and maintaining these activities here.  Since we don’t speak Kinyarwanda, and most people here are not fluent in English, we have had much help from members of other Baha’i communities in Rwanda.  (There are several large and growing Baha’i communities in different parts of the country.)  They come to tutor study circles, and accompany people as they take their first steps along the various paths of service.  So far, we have three children’s classes, four junior youth groups, and several study circles.  We still need to encourage the establishment of some regular devotional meetings! (That will have to be my next project.)

We are at a point now where we still need tutors to come from other parts of Rwanda to lead study circles in Kinyarwanda.  It is our goal to have several residents of  Muhanga trained as tutors before we go to the United States in July.  That will help the local Baha’i community to be self-sustaining.  God willing, we will return to Rwanda in August, but we can’t be certain of anything.

Hamlet in Huye!

On Thursday one of the HRH staff announced that on Saturday there would be a performance of Hamlet at the University of Rwanda, Huye campus.  As you may know, I love to act on stage, and not too many years ago I played a number of roles in a production of Hamlet at the Columbus Civic Theater.  (I played the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the Player King, the priest, and a courtier.)  So it should be no surprise that I was interested in going.  Then I saw WHO was producing the play:   http://globetoglobe.shakespearesglobe.com/ .  Anne and I were excited.  I sent a text to several, local friends who I thought might be interested as well, telling them that we planned to leave at 9:00 am.  The performance was scheduled to start at 14:00, but we wanted time to a) leave later than planned, b) eat lunch at a restaurant in Huye which might involve an hour and a half wait for food, c) extra time to possibly get lost while looking for the venue, d) the possible need to buy tickets in advance, possibly involving looking for a cash machine.

Patrick, the one friend who responded to my text, arrived at 10 minutes to 9:00.  We didn't actually leave until 10:15.  By then we had added Sarah to our group.  Sarah is the young lady (18 years old) who lives in our “garden house” with her mother, two younger brothers and their house-keeper/baby-sitter.  She had never seen a performance of Hamlet, or any play by Shakespeare, or any live theater whatsoever.  She had, however, read some of Shakespeare’s other plays, and was interested in seeing Hamlet performed.

Huye is a ninety minute drive from Muhanga.  Along the way, we passed the Ethnographic Museum of Rwanda, which had recently had its outer wall painted.  Each panel of the wall had a different design painted on it.  Anne decided that she would love to see similar designs painted on the inside walls of our home, so we had to have a picture of each panel.  I was driving, so I pulled off to the shoulder of the road and was instructed to drive forward about a car’s length, then stop in front of each of twenty-five or thirty panels while Anne took a picture with her phone, and Patrick took a photo with his.  Forward; stop; click, snap; “OK”. Forward; stop; click, snap, etc.

By noon we arrived at Huye, where our first destination was a Chinese restaurant whose praises Anne had heard from several people.  We stopped to ask directions, and arrived within a few minutes.  The owners, who are, in fact, Chinese, were nearly the only people in the restaurant (lunch time in Rwanda seems to start closer to 13:00 than noon, and this was Saturday, when many people are at weddings most of the day.)  Anne chatted them up using the smattering of Chinese that she had learned while living in Hong Kong some decades ago, and they were delighted, as was Anne.  Anne ordered for all four of us, and the food began arriving with surprising quickness!  (Although I did have time to walk across the street to Bank of Kigali, whose ATM yielded up a stack of bills.)   In proper Chinese style, they brought out one dish at a time.  All of us took some from each dish as it arrived, and ate it over rice, Anne and I with chopsticks, our two Rwandan companions with forks.  By the third dish, though, Sarah started using chop sticks too, and seemed to master them well!  The food was delicious: well worth the 27,000 RWF (including tip, about $39) I paid.   Also, there were lots of leftovers, which were put into foil take-out containers with paper lids.  As we still had plenty of time, we drove down the road to Inzozi Nziza (“Sweet Dream”), the excellent ice cream shop in Huye.  Their soft-serve machine was down.  The ice cream they served us from their freezer had a lot of tiny ice crystals in it, but the flavor was fine, and the price was reasonable. 

While at the ice-cream shop, we found a very nice flyer for Hamlet which named the hall where it was to be performed.  We also met a student of the university, who pointed us in the right direction.   I located the hall on Google Maps on my phone, and we headed out.  While Google Maps had located the hall, it seemed not to be quite sure where our car was.  We went past the entrance, then turned around at a petrol station, took the wrong fork in the road, asked directions a few times, and finally stumbled upon a parking lot behind the theater where we found a nice shady spot. 

We had arrived at 13:15 and were among the first people in.  Tickets were actually FREE!  In fact, they didn't bother at all with tickets, and we just walked in and chose our seats.  The show began late because of problems with electricity.  A few scenes in, the power went out again, and they paused the play.  Then, they decided that the power was not likely to come back reliably, so they had the audience wait in their seats while the minimal stage, props, instruments, and costumes were carried outside by the cast and crew.  Twenty minutes later, the play began from where they had left off, but with the audience sitting on stairs and terraces and railings outside, and the performers on the area in front of the building’s entrance. 

Surprisingly, the acoustics were actually better outside than they had been inside!  The performance was top-notch, so, even though I had to hold a parasol for the four of us while sitting on concrete steps, we were quite absorbed in the play.  The set was composed of a back-drop from which the costumes and instruments were suspended, a “down stage” curtain which was strung on a line between two poles, two wooden planks, and about ten metal trunks, some of which were square, some twice as long as wide.  These were moved about and rearranged by cast members between scenes, while other cast members played and sang music.  The transitions were quick and delightful. 

The play ended at 17:00, and we had to hurry to the car.  Wendy, a colleague of Anne’s who lives in Kigali, joined us for the ride home.  They sun set as Anne drove, and it was getting quite dark as we entered Muhanga.  We arrived safely home, where we heated and ate left-over Chinese food, then went off to bed.  As there were no more buses to Kigali, Wendy stayed the night in one of our extra bedrooms.  Altogether, it was a wonderful day.

Don't take the bus on the first day of school!

Last Monday was the first day of school for both primary (P1 through P6) and secondary (S1 through S6) schools in Rwanda.  (Rwanda doesn't experience the same seasons as the U.S.)  Most of the secondary students attend boarding schools, so they filled the buses all weekend and Monday.  Young people were carrying or waiting with everything from backpacks to metal footlockers to rolled and tied foam mattresses.  They were carrying them on foot, hanging on to them while riding motorcycle taxis, or sitting with them waiting for the bus.

Speaking of buses, I chose that same Monday to ride the bus into Kigali.  I was all out of Sumatriptan, that magic medicine that makes my migraines go away.  Somehow I started out later than I had planned.  I arrived at the Volcano Express office just before noon.  The noon bus was just leaving, and tickets for the 12:15 bus were already sold out, so I had to wait for the 12:30 bus.  That was OK, since I needed to get some lunch, and there is a little “Alimentation” right next to the bus office.  I got two samosas and a big cup of tea for 700 RWF (about 1 USD).  I finished the samosas and half the tea in time to get a good seat on that 12:30 bus.

As I was riding and just drifting off to sleep, Anne called, reminding me to bring her cash, because she hadn't gotten any before she left on Sunday for her conference.  Oops!  I had forgotten about that part of my errand and left the extra cash at home, but I could give her most the cash in my wallet and get more from an ATM on my way to the one pharmacy in the country where I know I can get Sumatriptan. Before I got to the main bus station in Kigali, I managed to figure out what part of town Anne’s conference was in.  This was my first time going from the Express bus to a local bus without a Rwandan friend leading me.  Fortunately, each bus has a person that collects passengers, and one of these told me that her bus was going to Nyanza.  I got on the bus, which was filling very slowly.  I have been on buses here that will not go until every seat is filled, so I was delighted when we pulled out with passengers in barely a third of the seats!  Of course, at each stop, we paused while the “collector” announced various destinations to everyone outside in hopes that they might board and pay the 200 RWF (30 cents) fare.  As we reached a point a couple of kilometers from my destination, the bus made a U-turn before stopping.  This was obviously the end of the line, and the collector said I must get off here, and that catch a bus “over there” to get the rest of the way.  I got a moto-taxi instead (400 RWF).  As usual, I prayed for most of the ride. Arriving safely at my destination, I called Anne, and followed the signs to the conference registration desk.  After some discussion, we determined that I did not have enough cash to satisfy Anne’s needs.  But look! Here is our car which I can drive to an ATM for cash!  Fortified through the ATM with 200,000 RWF, I returned and gave Anne 150,000.

By this time, I knew I was behind schedule. I skipped the bus and flagged down another moto-taxi to take me to the pharmacy downtown.  We settled before the ride on 800 RWF, but then he didn't seem to know any of the locations I named except for the Kigali City Tower (the tallest, shiniest building in the country.)  After we reached that landmark, I gestured him along to a point close to KeyPharma, adding three more blocks to our 8 kilometer trip.  He wanted 1000 when I got off, but I convinced him to settle for the 800 we had agreed upon at the start.

KeyPharma has about 6 cash registers arranged along a counter that runs along both sides and the back of the customer area.  At each register there were people holding prescriptions to be filled, waiting for their meds to be brought from stock, or paying for their meds.  Choose a register, get in line, and hope it doesn't take too long.  (“Darn!  If I had gotten in that other line I would be done by now!”  “What’s with this person cutting in front of me?!”)  When my turn came, I said “I need Sumatriptan.”  “Where is your prescription?” the pharmacist asked.  “I don’t have it.”  “Why not?”  “Because it’s in America!”  She laughed, thank God, and went to get my pills.  I paid 26,460 RWF (26,460 / 690 = $38.35) for twelve pills, 50 mg each (half the dose I get in the US, but sometimes it’s enough).  That is actually less than I would pay in the U.S. for the same generic brand.

Another moto-taxi, and more prayers, got me to the Baha’i Center in the Nyamirambo neighborhood at 15:20, just twenty minutes later than I had intended!  My books were waiting for me as was the dear secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly.  We talked then prayed together.  She even suggested that I catch a ride with her to her home, where Anne would be staying the night.  Alas, I had invited guests for supper in Muhanga at 18:30, so I shouldered my pack, now heavy with books, and caught another moto-taxi (800 RWF) to the bus station at Nyamirambo.

As Monday was the first day of school, the bus office was mobbed.  I arrived around 16:00, but, though a bus leaves every fifteen minutes, the earliest I could get was 17:15.  Still, I bought the ticket (for 850 RWF, a 50 franc discount!), and set out to wait.  I went to board at 17:00, figuring I would get a decent seat.  But no!  The buses were running early!  My bus had only two seats left and I had to take a fold-down, aisle seat that just happened to have a metal box under it and be right behind the door! (I thanked God that they only sell as many tickets for a bus as there are seats!)  After boarding, I remembered: “There’s no way I can host a dinner at 18:30, I may not even be home by then.”  I called Lisa, the only guest whose number I had, and asked her to inform the others that the dinner was canceled. 

The bus let people off at various villages on the way.  For each stop, I had to stand up holding my backpack, fold my seat up, and actually step off of the bus to allow passengers off and new passengers on to take the vacant seats.  Then I got back on, folded my seat down, sat down with my pack on my lap, and shut the door as the bus accelerated.  I followed this procedure about six times before we reached my stop, which was a short walk from home with a heavy pack full of books. 

Home again, but without my wife, and no guests to talk and laugh with.  I ate some leftovers, then stayed up until midnight browsing Facebook.  It’s a good thing I had Sumatriptan!

A new beginning

I have decided to forgive myself for not writing here for so long.  It has been so long, and posts have been so few and far between that I have decided to call this a new beginning. 

Anne and I have been in Rwanda for about 18 month now.  We love living here in Muhanga Town.  We love the weather, we love the friendly culture and the people, and especially we love the friends that we have made here. For both of us, the main motivation for coming here is to serve.  Anne provides a special service to the people of Rwanda by training people to provide better medical care, what is called “evidence-based practice”.  The people she is training include students who are just learning to be midwives, older students who have been nurses and/or midwives for a while but want to achieve a higher level of education and skill (some of these are clinical instructors and want to be able to instruct their own students in more modern, evidence-based ways of giving care), and staff at two health centers and a hospital maternity unit.  She also has a few “twins”: people with whom she works so that when she is done here they can take her place as trainers and advocates for evidence-based practice in nursing and midwifery.  Anne’s twins include college nursing and/or midwifery instructors, hospital staff, university managers, and hospital managers. 

The service I do is to facilitate the growth of the Cause of God in our town.  As Baha’is, we are working to build community in a new way: We are introducing spiritual, service-based models of community interaction and mutual support.  This process is still at an early stage of development in most parts of the world, but we are seeing considerable advances in some communities.  Here in Muhanga, we are just getting our feet wet, taking the first steps, then seeing how things are working and how to improve, then taking a few more baby steps, etc.  Last week the local Baha’is met and created a plan for the coming year.  My role is to make friends, to encourage progress through the study circles, children’s classes, junior youth groups and devotional meeting; to act as host for gatherings in our home, and to prepare and provide food when that is needed.  My service is also to support Anne in any way that I can so that she can provide her more challenging service.

We also take breaks to enjoy this beautiful land we live in.  Last week we took a drive through the countryside, enjoying and photographing the beautiful scenery. 

Since this is a new beginning, and since I have decide that this blog does not need to be too deep and philosophical, or extremely important in any way, I have given myself permission to write about whatever I want to write, as long as I write regularly.  So, I’ll write to you next week!

Visiting Rwanda's museums

Rwanda is a beautiful country with a fascinating culture and history.  Unfortunately, much of her history was passed down as an oral tradition which was been part lost during the colonial years.  Some of that oral tradition did get written down, however, and some of the more recent history has been preserved in photos, artifacts and reconstructions which one can experience in Rwanda’s museums.  A few weekends past Anne and I went to visit the museum of the Palace of the King (Mwami) in the town of Nyanza.  There we saw traditional grass homes like those which most Rwandans lived in before Europeans came.  The Mwami’s palace was a very large version of the same sort of round, thatched hut which any other person might have.  He also had many other buildings in his compound, including a house for his milkmaids (yes, they had to be virgin to handle the royal milk) and his chief brew-taster (a man who also had to be virgin).  There is a specific breed of cows which was also reserved for the Mwami, and which was included in certain royal presentations and ceremonies.  They are large, placid, a rich brown in color, and have huge, hollow horns.  (I would love to try using one of their horn as a wind instrument, like a shofar.)  The last Mwami had a more conventional building for a palace, with rectangular floors, walls, and ceilings forming rectangular rooms with rectangular doors and windows.  Instead of an indoor hall connecting the rooms, though, most of them opened to an outside portico (kind of like the rooms at a Motel 6.)  The interior decoration was of interesting Rwandan-style geometric patterns, so the place was not quite European in flavor.  Interestingly, the queen-mother (mother of the Mwami) had significant power in the realm, despite the patriarchal trappings of the culture.

After leaving the Mwami’s Palace, we went to the Ethnographic Museum.  Well, we went there after a break for lunch and soft-serve ice cream at Inzozi Inziza (Nice Dream) which is the only place I know of in Rwanda which is famous for ice cream.  We enjoyed both the lunch and the ice cream, and neither were too expensive.   We arrived at the museum at 1:30pm, which didn’t leave us enough time to tour the whole place, so we will have to go back soon.  Perhaps next time we will being another person or two. 

During the drive out and back, I was admiring the scenery with the eye of a photographer.  A few times, I had Anne stop the car so that I could photograph a particularly nice piece of scenery.  I also took some photos outside at the museums: of the special cattle, of buildings and of Anne, etc. I had to pay a few dollars to use a camera in the museum area, and was also told that photos in the rooms of the more modern mansion were not allowed.  The only camera I had available was the one on my phone: a dual SIM, unlocked, BLU Advance 4.0 smartphone with Android version 4.22 that I got from Amazon for less than $100.  The image quality is OK, but I have no zoom, which I really want. The Olympus camera with 24x zoom that I bought used during the summer has developed a problem which makes it impossible to charge the battery by plugging in the camera.  I look forward to getting an external charger and spare battery so that I can take some photos of the countryside, and of people as well.  Perhaps I can figure out a way to insert photos, or a link to photos, into this blog. 

Finally, a word about Baha’i activities:  A few weeks ago all of the Baha’i pioneers in Rwanda were invited to meet together at the Baha’i center in Nyamirambo – a sector within the city of Kigali.  At that meeting, I was inspired to launch a Junior Youth Empowerment program in Muhanga, where we live.  The planning and execution of that project are moving forward, so I will have more to say next time.  Until then, “Umunsi mwiza!” (“Have a nice day!”)

Attempting to describe the relationship between religion and science

This was written as a response to another question on Quora: "What is the relationship between religion and science?"

It is quite obvious that there IS a relationship between the two: Both are human activities, both are ways of seeking answers to questions, and both have profound affects on how humans live their lives.

Scientific research can help us learn the effect of specific religious beliefs and/or practices on ones ability to do scientific research, understand scientific theory, or use science to solve problems. We can also use scientific methods of research to understand the affects of specific religious beliefs and/or practices on whether a person’s life is happy, creative, productive, etc.  Social sciences can help us to understand the effects of religion on the societies in which they are practiced.

The people in a marriage or other partnership have different roles to play in order to make their relationship harmonious and mutually beneficial - and the people in the relationship often have to make an effort to find and implement the means to keep that harmony.  Similarly, science and religion have different rolls to play in the lives of individuals and in the development of civilization.  Pointing to present or historical examples of conflict between science and religion and concluding that they are always incompatible is like pointing to bad relationships between women and men, and concluding that men and women are incompatible in any relationship.

An individual who finds a good, dynamic (i.e. flexible, ever-evolving) relationship between science and religion in her or his life can become a person who is seen by others as exemplary. Likewise, a society - whether limited to the population of a single village, or one which spans the entire earth - which finds the right balance between science and religion can be the matrix in which its individual members achieve exemplary levels of happiness, creativity, and ever-growing ability.  The question, then, becomes: what relationship between religion and science can lead to individuals and society being happy, creative and productive? 

Science has an important roll to play in our lives and in society and civilization.  Most individuals do little or no scientific research, but familiarity with (and access to) the body of scientific knowledge and of the methods and standards of science help them to understand their world and to make choices based on that understanding.  Those who do legitimate, peer-reviewed, scientific research advance our understanding of how things work, the likely outcomes of various actions, and the web of cause and effect in the world.  But there are decisions that cannot, logically, be answered by science, and humans have needs which can be better fulfilled through religion.

Science leads to technology, but it takes something beyond science to answer the question, “what is the appropriate use of this technology?”  In this age, one appropriate roll of religion is to provide the wisdom to answer that question.  Some sample questions are, “should we be studying ways to build better weapons of mass destruction, or should we apply the same human resources to finding better ways to educate our children?”  “Should we be applying the technology of social psychology (i.e. advertising and public persuasion) to influence people to buy things they don’t need?”  “Should we apply that same technology to influencing people to get along?”  “Is it right for medical research to concentrate on developing treatments for illness rather than finding means of prevention?”  Science does not provide answers to such questions.  Ethics might provide answers, but it does not provide motivation. 

The role of religion is to provide both ethical answers and personal motivation to follow these ethics.  In this age, one of the central questions which religion asks of us is, “does this action or use of technology benefit all of the people of the world, or does it benefit a few at the expense of many?” In this age, one role of religion is to help us be aware of the oneness of Mankind.  In this age, one role of religion is to lead us to set aside our differences and prejudices and to cooperate in solving the problems of society and of the world.  When religion is the cause of strife, of discord and conflict, then no religion would be better.

So, in short, the relationship of religion and science is that religion points to what should be done and the purpose of our existence in this universe, while science is the tool for how our goals can be achieved and for understanding the nature of our universe.