Working for peace

July 20, 2008

You’ve been reading in various posts about Julius, who is the Administrative and Financial Manager of NAR. But what I haven’t written about yet is this man’s tireless work for peace and reconciliation.

Julius is one of the two full-time NAR staff members and like many of his compatriots, has other initiatives that he works on after hours. It’s hard to tell, though, what “after hours” means for NAR. Julius and the Executive Secretary, Ildephonse, work what seems like around the clock. The week before last, for example, both stayed late in the office working until at least eight in the evening then conducted a training workshop for young leaders the entire weekend.

Both were back in the office the following Monday, although Ildephonse left early because he wasn’t feeling well. Julius stayed late on several evenings again, and was running errands until ten Friday night. We met at the bus station at 6:15 on Saturday morning to go to Kibuye, and Julius was on the phone for almost an hour on the bus ride untangling various work-related details.

At one of the possible research sites for next summer, Julius shared that he has malaria; he found out on Friday afternoon. I asked him some version of what the heck was he doing trekking hither and yon with me when he should be in bed. He laughed and said that he would sleep in on Sunday, but I knew he would be cooking a celebratory supper on Sunday for the Dutch interns who are leaving Tuesday.

As we were leaving Kibuye around two, Julius started to fade a bit and even in the cool air, he was starting to break a sweat. At one point, Ildephonse called him as he himself was headed to the doctor because he was feeling very ill. (It turns out that Ildephonse also has malaria.) After making and taking a few more calls, Julius was able to sleep hard for a couple of hours on the way back to Kigali, and seemed a little more like himself when we returned.

He met me again, though, about 45 minutes later at my hotel, where my translator/guide for the Monday trip to Nyamata would meet us, and where Patrick’s sister also met up with us. Julius, Patrick’s sister, and I jumped in a cab and picked up Patrick and the headed to the sister’s house for a home visit.

After more than an hour there, I left Julius in his neighborhood and headed home. It was almost ten p.m.

How many hours a day does it take to make peace happen? Apparently many. As many as we have and more.

Julius and I don’t always see eye to eye on causes, effects, definitions, and processes. But I have the highest respect for him. I trust him. And I’ve never met anyone else who works as hard as he does.