JoeGorman.net

Dear Family and Friends,
When someone is leaving to go on a journey where Swahili is spoken, they will tell you, “Safari njema” (”Good/pleasant/safe journey”). In thirty two hours we’ll be back in Denver. Now that we’re on the tail end of our safari our time seems to have sprinted by, but living it forward it sometimes crawled along at a snail’s pace. We’ve had so many interesting and challenging experiences and met so many wonderful people that it will take us much longer than the four weeks we were away to unpack the memories we are carrying with us.
Jimmie, Chuck, and I arrived back in Nairobi three hours ago after two night and three days in Maasai Mara National Park. The place we stayed at was a tented campground (it has an electric fence around it to keep out any unwanted “guests”). The boys and I had three twin-sized beds, a toilet, a shower, a double sink, and hardwood floors in our tent-oh, and electricity! Ever stayed in a tent like this? It was incredibly nice. The meals were also fabulous-made to order omelets, crepes, fresh fruit and juice for breakfast, and amazingly good lunches and dinner. We came close to gaining back the weight we lost the rest of the trip, that’s for sure! I can hardly wait to start eating oatmeal again when we get home. J
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Dear Family and Friends,
The boys and I arrived in Nairobi Sunday afternoon. We will miss Rwanda and Congo, but it feels good to be onto the next step of our journey. The first thing the boys wanted to eat once we dropped out bags off at Mt. Carmel-the Church of the Nazarene Guest House-was pizza. It wasn’t quite Pizza Hut or Papa Murphy’s, but still tasted pretty darn good.
We had a very full day today. Our first stop was at the David Kendrick Elephant Orphanage where we saw twenty elephants from aged three-months to two-years. We also saw the cutest five-month-old rhino I’ve ever seen. We were even able to pet some of the elephants and the rhino for a few minutes. After this we stopped at Maasai Weavers who weave handmade rugs (we have several at home already, but I may have picked up one or two for Shelly J).
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Dear Family and Friends,
The boys and I had a very full and emotion-draining day. In the morning we drove forty-five minutes to the Nyamata and Ntarama Churches where over 15,000 men, women, children, and even babies were hacked, blown up, shot, and bludgeoned to death during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. Our guide at the Nyamata Church, Charles, was eight-years-old in 1994 and one of only eight who survived the mass murder of over six thousand. He survived by going out to forage for food at night and hiding under dead bodies in the church by day.
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Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you for your many encouraging emails about the house for Josephine and Julienne. The property is large enough that at least two more houses for the Ndengerea workers can be built on this same property.
With cash I had on hand and about $500 that Simon kicked in from the Ndengera Foundation, Simon, Caritas, and Josephine went to sign the contract and pay one half of the $3400 early this morning (the second half is due on or before August 1). Simon Pierre doesn’t mess around. When he has an idea he gets it done now. Part of his motivation for moving so quickly is that when he and Caritas travel to Kigali with the boys Continued

Dear Family and Friends,
Now that we are leaving Gisenyi for Kigali tomorrow, we just discovered that an internet cafe is 2 minutes away from Simon Pierre’s. The boys are happily updating their IPods on the wireless connection here.
Yesterday morning (June 17) Jimmie, Chuck, and I went with Simon to visit Veronique. Since we went in the morning only Veronique and Nicole were home. When I visited Veronique last fall there were so many banana trees in front of her house that the house was not even visible from the road. Today all those tree are gone. Simon says that some kind of disease has killed most of the banana trees in the area. Even so, it’s still a gorgeous area.
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Dear Family and Friends,
One week from today (June 23) will be Shelly’s and my 25th wedding anniversary! It hardly seems possible that we have been married that long. Marrying Shelly is by far the smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I am so blessed that God brought us together. Yes, I am missing her just in case you can’t tell. ???
Simon, the boys, and I just got back from delivering our 200 pound pineapple press to the Nazarene Church in Gahinga. Gahinga is 2.5 hours south of Gisenyi on one of the thousands of hills overlooking Lake Kivu. Jimmie and I thought that the perfect place for a house is right where the outhouse is located. We’d want to move the outhouse first, of course. I wish we had more time just to sit and drink in the beauty of the area Continued

Dear family and friends,

We had a great day today. We are really enjoying Rwanda and Simon Pierre and his family. In the morning the boys played basketball with neighborhood kids and Simon and I visited some families we have previously helped in the Gisenyi area. In the afternoon the boys helped me assemble a pineapple juice machine that we will be taking to Gahinga tomorrow. This is the same machine we checked in as luggage at DIA which weighed close to 200 pounds! Everything arrived in tact, except for four crucial nuts that Simon sent someone to find at a local hardware store in Gisenyi.

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Dear Family and Friends,

The boys and I are now in Gisenyi, Rwanda. We are staying at Simon Pierre’s and Caritas’ house. Their family just finished their nighly devotions where they read a passage of scripture, talk about what it means, and then pray. Caritas asked Chuck to pray tonight and he did a great job, although I think his heart about stopped when she asked him. Right after the devotions were finished, Tychique, Simon and Caritas’s 17-year-old son, put in a CD and now everyone is dancing.
Dinah, Simon and Caritas’s 15-year-old daughter, jumped at the chance to dance with Jimmie. Now there’s a slow dance on the CD player.
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Dear Friends and Family,

This is probably be the last email that you will receive from me for a few days as we leave for Goma, DRC very early tomorrow morning. We will take a boat on Lake Kivu from Bukavu to Goma. On Saturday we will cross the border to Gisenyi, Rwanda where we will be with Simon Pierre for most of the rest of our time in Congo and Rwanda.

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Dear Family and Friends,

Here are some random observations from the boys and myself about our trip:

“Glow in the Dark Jesus”

Our first night in Rwanda Jimmie said he wanted to show me something in his room. I expected him to show me a nasty bug or spider, but instead he turned off the lights in his room to show me the glow-in-the-dark-Jesus that hangs over every bed at the Catholic Guest House.

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