DIXFIELD – Bruce Libby was shocked when he learned he had just walked on bones of the some of the 1 million people who had died in 1994’s genocide in the southeastern African country of Rwanda.
“The guy I was with just broke down in tears. Later, I cried,” he said last week as he described his trip to the desperately poor country trying to rebuild itself. “The bones are left there as a reminder, so it won’t happen again.”
The bones lined a portion of the dirt floor of one of the churches.
Libby, 46, a carpenter from Dixfield, who has also been to Haiti to help the poverty-stricken people in that Caribbean island country, was among several Americans who traveled to Rwanda last month as part of International Hope for Rwanda, a Christian group headed by the Rev. Darius Twagirayesu.
Twagirayesu is a Rwandan native who left the country during the first genocide in the 1960s. Based in New Hampshire, he returned after the 1994 genocide and founded International Hope for Rwanda.
The goal for Libby, his wife, Cynthia, and many other groups is to build orphanages, a clinic, a school and a training center for the children and widows of the 1994 genocide.
Cynthia said about 60 percent of children are orphaned.
Bruce raised about $3,000 from River Valley churches to go to Rwanda for two-and-a half weeks. While there, he stayed with a Tutsi family who had lost many members during the genocide. He met with church and government leaders, as well as children. He brought grain and clothing to families and preached in schools and satellite sites.
“I feel we instilled hope in these people by preaching the gospel and showing that white people and Americans have gone to their country,” he said. “The more people feel led to go there, the more hope there is, that they won’t feel the world has deserted them.”
He plans to return to put his building skills to work, but first, his wife and two or three other women from the western or central Maine area plan to visit Rwanda in May.
“We have to take care of this country. They are desperately in need of goods. People have had everything taken from them,” Cynthia said.
Cynthia, a vocalist and music teacher, has never been out of the country. She said she is nervous but excited.
“Oh, God, You better prepare me. I don’t have fear. I’m anticipating that if I can help just one woman who has been emotionally and physically abused…” she said.
She plans to sing and minister to women and children, and bring money to help in the rebuilding effort. She is hoping to raise $10,000 from church and individual donations, and through a combination fundraiser/revival on April 29 at Mountain Valley High School.
At the event, scheduled from 1 to 5 p.m., a spaghetti feed will be served, along with music, dance, testimonies and singing. Alan Hutchinson, an artist, guitarist and pianist from Jay, Mark Finks, a former New Orleans resident who plays jazz and is an evangelical speaker, and local dance teams and gymnasts are to perform.
Anyone interested in helping with the program is asked to phone Cynthia at 562-8959.
The majority ethnic group in Rwanda, the Hutus, attacked the minority group, the Tutsis, who had once been the ruling government. The 1994 genocide is depicted in the recent movie, “Hotel Rwanda.” According to the International Hope for Rwanda Web site, the government does not encourage people to discuss ethnic differences, but to rebuild the country as one.
Comments are no longer available on this story