We are back in Kigali after traveling around a good portion of the country for the past week and it has been quite incredible…
My son Thabo (a filmaker for Los Angeles) and I left for Byumba last Saturday where we stayed with Bishop Emmanuel Ngendahayo and his wife Vicky in the Byumba Diocese. The church was having a special event for the community in honor of Reconciliation and Unity week and my son filmed it. The highlight of the event was the hand-over of cows and goats to impoverished but responsible locals. Various officials and army officers took turns handing over the animals to different families and orphans. Next, we went back to the tent where they made a presentation of Health Insurance cards to several people. In total, they had put together over more than 8,500 fully paid health insurance cards for the community. It was absolutely incredible! The money was provided by Compassion International working in conjunction with several churches as well as the government and we were very impressed with their local reps and to see the money being used in such a careful and responsible way bringing joy and hope to so many people.
In the afternoon, Thabo’s 2nd camera (Fils) and sound mixer (Safali) made it to Byumba by bus. He met them through Eugene Suen and Isaac Chung whose wife was in YWAM and introduced them to Rwanda. Eugene and Isaac helped bring several Rwandan filmmakers’ short films to the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and Fils was one of the fortunate ones to attend. Fils and Thabo worked great together as the two cameras; they quickly had great unspoken communication going on. Safali was trained for and worked on Isaac’s feature film in Rwanda and was a total pro on sound. Thabo could not have been happier. Our prayers for the right crew had certainly been answered.
