Last Thursday while we were at a Mission cabin on Lake Kivu with some other missionary families, we heard a commotion outside our cabin and the guards were all in an uproar about something that was happening on the Lake. I went down the hill with them to the lake and heard two people shouting in the water. As I am not a very good swimmer I ran back up to our cabin and called the others to come. Joel was first to the lake and the guards, who do not swim, had carried a SeaDoo out of the shed. Joel jumped in the SeaDoo and began to paddle out to the people in the water who were about 100 meters from shore. A dug-out canoe was coming from the far shore at the same time. Joel managed to drag the woman he got to first into the SeaDoo and she was coughing up water and in shock. The dug-out reached the other person, a young girl who was also quite distressed.
It seems the ladies had gone to the weekly market in a small dug-out. The wind was up and the water a bit choppy and on the way back to their island their fully loaded boat sank. The rescue dug-out took both women on board and headed off to their island. When Joel got back in the seadoo we all felt so bad for their loss that Joel asked if he could follow them and give them some money. I gave Joel 5000 francs (about $10) and he took off after them in a kayak this time. It took him a while to catch up with them and give them the money. The women were still crying but were very grateful to the young white boy who helped prevent their day from being a complete disaster. We prayed that the women would be sympathetically received back in their village and that our donation would help to cover some of their losses.
