Helping Hands in Africa

       My reading travels rarely take me to Africa, but this is one armchair adventure I'm glad I didn't miss. Josh Ruxin's memoir of his humanitarian work in Rwanda, which eventually led to the creation of medical centers, agricultural and business development and the unlikely creation of a hilltop restaurant called Heaven, is a book that I'm cheering and endorsing with vigor.
     To me it was an epic tale of good and evil, light and dark, bloodshed and forgiveness, poverty and prosperity. And if that wasn't enough, there's a touch of romance, family bliss, even a few recipes in the final pages.
   But first things first. This is a comeback story about Rwanda, a tiny land-locked country in east central Africa with an ugly chapter of genocide in its modern history. Before this book, I could not have given you too much information about it, other than a vague notion of tragedy that occurred there a few decades ago. The movie Hotel Rwanda rang a familiar note, but I never watched it because I couldn't take the violent story. So that image of the country simmered for many years, and I was never called upon to revisit or revise it until now.
  Before you can appreciate Ruxin's efforts to eradicate poverty and disease in the country, he's got to give readers some sense of Rwanda's history. In 1994, many years before our writer arrives, the country's divide between the Hutus and Tutsis finally erupts in unimaginable horror. For 100 days, Hutus hunted down their Tutsi neighbors, friends and coworkers and slayed them in the streets. They pulled them from homes and churches for impromptu murder. Many were shot or burned but many more were attacked with machetes. It's a horrible back story, but in order to understand the miracle of forgiveness and progress underway in Rwanda, we need to know what came before.
    Ruxin and his wife Alissa, another public health professional, arrive to fight poverty, AIDS, TB, malaria and malnutrition, and with governmental support and funding from U.S. individuals, businesses and agencies, the pair slowly helped transform the rural countryside. Using business and management principles, Ruxin and his team of local experts slowly made inroads in the delivery of immunizations, prenatal care and local food production. It was absolutely inspiring to read. The pair did amazing work and certainly defied the notion that no single individual can make a difference in a community. At the end of each chapter I was left wondering if I do enough to serve my fellow man.
   The final third of the book was about Heaven, Alissa Ruxin's pet project that now is a destination restaurant for tourists on their way to or from the northern Rwandan mountains to see their own 'gorillas in the mist.' Alissa's efforts to build the restaurant, recruit and train staff, source local food and sustain the highest standards were a tribute to her unique talents, spirit, and desire to leave behind sustainable ventures. Afterall, the Ruxins will someday leave Rwanda, and Rwandans will need to keep things running.
   A Thousand Hills to Heaven will make you happy. Don't be scared off by the early chapters of genocide. This is a joyful book, and there is so much goodness on display.
The Push From the Book: Help others. Help others. Help others.