Road to Rwanda-----Bad Roads, Skin Color, and Mountains

  I feel less tired this week as I get more into the groove.   Felt well enough to go to the church Wednesday night prayer/praise service.   Of course it is never easy.   A friend said he would walk us over there.   He arrived on the back of a taximoto to our front gate.   As I have said, the main roads in this country are gorgeous and immaculate, but the minute you are off them, oh my.    It was about a 10 minute walk past rather nice gated homes in the city streets, but the roads were deep in mud.   We waded through puddles a few inches deep, ruts that went on forever, etc.   Very few street lights, so just using our phones, and picking our way.   The worship was good, but the trip was tiring.   Twice yesterday, two little boys in separate incidents, reached up and petted my cheek.    It was a loving gesture, but a little strange. I think they might be checking to see if the white would rub off, but I am not sure....

Road to Rwanda----Umuganda

  It is Saturday.   I am thankful for Saturday.   When you are retired, Saturday is the same as any other day, but as a working person, Saturdays are precious.   I find this one particularly precious. After a week of teaching, I find that I have been absolutely exhausted every night walking the mile home.   I nap, and then go to bed. Lol.   I also have been concerned why I am panting so hard by the time I get to the top of the stairs to my classroom. Although not in excellent shape, I am not used to panting.   However, yesterday as I was praying about this, God brought to mind that I am at over 7,000 feet where we live!!   Well, no wonder I am tired and panting at times.   I feel better now….not physically,   but emotionally.   I was up at 5 this morning, like usual, and got the brownies baked for the company I am having for supper.   (If I thought they would come through to me, I would beg someone to mail me some baking pans...

Road to Rwanda-----Tables and Games

  So, I am lying on the bed in the spare bedroom. It is where Rick and I spend our time at home.   We don’t anticipate much company to sleep in this room, so instead we bought a chair for Rick, and I use the bed and we can keep the itty bitty living room clean.   I am kind of hiding back here right now.   The apartment had no table or chairs.   We have been sitting on the bed or couch to eat most of the time.   But we contracted to have a small 1 meter square table with 2 benches and 2 chairs to be made.   It did not arrive last week because we were at in-service meetings all getting ready for school.   The man came at 5 tonight with the table. He was to arrive at 4 as soon as we walked the mile home from school, but he had trouble finding transport. Finally, someone else arrived with the table and benches and chairs strapped to his bicycle!!!   Really amazing how much they can load on a bicycle.   The carpenter spent the time he was wai...

Road to Rwanda---- Help me for my first day of school

 I have a power point put together to introduce myself to the middle school students for my first day.  But there are class rules here and I would like to cover them in a fun way.  I do not have much time, and some of you have asked about ways you could help.  Can you search meme's and send to me that illustrate the following rules:  (You know "meme"-----those sayings, words, pictures or short clips that add zest to a statement. We appreciate them so so much on FB.) Even if you find one meme for one rule it would help me out.  Rule 1: Respond to adults with "Yes, Ma'am" or "No, Sir". Rule 2: Make eye contact when someone is speaking. Rule 3: Congratulate the winner when someone does something well. Rule 4? I f you win do not brag. If you lose, do not show anger. Rule t5: Respect other students' comments, opinions, and ideas. Rule 6: Always say thank you when given something and please when asking for something. Rule 7: When you receive somethin...

Road to Rwanda----International Staff

  This is truly an international staff.   I have had so so much fun with the neighbor lady here in our apartment complex who arrived at the same time we did. She is from Zimbabwe, which we have visited many years ago when we lived in Zambia, and has many similarities with Zambia ( like calling the hot water heater a “geyser”, which the Rwandan staff found confusing, but I knew what she meant).   The other night as we were walking home from eating supper at the principal’s house, we got to laughing so hard I thought people might come out of the houses and tell us to be quiet.   We were particularly tickled when we figured out that we really did not know which road to turn on to get home.   We figured it out but were afraid maybe we would be hours wandering.   She most recently came from a school in Afghanistan where she was teaching.   She was not able to return to Zimbabwe until after the Taliban had taken over, but then made it out.   She has a b...

Road to Rwanda----Moto-taxis and Reunion in Kigali

  I have been walking the kilometer back and forth to school, up and down hills.   I am so blessed to be able to do this after replacing both hips and one knee.   Sometimes the hip that was replaced first still gives me some pain though.   Seeing me stopping and resting frequently on the way home, one young lady, finally, stopped and asked, “Madam, I can see you are so tired.. Can’t I carry your backpack for you?”   I thanked her profusely, but said I was not so much tired, as in pain and I didn’t think she could help.   They have many motorscooter and bicycle taxis here.   One man on a motorscooter, drove past, then circled back…twice…telling me to get on.   I have really contemplated if I could bring my leg up far enough to get on the back of the bike or motorscooter and as I stood there with the man, I just knew that I would fall flat if I tried.   So I explained the problem, refused the helmet he was offering so I could ride safely. ...

Road to Rwanda----tetanus shots and hot water heaters

  These have been busy, busy days, so I will post a few reflections a day for a while to try to catch up.   On our second day here I cut my finger very badly cutting up vegetables. Every time I took the bandage off for 2 days it bled copious.   When I had my check up in the US right before our return, the doctor wanted me to get a tetanus shot, but since I did not have an open wound, it would have cost $70.   I knew tetanus shots were available all over the world, so I declined. I decided I had better get one here after cutting myself. It was not quite so easy as I had hoped. Admin at the school had to call around to figure it out. Then the wonderful man who has ferried us all over took us to a pharmacy, where they found the tetanus serum and I paid $6 for it. Then we had to drive to a clinic.   The man’s cousin was the one who gave me the shot for $9.   $15 for the whole process, but a little more hassle. We have not had hot water since we arrived. Thi...

Road to Rwanda------Setting Up

  (VVA friends who are reading this blog, please, please, do not think that we are casting dispersions on our living arrangements, or dissatisfied living here.   We are very happy in Rwanda. But we want friends back “home” to understand why we need prayer.   We also want them to have a fuller understanding of the things that many face when moving overseas.)   I wrote in passing to my sister and good childhood friend (which I do every day) that the there were many difficulties in adjusting to our apartment.   My sister asked me to share the difficulties.   She was quite astounded at the kind of things that are involved in setting up a living space in an overseas setting and said she thought we had never had it so difficult before.   We assured her that these kinds of things were not uncommon, but that many times no one shares them.   I decided, at the risk that people may think that we are being Ugly Americans, to list some of the problems we h...

Road to Rwanda----First Impressions

 Our internet is difficult,  Just a hotspot off our old phone from China and that took a while to make happen.  There isa lovely assistant director here, Fred, a Rwandan, who has hung with us for the last 2 days, through ATM's, phones, internet, water faucets leaking (2 of them),  endless shopping, etc.  Such a blessing to have a young gentlemen to walk this road with us.  Thanks to the Andrea, the director's wife, as well.  The director is in the States settling in a child to college. We could not do any of this ourselves: we have no wheels, we don't know where to go, and we don't know the language.  Always humbling to be so completely dependent on others.  But we have spent most of our adult life in this kind of situation.  Never easy, but acceptance that it is the only way we can set up living outside of our own country/culture.   Impressions:  Rwanda is a busy, lovely country.  The absolutely CLEANEST place I have...

Road to Rwanda----Arrived!

 We just arrived in Kigali, the caital of Rwanda.  I am pretty tired, but I will write so that you know that we were blessed by your prayers.  It started off eventful.....like usual for us.  As we zipped our carry on's, the zipper on Rick's suitcase broke.  We were starting out hours early, so we quickly drove to Walmart and came home with a new suitcase....but we messed up.  (We bought 2 suitcases in the past 3 days.  Both of them are the same size.  We can't use either one.  One was to replace a smaller bag and we wanted to fit in 70 pounds and it was the same size as the one we were using, so too small.  The one we bought the day of leaving was to replace Rick's carry on and it was too big for that.  I am not sure why we were/have been/may continue to be so spatially challenged that we can't assess the suitcase's size better.  I don't remember having trouble before.  Age?)  However, I just forced the zipper on the ...

Road to Rwanda-----Packing

 So with all the horror stories coming out of Europe about flights right now, of course, WE are scheduled through Brussels on Aug.4!!! Brussels has the worst record for ontime flights in the world.   Not to mention all the things being said about lost luggage.  BUT, we just got confirmation that the portion of our flight from Newark to Brussels has been upgraded to Business class!!! I cannot express how thankful we are.  It will mean being able to lie down for the overnight 7+ hour portion.  It also means we have 70 pounds per suitcase all the way through, regardless if the other two legs are upgraded or not.  So relieved.  I had visions of sitting on the floor of the Greenville/Spartanburg airport throwing out 20 pounds from each bag inorder to get on our flights.  We easily manage living overseas.  Enjoy ourselves immensely.  But the travel to and from has become more and more exhausting as we have aged.  So the Lord told me ...