Stories from Rwanda: Where to Find My Heart
100+ girls run across the schoolyard to receive zines and personally written Hope Notes from the HopeRevo.com community. They couldn’t have been more excited.
After the dreams give way to long daylight hours, after you are able to move about your days without forgetting to breathe from the sheer joy of it all, there will still be the girls of Umutara.
I don’t know why I love these girls so much, but I find them now looking at me from the walls of my heart. I think they are the finest girls on earth, so tall, so bright, so beautiful. I want every last one of them to go to school. I want to see who among them will become an artist, a writer, a scientist, an expert in solar power.
We are sitting in an office in downtown Washington, Odette and I. We are talking to a kind and powerful woman about our book. We are telling her we wish for 100,000 copies to distribute to every child in every village school Umutara calls her own.
Everyone asks us why Umutara, especially the Rwandan people we meet, and I don’t know what to say other then that’s where I left my heart. “Maybe we should just say Rwandan girls and not try to explain Umutara,” Odette says. We know Umutara, despite how beautiful her landscapes or fertile her soil, is considered by some to be the backwater of the nation, that place crowded in by too many unwanted refugees returning home after a generation in Uganda. No one—foreign born or native–does development work in Umutara. It is a place almost completely devoid of assistance, aid or initiative, even though it desperately requires this and so much more.
“If they can’t love Umutara, then how can we love them?” I answer half-joking as we walk around in circles down the staircase of this beautiful building. Odette laughs and then agrees. “Okay,” she says. “This is how we will know who understands our heart.”
We are still sifting through our papers, wandering the halls of possibility, asking ourselves what next and how. We are working little by little to get Odette’s family settled and secure before taking on bigger dreams, grander plans. We do this as if on automatic. We know when we finish (and we will finish) these girls will be there ready to fly. We can hardly wait.
in Umutara
Thank you for everything you did for Goreth this week. She was out of her mind with gratitude and joy when I told her we were sending her that money. She needed this–and more importantly–that vote of confidence in her own ability more than you will ever know.
So many people sent this my way today. It totally and completely inspires me to hold on to this dream until it has wings.
June 8th, 2008 at 2:24 am
They are each beautiful, Jenn. Thank you for helping the girls of Rwanda. I hope this inspires others to also help the girls…and boys…abused, neglected children of the US. They are all connected…we are all connected…and that is the beauty. The way you have stepped up to help your friend, Odette, connect with her daughters and encourage all the girls of the villages you visited…a blessing.
June 8th, 2008 at 6:39 am
I love that so many of us sent you that video… this is what I try to explain to my non-understanding friends, that if you live out loud and with authenticity, people will start to hear who you are at your heart’s core, and will then start supporting you to live into your leadings.
Go, Jen, go!
June 8th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Wow. What powerful stories you have to tell and what volumes those pictures of the girls tell. And the video! I am inspired. Thankyou.
June 8th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I love your pictures and art. I’m so drawn to the beautiful African pictures and stories you are telling. I’ve only recently found your site and have looked to find more information on Odette but can’t seem to find it. Have you told her story? Why did she leave her country? and why did she have to leave her children behind? Will it ever be possible to bring her girls to this country? or for her to return to them? I hope I’m not being too nosy but I would love to hear her story.
June 8th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
for those of us that don’t have the courage to do what you are doing, Thank you for giving us a way to be a part.
June 8th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Jen, Jen, Jen. Thanks for more of the story, the photos, and the link to that video. Thanks for taking the chance to follow your heart and your dreams - and thanks for inviting us to support you and to dream our own dreams because of you.
Thanks in part to your encouragement, my daughter and I will soon start writing and making love notes (in Spanish) for our trip to Nicaragua in August. More love. More hugs. More grace. More beauty. More girls!!!
Thank you! Yeah for us all!
June 9th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Jen Lemen, you are going to help change the world.
And I am going to watch you do it, and help with humbleness where I can, with gratitude that you are a pioneer of the trail.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Simple, deep, and abiding gratitude for your witness, your courage, your love, your invitation to offer our own gifts. Thank. You.!!
June 9th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Jen -
I bought the zine through etsy and just sent a small donation for Goreth - I really hope it isn’t too late and you will do subsequent donations. Love to you and thank you for doing this: the writing, the art, the traveling, the extension to all of us. This is truly beautiful stuff and makes me a little proud to be of this human race.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
what a powerful video, thanks for sharing it.
your photos alone tell volumes…just incredible.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
How beautiful are the people in your photos. I’ve been re-reading these stories all day today. I also want to send Goreth a donation even though it may be too late. Which brings me to…is there a project we can all help with together? Is there something that needs to be done or that Gorteth wants to do? Can we continue to help in some way?
June 10th, 2008 at 5:38 am
Your posts give me courage and hope for my country. Thank you.
June 10th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Actually it gives me hope for the whole world.
June 10th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Dear Jen ~ I have not commented lately, but I wanted to do it today, just so you know that I have been reading every word and that I am supporting you 100% in all this work you’re doing! You have inspired me beyond belief with your expedition to Africa! Thanks for showing me it is possible to make a difference by reaching out in such a compassionate and genuine way. I am so glad that I could contribute a little through the “Goreth fund”, and I cannot wait to see what Goreth and these girls will do under your guiding light. Your words, images and soul ~ are all so beautiful ~ It is impossible not be touched and moved by you! You are such a catalyst for miracles, dear Jen. I can see angels flying all over Umutara right now, blessing this project and these gorgeous people that you’ve shown us. btw - I love how that word sounds so powerful: UMUTARA! Sounds definitely like a place of fierce women warriors ~ Sending you and Odette waves of love from San Fran ~ xo
June 11th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
My heart is so full, reading your beautiful words.
I’m behind on blog reading, so I have just read all of your Stories from Rwanda all at once. It’s almost too much for my heart to take. It’s all so achingly beautiful.
Thank you. Thank you, Jen Lemen.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:07 am
Love , prayers, gratitude from the Joshua Tree Desert
Every single face you photographed beams with such a life force and spirit~there is no stopping the life and hope you and Odette have begun.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Reading all the encouraging comments here, I couldn’t help but comment myself.
All these warm fuzzies have me craving booty music, gay workout videos and flamboyant, muscular boys dancing in their underwear.
That is all.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:19 am
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