Stuck at home!

So it's Day 11 of the coronavirus restrictions in Rwanda....

There are now 40 confirmed cases of coronavirus in here. None of which are Chinese, by the way.

On the first day, March 15, we were told that the restrictions would be in force for two weeks. Then, last weekend, they were extended until the first weekend in April, for the time being. The authorities have strictly enforced limited travel. Within the city you can go only for essentials, such as food and medical care. Out of town trips are prohibited. Almost all flights are cancelled, except for two specific outbound flights, one on Qatar Airways and the other on KLM, on a specific day, for those foreigners who need to get back to their country of origin. Otherwise, too bad!

Bethel is under a lockdown, which means no one can go in or out. This means that commuters have to stay home and work there, if their job allows some type of remote computer assignment. During the siege of ancient Jerusalem, no one could go in or out also. Is there a parallel here?

What is it like staying at home and not being able to go anywhere? Our household is composed of me, my roommate Jacques, and his teenage Bible student Diamant (who by the way is a good kid, quiet, doesn't make much trouble, and knows how to cook). Well, it's basically like this: read or study, get on the computer, eat, and then take a nap. Rinse, repeat. All day long. After a while you don't even remember what day it is, sometimes even what time it is. But there is one discovery I have made: when you spend more time with the people you live with, you get to know them better and become closer. Also, I've decided to take a walk of at least a half-hour every day. And you know what? Now I'm looking at birds, clouds, nature. It's a great experience! We should have these restrictions more often!

So today we had to go out in the car for the first time because Jacques had a couple hundred euros sent to him by the family in Belgium that he had to exchange for Rwandan francs at a Forex (foreign exchange) in order to pay property taxes on two houses the family owns. Forget about going into town to this Forex that he says has the best rates. We decided to go as far as Remera (Bethel, Kingdom Hall, stadium), which has quite a few Forex locations. Also, we needed to go to the market to buy food.

Do you know that in the 4 km (2.5 mi) we drove till we got to the only Forex open in the neighborhood, we were stopped no fewer than 6 times by police! They pull you over and ask where are you going, what is your purpose, etc. The streets were virtually deserted, like a ghost town. Some people were running around wearing face masks. One policewoman told us that because we had three people in the car, which violated some rule requiring that everyone be at least one meter apart, one of the passengers had to get out and walk. So Jacques got out, I drove on for about a hundred meters and dropped Diamant off at a bus stage, picked up Jacques and then returned to get Diamant. What we didn't say (but only because I don't speak Kinyarwanda) to her was that all three of us have lived in the same household for months, and if any of us were infected, we would have gotten sick by now. Come on!

Returning from the Forex, we stopped at the Kimironko market, which had a long line of people and a couple of handwashing stations at the entrance. The inside of the market had undergone an amazing transformation. Instead of the bustling, claustrophobic place that open-air markets usually are, many stalls were empty. All vendors who sold anything other than food were conspicuously absent. The ones selling food were mostly around the perimeter. I said to myself, I'm not breathing in here, I'm not touching anyone (which is pretty hard to do). We bought our stuff and hightailed it out of there, passing by the bus park, which was completely empty.

Last Saturday we successfully used Zoom to videoconference our meeting for just the Watchtower Study. It's kind of neat: you control your video and audio and can comment by pushing this button that says "Raise Hand." Then, a little icon of a hand shows up next to your name. The only drawback with Zoom is that the free version only gives you 40 minutes for each "meeting." When the meeting is cut off, everyone has to "join" again using the same meeting ID number. For Saturday's meeting, though, the brother who was the host got a popup with a promotion giving us uninterrupted service for our meeting. Unfortunately, for Tuesday's midweek meeting, we didn't have the promotion and so we had to reset 3 times.

My understanding is that Skype doesn't have a time limit on meetings but the number of participants is limited to 50 (Zoom is 100). That's no problem for us, because we have only 22 publishers. We may switch to Skype after doing some testing.

Oh, something else about the meetings. We decided that talks, parts, or comments can be given in any language you want. The whole idea is that of mutual encouragement. Most of the two meetings we have had have been in Kinyarwanda, because that is everyone's mother tongue (except me). So, I don't know, should I switch to the English congregation?

What about preaching? Since these restrictions started, the only means of preaching allowed are letter writing, telephone, e-mail, and text. But here in Rwanda, those methods of preaching are almost never used. So this is an opportunity for all of us (especially the pioneers, who are affected the most) to step out of our 'comfort zone.' Last week I wrote my first letter in Chinese characters. I read characters all the time but never write them. I used the sample in the be book with a few small changes. It took me an hour and 20 minutes! Handwritten letters are more personal than printed ones, and besides, they take longer to produce. We can leave these letters, along with a tract or invitation, at confirmed Chinese homes where the residents are hard to reach.

Also, this coming Friday, Jacques plans to conduct a Bible study with Diamant, starting in the morning and going all afternoon! Six hours of preaching time!

And here's my final comment to anyone burned by the stock market (tanking 30% in a month): Zoom is a very fitting name. Look up the stock.

Memorial complications

Well, I don't know about your Memorial, but the ones here in Rwanda this year will probably be unique in the worldwide field. How is that?

It turns out that April 7, every year, is Genocide Memorial Day. This marks the anniversary of the day when the Rwandan genocide started in 1994. In Rwanda, this is a very serious holiday. Everything shuts down: government and local businesses, transport (except for a few hours in the early afternoon), sporting events, meetings, etc. The only things allowable are government-sponsored events.

In the U.S., you can preach on any holiday you want, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. But in Rwanda, on Genocide Memorial Day as well as another serious holiday, Heroes' Day (February 1), we do not preach. I don't know what would happen if we did, but it would be a serious offense to people's sensibilities. So we stay home. It's even difficult to go anywhere due to the transportation shutdown.

The problem is that our Memorial, the Memorial of Christ's death, happens to fall on April 7 this year, the same as Genocide Memorial Day. I checked the date of every Memorial since 1995 and none of them fell on April 7. So this will be a first-time occurrence. On the evening of April 7, every year, the government arranges an event called "Walk to Remember." Thousands of people walk from the Genocide Memorial Museum, which is located in a neighborhood called Gisozi, to Amahoro Stadium, a stadium that seats about 20,000 and is located in a neighborhood called Remera. This stadium also happens to be right across the street from Bethel, and behind Bethel is the Remera Kingdom Hall, which is where 7 congregations meet (3 Kinyarwanda, English, French, Chinese, and Sign Language). The distance from Gisozi to Remera is about 10 km (6 mi) and the walk starts around 5:00 p.m. This means that the major roads are blocked during this time. Once everyone arrives at the stadium, a program of speeches, interviews, testimonials, and videos begins. The program lasts all night.

Then, the week following Genocide Memorial Day is called the Week of Mourning. Up until April 13, other events are planned which vary by location and time. During that period, we limit our preaching to certain times of the day.

So, of course all of us were wondering, could we hold our Memorial celebration that evening at the Kingdom Hall? Considering that it is so close to the stadium, with police and soldiers all over the place, would it be considered offensive?

In mid-March, members of our Rwanda Branch Committee met with governmental officials to discuss the matter. We explained to them that this is the most important religious event we have during the entire year, and that it must be held on that night, the anniversary of Jesus' death according to the Jewish calendar.

I don't know specifically what else was said during that meeting, but the result was that the officials said, okay, you can have your meeting, but only from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. No other time. Not before, not after. This applies to every congregation in the entire country. So they really did us a big favor.

Unfortunately, some congregations had already printed their Memorial invitations with some other time. We in the Chinese congregation hadn't printed ours, because we weren't sure what the direction would be.

Logistically, now, the problem will be to squeeze all 7 congregations into the double Kingdom Hall. We do have, in addition to our small parking lot on site, a fairly decent-sized parking lot behind the Kingdom Hall where the Sign Language RTO is located. It was decided that the 3 Kinyarwanda congregations would meet, all together, in the larger parking lot under a massive tent. This would mean 300 brothers and sisters, not including interested ones. English would take the upstairs Hall, French the downstairs one, and Sign Language the small parking lot under a tent. Chinese would be in the back room of the upper Hall.

Another thing we wondered about is whether interested people would come, (1) because our invitation campaign is severely limited by the coronavirus, and (2) because many would be afraid to come on the same day as Genocide Memorial Day. Or they might be confused between Genocide Memorial and our Memorial, both of which use the word "Memorial." Or they might try to come but find that the roads are impassable. So we don't have an idea of how many visitors we will have. But even with only publishers attending, you would still have more than 500 people at the same venue.

The direction therefore is, try to come to the Kingdom Hall that evening before 5:00 p.m., because otherwise you might find the route blocked. Don't bring your car. Be prepared to find alternate routes upon leaving. I can still park my car at my previous house, and then walk 6 minutes to the Hall. The roads of that neighborhood should not be affected by blockage.

If, by the time that April 7 comes, we are still under coronavirus restrictions prohibiting large gatherings, then we will have to meet in small groups either watching a streamed talk, or else, as I joke to some of the sisters, 'you can give a Memorial talk to a small group wearing a head covering.'

There is no question that 2020 will be a year to remember....

Coronavirus

Amazed by what is happening on the world scene? I've been in the truth for 50 years and never, never have I seen the hysteria the coronavirus is causing. Even SARS, MERS, and Ebola were not like this. Here in Africa it has not affected us to the extent of China or Europe, but about a week ago the first case in Rwanda was discovered. It was an Indian man who was traveling from India to Rwanda. The authorities quarantined him immediately. Then, a report appeared yesterday stating that now there are a total of five cases here. In the rest of East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania) there is only one reported case in Kenya. A few more cases in West Africa and South Africa. But the governments here have some experience with monitoring the Ebola virus. Anytime you cross a country border, they check your temperature by putting a probe against your neck. So they are taking this situation very seriously.

The meetings here in Kigali have been canceled for two weeks by order of the Ministry of Health. Assemblies have been postponed. We had a Chinese class going on that has to be canceled for the time being. Preaching is allowed but we are careful. Our congregation is doing only cart witnessing (and phone and letter, but those are not commonly done here). Other congregations may have door-to-door activity but with caution. Now I'm afraid to get on a public bus. Fortunately I have a car so I can get around. I've heard about the price gouging in the U.S. for things like hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes, etc. (I brought back quite a bit of hand sanitizer from the Dollar store--because it was cheap--when I was in California even before this all happened. Anyone want a bottle for $100?) And hoarding of all kinds of basic supplies. What is the world coming to?

Also, maybe some of you have heard about the devastating locust plague in East Africa. Millions of locusts have wiped out crops, causing the authorities to believe that a famine is imminent. A report I read, interestingly, stated that China is planning to send 100,000 ducks to Pakistan, one of the affected countries, because unlike chickens, which can eat 70 locusts a day (and are also harder to manage), ducks can eat 200 locusts a day. This, they say, is more effective than pesticides. So, then what? We're going to have a duck plague! All due to climate change, is the conjecture.

So...we need to trust in Jehovah. (Prov. 3:5) Never more than now do we need to follow carefully the direction given by Jehovah's organization!